STILL NEW YORK-HUNGRY

43. Christmas Cookies I.

These cookies I made as Christmas presents for my family + friends in Germany (mail cutoff date: 12/18).



Serves:

33 Red Velvet / Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (Recipe: 20)
45 Coconut Lemon Snowballs Recipe: 40
34 Sticky Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe: 30

73 Gingerbread Cookies Recipe: 40 gingerbread figurines

40-ish Sticky Toffee Bites Recipe: 25, Me: 24 "usable" ones and about 10, 12 broken ones, not suitable as presents.



Prep Time:

5 hrs Velvet / Chocolate Cookies including resting time of 3-4 hrs
2+ hrs Coconut Lemon Snowballs including resting time of 1 hr
2 hrs Sticky Peanut Butter Cookies including resting time of 30 minutes
15+hrs Gingerbread people / cookies including resting overnight and covering with icing by hand
6 hrs Sticky Toffee Bites including cooling off / solidifying of mass


Degree of Difficulty: Easy

Except the Gingerbread + Toffee Cake. Those are Primadonnas who DON'T forgive mistakes. But SO worth it.




RED VELVET CRINKLE COOKIES Or rather: Chocolate Crinkles with some red color you don't see because it was absorbed by cocoa.

WE NEED

50 gr / 1.75 oz. white chocolate
80 gr / 2.8 oz. soft butter
100 gr / 3.5 oz. sugar
1 pck / 0.25 oz. vanilla sugar
1 egg M-sized
5 drops bitter almond aroma

red food coloring As I never use this – but the color of the cookies on the photo looked like Santa red! – I didn't know how to dose it. I used a vial with 6 ml / 0.2 US fl.oz.. Obviously too little as the red color vanished from the dough when I added the cocoa. So when you want 'em red, I'd either ditch the cocoa or use the "right" amount of coloring.

200 gr / 7 oz. flour
Salt
30 gr / 1 oz. cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
40-50 gr / 1.5 - 1.75 oz. icing sugar If necessary, more of course



WE DO


1. Line (a) baking tray(s) with baking paper.


2. Roughly chop the chocolate. Beat the butter until creamy, gradually adding the vanilla-/ sugar. One-by-one add egg, bitter almond aroma + food coloring, thoroughly mixing each into the mass before adding the next.

2. Mix flour, baking + cocoa powders and a pinch of salt. Add them to the egg mass with the chopped chocolate and swiftly + thoroughly stir in with a spoon. Refrigerate the soft dough for 3-4 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F fan/convection and fill the icing sugar into a deep plate. With a tea spoon, take little pieces of dough and shape them into walnut-sized balls, which you roll in the icing sugar until thickly covered. Press flat the SLIGHTEST bit and place them on the baking tray(s) with some space between them.

4. Bake them for 12-15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and let them cool off, first on the tray, then transfer them to the wire rack.





COCONUT LEMON/LIME SNOWBALLS Rather: Cookies as the balls were too soft to keep their shape and transformed in the oven.

WE NEED

250 gr / 8.8 oz. soft butter
60 gr / 2 oz. icing sugar
80 gr / 2.8 oz. shredded coconut
280 gr / 9.8 oz. flour
pulp of 1/2 vanilla pod OR 4 gr / 1/7 oz. vanilla sugar

zest of 1 organic lemon/lime I used lemon as lime was out. When you don't use organic fruit, wash hot + scrub the lemon/lime to get rid of wax +pesticides

Salt
80 gr / 2.8 oz. icing sugar for coating



WE DO

1. Beat the butter until creamy, gradually adding sugar + vanilla. Finely grind coconut flakes, 1 tsp lemon/lime zest with 2 tbsp flour in a food processor. Then mix with the remaining flour and a pinch of salt and swiftly stir it into butter-sugar-mass with a spoon. Wrap the soft dough into cling film and refrigerate it for 1 hr.

2. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F fan/convection and line a (2) baking sheet(s) with baking paper.

3. With a teaspoon, take pieces of dough and shape them into walnut-sized balls, which you place with some space between on the baking sheets.

4. Bake them for 12-15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and let them slightly cool. Mix icing sugar with the remaining lemon/lime zest and roll the yet warm balls (/ cookies) in it so they're thoroughly coated.

5. Let them cool on a cake rack.




STICKY PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES (In my case without the "sticky")

WE NEED

200 gr / 7 oz. soft butter
70 gr / 2.5 oz. brown sugar
100 gr / 3.5 oz. sugar
200 gr / 7 oz. peanut butter I used creamy and organic, with as little chemistry added as possible
1 egg L-sized; OR: 2 M-sized
1/2 tsp / pck. vanilla extract / -sugar
180 gr / 6.5 oz. flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
Salt

30 caramel pralinés After reading the so-called "ingredients" list, I refrained from using them.



WE DO

1. Line a (2) baking sheet(s) with baking paper.

2. Beat the butter until creamy, gradually adding the sugars. Only then, thoroughly mix in the peanut butter, followed by the egg + vanilla at last. Next, mix flour, baking powder and 2 pinches of salt, and swiftly fold them into the mass.

2. Shape the dough into 30 balls around the caramel pralines and place them on the baking sheet(s) with ample space between them. Also when you shouldn't use the "filling". They spread. With a fork, press the balls to 1 cm / 1/2 in thick + round, leaving a crossways pattern on the cookies, then refrigerate them for 30 minutes. Yup, fridge tetris with loaded baking sheets. Viel Spaß!

3. Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F fan/convection. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes OR until light brown. Since every oven's different that may take longer/shorter Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet(s).




