I have been doing so much holiday baking this season that I thought I would take a minute to give you some of my favourite holiday recipes! This is your one stop shop for all kinds of deliciousness, so get on your christmas clothing, crank up those christmas tunes and lets get baking!
Here are 8 delicious Christmas goodies that you will want to whip up during the holiday season.
Lets start with a family favourite. The classic Christmas Sugar Cookie! I love using this recipe because the dough takes only a few minutes to mix together and then I store it in the fridge, in a ziplock baggie, until I am ready to roll it out and bake the cookies.
Other reasons why the sugar cookie recipe is amazing is because you can roll them out, cut into Christmas shapes then you have 2 options. You can 1. sprinkle with coloured sugar and bake or 2. bake and frost. It is a win win recipe for people who love to frost cookies and those who would rather NOT.
Sugar Cookies
1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1. Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Blend together the dry ingredients and mix into first mixture.
3. With hands form dough into 2-3 dough balls and chill in the fridge (15- 30 minutes). This makes the dough easier to roll out.
4. Roll the dough out on a well floured surface ( parchment paper also works well but make sure it is lightly floured). Cut the dough with cookie cutters and place onto a cookie sheet.
5. Bake in Pre-heated oven (350) for 7-8 minutes.
Cookie Icing
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1-2 tbsp canned milk
1/2 tsp Coconut extract
Blend together butter and icing sugar. Then slowly add a little bit of canned milk at a time until you have a desired consistency.
Also this frosting taste so yummy when you add coconut extract to it. To make the different colours just put the icing into different bowls and add food colouring.
To top the cookies I love going to the bulk barn and picking up the sliver balls and sprinkles of every colour.
The best part about these cookies is once the icing is on you can chill them in the fridge for a 10-15 minutes then you can store them in the freezer. When you have guest coming over just pull them out over the Christmas holidays, put them onto a plate and there you go...cookies in no time!
Oh and if you want to know how to get your dough to be the same thickness use stir paint sticks on either side of your dough while you are rolling it out. Consistent thickness helps ensure the prefect bake.
The next family favourite that our kids love taking in their lunch boxes are the Candy Cane Crinkles.
Oh... these Dipped Ginger cookies are a new family favourite, that look so festive and are amazing with a hot cup of tea. I found the recipe over at Cooking Classy . The only different thing I did was I coloured my left over white chocolate green to make the holly leaf but the red dots are red gel frosting that I purchased :)
The beloved gingerbread is a holiday staple around here. All those amazing christmas smelling spices are so heavenly when you are baking these up. I have been using this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction for a few years.
Can it really be Christmas without the famous peanut butter ball? These require a little more time to make but the best part is you can make these treats in stages. It only takes a few minutes to combine all the ingredients and roll them into balls. Once I have all the balls made, I pop them into the freezer until I have a little more time to focus on the dipping. Freezing these helps to keep them firm while dipping so you don't have peanut butter mush.
It is called Christmas Crack for a reason and this recipe (from my amazing sister-in-law) is the best one out there!! It is a scrumptious combination of salty, crunchy toffee, and chocolate. It only takes a few ingredients so what are you waiting for....go make some now.
The Hello Dolly makes the prefect square on your christmas platter of treats. These squares are very simple to make and are a HUGE crowd pleaser. I used a family recipe from a friend to create my treats but this recipe is about the same. The only changes I would make to the recipe is I buy crushed graham cracker crumbs and in my 9x13 pan I pour the melted butter in and then add my crumbs, stir and press firmly right into the pan.
Now these Candied Pecans are my FAVOURITE!! Like seriously I could eat these all day every day. They are great for putting out when you have guest over or they make the prefect salad topper.
Candied Pecans
1 egg white
1 Tbsp water
2 1/4 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 225
Combine the egg white and water in a mixing bowl and whisk until fluffy.
Fole in pecans.
In a separate bowl combine sugar, salt and cinnamon. Then dust the pecans evenly with the sugar mixture. Spread the nuts over a prepared pan (a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper). Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on pan and store in air tight container.