Christmas cookies: not so hard

I made most of our Christmas cookies this year at the last minute, but they all turned out. These were the easiest, but everybody seemed to like them: the quick-mix sugar cookies linked here, with a little canned frosting and coloured sprinkles in the middle. I didn't press the cookies down as directed with a sugared glass, because I knew I was going to be adding frosting; I just flattened them with my fingers. 

The frosting was squished from a Ziploc bag with the corner cut out, so that I could frost them in a little spiral shape (I don't think you can see that so well in the photo).

(That one on the edge is a mutant.)

A pan of date squares

Secret ingredient this time: I added the last of a jar of orange marmalade to the filling. These are for a family birthday tomorrow.

A plate of Christmas cookies

Chocolate Chip & Cranberry Shortbread Cookies, from The Flavor Bender.

This is a new recipe for us. I left the spices out, and changed the lemon zest to orange, since that's what we had in the fridge.

Still good!

What's for supper? Using all our gadgets

Tonight's dinner menu:

Beef-potato-onion-carrot stew in the slow cooker (thank you, Mr. Fixit)
Bread from the bread machine
Toaster-oven chocolate-chip cookies.

It makes more sense when you see it (Do-Vember #16)

Do-Vember

Scientists experiment. They change the variables and see what happens. What's the optimum range for whatever? How much is too much, what amount is just enough, and how much margin do you have? This kind of testing goes on all the time, everywhere from high-tech labs testing pharmaceuticals, to parents figuring out how long a child's afternoon nap should be or how many toys are enough without being too many, to the people who figured out that Ted Talks should be exactly 18 minutes long.

Sometimes it's nice when someone else does the work for you. If you trust their reporting, it could save you having to reinvent the wheel, or, as in today's Pinterest link, the cake and the cookie. What happens if you put in one egg? Two? Three? How do cookies change if you use white sugar? brown sugar? Some other sweetener? Butter, margarine, or some other kind of fat? You may have seen magazine articles illustrating this before (I have one stuck in my recipe binder that shows different oatmeal cookie results), but the post linked on Pinterest has collected up a few useful ones. It's helpful when the muffins turn out tough or pointy, or the cookies spread too much. Like a scientist, you can ask: what caused that? What do I need to change?

This kind of experimenting is actually something that Charlotte Mason wanted her students to practice--within reason, as they didn't want to waste food on things that wouldn't work. There were times when you might want your little cakes to be richer, or sweeter, or have some other special quirk--so knowing how to adjust a recipe for taste or ingredients was a useful thing to learn. If I were teaching that to children now, I think I'd use muffins as an example: there's a basic formula (I took mine from The Tightwad Gazette years ago), but the special ingredients, amount of sweetener, amount of fat and so on can be up to the baker.  Sometimes you can take advantage of a material's particular quirks: a non-food example would be strips of crocheting that tend to curl and twirl around themselves. That can be a problem, but if you're making legs for an octopus, it's exactly what you want.

But it can be useful just to see someone else's results.

Using up an impulse buy (Do-Vember #9)

Do-Vember

Today's Pinterest project was a simple one: using up some yogurt-flavoured baking chips that I saw at Bulk Barn and meant to use in cookies. Except that I didn't, and they were still in the cupboard.

Recipes for yogurt-chip cookies are, understandably, scarce, but really any oatmeal cookie recipe will do. I found this one that also called for dried cranberries, and I didn't have any, so I just used up all the yogurt chips in the bag. I also didn't feel like making individual cookies, so I baked the whole thing in a 9 x 13 inch pan, and cut it into granola-bar-sized pieces while it was still warm. And that's so easy it almost feels like somebody else did the work.

Still the best oatmeal-raisin cookies

We have been making these oatmeal-raisin cookies since they were first linked from the sadly-missed Grocery Cart Challenge blog. They're still very good. Don't skip the teaspoon of coarse salt--it adds some needed saltiness to the sweet.

Mama Squirrel's Daybook: Two weeks till Christmas

Weather: Warm enough for the ladybugs to reawaken. Frosty and his Mini-Me (above) are the only snow we have.

News from the Squirrels: The Apprentice has moved into a new apartment, no housemates this time, so she's having fun fixing up her own space. Ponytails is busy doing the things she does. Lydia has started rehearsals for a school musical.

Plans for the weekend: The Apprentice is coming for a visit, and we'll put up the Christmas tree.

In the slow cooker: Chili, part of a small batch of freezer meals we made today: Chili, Cheeseburger Soup (which we use for pasta sauce), Tortilla Filling, Teriyaki Beef, and one bag of Beef Stew. We still have some chicken meals left from the last round, so this filled in the holes.

