During December I bake. Almost every day. And I get what professional bakers mean when they explain, they don’t want to eat them after you’ve been baking all day. I still eat them but one piece at a time.
However, I love my Christmas goodies, and I thought I’d share a few of the Christmas candy and cookies I wrote about in Sold for Christmas. I made the cream cheese crescents mentioned in the book, but they’re all gone. They’re that delicious.
Cherry Drops were my Dad’s favorite. Mama would make them every Christmas no matter how much other food she’d made.
1 cup butter (I do not use unsalted), softened at room temperature
1.5 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 egg
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
16 oz jar Maraschino cherries (stemless)
Preheat oven to 350.
Cream butter and sugar together on medium speed of a hand mixer. Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Slowly add into butter/sugar mixture until incorporated. Stir in vanilla. The mixture will be crumbly.
Form cookies with a regular spoon. The type used to eat cereal or ice cream. Slide a dozen onto an 11×15 cookie sheet covered in parchment paper or silicon mat.
Tear the maraschino cherries in half. Place one half on top of each cookie. Bake 6-8 minutes. The cookies will not be brown. If they get golden brown then they’ve been overcooked.
Repeat until all the cookies are baked. These make about 2-3 dozen. Cool and store in an airtight container in a cool dry place.
Cherry drops are on the left. Peanut butter balls flank the chocolate torte, the cookies on the right are sugar cookies topped with raspberry jam.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls are my favorite. I only make them at Christmastime. And I have to hide a baggie in the refrigerator so I actually get some.
1 cup of butter, softened at room temperature
3 cups of peanut butter. I use Jif and prefer creamy, but use crunchy if you like
1 16 oz box of powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
18 ounces or more semisweet chocolate chips
*Extra powdered sugar for your hands
Mix butter and peanut butter together. Slowly add powdered sugar. Make sure the mixer is on it’s lowest setting otherwise, the kitchen will have a fine dusting of sugar. Add in the vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Using a **spoon, the same type as in the cherry drops, scooping up cold peanut butter mixture and rolling into balls. *I coat my hands before rolling the balls, and continue to coat them throughout the process. **If you like larger balls then use a large serving spoon. Continue rolling peanut butter mixture into balls. Place balls on a parchment covered cookie sheet.
Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. Or freeze if you have the space.
Put chocolate chips into the top of a double boiler. If you don’t have one, place a glass bowl water, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Water should have boiled, then lowered to a simmer. Melt the chocolate chips, stir until glossy. NOTE: this recipe called for you to add paraffin. I have stopped that. However, it does mean the melted chocolate is thick, and is the reason you might need more chocolate.
With a toothpick dip peanut butter balls into the chocolate. Shake off excess and move to a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the balls are coated in chocolate. I have to do this in several steps since the peanut butter balls warm up fast. I return them to the refrigerator, and put the coated balls into the refrigerator also.
It makes 4 dozen or more smaller balls. Place the chocolate peanut butter balls into the refrigerator until the chocolate is set.
Store in refrigerator in plastic containers or into plastic storage bags.
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