Christmas Archives - The Midnight Baker

Jelly Bars

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 00:00:25 +0000

Whether you call them jelly bars or Italian butter cookies, they’re delicious by either name.

Jelly Bars Are Easy

Yes, jelly bars are incredibly easy to make despite how they look!

Anyone can get bakery-quality results at home and less expensive too. One thing I was always a sucker for was Italian bakery cookies. I admit that I’m a virtual bottomless pit when it comes to eating them. When I lived in New York City, they were easy to get–I had my fave Italian bakeries–but they are readily available. Where I live now, not so much so I would treat myself a couple of times a year with cookies from a Brooklyn bakery I’d frequent. However, having to pay $30-$40 per pound of cookies plus shipping got too rich for my blood.

This recipe was posted in one of my food groups on Facebook/ I was so glad this member posted it because now I make these in my own kitchen.

Piping Is Easy

Please trust me when I tell you I’m generally a klutz when it comes to using a pastry bag and tips. I won’t decorate a cake since it would be a disaster waiting to happen. However, this simple exercise with the bag and tip was easy. Just lay the tip touching the parchment at a 45-degree angle and squeeze to the desired length. I found about 3-inches to be a pretty good length.

The tip I used was a large star tip. The ones that come in starter decorator sets won’t do since they’re too small. A friend who’s a cake decorator gave me one but this large star tip is the one she gave me. You can also use a large round tip of approximately the same size. The star tip will just make the fancy ridges.

Flavor The Cookies

To keep the flavor neutral to play it safe if you don’t know people’s tastes, then use vanilla.

I’m a freak for anything almond flavored so I use almond extract. Especially if I’m using raspberry jam. The almond-flavored cookie along with the hint of raspberry with a dash of the chocolate is a real taste sensation.

The Recipe

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Jelly Bars

Classic Italian sandwich cookies

Prep Time30

Cook Time16

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Italian bakery cookies, Italian butter cookies, jelly bars

Servings: 18

Calories: 324kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 cup butter room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar icing sugar in UK
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2 tbs heavy cream

Filling/Decor

1 cup red jam
1 cup chocolate morsels
1/2 cup sprinkles

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Using a heavy-duty stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla, mixing well.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add gradually to the butter mixture, mixing well.
Add the heavy cream and mix just until incorporated. Add the dough to pastry bag. I used s very large star tip, but a plain round one about 1/2-inch/1.25-cm will do just as well.
Line baking sheets with parchment and pipe dough about 3-inches/7.5-cm long and about 2-inches/5-cm apart.
Bake for 14-16 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to get golden around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the sheet until firm enough to move to cooling racks.
To fill and decorate: Melt chocolate morsels in the microwave for 45 seconds; stir until smooth. They may need 10-15 seconds more if they're not completely melted.
Spread about 1 tablespoon of jam on flat bottom of one cookie. Top with the flat side of a plain cookie.
Dip the tip of each sandwich cookie in the melted chocolate then dip the chocolate part in the sprinkles.
Amount of cookies will vary with how big you want to make them. I got around 1 1/2 dozen sandwiches.

Nutrition

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Coquito

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 23:00:58 +0000

Coquito is traditional at Christmas but it’s a great drink for summer too.

Coquito: Not Just For Christmas

Although coquito is associated with Christmas, it’s so delicious shy not enjoy it year round?

I actually like this as a summertime beverage. It’s tropical flavors are perfect for a hot summer’s day. Since it’s easy to mix up, it’s ready in a jiffy.

My introduction to this delicacy was through a group of Puerto Rican friends. In fact, I didn’t know the real name of it because they just called it Puerto Rican egg nog. It was only years later that I learned the real name.

Rum Or No Rum

The traditional addition here is white rum. How much you add is up to you.

I don’t drink or if I do, it’s seldom. But this coquito is really delicious without alcohol added. That’s the way I prefer to drink it. Maybe it’s because I am totally into coconut. And trust me; it’s coconutty! In fact, this is so rich and good you may even want to substitute it for a meal–much like a smoothie. Not on a regular basis but as a sometimes thing.

