CHRISTMAS COOKIE CRAZE

created by Andrea Skweres

Overview Do you find it a pain-in-the-patootie to make a bazillion cookie recipes duringthe crazy holiday season? I sure do! This is my “saving grace” way to puttogether an amazing “Yes, I did it all!” kind of holiday cookie plate. We arecalling it “Christmas Cookie Craze” and we hope you and your family enjoymaking these adorable, fun, creative, tasty and super easy Christmascookies for you to share (or just enjoy yourselves - we definitely won’t tellanyone).

We give you 2 similar recipes (with just a little tweaking- the good kind - tomake them taste different) and lots of creative ideas to get your holidayjuices flowing. You can get 10 different cookies made in a morning...baked,frosted, done! The basic differences between the 2 recipes:Recipe 1 - Butter, Sugar, Vanilla, AlmondRecipe 2 - Butter, Shortening, Powdered Sugar, Vanilla, a little salt See, they are similar but result in different tasting cookies with differenttextures. So here we go...

Recipe 11 cup butter1 cup granulated sugar1 teaspoon vanilla extract½ teaspoon almond extract1 egg2 teaspoons baking powder3 cups flour

Recipe 2½ cup butter½ cup shortening1 ½ cup powdered sugar2 teaspoons vanilla extract1 egg2 teaspoons baking powder2 ½ cup flour1 teaspoon salt

Each recipe can be split into 5 separate bowls for 5 different cookies perrecipe.

Dough Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350F.

2. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. In a mixer: combine butter, shortening, and sugar. Cream on medium high untilfluffy - about 2 minutes.

4. Add vanilla, almond, and eggs. Beat until everything is combined.

5. In a separate bowl: mix flour, salt and baking powder.

6. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture 1 cup at a time and mix untilcombined.

7. DO NOT CHILL! (This is the best part!)

8. Bake 7-8 minutes - depending on the size of your cookies and how your ovenbakes :)

9. Let cookies cool on sheet for about 3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

10. Let cool completely before icing.

*Store cookies in a container at room temperature for up to 7 daysUNFROSTED. Cookies can be frozen for up to 2 months. When you areready to use them, no need to thaw, just place them in the oven and bake 9-10 minutes. ENJOY IMMENSELY!

Peppermint Blossom CookiesRecipe 1 Makes 12 x 2-inch round cookies Extra Ingredients:

Sprinkles

Hershey Candy Cane Peppermint Kisses Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients2. Roll into balls.3. Roll in sprinkles.4. Bake.5. While still warm, press a Hershey Kiss into each.

Notes:

For extra pizazz, you could add ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract to dough.

You could also add food coloring to the dough.

Switch it up and add your fave Hershey kiss - - caramel, dark chocolate, Hugs,etc.

Melting Snowman CookiesRecipe 1 Makes 6 x 4-inch round cookies Extra Ingredients:

Baking Cocoa

Mini Peanut Butter Cups

White Chocolate

Mambo Candy

Mini Chocolate Chips

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients.

2. Add 1-2 Tablespoons of baking cocoa and mix well.

3. Roll into balls then flatten.

4. Bake and cool.

5. Cut orange Mambo candy into carrot-nose triangles.

6. Cut each peanut butter cup in half for a snowman hat.

7. Heat white chocolate in microwave for 30 seconds at a time.

8. Stir and repeat until melted.

9. Use a spoon to drizzle white chocolate over cookie.

10. While chocolate is still warm press in:

○ mini peanut butter cup cut side down for the hat

○ mini chocolate chips for the eyes

○ orange Mambo candy carrot-nose

Chocolate Reindeer CookiesRecipe 1 Makes 12 x 4-inch triangle cookies Extra Ingredients:

Baking Cocoa

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Mini Chocolate Chips

M&Ms

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients.

2. Add 1-2 tablespoons of baking cocoa and mix well.

3. Roll between pieces of parchment paper to ¼-inch and use a pizza cutter to cutinto triangles.

4. Bake.

5. While still warm press in:

○ Mini chocolate chips for eyes

○ Chocolate covered pretzels for antlers

○ Red M&M for nose

Slice & Bake Christmas Tree CookiesRecipe 1 Makes 12 x 3-inch triangle cookies Extra Ingredients:

Green Food Coloring

Sprinkles

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients.

2. Divide dough into thirds.

3. Dye one third of the dough green.

4. Roll between parchment paper to ¼-inch and cut out small Christmas trees witha mini Christmas tree cookie cutter.

5. Stack all of the trees together.

6. Take remaining two parts of dough, roll to 1/4 -inch sheets and wrap aroundthe green trees.

7. Roll the cookie log until smooth and uniform.

8. Roll in sprinkles.

9. Slice and bake. (REMEMBER- NO CHILLING REQUIRED!)

Notes:

This is the time to be creative and use whatever mini cookie cutters you’d like. Wouldn’t these be cute with a red stocking, yellow angel, blue snowman, etc?

