Holiday Cookies (7/8) -- Candy Cane Cookies

When I found this recipe I thought it would be a fun kiddy (aka easy) type of cookie to make.  It was not easy. All of my candy canes looked lumpy and the green portion of the dough was the consistency of slime. I made about half of the dough into cookies and then put the rest in the fridge and have yet to complete the batch. I didn't feel comfortable giving them to friends so I took the whole lot of them to my parents house for Christmas. My sister ate a few and said they tasted good even though they looked like a kid made them.  Maybe if I had refrigerated the dough before I rolled out my canes it would have come out more even.

Holiday Cookies (6/8) -- Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

When I saw this recipe all I could think of was how much I didn't like white chocolate and didn't want to try them at first. Then I read an article about William Sonoma having a seasonal product that was very similar to this recipe. I then saw this as a challenge and I am SO glad that I ended up making them. The inside cookie tastes like a Girl Scout Thin mint cookie. The white chocolate dipped part goes really well with the inner mint chocolate cookie. My officemate thinks that they are the best of all the cookies I made. Also just in case you are wondering the white specks are from the whole wheat flour I used when rolling them out.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 5 tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 3/4 tsp pure peppermint extract
• 8 large candy canes, crushed
• 2 pounds white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. 
3. Beat in whole egg until well combined, then mix in egg yolk. 
4. Add peppermint extract and mix until well incorporated. 
5. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.
6. Evenly divide dough in half, then shape each into disks - wrap each in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
7. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 disk of dough 1/8" thick.
8. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
9. Cut out shapes and place cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheets. 
10. Re-roll scraps once, then cut out as many cookies as you can. 
11. Place cookies into the oven and bake until they are dry to the touch, about 11 to 14 minutes. 
12. Remove from the oven and slide cookies, onto wire racks to cool completely.
13. Place chopped chocolate into a large, heat-safe bowl - microwave for 30 second intervals stirring at the end of each time until the chocolate is soft.
14. Gently place a cookie or two into the melted chocolate, then use a fork to turn each cookie to coat. 
15. Lift cookies out with a fork, letting any excess chocolate drip off, and gently scrape the bottom against the edge of the bowl. 
16. Set onto parchment-lined baking sheets and immediately sprinkle with the crushed candy pieces. 
17. Let cookies rest at a cool room temperature or in the refrigerator to set the chocolate before serving.

Holiday Cookies (5/8) -- German Chocolate Cake Cookies

I love german chocolate cake so when I saw this recipe I knew it had to go on my must bake list. I only made 1 batch of the cookie base the first round of baking but I had plenty of the topping left so I plan on making a second batch to finish it off.

Holiday Cookies (4/8) -- Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies

When I first saw this recipe I thought it would be great to try because I love lemon cookies. My husband not so much so I was hoping they would have just a hint of lemon to make us both happy. Turned out that the cookie wasn't very lemon flavored but the filling was. We had a great time picking the colored sugar to roll the dough in. As you can see we didn't decide on just 1 color.  Also when I made the filling it was pretty gooey and the sandwiches sort of slipped off. I suggest that you place the filling in the fridge to harden for 10-15 min before you start making your sandwiches and then placing the sandwich cookies in the fridge to harden the filling while they are together.

Ingredients:

For cookies:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla
• colored sanding sugars

For filling:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon zest
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, softened

Directions:

1. Combine flour, cornstarch, and salt. Wisk until well distributed.
2. With stand mixer, beat together butter and confectioners' sugar until fluffy. 
3. Add zest and vanilla, then gradually add flour mixture. 
4. Mix at low speed just until dough forms.
5. Put sanding sugars in different bowls. 
6. Roll a teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll through sugar, turning to coat. 
7. Transfer to parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the balls 3/4 inch apart. 
8. Chill dough balls on baking sheets about 30 minutes to help them retain shape during baking.
9. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
10. Bake until tops are slightly cracked and bottoms are pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes. 
11. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.
12. To make filling, beat together all filling ingredients in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed. 
13. Use a butter knife to spread a little of the filling onto a cookie then sandwich it with another cookie, repeat for all the remaining cookies.

Holiday Cookies (3/8) -- Raspberry and Mini Chocolate Chip Rugelach

I have always enjoyed chocolate chip Rugelach bought from the supermarket so I thought it would be a fun adventure to make. They turned out to be easier then I thought and I will definitely be making them again. I must warn you that these are a bit time consuming cookie because you have to let the dough rest for at least 2 hours plus you have to refrigerate the rolled cookies for 30 min before baking. I made the dough on Saturday and then rolled the cookies on Sunday and refrigerated them while I made frosting for some other cookies and the oven was heating up.

Holiday Cookies (2/8) -- Meringue Sandwich Cookies

     When I found this recipe I had super high hopes that I could create the tree in the picture on the site. I hurried over to William Sonoma and bought a pastry bag so I could pipe the dough to all be the same size. I also got this idea that it would be neat if the cookies were green with green frosting in the middle. I read online that when you put food coloring in the meringue dough it bakes out so you can't tell its colored. To make these the green color I was after I chopped quite a few fresh green mint leaves in the food processor thinking that they would add green specks to my cookies. Turns out that when you bake mint leaves they turn brown and they don't stay on the surface. So after baking the 150 or so cookies, and making the 70-75 or so sandwiches I got lazy and didn't end up making the tree, so it didn't matter that they weren't green anyway. All of the lucky people who received these as part of their holiday plates seemed to like them so I figure it was a success of sorts.

Holiday Cookies (1/8) -- Dog Biscuits with Soy Milk

     My husband and I are and have always been dog lovers. We have 6 dogs in our life. 2 on my husband's side that are Shiloh an English Setter and Taffy a Cocker Spaniel. I am lucky to be part of a 4 dog family, Suze a black lab and Apollo a giant yellowish red lab that live with my parents, Mandy a yellow lab lives with my Aunt and then there is Molly a Rhodesian Ridgeback that lives with my grandparents.  We decided that these wonderful dogs deserved some holiday treats and these biscuits would be a wonderful start to our holiday cookie baking. After they were completely cooled we shipped a fair amount off to Nebraska and are planning on taking the rest to the family Christmas at my parents for the other pups.
     To create this recipe I did a google search for a peanut butter dog treat recipe and ended up picking this recipe because my husband drinks soy milk and I thought it would be fun to make the treats using soy milk. So in the end here is my version of Dog Biscuits with Soy Milk. I have modified the ingredients and instructions to include what I actually used and to walk you through my process. If you have a dog biscuit shaped cookie cutter that would be great but for this recipe I just used holiday shapes. Gary's dogs in Nebraska didn't seem to mind that they weren't normal bone shaped.