Sweet/Additions

Here I will caution you that this is a pretty sweet drink. It’s also very rich. Truthfully I’m not really into overly sweet stuff, but this I have no problem whatsoever with. Probably because I love the flavor of condensed milk.

Anyway, there are a number of additions you can make besides the white rum. A bit of vanilla or cinnamon are common. You can also add a pinch of nutmeg as well. However, don’t go overboard with the nutmeg. A pinch for the whole batch would be what you’d use.

The Recipe

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Coquito

Traditional for Christmas, but great year round

Prep Time5

Cook Time0

Course: Beverages

Cuisine: American

Keyword: coconut eggnog, coquito, puerto rican eggnog

Servings: 6

Calories: 703kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

24 oz evaporated milk 2-12 oz cans
15 oz cream of coconut I.e. Coco Lopez
13.5 oz coconut milk 1 can
1/2 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup white rum optional
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Mix all ingredients in a bowl or blender until well combined.
Transfer to glass bottles, cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

Nutrition

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White Chocolate Fudge

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 00:00:36 +0000

White chocolate fudge is perfect for the holidays or any time.

White Chocolate Fudge–For The Holidays

Bark and fudge have become traditional for the winter holidays and you can see why.

The holidays are a time where most diets go out the window and people splurge. Heck, you can start that diet after New Years!

Since there are a great number of recipes for any flavor fudge–not only chocolate–out there, you have many from which to choose.

My love is white chocolate so naturally, that was my choice. I left mine undecorated, but there’s many festive holiday-colored sprinkles that can be used to make it more holiday specific.

Quick Fudge

I remember when “quick” fudge became all the rage. It was back in the 1960s sometime and it was actually a great way to make fudge, especially if you didn’t have a candy thermometer. It employs the use of marshmallow cream. About the only downside of the process is getting the marshmallow cream out of its jar. It’s thick and tenuous. A tip I can give is get as much as you can out of the jar before you start cooking the fudge. Put it on a paper plate and just scrape it off into the saucepan.

However, with this quick method, they ask you to do the cold-water test for “soft-ball” stage just to make sure your fudge will set. There’s a lot of variables with this which is why I only use it as a secondary test. I still use a candy thermometer.

There’s a recipe on the jar for fudge which you can change up flavorings as you see fit.

White Chocolate

You’ll want to make sure you use a high-quality product here because it will taste better.

Bypass those generic white chocolate chips; they should work but won’t taste as good. This is one time I say spend more because it’s worth it.

The Recipe

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White Chocolate Fudge

Excellent for the holidays or any other time

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Course: Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: holiday fudge recipe, quick fudge, white chocolate fudge

Servings: 58 (varies)

Calories: 101kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

12 oz white chocolate baking morsels
7 oz marshmallow fluff (1 jar)
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup evaporated milk (1 small can)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Line a 13 x 9-inch pan (metric is approximately 3L) with foil and spray with non-stick spray.
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the evaporated milk and the sugar.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and boil for 4-5 minutes. It's strongly suggested that you use a candy thermometer to see if the mixture is 235 F/113 C which is the temp for "soft-ball" stage. You can also test this by using the cold water method (see post).
Once the mixture is at soft-ball stage, add the entire 7 oz jar of fluff and the white chocolate chips. Stir until the morsels are melted and everything is well incorporated.
Spread it in the prepared pan and chill for at least 2 hours. Cut into squares of the desired size (up to you).

Notes

I cut them into 2-inch/5 cm squares on which the nutrition info was based, but bear in mind if you cut smaller/larger squares, the info is not accurate.

Nutrition

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Happy Holidays To All

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 00:00:07 +0000

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday!

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Shrimp Provençal

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:49 +0000

Shrimp provençal is a wonderful meal for Christmas Eve.

Shrimp Provençal: Just Sounds Fancy

Sounds fancy but it’s really easy!

“Provençal” just means “provincial.” While it may take on other meanings at times, in cooking that just means that it contains tomatoes and garlic. Simple as that.

This is a wonderful dish to serve on Christmas Eve as one of the “seven fishes.” It’s an Italian tradition to do fish on Christmas Eve, hence, the “seven fishes.” I grew up with this and even though I don’t have an Italian background, lots of my friends did. I used to love going over on Christmas Eve to share that tradition since I love fish and shellfish.