GINGERBREAD PEOPLE / COOKIES As I don't have the according cookie cutter respectively icing tip equipment to do "people", I did cookies, instead, glazing them with the icing.

WE NEED


DOUGH


120 gr / 4.25 oz. sugar
100 gr / 3.5 oz. molasses I used organic... and did you know that it tastes crassly like licorice!?
1.5 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon CEYLON, as the cheaper CASSIA contains too much coumarin that damages the liver
2 pinches cloves Pinch = amount you can take between your fingertips. Pestle the cloves in a mortar.
mace Since it was out, I used a pinch of ground nutmeg I had at home.
1 tsp baking powder
125 gr / 4.25 oz. cold butter
1 egg M-sized
350 gr / 0.75 lb. flour


ICING

80 gr / 2.5 oz. icing sugar

1.5 tsp lemon juice If your lemon is not organic, be sure to wash it hot and scrub it to remove wax and pesticides




WE DO


1. Grind the cloves and mix them with ginger, cinnamon + mace/nutmeg.

2. Heat sugar + molasses until the sugar has dissolved. Stir the mix regularly, and use middle heat at most! Otherwise the whole thing BURNS Mix in spices + baking powder. Cube the butter, add + stir until everything has thoroughly combined. Let the mass cool off lukewarm – BELOW 40°C / 104°F, otherwise the egg white curdles Only then add egg + flour in 4-6 portions, and mix until each portion is thoroughly incorporated. Let the dough cool off, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate it overnight.

3. The next day, line baking sheets with baking paper, and preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F fan/convection

4. Flour a working surface and quarter or halve the dough. Portion-wise roll it out 4 mm / 1/5 in thin. Cut out ginger people / cookies with cookie cutters and place them with some space between on the baking sheets. I got 5 sheets with 73 cookies.




5. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes OR until light brown. Since every oven is different it can take longer/shorter Kein Scheiß, guys, STAY with them and WATCH them. I was only one minute late with the third sheet because nature had called, and they were almost BLACK

6. Remove the cookies from the oven, let them briefly cool on the sheets before transferring them onto wire racks to cool off completely.

7. Stir icing sugar + lemon juice until smooth and bit viscous. Be SLOW with juice as the icing is too liquid in NO time! And it's a bloody nightmare to reach correct texture after messing up! Fill the icing into an icing bag with a SMALL nozzle and decorate the cookies with faces, "dress" + buttons.





8. Lay them onto the wire racks once more and let the icing dry.





STICKY TOFFEE BITES

WE NEED


DOUGH

100 gr / 3.5 oz. butter
150 gr / 5.25 oz. flour
Salt
50 gr / 1.75 oz. raw cane sugar



TOFFEE-CREAM

90 gr / 3.25 oz. sugar
60 gr / 2 oz. butter
400 gr / 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
180 gr / 6.25 oz. salted, roasted macadamias In order to use up already open nuts, among them macadamias, I used hazel- / walnuts + pecans, too.


FURTHERMORE

baking tin with 20 x 20 cm / 8 x 8 in When your tin size diverts, google sites that convert quantities accordingly

150 gr / 5.25 oz. dark cake frosting Nope! Used a mix of about 1 : 2 white : dark chocolate. Definitely YUMMIER.



WE DO

1. Melt the butter on low heat. Mix flour, sugar and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and knead with the kneading hooks of your kitchen aid until you have a crumbly dough. Line the baking tin with baking paper and fill in the dough. Lightly flour your hand(s) and press the dough flat and smooth it out until the bottom of the tin is evenly covered. Prick it several times with a fork and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.


2. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F fan/convection, put in the tin and bake for 18-20 minutes OR until the dough base is golden brown. Since every oven is different this can take longer/shorter. Remove the tin from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.



3. For the Toffee-Cream, fill the sugar into a pot with 100 ml / 3.5 US fl.oz. water and cook it at high heat for 5 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved, constantly stirring with an egg whisk – otherwise it BURNS.




Add butter + condensed milk to the sugar syrup and continue cooking + whisking for 8-10 more minutes, until you have a golden brown almost viscous mass. Drop a teaspoon of it onto a saucer and briefly put it into the fridge. REDUCE / REMOVE pot from heat before doing that How long the fridge thingy? No idea! I did a minute. Anyway, the mass shall be creamy-solid – God knows what that means. Probably that it doesn't run + keeps its shape when the saucer is turned 90°? If it's not, cook / stir the mass 1-3 more minutes.





4. Roughly chop the macadamias/nuts (or blitz them.) Stir half of them into the thick, warm mass and spread it onto the cooled dough base. Sprinkle the remaining macadamias / nuts on top and press them into the mass. Let it cool completely and solidify in a cool place, probably over night. I kinda "turbo"-cooled it by putting the tin onto my balcony.





5. Melt the cake frosting according to package instructions, OR: melt dark + white chocolate on lowest heat so they don't burn! Also that way the mix gets the texture of cake frosting as liquid dark choc and rather grainy white choc become a half-solid mix you can easily apply. Pour it over the nut-toffee-mass and brush until it's evenly coated.


6. Let it solidify, then lift the cake out of the tin and, with a SHARP knife, cut it into 4 x 4 cm / ~2 x 2 in pieces.I wanted to cut it into "finger-shape", like Scottish millionaire's short bread. NOT the smartest idea – most of the thing just splintered to ugly chunks, but I got enough to send off to my family and friends intact. The bigger "chunks" I snacked, the finer crumbs I used as granola on my porridge / pancakes



Happy Christmas & Guten Hunger!