The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-Aunt Martha's Nutmeg Bells

 

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-Aunt Martha's Nutmeg Bells

Full disclosure: I don't have an Aunt Martha, but somebody out there has an aunt who makes tasty cookies! This is the one I had planned to make last week but the recipe card disappeared on me. I found it this week and even had time to order a bell-shaped cookie cutter to use for the recipe.

I went through so much to make this one happen, it felt right to do them today. I decided to cut the recipe in half because a full batch makes 5 1/2 dozen and I just don't need that much. And again, there was a bit of a disaster I'll get into later, but it all seems to have turned out ok in the end! Well, let's get on with the recipe...

Aunt Martha's Nutmeg Bells(full recipe)

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. nutmeg

1.) In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat sugar and butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low; beat in eggs and vanilla until blended. Gradually beat in flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg until well blended, occasionally scraping bowl with a rubber spatula.

2.) Divide dough in thirds; flatten each into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or freeze for 30 minutes.)

3.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough 1/8" thick. With floured 3 1/2" bell-shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into as many cookies as possible; wrap and refrigerate trimmings. Place cookies, 1" apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet.

4.) Bake cookies  10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough and trimmings.

5.) When cookies are cool, decorate as desired. Store cookies in tightly covered container(with waxed paper between layers if decorated) at room temperature for up to two weeks, or in freezer for up to 3 months.

Makes about 5 1/2 dozen cookies

My obligatory all-ingredient shot before I got started. It's a pretty simple ingredient list.

I did all of this by hand, mostly because I don't feel like lugging my heavy mixer down the hallway from it's storage spot. It doesn't live in the kitchen because there isn't enough counter space for it. So, I have just been doing everything by hand...!

Here it is after adding the egg and vanilla.

I got distracted while mixing the dry ingredients in to get a picture of that. When you're cutting a recipe in half, make sure to look at the measuring spoons very carefully. I accidentally put the full amount of salt in the recipe because I thought I had a 1/2 tsp, but it was a full teaspoon...Luckily it turned out to taste fine, but I would still recommend putting the proper amount in. This is the just-gathered dough, ready to be put in the fridge.

Here's after refrigerating and kneading it all together.

The dough rolls out really well. I rolled it out to what I thought was 1/8" thick and it made way more than 2 3/4 dozen cookies. But that just means you can eat more and feel better about it.

Here are the unbaked cut-outs. It's a decent size cookie.

And right out of the oven. With the thinner cookies, I found 8 minutes was perfect, not 10-12. If yours are thicker, you may need longer.

Towards the end, the cookies got even thinner, so they are a little browner. These are really nice and crunchy, and delicious. I did not decorate them because I'm freezing most of them for later, but my sister thinks they just need a glaze, rather than icing. I'll probably add more nutmeg to the glaze to enhance that flavor.

These were really simple but delicious. On first bite, you're like, yeah, they're fine, but nothing special, but then after a few minutes, you realize you've inhaled five more without realizing it, so there's something about them!! These had a little more work to them with the rolling and cutting, but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I will definitely add this to my keeper recipes!

Happy Baking!

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-New England Hard Gingerbread

 

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-New England Hard Gingerbread

I wasn't planning on testing this recipe for this project, but the one I was going to do slipped under the stove and I couldn't get to it, so this became my new recipe instead! Luckily, I had all the ingredients on hand. I was given advice on how to retrieve it from under the stove, so I'll see if I can get the recipe later on and add it back to the project rotation.

This recipe just sounded perfect for a Christmas cookie project. New England plus gingerbread? I'm surprised I didn't pick it out originally. It's an older recipe card, so I don't have a source. I feel more comfortable writing it out. In its own way, it's just as simple as shortbread, but the result is very different.

New England Hard Gingerbread

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 egg

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp. dried ginger

1/2 tsp. baking soda

In a medium bowl, mix molasses, butter, and egg until blended.

Stir in remaining ingredients until well blended.

On a greased cookie sheet, roll out or pat dough with lightly floured hands to 10"x12" rectangle.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 20 minutes, until lightly browned around edges.

While still warm, cut in 2" squares or cool on sheet on rack and break in chunks. Store in airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Makes 30 two" squares.

I should have rolled it out thinner, but the texture was really nice on this. I think the idea is supposed to be like hardtack, and this is definitely not that. Admittedly, I did not use floured hands, and that might have helped me pat it out even thinner. Something to try next time, for sure.

I decided to go with the rustic breaking into pieces rather than cutting. I think it's fun this way!

The flavor of these cookies is amazing! The texture is a little dry. I think that's because it's supposed to be thinner and harder. As they are, I think they'd be even better with some icing or frosting on them. This would also work well as a gingerbread recipe for making houses. It's very sturdy. 

