Christmas Countdown: Dec 14 - Christmas Cookies

Christmas is not complete with lots of baking - and cookies are always involved since they are great to have around for family and to give to friends and neighbors, etc. I am not a huge cookie fan (would much rather waste my calories on chocolate/fudge - see previous post), but I enjoy baking and try to go to at least one cookie exchange each Christmas season to share in the joy of others baking as well. This past weekend I was able to go to a fun Cookie Exchange. I think that at Christmastime the cookies should not just be chocolate chip or something, but should be holiday themed or traditional family recipes, etc to add meaning to the type of cookies...but dare I read into that too much. Well, since I wanted to try to make something holidayish and had to make 100 cookies (6 for exchange, 3 for church event), I went with an easy recipe that can make a lot of cookies - Holiday Snowballs (also called Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies) and since they evoke the look of snow I thought my choice was safe. So here is my Snowball recipe and a bonus Thumbprint recipe - a family favorite from my grandma!

SNOWBALL COOKIES (see photo)

1 lb. butter, softened
3/4 c. confectioners' sugar
2 c. finely chopped walnuts (can also use pecans or almonds)
1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract (or can just use 2 tsp vanilla total)
4 c. flour
(Additional confectioners' sugar – about 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degree oven.

Blend butter and confectioners' sugar with mixer. Mix in vanilla. Then mix in flour slowly with mixer. Dough will be stiff. Stir in chopped nuts with spoon or spatula.. Mix well. Roll into 1 inch balls. Bake 15-20 minutes. When still warm, but mostly cooled, roll in confectioners' sugar. MMMM...makes 6-7 dozen depending on size of cookies.

Cooking Tips
*You may need to refrigerate the dough for a little while to get it firm enough to roll into balls.
**These cookies can easily be made more Christmasy vs snowball by adding red and green granulated sugar to the powdered sugar.

Grandma (Evelyn) Cera's Thumbprint Cookies

(Do read recipe thoroughly first)

1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg, separated

1/2 teasp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 teasp. salt (optional..usually there is enough salt in the butter)

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Jam or candied cherries (Strawberry jam (red for christmas)and apricot pineapple jam (Makes cookies look like golden jewels) are best)

350 degree oven

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg yolk and vanilla. Add dry ingredients.

Roll into balls (teaspoon size). Beat egg white until frothy in small bowl. Dip ball in egg white, roll in nuts. Place cookie balls 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Press thumb gently into middle of each cookie before baking.

Bake 10-12 min. or until set.

Cool, fill with jam (use the tip of a teaspoon to spoon your jam into indentation) or candied cherries. (sometimes, you have to make the indentation with your thumb a little deeper after they are out of oven...because they puff up a bit and lose their indentatation somewhat.) These cookies, with 2 dif colored centers look so good on a plate. If you use candied cherries, just one or one half in the center of the cookie is fine.

The nuts on the outside and fruit-y center give good contrast to the tender melt in your mouth body of the cookie.