Frosted Crescents

We are ready for Christmas. The tree is up, and the kids had lots of fun putting up the decorations, of course there were the usual arguments over what ornament goes where.... And rearranging all the ornaments that Alex placed only at the bottom of the tree ( in all fairness, that's how high he can reach). But in the end everybody was happy and pleased with the end product, and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and some frosted crescents. Every year I bake some holiday cookies for the day the tree goes up. This year were the frosted crescents, soft and melt in your mouth cookies, goes great with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

Ingredients:

1 cup of all-purpose flour( 4 1/2 oz)

1/4 cup finely crushed macadamia nuts (2 1/4 oz)

1/4 cup granulated sugar (2 1/4 oz)

1/2 tsp grated orange zest

1/2 cup unsalted butter chopped (4 1/2 oz)

1 egg yolk

icing sugar, to dust

For my readers that are allergic to nuts. In any baking recipe that calls for nuts, you can substitute with a high in fiber cereal ( ground fine if the recipe calls for ground nuts) or with oats. You will still get the nice crunch but is nut free. Make sure to measure after you ground the cereal or oats, If you like you can even lightly toast the oats or cereal before grounding.

My friend Maria has asked for a substitute, her son like many other kids is allergic to nuts.

Stay safe this Holiday season!

Preheat oven to 325˚F. Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper, set aside.

Sift the flour into a medium bowl and add the sugar,orange zest and butter. Using your fingers rub the butter into the flour, until the mixture reassembles fine crumbs.

 

Add the ground nuts and egg yolk.

Mix until well combined and the mixture forms a soft dough.

Shape leveled teaspoonfuls into small crescents and place into prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until pale golden in colour. While the crescents are still warm, sift icing sugar over them.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate!

Here is our Christmas tree and of course Alex!

Those are my favorite ornaments, the boys made them last year ( alex had help from Cass)

The tree is placed on a small balcony on the second floor overlooking the two story entrance. The boys choose the place two years ago when we moved into the house. They love the fact that when they go to sleep they can still see the light from the Christmas tree.

This post is part of the " It's time to jingle again" hosted by Priyanka Srivastava at Asankhana. You can submit your favorite Christmas post.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

Christmas is almost here, yay! Everywhere you look decorations are up, and a festive atmosphere is  in the air. You can find Santa at every mall, which are swarming with people buying presents.

Therefore the festive baking it has been on my mind lately. I don't start baking festive cookies until december. The first festive cookie this year, is one of Brandon's favorite cookies: the lemon cream cheese cookies with lemon icing. Those cookies are very soft and with a refreshing lemon flavour, the glaze is optional but makes for a more festive look.

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter or hard margarine ( I used soya margarine, my butter was in the freezer :( when i decided to make the cookies)

1 cup of soft brown sugar

 4 oz cream cheese (half of block cut lengthwise )

2 eggs( each of them lightly beaten)

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

 The zest from one lemon.

Lemon glaze

2 cups of icing sugar

4 tbsp of lemon juice

Silver cachous to decorate ( if desired)

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Grease 2 large baking sheets or line with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, cream cheese, butter or margarine.

Until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one by one mixing well after each addition. Sift the flour and baking soda in a different bowl. With the paddle attachment or with a spatula stir in the flour mixture. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets ( about 40 of them) making sure they are well spaced.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes rotating baking pans half way thru the cooking time to ensure uniform baking.

Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for a few minutes before removing to cooling rack.

To make the icing:

Place the icing sugar and lemon juice in a heat proof bowl over a pot with simmering water. Stir until smooth.

 Remove from heat. Keep the bowl over the pot with hot water wile dipping the cookies in the glaze.

Place the cookies on the cooling rack for the glaze to harden.

 You can decorate with some silver cachous for a more festive look. I only decorated a few of them.

Enjoy!

Variation to this cookies. Substitute the lemon juice and lemon zest with orange juice and orange zest for orange cream cheese cookies.

Apple-Oatmeal Cookies

My son Brandon adores oatmeal cookies. I always have the cookie jar filled with oatmeal cookies. From all the recipes I have tried those ones are by far his favorites, Cass for example loves the tofu oatmeal cookies so, I have to alternate the recipes so everybody is happy. Luckily, Alex loves both kinds the apple ones and the tofu ones.

Here are Brandon's apple oatmeal cookies. I used home made apple sauce, but the one bought from the store works just as well.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter or hard margarine
• 2/3 cup apple sauce
• 2 tbsp apple juice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar or raw brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat, set aside.

