Thursday, December 3, 2015

Christmas Cookie Exchange '15

Welcome to my blog. Thanks, Carol, for giving us this opportunity to share cookie recipes with others.  I know I have seen some great recipes this week that I want to try!

It was a great time for me to do a virtual cookie share.  My two beautiful granddaughters were here the entire week before Thanksgiving.  We have been making lots of candy, cookies, noodles, and pies.  I have taught them well.  They are 13 and 10, and they can make pies and noodles by them-selves, not to mention the cookies and candy.

The first cookies we made were spritz cookies, a recipe my mom used to make.  She would "hide" them in the upstairs bedroom of our old farmhouse--the room we didn't use in the winter because it was too cold.  We would sneak in and sample them long before Christmas.  They are made with a cookie gun.  We used an old metal one when we were growing up.  Now, the girls and I use a Pampered Chef gun.



SPRITZ COOKIES

1 lb. butter                                1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs                                       1 tsp. baking powder
4 1/2 cups flour                        1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter (be sure to use real butter) and sugar.  Add unbeaten eggs.  Combine flour and baking powder.  Add flour mix and vanilla.   Divide the cookie dough into 2 parts and swirl green coloring into half of the dough and red coloring into the 2nd half.  Press with a cookie press onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  


I asked Julia and Lauren to bring a recipe to share, also.  They chose jello cookies that their Grandma, Carolyn Ogren, has been making since their mother was a child.  They are made with lime or raspberry jello.  Make 2 batches if you want colorful red and green cookies.  We used lime jello.

JELLO COOKIES

3/4 cup butter, softened                                               1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sugar                                                                2 1/2 cups flour
1 3-oz. package jello                                                    1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs                                                                           1 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix thoroughly butter, sugar, jello, eggs, and vanilla.  Blend in dry ingredients.  Roll dough into 3/4 inch balls.  Place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet; flatten each with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. (We use a glass with a design imprinted in the bottom so that there is a design on the cookies.)  Bake 6-8 minutes.  Makes about 4 dozen.



I want to share just a few pictures of our candy-making.  We made 2 batches of peanut brittle, caramels, peppermint bark, and peanut butter fudge.


Grandpa came in to supervise.



Lauren's peppermint bark.  Yummy!


                                    Julia making caramels while Lauren stirs the peanut brittle.



                                             Stretching the peanut brittle--soooo good!

We also had time to walk in the woods, go out for pizza and have a great Thanksgiving dinner.  I hope you were as blessed as I was on Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Carol at Just Let Me Quilt, for a great hop!

Please stop by for yummy cookie recipes from our blogger friends today:

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy cookie baking!






14 comments:

  1. I'm drooling a little over all the candy you made, especially that peppermint bark. Yum! Years ago I made Spritz cookies and had forgotten how cute they are. I'll be trying them with your recipe! Oh, my! Jello cookies? That's new to me...got to try them, too. The flavors for them could be endless and totally fit any holiday. Thanks for the recipes and great photos of all the baking going on!

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  2. I love that you are building these wonder memories with your granddaughters!

    When our kids were little they used to love getting to use the cookie gun... in fact, they used to make sure that they each made the same number of cookies and no one got to have more turns than the other... lol.

    Thanks for sharing your recipes and the fun you had with your granddaughters.

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  3. Great pictures, Kathy! I know you had a wonderful time with the kids here, and it's so very neat that the girls love to bake with you. I haven't made Spritz cookies for years--now I must get after some! :)

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  4. What fun it looks like you had :) I have seen cookies looking like those jello ones, thanks for sharing your recipe!

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  5. Sharing family time and making memories is priceless. Love your recipes and thank you very much for sharing and hopping. Creative Cookie/Candy Bliss...

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  6. Thank you for sharing a bit of your family with us. Makes holidays more meaningful. Spritz are some of our favorite cookies. We still use the metal twister tube but I have been considering a cookie gun.

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  7. Looks like you had so much fun sharing your kitchen with your beautiful granddaughters. Great recipes, thank you!

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  8. My older boys are 11 and 9, and I know what a help the can be in the kitchen. These look like some great recipes to try with them! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. I want to make all of these recipes! Yummy! Holidays are all about memories!

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  10. Oh cool to have your grand daughters cooking with you! I may need to start having the grandsons help in the kitchen more when they are around It would be wonderful if the one who loves pumpkin pie could learn to make pie. Your recipes look awesome!

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  11. Hi Kathy, you are so lucky to have grandchildren who enjoy cooking with you and will nurture the family traditions and pass them down. My son just became engaged and I am looking forward to making those memories as well. I have never tried making brittle, but this may be the year. Have a great holiday!

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  12. Who knew jello would make such yummy cookies! So much fun to bake with your grandchildren!! Thanks for sharing. :)

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  13. It's not Christmas without Spritz cookies. I use a Pampered Chef spritz gun. Can't beat those Pampered Chef tools.

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