Also to eat: Doreen Perry Cookies made with chocolate chips and holiday chips (red, white and green); and a pan of Chocolate-Cranberry Shortbread Bars from a recipe in last year's Walmart Live Better magazine. And some nice things we picked up at Euro Foods...oh, right, those are not to eat. Not yet, anyway.

Frugal "that's-so-obvious" thing: After I made the big floor-sitter with upholstery samples, I had a couple of fabric pieces left. What can you do with heavy fabric squares with serged edges? Put them under things. I have a brown piece under the stable for our Nativity scene, and a red and green striped one under a basket of Christmas music.

A bar cookie recipe I made up

I made these last night for a meeting here. It's an adaptation of a Dad's Cookie recipe, but I changed some things to suit what I had, and baked them in a 15-inch pan to save time.

Coconut-Fruit-Oatmeal Bars

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla (the recipe did not call for any, but I put in what was in the bottom of the bottle)
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt (the original recipe did not call for salt, but I added a little)
1 cup Rice Krispies
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup mixed dried fruit (I used a mixture of berries from the baking aisle at Wal-Mart)
1 cup or more shredded coconut (a leftover from Christmas)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugars, then add the egg and vanilla.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, combine well. Add in the remaining ingredients. Spread in a large baking pan; you shouldn't need to grease it with all the butter in the dough.  Bake approximately 20 minutes, until golden and fairly firm but not overbaked. Cut into squares while still warm.

When friends come

CM Bookmarks downloaded from The Common Room.

Neiman-Marcus $250 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Teapot.

Use Em Up Cookie Balls

I do love my food processor.

Chocolate Fig Post-Christmas Balls

Ingredients:

A few ugly figs (see Christmas Dinner), hard stems trimmed off
About a cupful of chocolate chips
One container of the edges and crumbles of Christmas no-bake squares, containing a variety of coconut, chocolate, nuts, and cookie crumbs; saved in the freezer for just such as this
Orange juice to moisten slightly

Run everything through the food processor until it forms a thick, slightly sticky mass. Form into balls and roll them in coconut or whatever you want--I used rolled oats run through the food processor (good way to clean out the sticky stuff).  Don't bake, just eat.

New Year's Cookies: No-Bake Chocolate Fingers

NO-BAKE CHOCOLATE FINGERS, from Canadian Living's Family Cookbook

INGREDIENTS: 

1 pkg (350 to 400 g) digestive biscuits (For those of you who can't get digestive biscuits, you can substitute 1-3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs.)
½ cup finely chopped nuts (we use hazelnuts)
½ cup butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1 Tbsp hot water

2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla

GLAZE:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp shortening or possibly butter or cream cheese (I do not usually have shortening around so I have tried other things)

WHITE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE (our addition): A bit of white chocolate: melt and add to the top after the rest is set. NOTE: You do not need to use as much as we did--a little drizzle is good. More than that makes them hard to cut.

INSTRUCTIONS

Line 8-inch square pan with waxed or parchment paper, leaving enough paper hanging over the edges for easy removal later.

1. Using food processor or rolling pin, crush biscuits until in fine crumbs (or use a food processor). Transfer to bowl and add nuts.

2. In saucepan or bowl set over simmering water: melt butter; whisk in sugar and cocoa.

3. Dissolve coffee in hot water; add to pan and cook over simmering water, whisking for 1 minute or until thickened and sugar is dissolved.

4. Whisk in eggs and vanilla; cook, whisking, for 4-5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Remove from heat.

5. With fork, stir in crumb mixture. Mix well.

6. Press firmly into prepared pan (lined with wax paper). Cover and refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour.

GLAZE: (don’t prepare this until base is cooled and ready)

1. In saucepan over simmering water (or microwave), stir chocolate with shortening until melted and smooth.

2. Pour over base, spreading evenly.

3. Cover and refrigerate until set.

4. White Chocolate Drizzle, optional: melt and drizzle. Let set before cutting.

5. Using waxed paper as handles, lift square from pan. Cut carefully into small squares or fingers (running hot water over the knife helps).

6. Keep covered in refrigerator. These will keep for several days.

Previously posted here.

Three things we didn't bake today

Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Christmas Trees.  Warning (tip): we used the red gel as recommended, but the dots stick to anything they touch--wax paper, other cookies, etc.  Another time I would probably use either candy sprinkles or some kind of icing that hardens better.

