Cookie baking is happening right now, all over the world. So this time of year, I like to share traditional Christmas cookies from around the world, to share old-fashioned cookie traditions we can bring into our own kitchens. This year, I focused on Europe. Come join me! Italian Christmas Cookies I spent a month in Italy this year, so I had to start with this country. So, first up are these Italian Christmas Cookies from Cakes Cottage. They're lightly sweet and perfect for dunking in espresso. ...
Spiced Persimmon Cookies with Dried Figs
Persimmons are highly seasonal, rarely seen outside of late September through December. Their burnished orange colors personify autumn, and persimmon cookies are a favorite of mine this time of year. How to Use Persimmons There are two primary types of persimmons, with each type splintering off into several varieties. You've seen these exotic fruits resting in large bins at the market, but may be unsure of how to use them. Fuyu persimmons, the squat type, are hard, thin-skinned, and a ...
{Gluten-Free} Chocolate Chip Cookies with Chickpea Flour: #SundaySupper
The best way to get your family to try something new, I mean really new, is to disguise it as something familiar and offer it when they're not suspecting anything devious. As my husband was getting dressed this morning, I offered him what looked very much like a chocolate chip cookie, warm from the oven. "Oh!! Chocolate chip cookies!" as he popped it in his mouth. "Kind of", I responded. He looked at me. "Well, there are chocolate chips in it, and it is a cookie." "Is it a ...
Pennsylvania Dutch Spice Currant Christmas Cookies
Every Christmas, my mom made aromatic spiced cookies, filled with raisins, and topped with a glaze. They were stored in a round tin featuring a jolly picture of Santa, and there were many nights I crept down into the kitchen to sneak a couple back up to my bedroom. Unfortunately, the recipe for them is long lost now, and I've created my own tradition of trying to duplicate it. I haven't been successful (yet), but my path is littered with delicious spiced cookies that I've enjoyed almost as much. ...
Figgy Cardamom Snickerdoodle Cookies
Do you ever wonder where some cookie names come from? The name chocolate chip cookies is easy. Ditto for brownies (defined as a cookie bar), peanut-butter, ginger-molasses, and even jumble cookies. But there was a time in early New England culinary history when cookies were given playful names like plunkets, tangle breeches, kinkawoodles, and the infinitely more familiar snickerdoodle. One can only assume these were either named by children or for them, because they were simply more fun to ...
Summertime Cooking with Kids!
Cooking with kids in the kitchen reaps many rewards for everyone! My newest post published on Parade this week is about getting your kids into the kitchen with you this summer. The benefits are long reaching, and cooking a meal, a snack, or dessert together fosters a wealth of rich memories for everyone. My article lists some of the benefits and offers up 21 recipes to start with. Some are recipes you can turn the kids loose on, some are group projects for a few kids, and a few need some ...
Nut-Free Anise Biscotti with Chocolate Chips
Bringing a new life into your family is cause for celebration. It changes your life, expands your world, and deepens the relationship with your spouse in ways you didn't expect. For me and my husband, it's been a new puppy. Rika is 6 months old now and she's brought so much sunshine, walks, ball throwing, and squeaking toy noises into our lives already. And although she's not human, there are still many decisions and challenges in keeping a puppy safe, and raising a ...
Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies
Secret Recipe Club: Soft ginger-molasses cookies with little chunks of sugared ginger for an extra kick. Every year on Secret Recipe Club, we get a get-out-of-jail card. Which is to say, we get either December or January off without penalty, depending on the group we're in. My group and another one gets December off. The other two groups get January off. Yes, we can take occasional months off for vacation and life in general, but this Club looks for bloggers who post regularly on their blogs, ...
Rugelach – Your New Go-To Holiday Cookie
People, rugelach needs to be in your entertaining tool pack. They can sleep away, quietly tucked into the freezer, ready at a moments notice. At the last minute, you flick on the oven, whip out a baking sheet, and slice up a few frozen rolls of dough filled with jam, chocolate shards, coconut shreds, orange zest, and nuts, and you are ready to rock and roll. Your friends will be wowed that you were organized and talented enough to make such a high-end, gorgeous treat plus whatever amazing meal ...
Pumpkin-Coconut Cookies
Soft cake-like pumpkin cookies with strong hints of coconut, topped with cream cheese icing. Cocktail party season is about to ramp up as we gallop into the final months of the year (honestly, can you even believe it's almost November??). In cocktail-speak, this means you wear something a little glitzy without being over-the-top-neon, pull out some strappy shoes, and think about dishes that are just one or two bites. Ideally they wear a little glitz too. As for the drinks, they're festive, ...
Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips
#Secret Recipe Club: Slightly chewy, old-fashioned peanut butter cookies, with chocolate chips. This is my first month to post with the Secret Recipe Club, and I'm really excited. But there was a little bump in the road on my way to this post. I came home one evening a couple of weeks ago, checked email and Facebook before heading to bed (please tell me I'm not the only person here who does that), and noticed a cascade of emails from the SRC group chirping about their posts that had just gone ...
Peanut Butter – Chocolate Drops Cookies
Little peanut butter - chocolate drops cookies that sings CHOCOLATE - with peanut butter mixed in for the kid in all of us. First of all, I want to acknowledge I will never be hired for my piping skills. I've tried, but I lack the required patience. I carefully pipe a couple good ones, meaning exactly two, and breezy over-confidence takes over. The next one is invariably smaller than the first two. I correct this with the fourth, which is typically the biggest, for overcompensation, I guess. ...