Tomatoes Fresh Or Canned

Fresh tomatoes work perfectly in this dish. You will have to skin, seed and juice them first though.

Everyone who follows me knows I recommend using fresh ingredients when it comes to veggies and herbs–except here I recommend using canned diced tomatoes; and definitely the fire roasted variety especially. The fire roasted ones give this just the flavor it needs. Do remember to drain the juice from the can otherwise the sauce will be too watery. Save that juice though. It can be used in soups, stews and many other recipes.

The Pasta

I used ziti here because I had some I wanted to use up. Any pasta shape will do here unless it’s huge, like rigatoni for instance.

This would even be nice served with spaghetti, fettuccine or linguine. Use what you have because it will work!

The only thing to keep in mind is remembering that the casserole is going to cook in a sauce so you want the pasta to be a bit under-done so it’s perfect after baking. Boiling it for about 2 minutes less than the package directions will be best.

The Recipe

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Shrimp Provencal & Ziti

Tasty and filling shrimp and pasta casserole

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: lenten meals, shrimp casseroles, shrimp with pasta and tomatoes

Servings: 6

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

8 oz uncooked ziti or penne
1 lb shrimp peeled and deveined
3 cloves garlic finely minced
3 tbs unsalted butter divided
1 tsp oil
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
1/4 tsp dill weed
2 tbs flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup half-and-half or whole milk
1 tbs lemon juice
14.5 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes drained
1/2 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cook ziti about 2 minutes less directions state; drain and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Heat a large, deep oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Add the oil and 1 tbs of the butter and heat until butter is bubbly.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the shrimp, parsley and dill. Cook until shrimp turns pink. Remove the shrimp from the pan and keep warm.
In the same pan, melt the remaining butter. Whisk in the flour and stir until no lumps remain. Cook for 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the chicken stock, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Whisk in the half-and-half and cook until it begins to bubble.
Add the drained tomatoes, lemon juice, grated cheese, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if desired.
Stir in the reserved shrimp and cooked ziti. Top with mozzarella cheese.
Transfer pan to the oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Notes

For EU/UK readers--"half-and-half" is an American dairy product which is 50% whole milk and 50% light/single cream. Whole (full-fat) milk can be substituted as stated in the recipe.

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Chewy Cranberry Orange Cookies

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:53 +0000

These chewy cranberry orange cookies are so addictive, you can’t stop at just one.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

You love the flavors in the quick bread and now enjoy the same cranberry orange flavor in a cookie!

Cranberry and orange are one of my favorite flavor combinations. It lends itself to a lot of dishes–sweet and savory. If you love the bread of the same flavor, you’ll flip for these cookies.

The basic batter can be used for any multitude of flavors and/or add-ins. That’s a real timesaver at holiday time. One basic batter, many different cookies. You can’t beat that.

And yes, they’re eggless.

The Secret Of Chewy

It’s not much of a secret once you know it! You can make any cookie chewy by doing just one thing: adding a teaspoon of cornstarch to every cup of flour called for. That’s it in a nutshell.

I like chewy cookies–always have–but especially now that my teeth are failing me. Crispy and dense is an accident waiting to happen (at least right now for me), so I love using this little trick with my cookies.

Since you can make any multitude of flavors just using this basic batter, anything you want to not have the chewy texture, merely leave the cornstarch out of the batter. It’ll work.

Better With Age

As if being delicious and easy wasn’t enough, these cookies get better as they sit.

Naturally, that’s because the essential oils in the orange zest need to mellow to get great flavor. So try very hard not to eat all of them the first day. That’s going to be hard, but trust me on this one. They’ll be better the day after. They’re also a good keeper as long as they’re stored air-tight. My best guess is they’ll last about a month stored that way. As I said, it’s a guess because I’ve never had these hanging around that long. In a couple of days, they’re usually solid gone!

