My Word with Douglas E. Welch

A few pictures from our annual Christmas Cookie Party…

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* Get more recipes in my free cookbook, Sharing Christmas with Friends on Bakespace.com or via their Cookbook Cafe iPad app.

I took this afternoon to finish up two, final items for our big cookie party. Today was a candy day. This actually made a lot easier as it takes much less time to assemble candies than it does to bake cookies.

Cornflake Christmas Holly

These were called Christmas Wreaths in the original recipe (which has since gone offline), but I prefer to make them as Christmas Holly, as it is a lot less work in the final, forming step.

Cornflake Christmas Holly

Ingredients

• 24-36 paper cupcake cups
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 cups marshmallows (miniatures melt more easily)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons liquid green food coloring (this seems like a lot, but it gives a nice dark color)
• I tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups cornflakes
• Cinnamon red-hot candies

Directions

• Prepare cupcake cups on cookie sheet by separating and laying them out individually
• Melt butter and marshmallows slowly in large pan
• Once melted, remove from heat and add vanilla and food coloring
• Stir to distribute color
• Add Cornflakes
• Mix thoroughly until all cornflakes are covered
• Working quickly, as mixture will start to set, spoon on by heaping teaspoon into prepared cupcake cups
• As quickly as possible, add 3 cinnamon red-hot candies to each cup (adds look of holly berries)
• Store in air-tight container

Peppermint Reindeer Feed

I came across the simple recipe on Pinterest.com and wanted to add it as something new this year. It takes minutes to make yet offers up a lot in flavor, crunch and presentation.

Recipe: Peppermint Reindeer Feed

The rest of my day has been spent cleaning (Ok, really just re-arranging) my desk and putting away all my supplies and equipment from the last week. Our wonderful cleaner is coming tomorrow do make things look spic and span for the party, so I need to have all my stuff out of the way. I am always amazed at what she can accomplish in a few hours.

On the day of the party I will prepare my Super Secret Christmas Chili in the morning, so it has time to slowly cook and meld all day and also prepare the Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake with Limoncello whipped cream mentioned earlier. This has to be assembled the day of the party of it can get too soggy. After that, I usually end up sitting a lot during the party and talking. A perfect end to another great cookie baking season!

* Get more recipes in my free cookbook, Sharing Christmas with Friends on Bakespace.com or via their Cookbook Cafe iPad app.

Coming down to the wire on this year’s cookie baking extravaganza. I baked 3 more varieties today and really only have 2 candies to make to complete my list. One is required, as it is a guest favorite and the other is something new to try, but very easy to make.

Here is the result of today’s hard work!

Green Gables Lemon Biscuits

This is another one of my wife’s favorites and a recipe that they request I make at other times of the year. It is sweet and lemony and perfect with a nice cuppa in the afternoon. We found this is an Anne of Green Gables cookbook years ago and have made it every year since.

Recipe: Green Gables Lemon Bicuits on Bakespace.com

Cornmeal Wafers

These cornmeal cookies are quite different from most other Christmas cookies as they are not that sweet and have a toothy crunch instead of being soft and flakey. They are great for dunking in hot coffee or tea. I found this recipe, along with several others, in a Sunset Magazine article from around 2001. Luckily, all the recipes are available on the Sunset web site.

Recipe: Cornmeal Wafers from Sunset Magazine

Kiss Cookies

When I was growing uo, a friend’s mother used to make hordes of cookies for Christmas, much as I do now. In fact, I credit her directly for the last 18 years I have had my own cookie party. There house was were I first encountered these cookies and I have loved them ever since. They are a bit hard to store, but their taste more than makes up for that.

Recipe: Kiss Cookies (Peanut Butter Blossoms) from Hershey’s

Peanut butter cookies were the first thing I ever remember baking, They are nearly foolproof. Even kids can make them with little assistance. Since I am not a raisin fan, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip is my favored version. These come out crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle. Almost the perfect cookie.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Cookies from the Joy of Cooking

Recipe: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip from the Joy of Cooking

The weekends are always my most productive baking time and today was no exception. In fact, I might even bake some more this evening after dinner, just to get a little further ahead.

Strawberry Milk Chipsters

I first discovered these via the Picky Palate blog. The inclusion of Strawberry Quik in these cookies caught my eye immediately. Quik is one of those special taste memories from my childhood and the thought of a cookie that included it — along with one of my other favorites, white chocolate — I couldn’t resist. Like most cookies, these are really easy to throw together at the last minute. I am wondering what would happen if I used Chocolate Quik, or maybe Ovaltine instead of the Strawberry Quik. I love malted milk flavorings, too, so I might be on to something there.