There's just something about ginger at Christmastime, isn't there? It has to be there! I keep saying that one of these years I'm going to build a gingerbread Nakatomi Plaza, and maybe this is the recipe I'll use!!

This is the kind of cookie that you want to eat while sipping pumpkin spice tea and watch a Christmas movie while wrapped in a blanket. Definitely roll them out thinner, but I'd make these again, for sure.

Happy Baking!

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-A Trio of Shortbreads

 

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas-A Trio of Shortbreads

Last year I did a cooking project called The Twelve Weeks of Christmas, where I explored Christmas cooking and baking traditions from around the world. I had a lot of fun with it and decided to do another edition of it this year, but focusing on Christmas cookies. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the time and should have started this two weeks ago. Because I was able to scramble and do three cookie recipes this weekend, I'm caught up to where I should be, but naming it "weeks" in the project title no longer makes sense since I'll only be doing ten posts. I decided to rename it "cookies" instead, since that is still going to be accurate.

So, this weekend, I ended up making a trio of shortbread cookies: Almond shortbread, Orange Cornmeal Shortbread, and Brown Butter Pecan Shortbread. All of them have online sources, so I won't be typing out the recipes, for copyright reasons. I'll share the links though.

First up was this recipe. I make shortbread cookies almost every year and they take a lot of time and effort. I was shocked to see that there are recipes that are so much easier even if they have more ingredients! The almond shortbread was one of them.

I've never tried to use a pastry cutter before to make shortbread, but I didn't feel like lugging out my mixer and tried that instead. It worked really well! I highly recommend it!

I've never made shortbread this way before. Freeze a pie pan and press the dough into it. Then freeze it again for a bit so it solidifies. This is a small batch, but it's worth it!

Press the almonds on top before baking. The pie pan went right from the freezer into the hot oven and had no problems. I was nervous that it might shatter, but pyrex is great stuff!

Here is the final product. Brown sugar adds a different flavor to the shortbread, and the almonds add a great texture. These get cut into triangles. I think they look quite elegant.

The second recipe was this one. I've never had orange or cornmeal in shortbread before, so it was fun to try this one. I made the first two on Saturday, before going to a small family gathering Saturday evening.

I can't believe it took me till now to try out the pastry cutter. I don't think I'll ever use a mixer again! This one is started off more like the one I make each year, with butter and powdered sugar.

I also learned that you can add the orange zest without chopping it into smaller pieces, and the pastry cutter will cut it as it helps blend it too.

Once the dough comes together, you roll them into logs and wrap them in plastic. I took these to my family gathering and actually baked them there.

When you're ready to bake them, you roll the logs in the rest of the cornmeal. This will give it a great and very unique texture.

It made at least twice as much as the recipe says it will. Luckily, the sheetpan was big enough to fit all of them on in one batch.

This is what they look like after baking. My family all seemed to enjoy this one and the almond shortbread too. It turned out great, because I rarely am able to involve my family in these recipes and they were able to try them right out of the oven.

My third recipe, was Brown Butter Pecan Shortbread. 

This had the most prep work involved, so I did it today when I had more time. First you toast and grind the pecans, then you brown and strain the butter. Above is the finished product for both of those.

This one used white sugar. All three recipes used a different type of sugar. It just shows you how versatile shortbread really is. I was also struck by how easy it was to make all three of these recipes. No matter how fancy they are, the main concept remains the same.

Here is the two kinds of butter mixed with the sugar.

And with all the ingredients mixed in. It's very crumbly, but it comes together very well and easily.

This recipe calls for being patted out to a large rectangle and I tried out something new that again I think I'll work into my annual shortbread making that makes it so much easier. Roll and pat it out right in the sheetpan, on parchment paper. I can't believe I've never tried this before, it's ridiculously easier...

Then you prick it with a fork all over the surface to keep it from puffing up.

And after you take it out of the oven, you cut them into bars. This one is a really light-tasting shortbread. There isn't a lot of sugar, so it's not very sweet. The texture is great, though. I was nervous that the recipe doesn't chill at all. What kind of shortbread doesn't have a chilling step? This one, apparently. But I think they turned out just fine!

I plan on freezing some of these to share with my coworkers this week, and then maybe keeping the rest for Christmas. The idea with this project was that I would do a blend of freezable and non-freezable recipes, and do the freezable ones earlier on. All three of these turned out really great and I'm very excited to share them with others!

I am very tired after a whirlwind, unplanned triple shortbread baking adventure this weekend! Starting next weekend, it'll be one recipe a week. Hallmark also starts up their Christmas movie extravaganza and I am looking forward to watching new movies and eating Christmas cookies at the same time!!

Happy Baking!