The Recipe

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Chewy Cranberry Orange Cookies

Delicious and addictive cranberry orange cookies everyone will love

Prep Time20

Cook Time12

Course: cookies, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cookies for Santa, cookies that store well, cranberries in cookies, soft chewy cookies with fruit

Servings: 12

Calories: 358kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbs grated orange zest
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries i.e. Craisins

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven. To 350F/180C. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment
Beat cream cheese, butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and orange zest, beat to combine.
Mix the flour, salt, soda and corn starch and add to the cream cheese mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
Fold in the dried cranberries.
Drop by heaping tablespoonful onto prepared sheets, spacing about 1-in/2.5cm apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges just begin to become golden brown. Leave on the sheets for about a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Makes about 18-24 cookies.

Notes

For UK readers--light brown sugar is light muscovado sugar in UK

Video

Nutrition

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Roasted Balsamic Glazed Carrots

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:48 +0000

These roasted balsamic glazed carrots make a great holiday side dish.

Carrots: The Forgotten Veggie

No one really thinks of carrots when it comes to side dishes since no one really experiments with them.

Sure, we have buttered baby carrots and butter and brown sugar carrots, but how about something daringly gourmet and easy?

That’s where these roasted balsamic glazed carrots come in. Since carrots are naturally sweet, roasting them really brings out the flavor and when you pair them with a rich balsamic glaze, the flavor is off the charts.

They wow anyone who eats them so they’d make a great addition to your holiday table.

Enhance The Flavor

The basic recipe is awesome, but you can go to town adding additional flavors.

I tend to love orange accents with a lot of veggies so I added a little bit of orange zest to the glaze. To my taste, it brought out even more flavor. I’d also think they’d be great with a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon–use either (or both) sparingly. Remember you can always add more.

Also experiment with different herbs. I used thyme, but a bit of oregano or savory would be very good too. But remember to go easy with whatever you choose to use because the roasting gives superior taste and you only want to enhance that; not overpower it.

Prepping The Carrots

When preparing these roasted balsamic glazed carrots, make sure not to cut them too thick. About an inch (2.5 cm) is just about right. Too thin and they’ll burn at such a high temperature and the same is basically true for cutting too thick–although they’d be “roasted” on the outside but underdone on the inside.

And since the glaze they are tossed in contains melted butter, it’s best to have the carrots at room temperature or above when you toss them in the glaze. Otherwise, the butter will congeal and will not be distributed evenly over the carrots.

The Recipe

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Balsamic Glazed Carrots

Carrots can be gourmet and delicious!

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: carrot side dishes for the holidays, gourmet carrots, roasted carrots

Servings: 4

Calories: 141kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 lb carrots peeled and sliced on an extreme bias about 1-in/2.5-cm thick
1 tsp orange zest optional
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Glaze:

2 tbs melted unsalted butter
2 tbs honey
3 tbs balsamic vinegar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F/210C. Spray a large baking sheet with non- stick spray
Combine glaze ingredients in a large bowl. Add carrots and toss until well coated.
Spread carrots on prepared sheet. Sprinkle with salt, orange zest (if using) pepper and thyme.
Roast for 40 minutes, turning half way through cooking.

Nutrition

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Chocolate Mousse Cake

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 00:00:02 +0000

Would you believe this chocolate mousse cake is so easy to make?

Chocolate Mousse Cake: Elegant But Easy

This beautiful chocolate mousse cake makes such a spectacular presentation that it definitely belongs on your holiday table. Any holiday!

While it this cake looks like you fussed and slaved for hours, it’s so easy, you won’t believe it!

There’s nothing complicated with this recipe. Because it’s so simple to make, it’s the perfect dessert to serve to guests.

Chocolate mousse cake is a chocolate lover’s dream cake. And who doesn’t love chocolate?

Everyone will make room for this dessert so no worries there.

Use Good Chocolate

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s imperative here to use high-quality chocolate.

Milk chocolate won’t do here. You need a good dark chocolate for this cake. I used an imported one that was 60 per cent cacao. Don’t use anything with a higher percentage as it will make the cake too bitter. Sticking to the percentage I used is your safest bet but a good semi-sweet chocolate of around 50 per cent cacao will do nicely too.

As for melting, this is one time I chose not to use the microwave because you can easily overheat the chocolate. Instead, I melted it in a bowl over hot water. You can’t take the chance that it will become gritty. Since the melted chocolate goes in the mousse, not the cake, grittiness is something you want to avoid if you want the best texture.