Recipe: Strawberry Milk Chipsters

Angel Bars

This bar recipe is oozy-gooey-rich-and-chewy and one of my guests favorites. It is basically a pastry crust with a pecan-caramel topping. Baking it gives this great crunchy top and sides, too. The recipe comes straight from the Joy of Cooking cookbook, one of my go-to sources for cookie recipes. This is mainly because this the first cookbook I ever used and also the first one I turned to when I began hosting this annual party 18 years ago. I have both an older, paperback version (which is getting harder and harder to read the older I get) and a larger velobind, version which, unfortunately can’t seem to hold on to its pages, which are always falling out of the binding. I avoided the new hardback, revised edition that came out a few years ago, as they removed some of the recipes I use regularly.

I omit the flaked coconut from the recipe, as it is not my favorite, and I also omit the icing. These are plenty sweet without adding more sugar on the top.

Recipe: Angel Slices from the Joy of Cooking

Pecan Puffs from the Joy of Cooking

These are my wife’s favorite cookies out of everything I make, so a double batch is a must. These are another really easy cookie to make although they take much longer to bake than others — 30 minutes/batch. After that, though, it is only a quick roll in powdered sugar and you are done.

Recipe: Pecan Puffs from the Joy of Cooking

…oatmeal raisin cookies and Italian Pizzelles!

That’s right, more cookies!!!!

Tonight’s cookies had to be baked in and around client calls that always seemed to come at the moment when they wee put on the iron or in the oven. Thankfully, Rosanne was around to keep an eye on things and finish up the baking duties.

Oatmeal-Raisin

These are one of Rosanne’s favorite cookies, but I prefer oatmeal chocolate chip, with the addition of comes spices – cinnamon, nutmeg and clove — to the mix. This recipe comes from the Joy of Cooking cookbook and you can find the recipe at the link below.

Recipe: Joy of Cooking Oatmeal Cookies

Pizzelles

I first encountered these waffle-like cookies in the CARE packages Rosanne’s aunt would send to her in college. Those more traditional ones were anise flavored, but I prefer them plain — flavored just with vanilla. These require a special appliance to make. it is basically a special purpose waffle iron that puts the traditional design on the cookies as they cook. I haven’t really experimented much with what other batters or dough you might be able to put on the grill. It is a pretty small area, unlike a traditional waffle maker, so I am not sure what would fit and still cook through.

There is even a Wikipedia page for Pizzelles

This year I moved away from the recipe that came with iron and instead looked up one on the recipe. Previous attempts have come out a little too thick for me and a little too soft. These, though, came out nearly perfect. They were a bit thicker than I wanted, but they were perfectly crispy. Laying each pizzelle out on a cooling rack for a while seems to help them stay crisp. If you stack them up warm, the remaining steam tends to remove crispness. The next time I make these I am going to use a little bit less baking powder, too. You want them to puff a bit, but not so much it effects the overall thickness and crispness.

Recipe: Pizzelles

Tomorrow will be a big baking day. My wife and son will be out of the house early to do an annual charity project they work on and I don’t have anything else planned. I will probably complete most of the cookie list tomorrow, leaving a few more delicate items until just before the party.

…Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats!

Since I make so many cookies and other treats at this time of year, I have developed a few ways of making it easier on myself. One way is to make one item that is baked and another that is made on the stovetop. I can often combine the two tasks and work on one while the other one is cooking.

Tonight’s treats starts with this traditional Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie. Like many of the recipes I use, this one comes right off the back of the bag the chips come in. I have other recipes for chocolate chip cookies that I use for specific purposes, like big and little chocolate chip tarts, but for the party I always like to make the traditional ones.

Recipe: Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies

Next on the agenda was a new take on an old favorite. I must be honest and admit that I don’t like Rice Krispy Treats that much myself, but I do know folks that love them. So, I found a recipe that adds a couple of things to raise them to a new level — Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats.

I saw this recipe over at the Gimme Some Oven blog and thought I would give them a try. The trick is, as the marshmallows are melting, you mix about a 1/3 cup of out-of-the-box” cake mix. I only had white cake mix on hand, so I substituted that for the yellow cake mix called for in the recipe. You also add some decorative (and tasty) sprinkles in the mix and then add some more on top. My quick “quality assurance” taste tests showed them to be better than the usual variety, but I won’t truly know until I have a complete square once they are cooled. (LAUGH)

Recipe: Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats

More cookies and candies are coming! I still have about 13 more varieties to make before December 10th.

Liam John (@editorLiam) got this nice shot of me during the Techmunch Food Blogger conference.