Although Mama Flava is trying to avoid high fat and high sugar for Baby Flava... my favorite thing to make this time of year...HOLIDAY COOKIES!
Great Grandma Flava made cookies for extra money when we were growing up. She was known all over the tri-state area for her cookies and everyone waited for the annual Hotel Show to get some of her tasty gems. My sister took this cookie tradition and turned it into a weekend holiday cookie marathon about 40 years ago. (Wow I'm getting old!) Starting with her friend Susan, the two of them spent a weekend making batch after batch of holiday cookies. When they were done they would split what they'd made and voila...holiday gifts. That first year was a bit of a disaster, but it got better as they went along.
As the years went by I joined my sister-Aunt Flava-her friend and even Great Grandma Flava would be there and the cookies would fly. We started counting how many cookies we'd make; each year trying to make more than the last. The last time I remember counting it was somewhere over 4ooo cookies. We stopped counting after that. The "cookie weekend" was a huge event and we planned for weeks when it would be and what we would make. Any new recipes had to be tested before the weekend because the weekend was all about production.
Who ever hosted made a huge pot of sauce for pasta, or chili, or stew. This was eaten for lunch in between batches of dough, or heated up for dinner so no one had to cook meals. Take out was an option, but going out to dinner...no way. Waste precious cookie baking time out to dinner....no! Friends and family have joined cookie weekend over the years....but my sister and I still prevail, each year making hundreds, thousands of cookies, by hand, with the best ingredients, to be given away as part of our family holiday tradition.
There are approximately 11 basic cookies we always make from recipes collected over the years: Susan's Gingersnaps, Grandma's Butter Cookies, Baby Fingers (aka Mexican Wedding Cakes), Ribbon Cookies, Angela's Pignoli Cookies, Kranchen, Pecan Diamonds, Linzertortes, Thumbprints, and some type of Brownie (the last few years it's been the "better than sex brownies"), and Cranberry Walnut Swirls. Then there are additions and subtractions: Nutmeg Logs, Sesame Cookies, Macaroons, Raspberry Criss Cross, Lemon Bars, Lemon Stars, Chocolate Chip, Lace Cookies, Meringues with Chocolate and Hazelnuts, to name a few. This years additions: Chocolate Spritz with a Chocolate Ganache filling, French Almond Macaroons, Almond Horns, and maybe Rainbow Cookies.
What would Baby Flava like-all of them? What could she eat; lets stay away from nuts and chocolate that would leave us Grandma's Butter Cookies, Thumbprints, Kranchen, Linzertortes. All natural ingredients, Organic unbleached flour, organic unsalted butter, sugar, and eggs (free range and fed natural ingredients).
Grandma's Butter Cookies... That would be Great Great Grandma Flava's recipe. Simple easy and tasty!
Butter Cookies (Nana’s--aka Great Great Grandma Flava )
1 lb butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Sift flour, baking powder and salt in bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, mix well then add flour mixture. Roll into logs, 10-12" long and 1 1/2" in diameter; roll in sprinkles, then roll in wax paper. Freeze or refrigerate for few hours till firm. Cut in 1/4" slices, bake on ungreased pan untill brown on bottom.
(I will often make a batch of this dough and leave it in the freezer. Then if I have company or need to bring something someplace, I take out a couple of rolls of dough and within 15 minutes have fresh homemade cookies.)
To make chocolate pinwheels from this dough... Take a hand full of dough add 1 square of semisweet chocolate melted knead until well blended. Roll out the chocolate dough into rectangle. Do same with a hand full of plain dough...place on top and roll into pinwheel. Can also do strips and do checkerboard etc.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until just beginning to brown on top.
Baked cookies may be frozen up to three months.
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2 comments:
Grandma, or Baby Flava's great great grandma never indulged in the fancy sugars we now use for the outside of the cookies, she always cut up the cookies, placed them on the cookie sheets, brushed each one with a little bit of beaten egg yolk, and put a scant teaspoon of cinnamon and sugar on the egg yolk.
Once in a while and to remember Grandma I do a batch this way. Just as good -- and quite pretty too!
trPopop Flava said...
Regarding cookies, my main concern is to avoid gaining weight due to a large increase in cookie consumption. You have to realize that with 4,000+ cookies piled throughout our house, its difficult to avoid a little nosh.
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