Holiday Cookies (and Candy, continued!)
What’s a holiday without ridiculously decorated sweets? These are classic sugar cookies, topped with a nice light almond icing.
The recipe for the next cookies I made, dough balls (pictured below), is a secret of someone else’s grandma. Unfortunately, the other secret about these cookies is that the only existing recording of this recipe involves 4 different measurements and types of oils, two different measurements of flour, and two different measurements of nuts. I picked the wrong two and these turned out like delicious cookies, rather than their traditional form of round, crumbly balls. No matter; they’re delicious in any form, and an especially nice departure from the oft over-sugared treats the holidays. The key ingredient in these is ground walnuts (I used a coffee grinder since I don’t have a mortar and pestle), which adds subtle flavor and still more richness. They’re flaky and very reminiscent of sandies.
These anise cookies are essentially flavored play dough. I’m obliged to make them every year for sentimental reasons, even though I hated anise for the longest time (and still do in large quantities). They’re not very sweet either, so if you bake them a little longer, they go nicely with coffee.
Caramel Corn
Like so many of these recipes, caramel corn is deceptively simple (and always a hit!). Make sure to cook the caramel until it starts boiling — if you don’t have a glass dish and a microwave with a door that you can see through to follow its progress, you can check by opening the door of the microwave and pulling the dish out quickly: if it’s bubbling rapidly, it’s boiling. If it’s not doing anything, microwave it a bit longer and check again (before starting to time the boil). In this case, boiling slightly longer is better than not long enough; this is a candy that everyone expects to be crunchy (and a little chewy), so if it hasn’t boiled long enough, the caramel will never set as hard as you want.
Last but not least:
Puppy Chow
This stuff is sheer brilliance: it’s for those days when you’re like, “hey guys, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to make a snack that looks exactly like a cross between dog chow and cat litter and feed it to people for the holidays!!! How festive is that?!??!” Ridiculous. Luckily I had never encountered the thing this snack was so artfully crafted to resemble, so I skipped over the vomit-inducing images and went straight to singing its praises. It’s as delicious as it is thoroughly addictive. Further proof that peanut butter and chocolate always win.
Here’s the recipe (not my invention!):
½ c soy margarine
1 c peanut butter (use the generic sweetened stuff if you’ve got it on hand)
2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 17½ oz package crispy corn and rice cereal
1 lb powdered sugar
Pour cereal into a large bowl. Into a covered microwavable dish, add peanut butter, margarine, and chocolate. Microwave for a couple of minutes until melted, stirring to combine. Pour over the cereal and toss until well coated. Place the coated cereal in a large paper bag, and add the confectioners’ sugar. Fold down the top of the bag tightly (so you aren’t huffing powdered sugar fumes) and shake well to coat.
Happy New Year’s!
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A T-Rex cookie!
Also, no recipes???? Aaaack dough balls will haunt my sweetest dreams for eternity.
Updated to add the Puppy Chow recipe, which I made again this weekend with dumpstered chunky peanut butter (seriously, how can I get rid of 3 lbs of this stuff??) and a round, puffy corn cereal that will go unnamed. Delish.
Where can we find the recipe for those sugar cookies??? They look amazing, much better than the last vegan sugar cookie recipe I tried with regrettable results…
I haven’t posted it yet! And I don’t have my family recipe book on me at the moment. Some day I’ll share, though!