Christmas cookies are no joke in my family. My mother gives new meaning to Christmas cookies with her, not only yummy cookies, but beautiful. Somehow, despite the fact that she really isn’t a kitchen person and never was as a kid, her role among her five sisters was to bring Christmas cookies to the Christmas Day celebration each year. She currently makes seven types of cookies and assembles beautiful platters for the family, and as gifts for neighbors. The tradition became so big that, after she retired her sisters would make the “Cookie Day” our celebration with her family each year. Mom would prepare the dough, and the aunts would each take roles: oven monitor, panner, dishwasher and, obviously, wine drinker. By the end of the day, they were exhausted and ready for the cookies…which aren’t to be enjoyed until Christmas Eve like all good presents.

Mom’s “secret” collection of goodies contains the classics, such as Sugar Cookie Cut outs. These were cut precisely into bells, trees, and stars. The decorating had to wait until they were cooled, and this is my favorite part. Every year I make a “Super Special” cookie for my brother with every color frosting and every type of sprinkle you can imagine.

I know I have shared my mother’s recipe for sugar cookies before, but truly it makes soft and delicious cookies. I have never had another homemade sugar cookie as soft. The secret? Half butter and half Crisco instead of all butter. Want that butter flavor? Use Crisco butter flavored liked she does. The other “secret” ingredient, and to be honest I am not sure what it does, is Cream of Tartar in the dough. For some reason it adds a little depth to the flavor.

In case you have never seen my Cousin Camp Posts that had the recipe, here is mom’s killer recipe with great thanks to the woman she worked with at St. Joe’s Hospital whose recipe it is.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup shortening (½ butter and ½ shortening)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

2 cups of flour

Mix. Form into balls.  Flatten with glass dipped in sugar.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10-12 minutes at 325 degrees.  Frost with buttercream frosting.

In addition to the iconic sugar cookie, she also makes the classic Peanut Butter Blossoms. My job every year is to be “the baller” and “candy stripper”. Yes, I realize how this sounds. However, I love those jobs. I’m also a decent smasher of the peanut butter blossom and have achieved the approval of “not too smushed.” Or at least most of the time.

I am not sure that there are many different recipes for Peanut Butter Blossoms, I know people sometimes get creative with the candy in the center, substituting Peanut Butter Cups or Hershey’s Hugs instead of Kisses. However, I am traditionalist and love the contrast of the Hershey’s Kiss to the peanut butter.

This is what we use as a recipe:

½ cup shortening

½ cup Peanut Butter

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 ¼ cups flour

¾ teaspoon soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Mix thoroughly, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, and egg.  Blend in flour, soda, baking powder and salt.  Cover and chill.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Shape dough into 1 inch balls.  Bake at 10-12 minutes.  When out of oven place Hershey Kiss in Center.

Another cookie that mom makes that are very putsy, and I think used to be more common. They were one of my favorites from childhood, mostly because they are an excellent vehicle for buttercream frosting; we call them wafer cookies.

I also enjoy making them because in addition to being the “candy stripper” and “baller,” I get to be an expert forker.

Pun intended.

However, these cookies themselves are really just cream and flour and a little sugar. They are so dense that they require little fork holes to help bake. They are a little fussy and they do require double the cookies because you have a bottom and a top.

The recipe is as follows:

Cream Wafers (Double)

1 cup soft butter

½ cup whipping cream

2 cups flour

granulated sugar

creamy filling

Mix thoroughly butter, cream and flour.  Cover and chill.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll about 1/3 of dough at a time 1/8 inch thick on flour waxed paper.  Transfer round with spatula.  Cover in sugar.  Poke 4 times with fork.  Bake 7-9 minutes.  Fill and cover.

Creamy Filling: Cream ¼ cup butter, ¾ cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth and fluffy.  Tint with food coloring.

There are some cookies that my mom makes that are not my cup of tea, however, they are the favorites of some of the recipients of the cookies. I appreciate that I don’t love all of them because I have spent a few Christmases feeling awful after sampling a few too many.

