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In this issue:
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* FREE standard shipping of kitchen items in time for Christmas
* 20-30% Christmas cookie cookbook bestsellers
* Recipes:
- Kahlua Gingerbread Cutouts
- Kahlua Frosting
- Chocolate Cherry Kris Kringles
* New recipes at Christmas-Cookies.com
* TONS of tips for decorating Christmas cookies
* See our previous newsletters for more recipes and tips
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--Recipes
Kahlua Gingerbread Cutouts
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons Kahlua
2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream shortening, butter and sugars together. Beat in egg until fluffy. Stir in molasses and Kahlua. Sift together flour, soda, salt, and spices. Mix well into creamed mixture. Divide dough into fourths. Cover and chill 2 hours. On well-floured board, roll out each portion of dough to 3/8" thickness, keeping the other dough refrigerated until use. Cut with cookie cutters and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake about 8 minutes. Let cool one minute then remove to wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with Kahlua Frosting.
Kahlua Frosting
1 pound powdered sugar
1/4 cup Kahlua
3 tablespoons shortening
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
food coloring
In a large bowl mix all ingredients, except for food coloring, until smooth. If you want to use different colors for your decorating, divide the frosting and tint each portion with food coloring, as desired. Decorate cookies using a pastry bag and decorators tips.
If you want a spreadable frosting, use an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of Kahlua in the recipe.
Chocolate Cherry Kris Kringles
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
25 maraschino cherries
25 semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus 1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350° F. Cream sugar and margarine well. Add vanilla, flour and salt. Mix well. Stuff each cherry with a chocolate chip, then wrap in 1 teaspoon dough. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in a double boiler over low heat or in the microwave, and dip top of cookies in melted chocolate.
For more great recipes check out our recipe index at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/index.phtml
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--New Recipes at Christmas-Cookies.com
Kahlua Gingerbread
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=10&recid=304
Grandma's Fattigmann
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=10&recid=303
Linzer Cookies
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=10&recid=302
Double-Decker Fudge
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=10&recid=301
Quebec Maple Date Cookies
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=10&recid=300
Whipped Shortbread
http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=10&recid=299
For more great recipes check out our recipe index at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/index.phtml
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--Tips on decorating Christmas cookies
Many first time cookie bakers ask for tips and instructions on decorating Christmas
cookies. Well that’s a tall order because there are as many ways to decorate
cookies as there are cookies! Here are a few guidelines for novices and experienced
bakers alike to help you generate your own ideas for cooking decorating.
* Decorating cookies before baking
Cookies can be decorated before baking with materials that withstand the heat
of baking. Some things that you can place on your cookies before baking are:
- colored sugars or natural sugars such as pearl sugar
- jimmies, non-pareils, silver and gold dragées, and other sprinkles
- raisins and dried fruits such as cranberries
- nuts
These items can be placed on top of almost any cookie to dress it up a bit and give it a more festive appearance.
Paint a masterpiece
You can also paint your cookies before baking them. Make an edible food paint
out of an egg yolk mixed with a few drops of food coloring and paint the cookies
with a clean paintbrush. The paint will dry while baking and give the cookie
a colorful, glazed appearance.
A bit of trompe l’oeil
The folks at Better Homes and Gardens have a creative recipe for Colored Cream
Dough which is a dough of frosting consistency that can be piped onto cookies
with a pastry bag fitted with a writing or star tip, and then baked. The result
is a cookie that looks like it has been frosted but the frosting is baked on
and hard. For the recipe and instructions, including a color photo, go to http://www.christmas-cookies.com/creamdough.html
* Decorating cookies after baking
Decorating cookies after baking them requires that you apply some kind of liquid-based
substance that will adhere to the baked cookie, or that will act as a glue to
attach other items. Usually, this takes the form of frosting, icing, or melted
chocolate.
Frosting vs. Icing
There is a big difference between frosting and icing. Frosting is thick and
holds shapes like rosettes and shells like those you see piped around the edges
of a birthday cake. It remains soft to the touch and has a creamy texture. Icing,
on the other hand, is a thinner, more liquid substance, and as it dries it thins
out, becomes very smooth across the surface of your cookie, and hardens.
Working with frosting
You can use frosting in two ways. One way is to simply use a knife or rubber
spatula to spread the frosting across the whole surface of your cookie. The
other way is to place the frosting in a pastry or decorating bag fitted with
a small tip and piping out thin lines or rosettes of icing onto the cookie.
Either way, once the frosting has been applied to the cookie you can then further
embellish it by using colored sugars, non-pareils, or any of the decorating
items mentioned in the Decorating Before Baking section above. For a delicious
recipe for Buttercream Frosting, see http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=12&recid=306
For detailed instructions on piping frosting, visit http://www.christmas-cookies.com/frosting.html
Working with icing
Icing is a little more difficult to work with but its smooth surface produces
the most beautiful results! Icing should always be piped onto a cookie because
it will run off the edges if spread with a knife. Once iced you can apply silver
dragées, or other items just as mentioned with the frosting above, before
it hardens. An excellent recipe for Royal Icing can be found at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=12&recid=42
There is also a recipe for Powdered Sugar Icing that dries less hard than Royal
Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?catid=12&recid=288
For detailed instructions on piping icing onto cookies, visit http://www.christmas-cookies.com/icing.html
For a huge list of cookies you can decorate with frosting and icing visit http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/category.phtml?catid=10
Melted chocolate
Just about any cookie can be embellished simply by dipping it in chocolate or
drizzling chocolate over it. You can even dress up the everyday chocolate chip
cookie for gift-giving or serving at parties. Melting chocolate is a simple
process, but a few rules must be followed in order to make it a success.
What you need
You can either use chocolate chips or baking chocolate (the kind that comes
in 1-ounce squares) and the same process applies whether you use dark chocolate
or white chocolate. A small amount of shortening should be added at the ratio
of 2 tablespoons shortening for 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped up baking
chocolate.
Double boiler
Place chocolate and shortening in the top half of a double boiler or in a metal
bowl that has been placed on top of a saucepan filled with hot water. The water
must be very hot, but not boiling, because the steam generated by boiling water
could get moisture into the melting chocolate which makes it curdle. Allow the
chocolate to melt over the hot water and stir it occasionally until it has achieved
a liquid consistency.
Microwave
Place your chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it
on medium power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue microwaving 20 seconds, stir again.
Keep doing this until the chocolate is almost melted. Remove it from the microwave
and stir it until completely melted.
Dipping
Dip one end of your cookie, or half the cookie, or even the whole cookie into
the melted chocolate. Set the cookie on a wire rack to let the chocolate harden.
If you wish, you can sprinkle chopped nuts, coconut, or non-pareils over the
melted chocolate before it hardens.
Drizzling
Scrape melted chocolate into a ziplock baggie. With a sharp scissors, snip off
a very small corner of the baggie. Drizzle top of cookies with zig-zags of melted
chocolate. Cool until chocolate is set.
For lots more ideas using chocolate visit http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/category.phtml?catid=8
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