12wksxmastreats Archives ⋆ Books n' Cooks

Gingerbread Cookies

Ok, so I was terrible with keeping up with the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats this year. Call me lazy if you’d like. I’ve been super busy and frankly, exhausted over the past few (the first trimester does that to me, apparently!). It’s a wonder I’ve been able to get any posts out over the past few months.

Now that the first trimester has past, I’m trying to get back into the swing of things. If you’re still looking for a holiday cookie for a party, some care packages, or just to have around the house, then this week’s post, something “gingerbread,” to satisfy the What’s Baking? theme chosen by Catherine of Pursuing Domestic Goddess-ness, will work for you. I’ve never been particularly interested in gingerbread flavored baked goods, but I did have to stop myself from eating these. The flavor was fairly subtle and the cookies were super soft, just the way I like them.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

Adapted from All Recipes via One Little Project At A Time

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

¾ c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. + 4 Tbs. granulated sugar, divided
1 egg
1 Tbs. water
¼ c. molasses
¼ c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and 1 c. sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Lower speed slightly and one at a time, add egg, water, and molasses. Scrape down sides of mixer and add all remaining ingredients (except for the 4 Tbs. sugar), mixing until just combined.

Use a cookie scoop to form 1-inch balls, shaping them between the palms of your hands as needed. Roll in remaining sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are browned slightly. Allow to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Buddy the Elf Cookies

Unlike some people, I never really had any strong Christmas traditions of watching a particular movie. When my brothers and I were little, we would watch Christmas specials that my mom recorded (on VHS!) – the Smurf’s Christmas Special, Frosty the Snowman… the homemade movie had all of those amazing Coca Cola polar bear commercials (seriously, why did those every go away?).

But at a certain point, we got too old for the Christmas specials. I don’t know when we stopped watching – junior high? High school? It wasn’t until college that those Christmas specials were replaced with a movie. Elf.

I remember coming home from college and talking about the movie. My mom rolled her eyes at me, but my brother jumped right into the conversation about what a great movie it was. Needless to say, Mom had to watch it with us. Several times that Christmas vacation. Thus began my newest Christmas movie tradition.

These cookies are inspired by that movie. For those of you that don’t know the movie, stop reading right now, and check out Netflix, On Demand, whatever. Watch it, and then finish reading this post. You should be picturing the scene where Will Ferrell is making a breakfast of pasta, candy, and maple syrup for his father’s wife. These cookies aren’t as sickly sweet as I imaging that breakfast would have been.Not surprisingly, I felt like I was eating a handful of candy when I ate a cookie.

I can’t wait to turn my Christmas movie tradition into a movie + baking event with my daughter!

Buddy the Elf Cookies

Adapted from Spoon or Foon

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies

Ingredients for the Cookies:

1½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
14 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 c. old-fashioned oats
3/4 c. granulated sugar
½ c. brown sugar
1 c. M&Ms
½ c. mini marshmallows
1 c. Sno-Caps
4 S’mores Pop Tarts, chopped

Ingredients for the Maple Glaze

1/4 c. confectioners’ sugar
1-2 Tbs. pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper an set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla, beating until combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mixing well and scraping down sides of the bowl as necessary. Reduce speed to low and add oats, Sno-Caps, Pop Tarts, M&Ms, and marshmallows. The batter will be very thick. You’ll want to finish stirring with a wooden spoon to make sure the candy is evenly distributed.

Using an ice cream scoop, portion out cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 14-16 minutes, until lightly golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack (set on top of a paper bag to minimize the mess) to cool completely.

Make the Glaze. While cookies are baking, whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

Store in an airtight container.

Vanilla Almonds

Almonds get roasted and infused with lots of vanilla to make an irresistible party snack. Plus, Vanilla Almonds can be prepared ahead for easy entertaining.

Welcome to another week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats, a weekly blogging event hosted by Meal Planning Magic. That’s 12 weeks of deliciously sweet desserts, snacks and munchies, cocktails… whatever sweet treats me and my blogging friends can come up with for you to enjoy this holiday season.

If you haven’t been by in the past, you probably don’t know that I love dressing up nuts for a quick, easy, and super tasty snack at parties. It’s become a staple at my annual holiday party. I’ve done Crock-Pot Sugared Nuts and Mixed Spiced Nuts in the past, but I think this recipe is my favorite. I love the sweet vanilla flavor, kicked way up with both vanilla extract and vanilla paste (totally worth buying, if you don’t already have it!).

