I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. To close out the year and the last holiday celebration, I'm sharing two of my favorite special occasion recipes with you today. They appeared in the blogosphere around this time least year, and here they are again, so you can enjoy them as much as my family does. Bon appetit and happy new year! xo, Celia
Holiday Spritz Cookies
Recipe compliments of my mother. Requires cookie press.
3/4 cup regular sugar (some recipes call for “powdered”, but mom swears by regular!)
1 cup margarine, or butter, or shortening (mom uses shortening; I use butter. Both are delish.)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a bowl, mix together margarine (or butter or shortening), sugar, vanilla, egg until fairly fluffy.
3. Stir in flour, salt, baking powder.
4. Optional: separate dough into bowls, add food dye of your choosing (see photo).
5. Fill cookie press; press dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes.
7. Remove from sheet and cool on cookie rack.
8. Eat. All. The. Cookies!
Holiday Caramels
Recipe compliments of my grandmother.
1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups white sugar
2 cups white Karo Syrup
1 stick of butter (1/4 lb.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Mix together the first three ingredients (milk, sugar, syrup) in a large bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a large heavy kettle, pour in the mixture and bring to a boil.
3. Stir continuously while mixture boils until it reaches the temperature of 245 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer (can take up to 25 minutes).*
4. Once the 245-degree temperature is reached, remove kettle from stove.
5. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, then pour mixture onto a large buttered cookie sheet or flat pan.
6. Cut into pieces, wrap with plastic wrap or your candy covering of choice (or eat All The Candy, LOL).
*Note: If mixture overcooks, candy gets too hard.
That's all for now, Dear Readers. Have a great January! I'll see you back here on January 30th with some book fun!
xo,
Celia
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