Place the butter, sugar, apple sauce and apple juice in a food processor.

                            

Blend until smooth and fluffy.

                           

In a small bowl mix the baking soda, vanilla extract and water. Add to the food processor and mix well.

                           

In a different bowl mix together the flour, oats and pinch of salt.

Pour the apple mixture into a large bowl. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the apple mixture.

Drop spoon full of mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, ensuring that they are well spaced.

Bake into the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with a cup of hot chocolate.

Enjoy!

Swirling Nutella Cookies

Nutella! Probably the most popular sweet spread in the world. Nutella got its start in 1963 in Italy produced by the Ferrero company. The mixture of chocolate, hazelnut paste and skim milk is adored by kids everywhere and could be find in over 75 countries around the world.

My boys definitely  are part of that category. Nutella is a constant companion for breakfast from waffles to pancakes or just plain toast. Cookies with nutella spread....... What could be better? 1 recipe yields about 36 cookies.

• 3/4 cup                                    chocolate hazelnut spread ( recommended Nutella) 
• 1/3 cup                                    chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 1/4 cup                                 all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp                                     baking powder
• 1/4 tsp                                     salt
• 1/2 cup                                   butter room temperature 
• 1/2 cup                                    granulated sugar
• 1 large                                    egg yolk 
• 1/4 tsp                                    vanilla extract

Combine the chocolate spread and chopped walnuts in a small bowl.
 Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Add flour mixture . Stir to combine. Shape the dough into a ball.

Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of wax paper to an 8 x 10 inch (20 x 25 cm) rectangle. Trim the edges. Discard top sheet of wax paper.

Spread the chocolate mixture over dough, living an 1/2 inch border at each long edge.

Roll up tightly from the long side, jelly roll-style, using the wax paper as a guide.

Press seam against roll to seal. Wrap with plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour .

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with silicon mats.

Cut the cookies into 1/4 inch slices (6 mm)

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Russian Tea Cakes

Those melt in your mouth cookies can be found under many names. Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cookies, Austrian Kipferin. They have two things in common, they are eggless

and buttery. My boys love them because somehow they associate them with timbits (canadiens know what I'm talking about).

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract (pure)

3/4 cup ground hazelnuts or ground almonds.

1/2 cup icing sugar (for rolling the cookies)

Preheat the oven to 325˚F and position the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.

In a medium mixing bowl sift the flour and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat the sugar, butter and vanilla for about 1 minute until smooth. Add the ground hazelnuts or ground almonds.

Beat on low speed until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until the dough comes together in large clumps.

To make the cookies. Roll a full tablespoon of dough to form a ball of 1 inch round. Place the balls on the prepare baking sheet about 1 inch apart.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the bottom is lightly colored.

Let the cookies to cool in the baking pan for 5 minutes and after that transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

When the cookies are completely cool roll them thru the icing sugar.

Enjoy with a cup of your favorite tea.

Mini Sablés

Pâte sablée it's a delicate dough that is usually used in tarts, like fruit

tarts and custard tarts. Also makes for some delicious melt in your mouth cookies. If you like shortbread cookies then you'll love mini sablés. My boys prefer those to the sprits cookies or any other shortbread cookies.

Ingredients

All purpose flour 1 3/4 cups

Butter cut into small pieces and slightly softened 1 cup

Confectioners sugar (icing sugar) sifted 1 cup

Salt 1/8 tsp

Medium egg yolks 2

Egg for egg wash 1(optional)

Heap the flour on the counter top and make a well( my counter top is not granite so I use a granite cutting board, it is recommended the counter top to be cold). Put in the icing sugar,and salt.

Then add the butter cut up in small pieces.
With your fingertips, mix and cream the icing sugar with the butter and salt. Then add the egg yolks and work them in delicately with your fingertips.
Little by little draw the flour into the center and work delicately until the dough comes together. Then using the palm of your hand, push the dough away from you 3 or 4 times until is smooth.
Roll it into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. If wrapped well it will keep in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

To make the cookies.

After 30 minutes roll out the dough( on a lightly floured surface)Into an oval with the thickness of 3 mm. Using a cookie cutter cut up cookies and place them on a baking sheet.

I used a fluted round cutter and a hart cutter in different sizes. But all you have to do is follow your imagination.
Big and small fluted forms.
"stack up cookies" some with raspberry jam.

Bake in a preheated oven of 350˚F for 10 to 12 minutes . I used egg wash, I like the crust on top that it provides but this is optional. If you like to brush them with egg wash, do so before you put them in the oven.
Bon appétit!