Christmas Cookies

My computer has been broken for awhile now, which means my baking has been on full speed ahead. As it SLOWLY gets cold in Alabama, my desire for holiday baked goods begins to build. Last Friday I made sugar cookies, which began the snowball effect. Then on the same day, gingerbread cookies, hot cocoa cookies, and Pizzelles were all made while Christmas music was blaring and the fire roaring. Next thing I knew, I had about a hundred and fifty cookies. What the heck do I do with a hundred and fifty cookies!


 I was cookied-out. I was so caught up in cookie world that in my obliviousness I forgot to take pictures of the final results. But let me assure you, they were delicious.  Noble was there with me to the finish helping me cut-out, bake, and decorate. Thank goodness. Then with flour hand prints on my pants and royal icing on every inch of the kitchen, the cookies were completed!  Although the holiday spirit I had at the beginning of my baking day was almost depleted to nothing after the cookies were finished, the holiday spirit Christmas cookies bring to people make me want to bake 24/7. I love sharing baked goods, and baking these Christmas cookies was only the beginning to many more holiday treats.


For the sake of the amount of cookies made, I am only including links to pages.


All of these cookies required the dough to be refrigerated for at least an hour before baking, so be prepared to wait before baking them. 


Sugar Cookies:
From Glorious Treats
 I made the cookies pretty thin because I wanted them to to be more crispy. The flavor turned out great. Roll the dough out less if you want them to be softer.

Putting parchment or wax paper over the dough before rolling helps the dough not stick to the rolling pin. A tip I wish I knew a longggg time ago. 

Gingerbread Men:
From McCormick 
I was out of Nutmeg, but these still turned out tasty. The flavor was spot on, and they stayed moist and chewy. I'm into gingerbread men.

 Gingerbread family.

You can tell Noble and I were in the kitchen a little too long with this kind of gingerbread man coming out of the oven. He was supposed to have hair... 

Royal Icing:
From: Martha Stewart 
I used vanilla instead of lemon. I am not experienced in the royal icing area, but I though this turned out well. The icing hardened a little more than I had anticipated. To make it thinner,  I added cold water until I got the right consistency.


Hot Cocoa Cookies:
From: Pip & Ebby
I can't say enough about these. Warm out of the oven with melted chocolate and marshmallow on top, these cookies were the highlight of my day. I rolled them in a little flour before rolling them into balls. It helped with the stickiness. They were beautiful too. These would be a great treat to share with friends.

Pizzelles:
From: Post-gazette (we made Mary Bruno's Pizzelles)
Christmas wouldn't be the same without these cookies. My mom has been whipping these up every year since I was little. We substitute the anise extract with almond extract. I always get excited when my mom brings out the Pizzelle iron because these little cookies have so much flavor!

 They look like snowflakes! That is, if we in Alabama actually knew what snowflakes looked like..

-Sarah-

S'mores Pizza

There are two reasons why I love Girl Scouts: 1. Girl Scout cookies & 2.Their invention of S'mores.(No, it's not a coincidence that the two things I love about Girl Scouts are their sweets). The one thing I might change about S'mores though is their name. Instead of the name coming from "some more," I would have named the graham cracker concoction closer to the lines of "can-I-eat-these-for-every-meal." And if calories were not a problem, I would gladly eat S'mores for every meal. One of the greatest things about the graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallow treat is that it is versatile. You can make a S'mores pie that has a graham cracker crust, chocolate filling, and a marshmallow topping one day and then a an original S'mores the next day. Practically any dessert can be transformed into a S'mores dessert just by substituting the original recipe's ingredients with the ingredients that make up a S'more. Or if your like me, any food can be made into a S'mores.(I'm that obsessed with this dessert) A S'more's possibilities are endless! I took advantage of the versatile S'mores dessert when I made a S'mores pizza for family dessert. The end result was scrumptious, which was not surprising seeing as though it was S'mores.


Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup Coarsely Crumbled Graham Crackers
- 2 tbsp. Light Brown Sugar
- 2 tbsp. Granulated Sugar
- 1 tbsp. Unsalted Butter, softened
- 1/4 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
- Pinch of salt
- All-purpose flour, for dusting
- 1 Roll of Sugar Cookie Dough
- 1 cup Mini Marshmallows
- 1 Cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips


Directions:
1. In a food processor, combine the crumbled graham crackers with the brown and granulated sugars and the butter, vanilla and salt. 
Process the mixture to fine crumbs.
                                 

2. Form the cookie dough into a ball and place in a 12-inch round 
pan. Roll out the cookie dough. 
3.Place the dough in the oven at 350 and bake for about 7 minutes, or until it starts to brown.
4. Remove cookie dough from oven and sprinkle with graham cracker mixture, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Adding or taking away toppings based on your wants.                      
5. Return the pizza to the oven and bake for 2 minutes. Then transfer (of not already on) pizza to top shelf and set the oven on broil. Bake until marshmallows are browned. 
6. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve right away. 

-Sarah-