Welcome to the 5th issue of the 2003 season for the Christmas-Cookies.com newsletter. Keep reading for exclusive recipes, baking tips, new cookbooks, and more!

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• Still some shopping left to do? Order now and get it in time for Christmas!
• Cookie Recipes for People on Special Diets
• Recipe: Healthy Feel-Good Cut-Out Christmas Cookies
• Recipe: Gluten-Free Buckeyes

• Recipe: Sugar-Free Apricot Foldovers
• Essential Baking Tools - order soon!
• Little-Known Tips for Successful Holiday Baking
• Newest Christmas Cookie Recipes

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Yes, Christmas is fast approaching. But there's still time to shop online and get your baking tools and Christmas gifts with time to spare. Here's our hand-picked selection of essential tools for cookie making, plus a few recommendations for websites with lots of great gift ideas and fast - and sometimes free - shipping.

1. Pump out a large volume of great looking - and tasty - cookies in just minutes with a quality cookie press. We have two favorites. For eBay lovers we recommend the Wear Ever Super Shooter electric cookie press. This is the best cookie press we've tested! Made in the 70's and still readily available used (not to mention tough as nails!), there are many for sale at eBay right now. If you'd rather buy something brand-new, then we recommend you try the new cordless electric cookie press from VillaWear. On sale now at Chef's Catalog and they're now offering FREE shipping.
2. Gingerbread houses used to be the epitome of difficult and painstaking baking. Not any more! Easily make a charming gingerbread house with this durable, non-stick gingerbread house mold from Cooking.com. Makes a great gift for the baker in your family or the hard-to-buy-for child (you know, the kind who already has every hip toy known to man).
3. If all else fails and you just can't get any baking done this year, never fear. You can order scrumptious, beautiful christmas cookies online!
4. For more gift ideas, Amazon.com has a huge selection of gifts and a great gift-finder for everyone from kids according to age, to the person who's impossible to buy for.

15-pc Snowflake Cookie Cutter Set

$27.95    Buy

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It's holiday time and everyone should be able to partake of holiday goodies. Here are three recipes for people who want to eat healthier or are on gluten-free or sugar-free diets.

Healthy Feel-Good Cut-Out Christmas Cookies

This is a great recipe for those who enjoy baking traditional holiday cookies but want to avoid (most of) the guilt. They have a mildly sweet, nutty flavor, and a crumbly, crispy texture . We like to make these with 100% organic ingredients.

1 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (you can use regular margarine or butter with this as well: use whatever form of fat you perceive to be healthiest! Non-hydrogenated margarine makes the dough more crumbly and a bit more difficult to work with than regular margarine or butter.)
1/2 cup raw granulated sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup oat bran
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
additional raw granulated sugar

Beat together margarine and sugar until mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, stir until just combined. Stir in oat bran, flour, and baking powder at intervals. Divide dough in two and shape into disks. Dough may seem crumbly; this is OK, it will come together when chilled. Wrap disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm; about 3 hours. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Roll out dough between two sheets of waxes paper to scant 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out cookies with 3‰ cookie cutters and place on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool one minute on baking sheet, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Gluten-Free Buckeyes (Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls)

Ordinary confectioners‚ sugar contains gluten in the form of corn starch. However, gluten-free confectioners‚ sugar can be obtained at health food stores. Or, make your own by pulverizing ordinary granulated sugar in your food processor until it reaches powder consistency.

1-1/2 cups sugar-free creamy peanut butter made from 100% peanuts
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt (only if you've used salt-free peanut butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted gluten-free confectioners' sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons solid vegetable shortening

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, mix peanut butter, butter, salt, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar to form a smooth stiff dough. If you don‚t have a stand mixer, then you can mix the ingredients with your hands (dough will be too stiff for an ordinary hand-held mixer). Shape into 1-inch balls and place on prepared pan. Refrigerate until firm. Place chocolate chips and shortening in the top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Melt, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove from heat. Remove balls from refrigerator. Insert a toothpick into a ball and dip in melted chocolate. Return to waxed paper, chocolate side down, and remove the toothpick. Repeat with remaining balls. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until set. Makes about 60 Buckeyes.

