Moravian Christmas Trees – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 12, the final day of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I have had a ball making all of these. A few late nights, to be sure, but it’s been a wonderful experiment forcing myself to tackle a dozen new things for 12 days in a row. And it was even more fun because I had some great company along the way. Kelly, Courtney, Judy, Sandy, Claire, and Jerry, thanks for joining me and for keeping your spirits up even when we hit a few stumbling blocks with some of these cookies! To the folks at Gourmet, thanks for putting up your favorite cookies feature and inspiring us to tackle this project.
Now for the 12th and final cookie, thin Moravian Christmas Cookies (1946). They are supposed to be white but we decided to make Christmas trees out of them. I had chosen another cookie for the finale, but as my time for Drop In and Decorate neared, I decided to combine 12 Days of Cookies and give away the cookies to some families that would enjoy them. Our moms group adopted 17 families this season, and several of us decided to decorate cookies for Drop In & Decorate and share the cookies with the adopted families. We made the Moravians and our family ginger bread cookies. Several moms and our kids planned to get together at Chateau Meyers this afternoon and decorate as many cookies as we could in 90 minutes, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Even though some members of our crew were sick, we managed to decorate well over 100 cookies and then Michael and I finished the rest.
The children, ages 2 through 10, had a great time and enjoyed putting their own creative twist on the cookies.
Mocha Toffee Bars – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 11 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I can’t believe it’s almost over. I had my eye on these mocha toffee bars because I adore chocolate and coffee together, and after making and enjoying them I’ve converted Michael as well. He even asked if we could add these to our annual Christmas cookie list along with the Cajun macaroons, so we have found a couple new favorites.
The cookies are straightforward and easy to make. The only trouble I ran into was baking time. My oven tends to run cool, plus my jelly roll pan doesn’t exactly heat evenly so the sides were done before the middle was even set. I ended up with crispy edges and chewy middle.
The coffee flavor is in the shortbread crust, and I simply use instant coffee and add a little extra coffee to the hot water. The original recipe calls for espresso powder, which isn’t always easy to find.. The chocolate topping is simply melted semi-sweet chocolate chips poured right onto the hot shortbread, though I mixed dark and semi-sweet chips. The chopped cashews are roasted and salted, a nice contrast to the slightly dark chocolate topping.
Bourbon Balls – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 10 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I have to say that I almost didn’t make these bourbon balls because they seemed more like a confection than a cookie to me, except for the fact that they start with a whole bag of Oreos. Yes, crushed chocolate Oreos make the base for these decadent little treats, and the other taste treat is the bourbon soaked raisins.
Making these seemed like it would be so easy, and the mixing is very very easy; the rolling is what tripped me up. I ended up with some very sticky mixture that seemed to coat my hands in layers and I had to rinse my hands completely between each ball. Finally I decided the mixture needed some chilling time, so I covered it and stuck it in the frig hoping for a better rolling experience the next day. My hero, Michael, came to my rescue and rolled the remaining balls for me and his turned out beautifully. He coated them in cocoa before rolling and wore gloves to keep them from sticking so much.
The flavor is wonderful, though I would want more bourbon next time.
Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 9 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I was craving biscotti, one of my very favorite cookies. These beauties combine cranberries and pistachios for a red and green festive look and taste. These are like traditional Italian biscotti which don’t use butter and they are not soft and crumbly. They are true dunkers, ready for your coffee, tea, or milk. If you want to feel Italian, try them with some Vin Santo or other dessert wine.
I started baking biscotti several years ago and fell in love with the cookies because of the wonderful crunch, the nutty flavor, and how easy they are. If you don’t have a stand mixer, they do require a strong arm to mix the dough to the proper consistency, and I would avoid a hand mixer unless you just want it for the very beginning of mixing the dry and liquid ingredients together. Once the dough starts forming, hand mixers start rebelling.
Kourambiedes, Greek Butter Cookies – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 8 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I decided to try something brand new. I felt fairly certain that I had not had kourambiedes before, though I’ve had many variations on the butter cookie, so gave these a go. The discussions on Gourmet regarding this recipe are quite lively, and it seems apparent that these are a beloved cookie and each Greek family probably has it’s own secret version.
After choosing these, I read the first instruction which says to cream the butter for an hour. Whoa! Good thing the instructions call for a stand mixer, because I’m not sure I’d want to stand in one spot moving a hand mixer around for an hour. In the end, I felt the butter had met the “almost white” criteria at 20 minutes and moved on with the rest. They are very easy to shape and work with. The original recipe doesn’t mention removing the cloves, but one commenter mentioned the necessity of that—try biting into a whole clove and see what you think—so I did it as soon as they were cool enough to handle.
Cloudt’s Pecan Treats – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 7 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and the cookie of the day is pecan treats from Cloudt’s in Atlanta. Pecan bars are a Southern delicacy, kind of like eating pecan pie on a shortbread crust, and these are absolutely to die for. Michael kept mumbling “wow” with a mouthful of pecan bar and we understand why they are so popular.
The next time I make these, and oh yes there will absolutely be a next time, I will substitute maple syrup for part of the honey just because maple and pecan is one of my favorite flavor combinations. Also I thought the instruction to use 1 large egg plus 2 additional tablespoons beaten egg was a bit fussy, especially since I don’t keep cartons of egg replacer on hand. In the end I just added a smidgen of oil to make up for the lost liquid and moved on.
Be sure to visit all our friends in the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Gourmet website to see all their favorite cookies from 1941-2008.
The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Sandy of The Bakers Bench
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Jerry of Cooking By the Seat of My Pants
