ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped fine

Cream butter & sugar, then mix in water and vanilla.  Add the flour and chopped nuts.

Chill 4 hours in fridge.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  Watch them the last couple of minutes to make sure they don’t burn.

Take them out of the oven and drop them into a bowl of powdered sugar while they are still warm.  Set out to cool.

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We had a baking frenzy on Saturday to get the treat boxes ready to take with us to church on Sunday, and these were the favorite of those that we baked.  They take a little longer to bake than most of the others, but the extra time is worth it!  These are the cookies that Grandmas, Nanas and Babushkas all over used to bake, and they are soooooooo good.

I ended up rolling them slightly smaller so the dough would go further, and I actually like them that way – just enough for a taste, but not so much that you feel like you might overdo it if you eat two…

Tis the season for baking!  Add in the fact that we have been buried under 2+ feet of snow, and I’m really glad that I had a 50lb. bag of flour and 48 eggs in the house!

Yes, Christmas is this week, and we spent the weekend being snowed in and baking.  It was a good weekend!

All told, I think we baked 9 different kinds of cookies… and it was so fun!

Lemon Hazlenut Biscotti… from the cookbook “Great Cookies”

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies – from Hersheys.com

Pumpkin Leaves  – I cheated on these, I had some Cougar Mountain Pumpkin Cookie Dough in the fridge… but we did roll them out on a powdered sugar covered surface and cut them rather than doing drop cookies like normal.  Very yummy!

Cream Cheese and Lemon Sugar Cookies – thick, moist, lemon-y cookies!

We used the lemon sugar cookie dough to also make stained glass window cookies – just make cut-outs in the cookie dough and fill it with crushed hard candies like Jolly Ranchers or Dum-Dum pops.  Very tasty and so pretty!  Take them out just a little sooner than normal so the candy doesn’t burn, and let them cool completely on the pan.

I also found a recipe for Low-Fat Sugar Cookies that only called for 2.5 Tbsp of butter… which is an amazingly low amount!  Make sure you roll them a little closer to the 1/8″ thickness though so it cooks through.  Surprisingly tasty, and very low-fat by comparison!

Then we made Gingerbread Angels.  Since my molasses is a bit on the stronger side I halved the amount called for, but I think that may have been a mistake.  Our angels came out with a bare hint of a molasses aftertaste, but they are still very tasty.  They were especially tasty dipped in the lemon-powdered sugar glaze for the biscotti!

We also morphed the sugar cookie dough into jelly filled cookies.  Cut one solid circle, cut one circle with a shaped cut-out in the center.  If you forget to fill them first (oops!), bake them, then spread jelly in between the layers.   Otherwise you can spread the jelly in the middle and seal the edges of the 2 cookies.  Either way, they are quite yummy

I was planning to make Sinful Chocolate Cookies, but I don’t seem to have any cake mixes left in the house (these cookies are the only time we use them!)  I guess I’ll have to come up with an alternate recipe for them.

They aren’t edible, but we also made some salt dough ornaments.  I added a bit of buckwheat flour to make them easier to knead, and also added some essential oil to make them smell good.  You’ll want to keep them away from any cookies that you plan to eat, as the oil will make them taste odd, but they are a fun craft for kids – both cutting them out and painting them when they are dry!

The final part of our goodie baking was dark chocolate truffles.  Make a thick ganache with chocolate and heavy cream.  Let it cool and roll it into balls.  Chill them and dip them into melted chocolate.  Coat them with cocoa powder and keep chilled.  Soooooooo good!

This was our Christmas baking extravaganza… I hope yours is going well too!

Have a blessed Christmas!

Christmas is almost here, and it’s a snow day today to boot – which this week seems to equal a longer Christmas break!  What’s a house full of girls to do?

Bake cookies, of course!

Growing up we had a recipe for a short while that was simply labeled “Susan’s Sugar Cookies.”  However, I can personally attest to the fact that there was nothing simplistic about them.  They were sublime.  What was the secret?  I personally think it may have been the lemon extract, but I can’t guarantee that, as I added it to other recipes with less spectacular results.

I have been searching for that recipe (or one like it) for decades.  You see, we lost the recipe card somewhere along the way, and no one else seemed to have it either.

I think I may have found a worthy substitute today.

These cookies can be called sublime… delicious… moist, thick, wonderful sugar cookies.  With just a hint of lemon, of course

What is their secret?  Well, the hint of lemon helps, but I really think it’s the cream cheese.  It’s not much, but it added a certain tang and moistness that really makes them delish.

And I will now share the recipe with you, because they are just too good to keep to myself.  Seriously.

Lemon Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 2 cups evaporated cane sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• fresh zest of 1 lemon OR 1 tsp lemon extract*
• 5 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Cream the butter, sugar and cream cheese in a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Mix in the flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.

Cover the bowl or wrap the dough in logs and chill for at least 3 hours.  Overnight is better.

Preheat oven to 390F.  Roll dough out on a floured surface or a pastry mat.  If you like a crisper cookie, roll it to 1/4 inch thick.  For moister cookies, roll to 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into shapes and place onto a making sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Bake for 5-8 minutes. For more moist cookies, take them out just before they “look done.”  Like as soon as the timer goes off the first time.

Try to restrain yourself and let them cool… or not your choice.

If you feel so inclined, decorate them with icing.  Royal icing is the typical topping, but I think a cream cheese frosting would be a lovely addition.  You know, cream cheese & heavy whipping cream whipped to stiff peaks and smeared all over the top of everything… err, these wonderful cookies.

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*yes, I highly recommend using fresh zest – get yourself a good microplane zester and use it often.  I hated lemon zest until I started using the microplane… and now, all I can say is wow!  The amazing flavor that can be added with zest!  If your zester is fine enough, you will never find yourself chewing the zest in the final product.  Go now & get one!

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No, admittedly I couldn’t restrain myself and had a cookies straight out of the oven.  I had to taste test them warm for you, right?  Of course I did.  And I can tell you from personal experience that they are delicious warm.  I’m sure they are good cold too… I have to go hold the girls back from gobbling them all up before they cool.  Or is that the other way around…

Lightly lemon-y, thick and moist.  Just the way a sugar cookie should be.

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One must give proper credit – that is an unwritten rule, is it not?  Following a series of links in my frantic searching today, I came upon a fabulous site that I will be sure to bookmark and visit often.  I invite you to also visit often, as I think this site is a winner.  Susan over at http://doughmesstic.blogspot.com/ is the author of these delicious cookies.  Thank you!  you have made me a very happy mommy today!

I tried these for the first time when my husband & I stayed at the Towerhouse Bed & Breakfast on San Juan Island a few years ago. The wonderful innkeepers were kind enough to send the recipe. They are more moist than most shortbread, but very tasty!

1 lb butter
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup powdered sugar (aka icing sugar or confectioners sugar)
1 tsp lemon & vanilla extract or to taste (orange & almond also work well)
4 cups all purpose flour

Beat butter, corn starch, powdered sugar and extract until they are fluffy. Gradually add flour until incorporated. It will be a loose, crumbly mixture.

Form into cookies approx. 1.5″ in diameter & press your thumb in the center.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until they just start to turn brown.

Makes approx. 4 dozen cookies.

These cookies are very easy – easier than the length of the recipe makes it look. These are great any time of the year, but Fall seems to make them seem almost a necessity! I make them a little on the big side & add lots of chopped dried fruit and nuts – then they are a scone-like breakfast cookie…

2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 large can pumpkin pie filling
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups flour (sifted)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups dried fruit*
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly
Drop large dough balls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool on rack.

*Our favorite fruits to use are chopped dried apricots and dried cranberries.