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MrsBrown
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Joined: 13 Oct 2004
Posts: 305
Location: Western Canada
Slogan:
Spice Cake--You're soaking in it!
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llizard (aka ejm)
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Location: Canada
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Come to Life. Come to Laziness.
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MrsBrown
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Joined: 13 Oct 2004
Posts: 305
Location: Western Canada
Slogan:
Spice Cake--You're soaking in it!
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 Posted: Mon 22 Nov, 2004 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| llizard wrote: | | Spicy sugar cookies sound good. What kind of spices? |
It's a basic sugar cookie recipe with added spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of cloves (the recipe calls for allspice but I don't have any). They're lovely and crisp and a very light brown colour.
What a coincidence indeed!! I've done cookie exchanges for a couple of years now. The first year was brilliant--people put a lot of effort into the cookies so I got some nice cookies for Christmas. Last year was rather poor--many of the people made things like chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and added some dried cranberries to make them festive. While I quite like oatmeal cookies (although I can't eat them with chocolate chips in them), they aren't what I want to put on a cookie tray to present to my guests. I'm in a different cookie exchange this year where I only have to make 3 dozen cookies and divide them into half dozens which is much better than making 5 dozen cookies divided into half dozens.
I just read your blog, llizard. Your crescents sound very much like a Mexican nut cookie that my son discovered 2 years ago when he was doing a study of Christmas Around the World for school. He was in charge of Mexico and we made the most delicious nut cookies. Now we MUST make them every year.
Mexican Nut Cookies
1 cup butter
¾ cup icing sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
¾ cup nuts, chopped
1. Beat butter until creamy. Add sugar, mixing until light and fluffy.
2. Stir in flour and nuts; mix well.
3. Shape into 1 inch balls.
4. Bake on greased baking sheet in 350 oven for 12 – 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven while still warm.
6. Roll cookies in additional icing sugar. Cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 4 dozen cookies
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llizard (aka ejm)
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Location: Canada
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| Posted: Mon 22 Nov, 2004 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you for both cookie recipes, MrsBrown. Of course, not being a regular cookie baker, I don't know that I have ever made a "basic sugar cookie"... are they all pretty much the same with the dough made from white sugar, flour and butter(?) that is refrigerated, then rolled out, cut into shapes, baked and sprinkled with granulated sugar when they're hot? Do you use coloured sugar for the festive ones?
| MrsBrown wrote: | | Your crescents sound very much like a Mexican nut cookie that my son discovered 2 years ago when he was doing a study of Christmas Around the World for school. He was in charge of Mexico and we made the most delicious nut cookies. |
Yes, the Mexican nut cookie dough does look similar to our crescent dough recipe. What kind of nuts do you use in them?
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MrsBrown
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Joined: 13 Oct 2004
Posts: 305
Location: Western Canada
Slogan:
Spice Cake--You're soaking in it!
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| Posted: Mon 22 Nov, 2004 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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| llizard wrote: |
Yes, the Mexican nut cookie dough does look similar to our crescent dough recipe. What kind of nuts do you use in them? |
I use a mix of almonds and pecans.
| llizard wrote: |
Do you use coloured sugar for the festive ones? |
I make trees, both large (2 1/2 inch) and small (1 inch), so I can differentiate between the sugary spice cookies and the ginger shortbread (I make large stars and small angels as I don't have any small stars). On the trees, I put those little ball sprinkles, sometimes some coloured sugar, sometimes the sprinkles that look like sticks. I prefer the small ball kind of sprinkles because they look like teeny Christmas ornaments.
Sugary Spice Cookies
1 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch ground allspice (I used cloves)
Beat together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. In separate
bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir into butter mixture in 2
additions. Divide into 2 balls and flatten into discs. Wrap and
refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm.
Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut cookies. Bake at 350 for about
10 minutes. Makes about 60 cookies (if you use a 3 inch cookie cutter,
makes about 200 if you use teeny cookie cutters).
Note: I let my dough sit in the fridge overnight and it was REALLY hard to roll out. I had to let it sit out for at least an hour before I was able to roll it.
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disclaimer - read me . recipes from our kitchen . blog from our kitchen 
Today I got to use my brand new microplane to grate the fresh ginger to make Ginger Shortbread cookies. I'm going to a cookie party in a couple of weeks and decided that while the Spicy Sugar Cookies in my Canadian Living magazine a couple of years ago were delicious, I think the ginger shortbread cookies are just a little better. 
Maybe I'll make both.
I also got to use it yesterday when I helped make lemon icing for my birthday cake 
, who gave me the microplane for my birthday, made the cake completely by himself 
with a very very small amount of help from his dad who later told me that the BrownBoy needed no supervision and put everything away neatly.