Thumbprint cookies come in different varieties; Mom’s particular brand are absolutely beautiful because they are a very hands on cookies. I don’t love the flavor, and I am also not a fan of nuts in my baked goods, and hers are covered in chopped walnuts. I am THAT person who doesn’t like the contrast of textures. I used to take them as a child because they were pretty…and a source of frosting, which is always my favorite part of any baked good.

The frosting is the same creamy filling from the wafers, and the rest of the recipe goes like this:

Thumbprint Cookies

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup shortening

¼ cup brown sugar

1 egg, separated

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup finely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix thoroughly butter, shortening, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla.  Work in flour and salt until dough holds together.  Shape dough by teaspoonfuls into 1-inch balls.  Beat egg while slowly.  Dip each ball into egg white; roll in nuts.  Bake 10 minutes.  Fill with icing.

The other “cookie” that doesn’t make my list of enjoyed treats each year is dipped pretzels.  I know that they are pretty common around Christmas and people do get really creative with the decorating. Ours are pretty low key and simple. No sprinkles or fancy swirls, and we don’t do rods either. We do the little Christmas shapes like bells and stockings and they are completely engulfed in almond bark. I guess the sweet and salty mixture is what does it for people, but that is not my bailiwick.

The recipe? Super easy.

Dipped Pretzels

Dip whole large pretzels into melted almond bark.

Boom.

Beyond these cookies, mom also makes two types of bars. They are chocolaty and gooey and super addictive. Like for real.

They both have nuts in them, so I tend to alter the recipes and leave them out. Although, with the nut goody bars I have been better at eating them. The nutty goody bars have peanut butter and maple flavoring.  They are super sweet, but the flavors meld together with dry roasted peanuts between chocolate layers that are really good frozen!

They are super great for making ahead of time also because you can freeze them after they are made.

Nut Goodie Bars

1 1/2 oz package chocolate chips

1 1/2 oz package butterscotch chips

2 cups peanut butter

1 jar Spanish peanuts

Melt above and put ½ in jelly roll pan.  Cool. (Refrigerate 1 ½ hours).  Melt 1 cup butter (just warm), ¼ cup regular vanilla pudding, ½ cup cream and 1 teaspoon maple flavoring.  Add 2 cups powdered sugar.  Spread over 1^st layer.  Cool.  Add Spanish peanuts to the rest of the chocolate mixture and spread on top.  Refrigerate.

The other bars I do always leave the walnuts out because I really don’t like walnuts at all – they always taste stale and are too waxy for me. These bars are caramel and chocolate and chewy and delicious. They have a brownie base and melted chocolate chips and caramel on top with more brownie mix smushed across the very topmost layer.

We always store them outside, so they don’t get too melty, and I love them nice and cold. The frozen chocolate chip layer adds a smooth, melts in your mouth layer in contrast to the chewiness.

I used to love these more when I was little, but now I know once I start I can’t stop.

Caramel German Chocolate Bars

14 oz package light caramels

5 oz can evaporated milk

1 package German Chocolate Cake Mix

¾ cup melted butter

12 oz chocolate chips

Combine caramel and 1/3 cup evaporated milk.  Melt and set aside.  Combine cake mix, melted margarine, and the remainder of milk.  Stir.  Press ½ of the thickened mixture into a greased and floured 9 x 13" cake pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 5-6 minutes.  Sprinkle chips over the top.  Pour over that the caramel mixture pressed between hands and lay over the top so that it is mostly covered.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  Cool before cutting.

Each year she then lovingly bundles them up and beautifully arranges them to be delivered to the neighbors. My father’s role in all of this is the “deliverer of cookies.” He makes the round to friends and neighbors on Christmas morning dropping off the cookies and visiting with them about their Christmas plans. It is lovely tradition that has become a production for the whole family and a legacy of my mother’s love.

What cookies do you make each year to celebrate your season?