Sugar-Free Apricot Foldovers

Savory and sweet make a perfect combination in these delicious cookies with a tender and flaky pastry.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1-1/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup sugar-free apricot preserves

Beat together the margarine and cheese until creamy, then blend in the flour and water. Chill the dough for 4 to 5 hours. Preheat the oven to 370 F. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the preserves until the mixture boils and is smooth. Set aside. Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a 10 inch square, cut into 2 1/2 inch squares. Put a scant teaspoon of the preserves in the center of each square, fold over diagonally and seal the edges. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 30 cookies.

If you're looking for something more decadent and less healthy, checkout Christmas-Cookies.com's list of the Top 25 Christmas Cookie Recipes.

Little-Known Tips for Successful Holiday Baking

Are you wondering if you have the time to bake homemade Christmas cookies this year? Every year at about this time we all start to get a little panicked that the holidays are coming up fast and we're not really ready yet. Here are a few little-known tips and tricks, for almost every type of cookie, to help you get the most out of the time you spend baking.

Cutout Cookies

• Don't struggle with dough sticking to your rolling pin. Instead, roll out your dough between two sheets of waxed paper. This will eliminate the sticking problem, and facilitate clean-up as well.
• Do your cutout cookies always seem to turn out dry, tough, and tasteless? The trick with the waxed paper will help with this. Assuming that you started with a good recipe, the problem is that you are overworking your dough and working too much flour into it. Using the waxed paper will help you to manipulate the dough less, and the dough won't pick up any extra flour.

Refrigerator (Icebox) Cookies and Pinwheels

• Ever notice how your roll of icebox or pinwheel cookies gets flat on one side from sitting on the refrigerator shelf? Keep them nice and round by standing them upright in a tall drinking glass while
  they're chilling.
• Do your cookies flatten further when you try to slice them? Try rotating the log 1/4 turn after each slice.
• Having trouble with the cookies crumbling as you try to slice them? Start with a log that has been frozen for several hours. Then use a very a very sharp to slice through.

Cookie Press Cookies (Spritz)

• Having trouble getting your cookies to form properly? When your dough doesn't seem to stick properly, put your baking sheet in the freezer for an hour or two, while keeping the dough at room
  temperature. Then when you press out your cookies onto the frozen sheet, the dough will stick to it just like your tongue sticks to a frozen metal pole when you lick it (assuming you've ever been silly enough to try this).
• Don't forget you can pick up your mistakes and put them back into the press.

Bar Cookies

• When making bar cookies, create a liner for your baking pan by turning the pan upside-down and covering it with aluminum foil, making sure to form the corners and leaving an overhang of an inch
  or two. Then, remove the foil, turn the pan right side up, turn the foil over and place it inside the pan. It will make a perfect liner for your pan. If required by your recipe, grease the liner. Then continue baking your bar cookies as directed. Once baked, you can lift out the entire batch of bars and place it on a cooling rack to cool completely. You can then immediately re-use your baking pan for another batch without having to wait for the previous batch to cool, and you won't have to wash the pan.

All Cookies

• Eliminate the need to grease your baking sheets and wash them later by lining them with parchment paper. Parchment paper can be re-used many times and gives excellent results.
• Do your cookies seem to brown too much, or cook too fast? Buy a dependable oven thermometer and check your oven temperature. Your oven's internal thermometer may not be accurate. Or, perhaps you are using a non-stick baking sheet or pan. The dark color of the non-stick coating can make your baked goods brown too fast. Try a shiny metal pan instead or lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees.
• Are your cookies not browned enough, or take too long to cook? Again, verify the oven temperature. Or, perhaps you're using an insulated baking sheet or pan. Insulated bakeware can prevent your cookies from reaching the desired temperature in the right amount of time. Try using a non-insulated pan, or raise your oven temperature by 25 degrees.

A pinch of know-how combined with a dash of preparation can make for successful, easy, and stress-free cookie baking every Christmas!

by Mimi Cummins, co-author of the book "Christmas Cookies Are for Giving: Recipes, Stories and Tips for Making Heartwarming Gifts" Available at http://www.tyrpublishing.com/necart/item1.html, at Amazon.com or your favorite bookstore.
ISBN: 0972347399

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