Christmas Cookie Week - Brownies

Do you know what happens when your kiddos are good - they collect Brownie points.  And one day they redeem them for brownies.  I must have good kids because I sure made a lot of brownies in my time.  

This is our family's favourite brownie recipe with a few additions to make them more fattening festive.  I added chocolate chips to the batter and melted chocolate chips for the icing with M&Ms to decorate them.  

When you take the brownies out of the oven and they are still piping hot, sprinkle a good amount of chocolate chips on top.  After a few  minutes they will melt and can be spread like icing.  Definitely the easiest icing I know of.  

At Christmas I often make M&M holly on the icing because it is easy and looks pretty - all you do is use two green ones as the leaves and one red one as the berries. Couldn't get much simpler.  And they are always a hit.

Today is the last day of Christmas Cookie week ... and in case you missed some of the cookies, here is where you can find them - here, here, here, and here.

Also don't forget to check out what the other bloggers have been up to.  I've seen a lot of fantastic cookies that I really need to try.

Angie from Echoes of Laughter

Julie from Sober Julie

Stacey from This Lil’ Piglet

Joann from Women In Real Life

Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs

Grace from Sense & Simplicity

Donna From An Anglo In Quebec

Ricki Jill from Art@Home

Christmas Cookie Week - Speculaas

I'm having a walk down memory lane this year with the cookies I'm baking.  Today is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands so I thought it would be appropriate to bake Speculaas cookies.  

I was a Rotary exchange student to the Netherlands many years ago so I experienced a Sinterklaas celebration first hand.  We watched Sint Nicolaas (also known as Sinterklaas) arrive from Spain by steamship on TV.  We left our shoes out at night filled with carrots for Sinterklaas's horse and were rewarded with candies and chocolates in exchange.  We received chocolate letters and ate speculaas, and pepernoten.  We wrote poems teasing the person who was receiving the gift and exchanged presents secret Santa style with others in the family.  We sang Sinterklaas songs, one of which, over 35 years later, I can still sing the chorus to:
Sinterklaas kapoentje,
gooi wat in mijn schoentje,
gooi wat in mijn laarsje, 
dank u Sinterklaasje.

One of the things I brought home from the Netherlands was a speculaasplank - the wooden board with cut-out molds that you press the cookie dough into. I have had it on display in various places around our homes all these years, but I have never actually used it for baking.  So I was keen to try it out.

I actually made these cookies twice because the first recipe tasted good, but was too crumbly and dry and they didn't look good.  I then found this blog and make his recipe (with a few modifications) and the texture was perfect.  It molded nicely into the speculaasplank and then held together when I unmolded the cookies and kept the design fairly well while being baked. 

I want you to look closely at the plank and tell me what on earth those designs are.  I recognize the windmill, but apart from that I have no idea.  Is that a Sinterklaas fire hydrant?  Are those mutant chickens? cats? cat-chickens? 

The most intriguing thing about Speculaas cookies is that they contain pepper.  I had no idea they did.  While you can taste it if you know it is there, it mostly just adds to the tangy spiciness of the cookies.

Ingredients:
1 cup cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Method:
1.  Cut the butter into small cubes and blend with the sugars, baking soda, salt, and spices.
2.   Add the eggs and vanilla.
3.   Add the flour and beat until mixed.
4.   Roll out half the cookie dough to a 1/2 inch thickness.  Lightly spray the Speculaasplank and dust with flour (knocking any loose flour out before using).  Press the dough into the plank and then carefully unmold onto the ungreased baking sheet.  If using cookie cutters then roll the dough out to be 1/4 inch thick, cut with cookie cutters, and place on the baking sheet.
5.   Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F.  Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes or until golden around the edges.  Let cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Mmmm!  Enjoy that spicy crispness of these speculaas and think of wooden shoes and windmills.

Happy Sinterklaas to you all!

Angie from Echoes of Laughter

Julie from Sober Julie

Stacey from This Lil’ Piglet

Joann from Women In Real Life

Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs

Grace from Sense & Simplicity

Donna From An Anglo In Quebec
Ricki Jill from Art@Home

Linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Christmas Cookie Week - Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

I wanted to make a new recipe for some bars to go with the Christmas cookies I was baking, so when I saw this recipe in the Kraft magazine, I thought they looked good.  

Peanut butter and our family go together like monkeys and bananas, like a wink and a smile, like ..., well like peanut butter and chocolate.  My father took a peanut butter sandwich to work for lunch every day of his teaching career.  Yep, that is an affection for peanut butter.  

These bars are delicious and easy to make.  I'm not convinced they need to be cooked in the foil, but I did what I was told and made them that way.  I changed a few things - like less salt; peanut butter without sugar or salt instead of peanut butter with honey; chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate; and melted chocolate drizzled over the top with sprinkles to make them look festive.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 square semi-sweet chocolate to melt and drizzle over the top after they are baked

Method:
1. Heat oven to 350F
2. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil extending the ends of the foil over the sides and spray with cooking oil
3. Beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugars together in a large bowl. 
4. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well
5.  Add the flour, oats, and baking soda and mix well
6. Stir in the chocolate chips and cranberries
7.  Press gently into the bottom of the pan
8.  Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the centre is set.  Cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars.

