'Tis the season ~ and as always it feels like it sneaked up way too fast, at least for my taste! I was actually in complete holiday denial until last week, when a big West Coast storm front brought the perfect excuse for cozy, homebound days ~ and the sudden urge to get a tree, deck the halls and bake some holiday cookies, so here's a sneak peek at what I made:
classic Bavarian Butter Cookies {my great grandmother's recipe}, citrusy Orange Chocolate Stars and Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies. None of these recipes are too time consuming or require anything beyond baking pantry staples, so I am sharing two of them below ~ HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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ORANGE CHOCOLATE STARS
the ingredients.
250g {2 cups} flour
250g {2 cups} flour
50g {½ cup} cocoa powder
100g {⅞ cup} powdered sugar
3 teaspoons orange zest, finely chopped
a pinch of salt
200g {⅞ cup} butter
1 egg
150g {½ cup} orange marmalade
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, orange zest and a pinch of salt .
Add butter and egg and beat together, first with an electric mixer, than knead some more by hand.
Divide dough into two disks, wrap and chill until firm, for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 180C {360F}, with rack in upper and lower thirds. Line two backing sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface roll out dough disk until very thin, cut out shapes with large star cookie cutters and place on lined backing sheet. Using the back of a piping nozzle, cut out a small round shape in the middle of exactly half the star shapes {or get creative with nozzle sizes and cut out various round shapes}.
Bake for 8 to 9 minutes and let the cookies cool on the backing sheets.
Strain orange marmalade through a fine sieve and fill into piping bag.
Pipe some orange marmalade onto the full star cookies.
Dust the "cover cookies" first with powdered sugar, than with a little cocoa powder and press onto marmalade stars.
{adapted from a recipe on Essen & Trinken}
{adapted from a recipe on Essen & Trinken}
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BAVARIAN BUTTER COOKIES
the ingredients.
500gr {4 ½ cups} flour
250gr {1 cup} clarified butter
250gr {1 ⅓ cup} sugar
2 eggs
zest of ½ lemon
2-3 tablespoons rum {54% proof}*
pinch of salt
Beat together clarified butter, sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy.
Add lemon zest, rum and flour, knead well and form into flat disc.
Cover and let rest in a cool place overnight.
The next day, roll out the dough on lightly floured surface.
OPreheat oven to 210C {410F} and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Use your favorite cookie cutters and bake cookies for 8 to 12 minutes, until the edges are starting to turn golden.
*This is my great grandmother's recipe, from the days before baking powder, so high proof alcohol was commonly used as a leavening agent. And since I needed a good rum for the dough, I decided to soak a handful of raisins overnight and added those plumped raisins to some of the cookies. Soooo good!
*This is my great grandmother's recipe, from the days before baking powder, so high proof alcohol was commonly used as a leavening agent. And since I needed a good rum for the dough, I decided to soak a handful of raisins overnight and added those plumped raisins to some of the cookies. Soooo good!
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And for those CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT COOKIES {Gourmet Magazine circa 2008},
the recipe lives on here
