Almond Crescent Cookies

Almond crescent cookies are another Christmas standard. In my box of Mom's recipes, I found the recipe below written by Mom and a nearly identical version written by Grandma, so I guess this recipe has a long family history.

This batch ended up with the cookies being a bit larger than I remember Mom making them. But what didn't change with this batch was the terrific almond flavor. These cookies store well and can be made in advance.

This cookie recipe is the last Christmas cookie recipe for the 2011 holiday season. You will have to come back next December for more of Mom's awesome Christmas cookies.

Almond Crescent Cookies

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp. brandy
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 cup chopped almonds plus more to coat the cookies
• 2 cups flour

Cream butter with the powdered sugar until light. Mix in brandy and water. Add in chopped almonds and flour and mix well. Chill the dough. 

Preheat oven to 350. Shape small pieces of dough into crescents. Roll each cookie in the extra chopped almonds. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 12 to 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Spritz Cookies

Although Spritz cookies can be made anytime of the year by adjusting the shape used, Mom always made Spritz cookies for Christmas. The standard Spritz cookie is really just a butter cookie. What makes the Spritz so special is the use of a cookie press. You can see my cookie press in the photo. For this batch, I added food coloring to the dough and used the Christmas tree shape. The cookies could be decorated more, but with such nice shapes as a result of the cookie press, not much more is needed. Nevertheless, in the recipe below, I have included Mom's decoration notes from the recipe.

The use of the cookie press may require some finesse. If the dough is too soft or too stiff, it will be difficult to work with. Also, I have found that my cookie press sometimes requires a bit of an extra squeeze to get the cookie just right. But the work is worth it to get these lovely little cookies.

Spritz

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 1/4 powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tsp. extract (vanilla, almond, etc.)

Preheat oven to 375. Mix flour and salt and set aside. Put butter in a large mixing bowl with sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, extract and food coloring (if desired). Add flour mixture and beat until just blended. Fill the cookie press with the dough and press onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Decoration Options
1. Add 10-15 drops food coloring with mixing the dough.
2. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with colored sugar.
3. Ornamental frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat 1 egg white, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar until very thick, but still able to flow easily through a pastry tube. Add more sugar is needed. Use food coloring to tint. Use a pastry tube to decorate cookies.

Peanut Butter Fudge

What could be better than Fudge? Peanut Butter Fudge! Don't get me wrong, I love Mom's Fudge. But Mom often made lots of regular chocolate fudge, but very little peanut butter fudge. It seems to me like more of a special treat than just regular fudge. Some people prefer chocolate fudge, which I understand because I would never turn down a piece of any of Mom's fudge. Maybe next time I make fudge, I should to combine these two great recipes into a chocolate and peanut butter swirl fudge.

I always prefer peanut butter fudge made with creamy peanut butter. You can use crunchy peanut butter, but why would you when creamy peanut butter is so much better. I never understood crunchy peanut butter--are you eating peanut butter or peanuts? Make up your mind. Every now and then, Mom would experiment with adding nuts to either of the fudge recipes. Fudge with nuts was not popular among us kids. Nuts seemed to ruin the sugary goodness of fudge. I vaguely recall eating around the nuts. As such, I never add nuts to fudge that I make.

The recipe for this fudge is actually identical to regular fudge, just substitute peanut butter for the chocolate chips. As with regular fudge, once the fudge is poured into the pan, it needs some time to set--several hours or overnight if you can resist temptation to dig right in.

Peanut Butter Fudge

3 cup sugar

3/4 cup margarine

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 cup peanut butter

7 oz. marshmellow creme

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar, margarine and milk in a heavy sauce pan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, crème and vanilla and mix until well combines. Pour into a greased 13x9 pan. Cool completely before cutting.

Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

In the week before Christmas, Mom's kitchen turns into a cookie factory. For several days, Mom bakes loads of cookies. Then, Mom assembled plates of cookies to be given to friends and family.

When we were young, Mom always enlisted us all to help. I especially liked to help so that I could also taste test all the cookies. Mom limited our cookie taste-testing to the cookies that did not come out quite right (not that we ever intentionally damaged cookies). There are so many great cookie recipes, I will not be able to post them all this year. You will have to come back next year to see more.

This recipe--a basic sugar cookie--is made special with the use of Christmas-themed cookie cutters. To make this batch, I used Mom's cookie cutters. My favorite shape is the Christmas tree because it is so easy to work with the shape. Some of the cookie cutters result in delicate cookies that break easily. No matter the shape, these cookies are always delicious.

Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Cream butter with sugar. Add vanilla and egg; beat until fluffy. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt and blend well. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours. Using about a fistful of dough at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Place the cookies on cookie sheets and bake at 325 for 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool. 

Sugar Frosting

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• water
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• food coloring

Blend the sugar with vanilla and enough water to create a smooth thick frosting. Add food coloring. Frost cookies and add sprinkles or other decorative candies.

Fudge

Mom's fudge is a Christmas tradition. Maybe I am biased, but I think it is the best fudge that you will ever taste.

In addition to MDS, this time, our good friends Natalie and John got to be taste-testers. The fudge passed inspection.

The fudge is fairly easy to make, but there is one step that requires complete attention to avoid burning. While the sugar mixture is boiling, you must constantly stir. And I really mean constantly stir, or it will burn. When I was young, Mom would not let me near the boiling sugar; I guess she knew I would not have been able to resist trying to sample the tasty sugar mix. Usually, Dad would be put in charge of stirring so that Mom could prepare the pans. The fudge needs to cool for at least a few hours or overnight so that it fully sets.

Just before Christmas, Mom makes multiple batches of fudge to include in her cookie plates. More recently, Mom pours the fudge into the bottom of the plate so that after eating a plate of cookies, there is a wonderful plate of fudge waiting. Mom's fudge is always a favorite.

Fudge

• 3 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 12 oz. package chocolate chips
• 7 oz. marshmellow creme
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar, margarine and milk in a large heavy pan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in chips, marshmellow creme and vanilla and mix until well combined. Pour into a greased 13x9 pan. Cool completely before cutting.

Pumpkin Pie

Just as with the apple pie, pumpkin pie plays a key role at Mom's Thanksgiving. I love both apple pie and pumpkin pie, but I think my current favorite is pumpkin pie. Actually, I can't get enough of anything made with pumpkin: pumpkin scones, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin granola, pumpkin latte. I could go on. If it has pumpkin in it, you can bet I will like it.

This pumpkin pie recipe is fairly standard, as far as pumpkin pies go. You will need to adjust the cooking time to suit your oven. Mom says that it usually takes longer time in her oven for this custard-style pie to set. Be patient and let the pie cook properly, otherwise you will have a gooey mess on your hands.

Pumpkin Pie

• pie pastry
• 1 can (15 ounce) canned pumpkin
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk

Line a pie pan with the pie pastry. Blend all other ingredients and pour the pumpkin mixture into pie shell. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 350 and bake for 50 to 60 minutes more until the center is firm and a knife inserted into the pie comes out clean. Allow to cool before cutting. 

Apple Pie

There was so much good food at Thanksgiving, but Mom's pies might be my favorite. Despite being stuffed with stuffing, turkey and all the rest, I would eat pie and sometimes have a second helping of pie later in the night. Mom always made apple and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. I hear about others having different Thanksgiving pies--such as pecan or chocolate--but only apple and pumpkin mean Thanksgiving to me.

Mom often made the pies in large 9x13 rectangle pans, instead of pie pans, to make more pie. When there are seven kids, there needs to be enough pies for everyone. I also remember what a treat it was to have whipped cream from a can on top of the pie. Now that I am older, I like whipped cream made from actual cream, but the taste of whipped cream from a can brings back memories.

Mom always made a crumb topped apple pie. A double-crust pie looks pretty, but does not taste as good as the delicious sugary crumb topping. On Thanksgiving morning, after the stuffing was made, we would get put to work peeling and slicing apples. I remember eating a fair amount of apple slices before they could make it into the pie. Mom usually assembled the apple pie early in the day and leave it in the fridge until after the turkey came out of the oven.


Apple Pie

Pie Pastry
(yields 4 single crusts)

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 pound (1 cup) vegetable shortening
• 7 Tbsp cold water
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp vinegar

Mix flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, blend in the vegetable shortening. Use a fork to blend in the water, egg, and vinegar. Divide dough into four balls. Individual balls can be frozen for later use.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the pastry on a floured surface. The pastry should be rolled into a shape just larger than the pan you will be using for the pie. If the pastry is too dry or cracks, use a little water to smooth over or repair the cracks. Carefully transfer the pastry into the pie pan. Use your fingers to create a fluted edge.

Apple Pie Filling

• 5-6 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine apples, sugar, flour and cinnamon to coat the apple pieces. Transfer filing to the pastry-lined pie pan.

Crumb Topping

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. butter

Mix flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle over the filled pie.

Preheat the oven to 375. Cover the edges of the pie with foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more until top is golden and fruit is tender.