No-Bake Coconut-Date Squares, from Vegetarian Times Magazine

No-Bake Apricot Nuggets, from Canadian Living Magazine (not cut yet). Lydia's turn to make these, this year!

Brown Sugar Buttons (shortbread)

Lydia and I made Brown Sugar Buttons today.  (Link updated 2022)

Dewey's Treehouse Christmas archives: where to look for things

Just so everybody knows: a while back I started a Christmas page, here; that isn't the family-keep-out page, it's a collection of links to our holiday recipes, some seasonal posts, book quizzes, a series about Christmas picture books, and Dewey's Favourite Christmas Songs (with You-tube links, most of which are still functioning). Anything from the past almost-decade, it's there.

A fun way to dress up no-flour peanut butter cookies

See, I told you that you miss out if you don't click on the Sew Mama Sew links because they don't apply to you (today's theme is Boys, and we don't have any except for Mr. Fixit). The recipe link today is for Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, which turns out to be the old standby sugar-egg-peanut butter recipe stacked with frosting.  It's obviously not something you can take to a nut-free classroom or church potluck, but if you don't have peanut problems it sounds like a winner.

What's for supper? Still a great stew recipe

Mr. Fixit makes good beef stew, I was going to say out of his head but that sounds strange; without a recipe, anyway.  But when I make stew, which isn't very often, I use the recipe from the booklet that came with our Rival Crockpot when we were married.  The same recipe is posted here.

You can change things around as you like.  I didn't have any broth, so I used water, and  less onion, and I have never used the 2 optional teaspoons of Kitchen Bouquet.  It's still a good recipe.

Dessert was leftover gingerbread with blueberries, or one of the sugar cookies that Lydia made this afternoon.

Harvest Spice Bars

These are bars made from the recipe for Raisin or Date Squares, from The More With Less Cookbook. Except that this time I made them with homemade butternut squash butter as the filling. Since "Squash Squares" doesn't sound that appetizing, Ponytails suggested "Harvest Spice Bars" instead. So be it.

Nabisco Chocolate Brannies Recipe

Because any links I've given previously don't seem to go past the list of ingredients, here's the recipe for Chocolate Brannies, made with Nabisco 100% Bran Cereal.  (It came from a magazine ad for the cereal, a lot of years ago.)

Whole Grain Brannies

1 cup Nabisco 100% Bran Cereal, or another brand (like All-Bran)
2/3 cup milk
4 squares Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate, OR 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (and less sugar)
1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar, or less, especially if you are using semisweet chocolate chips
3 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour (or unbleached or all-purpose work fine too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9-inch square pan.

Mix cereal and milk, let stand five minutes to soften.

Heat chocolate and margarine together, in microwave or on low heat. When melted and smooth, stir in sugar.

Beat eggs.

Combine chocolate/margarine, cereal/milk, and eggs. Stir in flour.

Spread in greased 9-inch pan.  Bake 30-40 minutes or until done. Cool and cut in squares.

Raisin Squares for a church potluck

RAISIN OR DATE BARS (More with Less Cookbook)

Today we are having a potluck lunch at church.  We're taking some sandwiches, a quinoa-black bean salad, and a batch of these raisin bars, which I call Raisin Squares because they're different from the Hillbilly Housewife's Raisin Bars (those are more cake-type, these are like date squares but without all the chopping).

Make one of these fillings:

Raisin Filling:
  2 1/2 cups raisins 
  3/4 cup water 
  1/4 cup sugar 
  3 tbsp. lemon juice 
  2 tbsp. cornstarch   

Date Filling:
  3 cups chopped dates 
  1 1/2 c water 

Combine filling ingredients and cook over low heat until thick.  The recipe says to let the filling cool, but I don't usually have time and they still turn out fine.

Crust/Topping:

  3/4 cup margarine or equivalent in preferred fat or oil
  3/4 cup brown sugar 
  1 tsp. salt (seems like a lot, you could try less)
  1/2 tsp. baking soda 
  1 3/4 cup flour 
  1 1/2 cup rolled oats (I use the quick type)

Mix well until crumbly.  Firmly press half the crumb mixture into a 9 x13" greased pan. 
Spread cooled filling over top; it may seem like not quite enough, depending on how thick your filling is, but just do your best to get it spread around.. At this point I like to sprinkle the filling with a spoonful of cinnamon-sugar, but that's optional.  Cover with remaining crumb mixture, patting down lightly. 
Bake at 400 [F] for 25-30   minutes. (I bake them at 375 degrees because our oven runs hot, and they are usually done in about 20 minutes, so watch them.) Cut into bars while warm.