Angie from Echoes of Laughter

Julie from Sober Julie

Stacey from This Lil’ Piglet

Joann from Women In Real Life

Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs

Grace from Sense & Simplicity

Donna From An Anglo In Quebec

Ricki Jill from Art@Home

Linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Christmas Cookie Week - M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another favourite cookie around our house is chocolate chip cookies - my Mom's chocolate chip cookies to be exact.  I wanted to make some for Christmas, but I didn't want to bake ordinary chocolate chip cookies; I wanted them to look festive.  I decided that adding Christmas M&Ms would be the answer.  

I looked up on-line the best way to bake with M&Ms and one site recommended adding them to the top of cookies when there was about 5 minutes left of baking time and another sites added the M&Ms to the cookie batter.  What's a person to do with a dilemma like that!  So I did what any sensible person would do and I did both.  The ones on top are nice and clean which looks pretty and adding them near the end of the baking time meant that fewer cracked, but it is always nice to bite into a cookie and find an M&M.  Definitely a win-win solution.  

Ingredients: 1 cup margarine 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 2 eggs 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup sunflower seeds 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup M&Ms (plus extra M&Ms to put on top part way through baking)
Method: Mix first four ingredients together. Blend in the flour and baking soda. Add the chocolate chips, M&Ms, and sunflower seeds. Drop by teaspoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes. Makes 4 dozen delicious cookies   Enjoy!
And speaking of enjoying cookies, have you seen all the amazing treats being baked for Christmas Cookie Week.  Have a look at what these bloggers have been baking and prepared to be inspired.

Angie from Echoes of Laughter

Julie from Sober Julie

Stacey from This Lil’ Piglet

Joann from Women In Real Life

Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs

Grace from Sense & Simplicity

Donna From An Anglo In Quebec

Ricki Jill from Art@Home

Linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Christmas Cookie Week - Shortbread Cookies

As soon as I smell the dough of shortbread cookies being mixed I know Christmas is just around the corner.  It is THE Christmas cookie for our family so I knew I wanted it to be the first cookie I posted in our Christmas Cookie Week.  

Speaking of Christmas Cookie Week - this year Angie from Echoes of Laughter and I have joined up with six other bloggers to bring you a super-sized Cookie Week.  Can you believe it - a whole week of cookies, not just from my kitchen, but from seven other bloggers as well.  

The shortbread recipe I use is from my father's mother (who you can see in the photo below.) The recipe is a classic - just like my grandmother was.  She always wore a dress even when we went camping.  And although she lived in small towns in northern British Columbia for much of her life she always set a nice table, used serviettes, served dessert, and remembered the finer things of life.  

Lucy and Stanley Jones in 1955 (Maple Ridge, BC).

In 2009 I travelled with my parents to Smithers in northern British Columbia and was shown all the important sites of my father's childhood.  I was especially interested to see the houses they lived in.  The one in the photo below was the house they lived in the longest.  Isn't it the cutest!  The kitchen window is around the left side of the house and looks out across to the mountains that you can see in the second photo below.  I love thinking of my grandmother making her shortbread cookies looking out to the snow-covered mountains.

Since I make these shortbread every year - I  try and change things up.  This year I decorated the shortbread using coloured sugar in my two favourite colours - turquoise and green.  I decided to go with a modern Christmas tree theme with the trees coloured in bold stripes or colour-blocked.  I used a small piece of cardboard to keep each colour in the right section.  Worked like a charm.  I bet my Grandma's cookies didn't look like these!

Here is the shortbread recipe:

Ingredients:

1 lb butter (2 cups) at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

5 cups flour

pinch salt

Method:
1.  Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
2.  Knead until they form a ball
3.  Roll out on a lightly-floured surface to a thickness of between 1/4 and 1/2 inch
4.  Cut or stamp cookies with cookie cutters and place on an ungreased cookie sheet
5.  Bake at 350F for about 8-10 minutes or until they are lightly brown (do not overbake)

In previous years I have also made cranberry-orange shortbread which is a nice variation.

Is shortbread a Christmas classic for your family?

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Welcome to Christmas Cookie Week 2013! This year eight bloggers have come together to share a daily recipe for yummy and delicious cookies that we hope will inspire you during this season of Christmas baking! We come from different parts of Canada, with one friend joining us from Alabama, but we all share a joy of baking which makes for love…fresh from the oven!

Angie from Echoes of Laughter

Julie from Sober Julie

Stacey from This Lil’ Piglet

Joann from Woman In Real Life

Jo-Anna from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs

Grace from Sense & Simplicity

Donna From An Anglo In Quebec

Ricki Jill from Art@Home

Linked to Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm