A Catered Christmas Cookie Exchange (A Mystery With Recipes) (24 page)

Recipes
The following recipes are fun to both make and eat.

This recipe is from Betsy Scheu, who told me she used to make these with her goddaughter at Christmas. When you look at the recipe you’ll see why kids would love these at any time of the year.

1 jar maraschino cherries with stems
1 package Hershey’s chocolate kisses
1 package slivered almonds
Same number of chocolate kisses as cherries
1 small tube white cake-decorating icing
1 small tube red cake-decorating icing

Unwrap the kisses and set them aside. Remove the cherries from their juice, rinse, and set them aside.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a glass bowl over a pan of hot water; when melted, take off heat. Dip 4 to 6 cherries in chocolate until they are completely coated except for their stems. Set them on wax paper with the stems positioned horizontally.

Attach a chocolate kiss to the side of the cherry that’s opposite the “tail.” (The chocolate kiss is the head, the cherry is the body, and the stem is the tail.) Place two slivered almond “ears” between the kiss and the cherry. Continue to dip cherries (body) and attach kisses (heads) and almonds (ears) until you’ve used all the cherries.

Place two small dots of white icing on the kisses where the mouse’s eyes would be. Place a small dot of red icing on the end of the chocolate kiss for the nose, and add a red dot on top of each eyeball. Put the mice aside to let the chocolate harden, or place them in the refrigerator if time is short.

This recipe and the one for Almond Crescents, below, come from Sheryl Madlin. This one is another fun project to do with a child around holiday time.

1 cup cornstarch
2 cups baking soda
1½ cups water

Put the ingredients in a pot, stir until smooth, cover the pot, and cook until thick, so that the mixture looks like dry mashed potatoes. Take the pot off the heat, roll the dough out onto a surface, and cover with a cloth until cool. Use cookie cutters to stamp out shapes. Bake at 250 degrees until hard. Decorate.

These are your classic Christmas cookie.

1½ cups soft butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup ground almonds
1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Confectioners’ sugar

Cream butter. Slowly add sugar, beating well until light and fluffy. Add nuts, flour, salt, and extract until dough forms. Break off pieces of dough and roll into crescent shapes. Bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and dredge in confectioners’ sugar.

The following recipes are from Carmel Ruffo, an excellent and prolific baker. Like my grandmother, she cooks by eye, taste, and smell. But luckily for us, unlike my grandmother, she also writes things down.

1 cup shortening
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
cup buttermilk
cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1
cups broken pecans
2 cups candied cherries, halved
2 cups dates, cut into very small pieces
Pecan halves

Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs. Stir in buttermilk. Blend together all dry ingredients. Add to wet ones. Stir in pecans, cherries, and dates. Chill dough for at least an hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Place a pecan half on top of each cookie. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 8 dozen cookies.

8 cups flour
2 cups sugar
½ cup cocoa
1½ cup shortening
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1½ tsp cloves
3 shots whiskey
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups milk

1½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2½ tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
2½ tbsp unsweetened brewed coffee
½ tbsp salt

To prepare the glaze, combine sugar, butter, cocoa, coffee, and salt; stir until well blended. Add a little more hot coffee or hot water to get the desired consistency.

For the cookies, mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in milk, whiskey, and vanilla and mix with your hands into a giant ball. Wrap dough in wax paper and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour. Remove dough, and roll with hands into 1½-inch balls. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Dip cookies in glaze immediately after removing from the oven. Let cookies stand on a rack until cool. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

6 cups flour
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1½ tsp vanilla

1 lb dates
1 lb figs
1 lb raisins
1 cup white wine

Simmer the filling ingredients together for 10 minutes and put aside to cool.

To make the dough, combine all the dry ingredients, cut in shortening, then add eggs, followed by other ingredients. Form dough into a ball, cover with wax paper, and refrigerate for an hour.

When dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle and cut it into three even strips. Put a line of filling down the center of each strip and pinch the cut ends of the dough together to hold in the filling. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove and cut strips into 1-inch slices.

2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup soft butter
½ cup whipping cream
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond extract
½ tsp salt
1 egg, separated
1¾ cups confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp almond extract
½ cup chopped almonds
½ cup chopped red and green cherries

Mix together flour, granulated sugar, butter, whipping cream, baking powder, 1 teaspoon almond extract, salt, and egg yolk. Work well with hands to blend. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or more. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into an 8-by-6-inch rectangle on a floured board. Square off corners. Place on greased cookie sheet.

Beat egg white until foamy. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Beat until stiff and glossy; spread onto rectangles. Sprinkle nuts and cherries on top. Cut into 1-by-1-inch rectangles. Bake for 10 minutes. Cut again.

Longely is an imaginary community, as are all its inhabitants. Any resemblance to people either living or dead is pure coincidence.

KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

Kensington Publishing Corp.
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Copyright © 2013 by Isis Crawford

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013940651

ISBN: 978-0-7582-7489-2

eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-9157-8
eISBN-10: 0-7582-9157-4

First Kensington Electronic Edition: November 2013