Make The Cake Special

The base cake layer is a pretty generic-style chocolate cake. It’s not one of those super-moist ones for obvious reasons due to the mousse layer on top. It gets it’s intense chocolate flavor from cocoa. And another boon is you can make the cake base days in advance of actually completing the entire dessert.

You can make this very special by brushing the top of the cake with a nice brandy or orange liqueur. I used the orange one because I’m very fond of the combination of chocolate and orange. Do this while the cake is still warm so it will soak in without making holes with a toothpick. However, you can do it later; just poke some small holes over the top.

The use of anything alcoholic is optional. The cake is good without that addition too.

The Recipe

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Chocolate Mousse Cake

This elegant combination of chocolate cake and chocolate mousse is so easy, you'll make it often.

Prep Time20

Cook Time25

Chilling Time4

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chocolate mousse, chocolate mousse cake, easy chocolate desserts, holiday desserts

Servings: 8

Calories: 662kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

Cake:

1 oz cocoa powder
3 tbs boiling water
4 oz sugar
4 oz self-rising flour
4 oz very soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 tbs orange-flavored liquor or brandy optional
Fresh raspberries for garnish

Mousse:

11 oz semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 cups chilled heavy cream

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Grease bottom and sides of an an 8-inch/20cm springform pan and line the bottom and the sides with parchment. When you line the sides, you are making a collar that will be for later use when you top the cake with the mousse.
Place the cocoa in a large bowl. Stir in the boiling water and mix until a paste forms. Add the sugar, flour, butter and eggs. Beat until smooth.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan, leveling the top surface as best you can.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Brush the orange liqueur or brandy if using, over the top of the hot cake. Cool cake completely.
To make the mousse, place the chocolate morsels in a bowl and melt over a pan of gently simmering water, stirring until it's melted and smooth. Microwave melting is NOT recommended because this needs gentle even heat so the chocolate does not become grainy. Let the chocolate cool slightly.
Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold in the melted chocolate into the cream, making sure it's blended well and not streaky.
Spoon mousse on top of cooled cake and level the top. Chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Remove cake from pan and discard parchment. Place on a serving dish and dust with a bit of sifted cocoa. Top with raspberries and dust with confectioners/icing sugar.

Video

Nutrition

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Almond Rugelach

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 00:00:12 +0000

If you love rugelach but found them intimidating to make, you’ll love this recipe.

Everyone Loves Rugelach

We all love rugelach, but most of us are reluctant to make it. Some recipes are involved and so complicated that it’s just easier to buy them.

This rugelach recipe has no complicated ingredients. They’re easy to shape too. Even the almond filling is easy to make and uses common ingredients you can buy in any store.

And another great thing about these rugelach is they are considerably cheaper (and better) than anything you can buy.

They’re so easy, you’ll make them often.

Rich Almond Filling

I love all things almond, so naturally, I love rugelach with an almond filling.

You can buy it in a can, but it’s hard to get. The more readily available “almond filling” really isn’t useable for these rugelach because it’s way too liquidy. What you need is called “schmear.” That is what it’s called too but it’s not easy to get. Plus, it’s pretty expensive. Therefore, I make my own almond schmear copycat. That recipe will be enough for two batches of cookies. Don’t worry, that recipe is easy too!

If you’re not fond of almonds or are allergic, other fillings may be used too. A common filling is apricot. For that you can use the pastry filling you find in the baking aisle. But make sure it’s pastry filling and not pie filling. Pie filling won’t work because it’s not the proper consistency.

I wouldn’t advise using jams or jellies either. They’re likely to burn and would be way too sweet.

A simple cinnamon sugar is very nice for filling too. You do it just like you do for cinnamon rolls–brush the dough with melted butter then roll it up and cut it.

Shaping

Most of the time you see rugelach in crescent shapes. I split the dough up into 3-4 equal portions so I can chill/save what I’m not using.

