Collins Family Traditional Christmas Cookie Recipes

Christmas has always been a favorite time of year for the Collins'. Not only are we lucky enough to have a huge family, but everyone seems to have their own special additions to the Christmastime celebrations.

Christmas cookies are definitely one of the highlights of the season, and my mother and I have long accomplished the festive task of baking hundreds of Christmas cookies year in and year out. It's by far one of our most favorite things to do together, and we look forward to it all year long. We even used to make extras and sell them to the local bank as they knew my mother's talents in the baking corner and always asked well in advance if she would be preparing for them trays of her delectable treats.

I won't be posting ALL of the recipes (some are still a secret I can't reveal), but here are a few you and yours will be sure to enjoy, and maybe even adopt as your own traditional Christmas cookie recipes. Bon apetit! And Merry Christmas from the Collins' to you!

CandyCane Sugar Twist Cookies Recipe

Basic Sugar Cookie Dough
2 1/2 C. sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. Madagascar Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (or 1-2 drops peppermint essential oil)
2 tbls Red food coloring

Set oven to 375° F. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar.
Beat the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and peppermint extract. Mix the flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar mixture into the butter mixture. (its best to stir them together so you don't get a kitchen full of flour puff). Divide the dough in half and add the red food coloring to half of the dough. Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.

Take approx. one teaspoon of each color of dough and roll out into 4 inch long strips. (think play-doh snakes). Lay the strips side by side and twist together to make a red and white striped rope, pinching the ends if you wish (though its not necessary, however you like them to look). Place the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet about one inch apart. Turn the end into a curve to make the candy-cane's handle. Repeat this technique to make 12 canes.

Bake at 375° F. for 10 minutes. Make sure to cool your cookies on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes, and then transfer to your cooling rack to complete the process.

After they are cooled you can add a variation to these by dipping the ends in melted chocolate (or white chocolate) and dip that into a bit of crushed canes. (this recipe you'll need about ½ cup of crushed peppermint candy canes to cover these cookies). You could also dip them in white chocolate and red sprinkle sugar. There's lots of different ways to spruce these up, and they come out absolutely beautiful!

Thumbprint Christmas Cookies

½ cup softened butter
¼ cup white sugar
1 large egg, separated
½ teaspoon pure Madagascar vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, pecans or walnuts, toasted and finely chopped)
¼ cup raspberry jam
¼ cup mint jelly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla, beat well. Whisk together sifted flour and salt, then add the flour mixture to butter/sugar batter and beat until just combined. Refrigerate for 30 min.
Whisk egg white in a separate bowl until frothy and foamy. Add chopped and toasted nuts to a plate.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper, then roll the chilled dough into 1 in. balls, and one at a time dip into egg white and nuts, then place on prepared baking sheet spacing them about 1 in. apart. Use your thumb to make an indentation or "thumbprint" in the center of each cookie. You can either fill them with ¼ to ½ tsp. jam now, or wait until they are baked. If you're storing them, don't fill them until after they are baked as it will extend their life. They can be stored for about a week. Fill them before serving.

Bake filled cookies for about 13-15 minutes. If you're waiting to fill them, just bake for about 10-12 min, until they are set and nuts are a light golden color. And cool before transferring to cooling rack for about 5 min.
Makes about 20 cookies.

Spritz Christmas Cookies

2 cups butter or shortening
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. of almond extract
4 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. baking powder

NOTE: by changing up the extracts, you can flavor these however you wish, it's a nice way to make multiple kinds of cookies by a quick switch.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Cut the butter (or shortening) until it resembles course crumbs. Grab your glass measuring cup and crack egg into cup, then add enough water to make ¼ cup total and add this to the crumb mixture. Add extracts and mix well. Separate dough into however many different kinds of cookies you want to make (eg. Add red food coloring and peppermint for red cookies, or almond extract and green food color for Christmas trees, etc. ). There are so many variations on this one, its really up to how creative you want to be.
Refrigerate dough until firm. Put dough through cookie press directly onto cookie sheets and decorate with red and green colored sugar or sprinkles. Bake at 375 for about 10-12 minutes or until set and very light brown.
Makes 60 cookies

Christmas Toffee Crunch

1 cup butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon Karo light corn syrup
3 tablespoons water tepid
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts,pecans), toasted lightly
6 oz. melted milk chocolate
1 cup finely chopped toasted nuts of your choice

First, melt the butter in a large saucepan on medium heat. Then add sugar, corn syrup and water and cook stirring often until the candy thermometer reaches hard-crack stage (300 degrees). Take off heat immediately and stir in the coarsely chopped nuts and spread onto a buttered cookie sheet. Cool completely and turn out onto waxed paper and spread half of your melted chocolate, sprinkle with half the nuts and cover with waxed paper. then turn it over and do the same to the other side with the remaining chocolate and nuts. Chill and break into pieces...YUM!

Merry Christmas!!!!!