Bonus? These nuts come together in 30 minutes, making them easy to squeeze into a busy day in the kitchen. The longest part is letting the nuts cool completely before storing, so that they stay deliciously crunchy.

Do you have any entertaining secrets to share this holiday season? What do you do, or what recipes do you stock away, to make entertaining easier?

Vanilla Almonds

Almonds get roasted and infused with lots of vanilla to make an irresistible party snack. Plus, Vanilla Almonds can be prepared ahead for easy entertaining.

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Cooling Time 2 hours

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 16

Calories 244 kcal

Author Liz

Ingredients

1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. light brown sugar packed
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 egg whites at room temperature
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1/2 Tbs. vanilla bean paste
4 c. unsalted almonds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a small bowl, stir together sugars, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.
In large bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Whisk in vanilla extract and vanilla paste. Add almonds to bowl and using a rubber spatula, toss to coat.
Sprinkle almonds with about half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Toss to coat well. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar and toss to coat. Turn almonds out onto baking sheets, half on each. Spread almonds onto a single layer.
Bake for 15 minutes. Stir almonds, spreading back onto a single layer. Swap baking sheets in oven and continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely - I left them for a coupe of hours.
Serve at room temperature. Store in an airtight container until serving.

Recipe Notes

This recipe makes 4 cups, or 16- 1/4 cup servings.

This recipe was adapted from Taste of Home via That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Cranberry Orange Bread

Welcome to the first in 12 weeks of Christmas treats, a weekly blog hop hosted by Meal Planning Magic. Now I know it’s early to be thinking about Christmas, but the holiday season is a particularly busy one for me and I like to get a jump start on those holiday care packages and the big holiday party that my hubby and I host each year. So I’m already making lists of goodies that I want to make, and trying to pencil in some time to get baking. This particular bread recipe freezes well without the glaze (and tastes great without it, if you prefer) and will definitely be making an appearance in some of my care packages this December.

Cranberry Orange Bread

Adapted from Fine Cooking

Makes 1 standard loaf (or two smaller, half loaves)

Ingredients for the Bread:

1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for pan
2 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. cranberries, halved
1 c. buttermilk
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbs. finely grated orange zest

Ingredients for the Glaze:

1 c. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4 tsp. freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 350F. If using a standard loaf pan, grease the pan with 1 Tbs. softened butter and lightly flour. Same thing for a disposable aluminum pan. (My pans, purchased from Michael’s craft stores, did not need to be greased, so I omitted this step.)

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in cranberries.

In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and orange zest. Pour mixture, as well as melted butter, over dry ingredients. Gently fold in until no dry ingredients remain.

Pour into prepared baking pan and bake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes for a standard loaf pan, and 35-45 minutes for a half-loaf.

Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert bread onto a rack to cool completely before adding glaze.

If using disposable liners, cool completely. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze, without glaze.

Glaze Bread: Whisk together confectioners’ sugar and orange juice until smooth, adding extra orange juice by the teaspoon, if needed, to thin glaze. Drizzle over loaf. Store at room temperature, covered, for up to 2 days.

If glazing after freezing, allow bread to thaw completely before adding glaze.

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the last week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats, hosted by Meal Planning Magic, and I hope you found some great inspiration for your own holiday baking. If you missed any of my contributions this year or are interested in what I made last year, check out the 12wksxmastreats tag at the bottom of this post (or click here). As usual, you can see what my fellow bloggers made by checking out the linky at the bottom of this post. I hope you enjoyed another year of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats!

While I love peanut butter cookies right out of the oven, I could never find a cookie that stayed soft after they cooled. Until this one. I had these cookies for the first time while I was overseas and immediately demanded the recipe (the original source is unknown). The cookie had the same great peanut butter flavor of most peanut butter cookies (you know, the ones with the criss-cross on the top) but stayed soft even after cooling.

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
mini peanut butter cups, quartered (at least 16)

Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and peanut butter on medium speed until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until combined. Scrape down sides of the bow. Reduce speed to low and add flour, baking soda and salt and beat until thoroughly combined.

Use a cookie scoop to portion out cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets. Cookies should be at least 3 inches apart, as the do spread a good bit. Press peanut butter pieces (4-6 pieces per cookie) into dough, pressing down a little to flatten cookie.

Bake 10-12 minutes, until just turning brown around the edges. Center will still be pale and soft. Allow to cool for 1 minute on baking sheets before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.