I eliminate that complicated rolling and shaping simply by rolling out the dough in a rough rectangle then spreading the filling over the top. Then I just roll it up, jelly roll style–and it doesn’t matter if you roll from the short or long end–and cut it in 1-2-inch (2.5-5 cm) slices. Be careful to set the rugelach on the baking sheet with the plain dough side down. Don’t place them with the rolled side down!!!

The Recipe

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Almond Rugelach

Rich and delicious cookie for the holidays or any time

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Chill time1

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: almond cookie recipe, chanukah cookies, Christmas cookies, rugelach recipe

Servings: 20

Calories: 274kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz cream cheese cut into chunks
8 oz unsalted butter butter cut into chunks
1 recipe copycat almond schmear
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds optional
sanding sugar optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line a large baking sheet with parchment
Place the flour, salt, cream cheese and butter in bowl of food processor with metal blade. Process until a smooth dough forms, about 10 to 20 seconds.
Divide dough into 3 or 4 equal pieces and wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour before using.
on a lightly floured surface, roll a portion of dough to about 1/8-inch (0.32 cm) in a rough rectangle. Spread with about 3 tbs of the almond schmear. Sprinkle with about 2 tbs toasted almonds, if desired.
Roll up jelly roll style and cut into 1-2-inch (2.5-5 cm) slices. Place on prepared sheet plain dough side up—not the filling side. Sprinkle with additional toasted almonds and sanding sugar, if using.
Bake in a preheated 350ºF oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks. I got about 10 rugelach per dough portion.

Nutrition

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Tea Cookies

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:10 +0000

With holiday baking time upon us, you’ll really appreciate this recipe for tea cookies. They’re easy to make and you get 2 kinds!

Easy Cookies For The Holidays

The holidays are almost upon us to that means lots of baking. Lots of cookies too and this is a great recipe because you can do so many versions of it.

What’s also terrific about this cookie recipe is that it is easy. Who doesn’t want easy at the holidays or any other time? That answer is “nobody.”

Haul Out That Digital Scale

You need to drag out those digital scales for this one though. The recipe is European.

Now when I bake I mainly weigh ingredients because it’s just a heck of a lot easier and more importantly, you get consistent results when you weigh. Don’t be intimidated by weighing either.It’s easy with a digital scale.

Semolina Crunch

It seems odd that semolina is an ingredient in these tea cookies. However, it adds a little crunch and texture into the mix.

You can add some chocolate chips to this batter as well. I chose not to but do see the recipe notes for how much to add. I will say here that if you do add the chocolate chips then you might want to leave the semolina out and add a little bit more flour–that’s just my best guess as I have not done that. The original recipe does include the semolina for all varieties, so just be advised.

The Recipe

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Tea Cookies

One dough, 2 varieties of cookies.

Prep Time10

Cook Time12

Course: Snack

Cuisine: British

Keyword: almond cookies, Christmas cookies, cookies, easy cookie recipe, lemon cookies

Servings: 20

Calories: 145kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

6 oz flour
6 oz soft butter
2.5 oz sugar
2.5 oz semolina

For Almond Cookies (half the dough):

1 tsp almond extract
1.75 oz sliced almonds

For Lemon Cookies (half the dough):

Zest of 1 lemon
3 tbs demerara sugar or sanding sugar optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment.
Add the flour, butter, sugar and semolina in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly with electric mixer until it resembles the texture of fresh breadcrumbs and will hold together when pressed.
Divide dough in half. To one half mix in the almond extract and most of the almond slices; mix thoroughly. Divide dough into 20 balls. Place balls on prepared pan and press down with your fingers so that they are about 1/4-inch thick. Press a couple of sliced almonds in the center of each cookie.
To the remaining half of the dough, knead in the lemon zest. Roll into a log about 10-inches (25 cm) long. If using the demerara or sanding sugar, place the sugar on a plate and roll the log in the sugar. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes. After dough has chilled, cut the log into 20 /12-inch (1.25 xm) slices and place on the other prepared pan.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies start to brown around the edges. (Both varieties bake at the same temperature for the same amount of time.
Cool completely on the baking sheets.

Notes

Note: If you want just one variety, merely double the “add ins” above.

If you want chocolate chip cookies, mix in about 50 g/1.75 oz of chocolate morsels.

Nutrition

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