Every year when we have our Annual Gingerbread House Party, I have to make these cookies.  They are the perfect Gingerbread Cookie.  That are soft and spicy and delicious.  They don't even need frosting!

Gingerbread Cookies by Our Best Bites
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. molasses
2 egg yolks
4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. nutmeg

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and egg yolk. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Chill for at least an hour. It’s a fairly sticky dough so you might need to chill it a little longer.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough to 1/4″ thick and cut with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2″ apart on a baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. If you bake them on the short end they will stay soft and chewy and if you bake them on the longer end they will be nice and crispy. They’re great either way!
3. Allow to cool about 5 minutes on pan and then transfer to wire rack and cool completely. Once they’re cooled you can decorate your heart out.

 
 
There is a beloved recipe I've been cooking for over a decade called Cranberry Nut Bread.  I always have it out for Thanksgiving breakfast, and sometimes for Christmas morning.

I have a secret.  All these years I've led you all to believe that I was making a perfect brunch food called "Cranberry Nut Bread."  Here's the truth: It's called "Cranberry Nut Dessert" and the original recipe recommends you serve it with ice cream or whipped cream.

Because I love you all, here is the recipe so you can make it.  Enjoy!  I love to double or triple it.  And I LOVE to eat it for breakfast.

Cranberry Nut "Bread" by Taste of Home
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Whipped cream or ice cream, optional

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add cranberries and nuts; toss to coat. Stir in the butter, eggs and extract (mixture will be very thick if using frozen berries). Spread into a greased 9-in. pie plate.
2. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

When the weather starts to cool down, I get a craving.  It's wassail time!  It's a tradition in our family to have wassail at Thanksgiving, Christmas and at our annual Gingerbread House party.

I have tried using all kinds of cider and juice.  I've used expensive apple cider and cheap apple juice.  Happily it does not matter what kind you use.  So I usually go cheap and get whatever apple juice is the most affordable.

Save the 3 Q. bottle the juice comes in, it's great for leftovers.  I like to use cheesecloth and a funnel to filter out the excess spices and then store the wassail in the fridge.  I find that if I don't filter it, the leftovers get a bitter taste.  When I filter it and heat it up by the cup, it tastes just like it does on the first day.

Wassail
3 Q. apple juice, any brand
10 oz. cranberry juice
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. allspice
1-2 cinnamon sticks
1 orange or clementine, peeled
6-7 whole cloves

1. Peel or cut off orange peel and stud with cloves. Add all ingredients to a crock pot.  Heat on high for 1 hour and low for up to 5 hours. Serve after one hour.
2. Filter remaining wassail through a funnel with cheesecloth into original 3 Q. juice bottle.  Reheat one cup at a time.

When my friend asked me to teach her how to bake great cookies, I knew my "Mom's Sugar Cookies" was the recipe to use.  If you know how to make a great sugar cookie you are set for any holiday.

My friend was having trouble with cookies.  She says they always came out yucky.  After our day together baking cookies, she discovered that her cookies didn't work because she wasn't mixing the ingredients in the right way, in the right order.  She was adding all the ingredients to a bowl and mixing.  Cookies don't work that way!  If you use this recipe and follow all the steps, you'll have amazing cookies. 

First, make sure your butter is at room temperature.  If not, cut it into tablespoon sized segments, put it on a plat and microwave for 10 seconds.  It should feel as soft as play dough.  Then add your butter to a mixer and mix just to make sure it's nice and smooth.  Add the sugar and cream together.  It should look like beach sand when well mixed.

Then add the eggs one at a time.  It will look like soupy beach sand.  Add the vanilla.

Then add the flour, salt and baking powder.  Technically you're supposed to mix all three dry ingredients together and then add to the mixture.  I find that I can add a little of each until all three are added to save time and dirty one less bowl.

Divide the dough into three or four parts.  Pour onto plastic wrap and wrap it up, then smash it flat into a disk shape.  Let chill for at least an hour, or for a couple days if you want to make the dough in advance.

Roll out the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut into shapes.  Bake at 400 degrees for 6-10 minutes, depending on how hot your oven cooks, how big your shape is, and how thick your cookie is.  Your cookie is done baking when the edges are barely set and the center is still doughy.  The cookies will be all white with no browning at all.

Let cook for 1-2 minutes and then move to a cooling sheet.  They will be ready to decorate as soon as they are cool, usually about 5 minutes later.

To make the glaze, just add all the components to a mixing bowl and mix.  If it's too thick, add milk.  If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar.  I like to drizzle it on the cookies and then add sprinkles.  It will set in a hour or two.  Then you can move them to a plate and cover.

Last year I made too many sugar cookies.  I put them in the freezer where they sat all year long.  When Liz needed to take a treat to school we pulled them out at 8:00am, decorated with a can of frosting and sprinkles, and sent her off to school at 8:30am.  So if you want to plan ahead, these freeze well!

Donna's Sugar Cookies and Glaze
Makes 9-10 dozen 1-1/2 inch scalloped circle cookies
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Glaze
4 c. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. + 2 tsp. light corn syrup
2 tbsp. + 2 tsp. milk (more or less to get the consistency right)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract

1. Cream butter and sugar together.
2. Add eggs one at a time, mix well.  Add vanilla.
3. Add flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix well.
4. Divide into 3 or 4 parts.  Pour onto a sheet of plastic wrap, shape into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap.  Chill for one hour or for several days.
5.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Roll out cookie dough to 1/4 inch.  Cut into shapes and bake for 6-10 minutes, until the edges are barely set and center is still doughy.
6. Let cool for 1-2 minutes on baking sheet and then move to a cooling rack.  Let cool for 5 minutes and then glaze.

To make glaze, add all components in a mixing bowl.  If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar.  If it's too thick, add more milk.  I often add more milk until the glaze drizzles off a spoon.

 


This recipe saved me!  I'm in the Primary Presidency and we needed to think of a Christmas gift for 35 primary workers.  We decided to make 5 dozen cookies each, then we could bag them up and deliver them to each Primary Worker.  Five dozen cookies is no big deal.  One batch of chocolate chip cookies will make 5 dozen cookies.

But then my friend in the Primary Presidency asked if I could teach her how to bake cookies since she has trouble making great cookies.  So then I realized I had to figure out how to make make 10 dozen cookies within days of Christmas and crazy holiday activities.  That's a lot!  Then I found this recipe...

Rolo Pretzel Turtles by Steamy Kitchen
Preheat your oven to 350

1. Upwrap your Rolos. Place pretzels on baking sheet. Top with a Rolo.

2. Bake in oven for 3-5 minutes, until the chocolate just begins to melt. The Rolo should be soft but not completely melted.

3. Remove from oven, place on cooling rack and immediately squish the chocolate with a nut. Watch the caramel oooze out.

Thanks, Steamy Kitchen!  In addition to making sugar cookies from scratch, my friend and I easily made 100 of these and they were a huge hit at church!  I gave a bag of a half a dozen to a friend and she ate them all in 5 minutes.  AND she's passionate about healthy, organic food.  If she can make an exception for Rolo Pretzel Turtles, then these are a hit!

I bought a bag of pretzels for $3 and two bags of rolos at $2.66 each.  With an economy sized bag of pecans in my freezer ready to use it was a very affordable treat.