Slice & Bake Spiral Cookies

Recipe 1 Makes 12 x 3-inch round cookies Ingredients:

Food Coloring

Sprinkles

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients

2. Divide dough in half.

3. Dye each half a different color.

4. Roll each between parchment paper to ¼-inch.

5. Layer the doughs and then roll up to form a spiral.

6. Roll the cookie log in sprinkles.

7. Slice and bake. (REMEMBER - NO CHILLING REQUIRED!)

Notes:

We went for a “Who-ville” type cookie (bright teal and purple with a largesnowflake sprinkle in the center). A traditional red and green swirl rolled inChristmas sprinkles would look beautiful on any holiday cookie plate, too.

Candy Cane Cookies

Recipe 2 Makes 6 x 5-inch candy cane cookies. Extra Ingredients:

Red Food Coloring

Granulated Sugar

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients.

2. Divide dough in half.

3. Dye one half of the dough red.

4. Pinch off a quarter-sized piece of each color.

5. Roll each into a rope.

6. Roll lightly together

7. Slowly twist them to make the cookie look like a candy cane.

8. Bake.

9. While still warm, sprinkle sugar over the top of each.

Cut-out Cookies with Eggnog IcingRecipe 2 Makes 12 x 4-inch cookies Extra Ingredients:

Food Coloring

Sprinkles

EGGNOG ICING RECIPE

¼ cup powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoons eggnog (or milk, cream, etc)

food coloring

Steps:

1. Mix icing ingredients above and whisk until smooth.

2. Take bowl of core ingredients.

3. Roll between parchment paper to ¼-inch.

4. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into shapes.

5. Bake.

6. **Let cool completely before icing.

Notes:

Dye your dough.

Dye your icing (although it’s really a lovely cream-colored icing all on its own).

Decorate to your heart’s content.

These are my favorites! They just scream, “Christmas!”

Iced Thumbprint CookiesRecipe 2 Makes 12 x 2-inch round cookies Extra Ingredients:

Sprinkles

ICING RECIPE

¼ cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons corn syrup

¼ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

a dash of milk

food coloring

Steps:

1. Mix icing ingredients above and whisk until smooth.

2. Take bowl of core ingredients.

3. Roll into balls.

4. Roll in sprinkles.

5. Use thumb to make an indentation in the center of each.

6. Bake.

7. While still warm, press thumb in again to reinforce the indentation.

8. When cooled, fill the thumbprint with icing.

Notes:

Change your sprinkles.

Change your food coloring.

For chocolate lovers, try adding 1 tablespoon of baking cocoa to the dough, rollin chopped nuts or chocolate jimmies then fill with caramel sauce or meltedchocolate. YUMMO!

Grinch CookiesRecipe 2 Makes 4 x 5-inch round cookies. Extra Ingredients:

Green Food Coloring

Red Heart Sprinkles

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients.

2. Dye the dough green.

3. Roll into balls then flatten.

4. Bake.

5. While still warm, press 1 red heart sprinkle in center of cookie.

Spritz CookiesRecipe 2 Makes 12 x 2-inch spritz cookies Extra Ingredients:

Food Coloring

Sprinkles

Colored Sugars

Steps:

1. Take bowl of core ingredients.

2. Dye the dough with food coloring.

3. Use Spritz Cookie Press.

4. Bake.

5. While still warm, use sprinkles or colored sugars to decorate.

Notes:

More “Who-ville” for us. We chose orange spritz flowers. So cute!

Change the food coloring.

Change the cookie design.

Classic Christmas cookie!

Easy-Breezy-Lemon-SqueezyAldi Shopping List(pretty much everything is in the first aisle) - You’re welcome!Quantity Product Price Aisle

1 Mini Peanut Butter Cups $2.69 1

1 Chocolate Covered Pretzels $1.69 1

1 M&Ms $2.68 1

1 Sugar - Granulated $1.59 1

1 Shortening $2.89 1

1 Powdered Sugar $1.29($1.09 on sale) 1

1 Vanilla Extract $1.99 1

1 Corn Syrup $2.89 1

1 Flour $1.19 1

1 Salt $0.39 1

1 Baking Powder $0.99 1

1 Baking Cocoa $2.19 1

1 While Chocolate

$2.69 - almondbarkor$1.49 chips

1

1 Mini Chocolate Chips $1.49 1

1 Sprinklesmulti 6-in-1 =$2.99individual = $1.39

1-seasonal

1 Colored Sugars 1 -seasonal

1 Food Coloring 1 -seasonal

1 Almond Extract $1.99 1 -seasonal

1 Butter - Unsalted $2.69 dairy

1 Eggs $2.59 dairy

1 Hershey Candy Cane PeppermintKisses $2.85 last -

seasonal

Mambo candy (you’ll only need

1 the orange) $0.69 checkout

I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the “Christmas Cookie Craze” as much as Ienjoyed making it. Creating these recipes and process has saved me somuch time in the kitchen and I know it will help you as well. Have a veryblessed Christmas!