Scribbles & Munch

      I spent my weekend eating out with friends and family, and making holiday cookies in between.  In other words, for a couple days I was briefly allowed to walk the hallowed halls of Paradise.  The only thing missing was my cat, who was staying with a friend.  Add in a demanding ball of super-fuzz and my life would have been complete.

Once you pet that soft, fuzzy chin and get an answering purr, you are hooked.

      Anyways, I'm not posting any of the cookie recipes because none of them are my own, but I'll link to some of them online.  My family has a number of traditional cookies that we make sometime between the end of Thanksgiving and December 20th, about which time we declare that if another sweet enters the household we will all outgrow our wardrobes.  This is divided into two lists.

Magic Bars

      Also known as "Seven Layer Bars," this timeless goodie first entered my Grandma's recipe box from the inside of the label on the "Eagle Brand" Sweetened Condensed Milk.  They're the easiest by far, and once I got over my dislike of coconut they became one of my favorites, too.  Everyone in the family makes them, each with their own preferences of order of toppings (I like nuts, coconut, then chocolate, so the melted chocolate helps to hold down the rest of the ingredients), and variety of chocolate chips (although semi-sweet is traditional, I like to use milk chocolate for the holidays because it so rarely makes an appearance in my other baking).

Jewel Cookies

      I've seen other recipes call these "Thumbprint Cookies," and even "Crater Cookies."  The latter gets used a lot in Seattle especially, where I think some people like to associate the indented pastry with Mt. Saint Helens in some bizarre way.  Anyway, the pastry has a lovely warm color from the golden brown sugar, then is rolled in chopped nuts, baked, indented, and then baked a little more.  Then the dent is filled with a dollop of jelly.  My family likes to use current jelly because of it's tang and ruby red color.  Then it really does look like a jewel set in bronze, and it's worth admiring for a moment before it disappears into one's mouth.  Another personal preference is how fine to chop the nuts.  I've seen versions that were seriously chunky, ranging to a fine nut dust covering the cookie.  We usually go for just on the chunky side of finely chopped--we like them to have some crunch!

Pecan Tassies

      These are essentially tiny pecan pies, about an inch high and 1 & 1/4 inch wide at the top.  The crust is made with cream cheese (that's why they're so flaky and amazing) and then molded into a miniature cupcake pan.  In many ways these are the fussiest Christmas cookie we make: the dough must be cut together like regular pie crust, then chilled, then divided into 24 equal pieces, then pressed into the tin.  Then the filling is assembled and spooned into each cup, and believe me--you HAVE to wipe up any spills on the edge of the pan, or they will burn in the oven!  Finally, getting the darn things out without making them crumble is a pain.  I've seen plenty of variations on this recipe suggesting "fool proof" techniques for every stage.  I've tried them all, and the only thing that helps me is keeping my hands cold in the pastry stages (not hard in winter).
      One final word on these, and that word is "tassy:" a tart is a large, pie-like pastry that is cut into wedges and served; a "tartlet" is a smaller tart - typically about 2 to 3 inches in diameter - served as an individual dessert; a "tassy" is a tiny, super-miniature tart, served as a cookie.  Now you know.


      After these three standards have been made, depending on how many guests we're going to have (and how hungry we feel) we may make any of the following:
Nanimo Bars
Chocolate Cherry Chiparoons (my personal favorite)
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Gingerbread Biscotti
Brandy Balls (we also make an alternative with rum, which we affectionately call "rum squishes")

      If you have a holiday favorite, I'd like to hear about it.  It's not holiday time until you have too many cookies on your plate!