Letha's
I have no idea why these are called Letha's. I do have a wonderful Aunt Letha, but these cookies have nothing to do with her. I was given this recipe 20+ years ago by a friend here in Newton, though I am not positive now just which friend. These are the soft chewy lightly spiced cookie from yesterday's post.
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
pinch of ground cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Cream together the sugars and shortening till light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each. Sift together the dry ingredients and stir them in. Drop onto parchment lined cookie sheets with small scoop. Bake 6-7 minutes at 350 degrees until cookies begin to firm up around the edges but are still soft in the center. Remove from oven and let set on pans till cookies begin to cool and are firm. These cookies freeze well.
White Chocolate, Chocolate Cookies
This is the reverse of the chocolate chip cookie. It is a rich dark chocolate cookie that is good with any flavor of chips. I have made them with white, mint, butterscotch, peanut butter chips. Yesterday's photo had mint chips and I have also used Andes Mint bits. They are really good no matter how you make them!
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups white chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. (I always use parchment paper.)
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine the cocoa, flour, and baking soda and gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. (I use my medium cookie scoop.)
Bake for 8 minutes until puffy but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. (I actually remove to sheets of wax paper on the counter.)
Cream Wafers
I found this recipe over 30 years ago and have been making it at Christmas time ever since. It is two little pastry like wafers with a layer of rich frosting in between. This is a VERY labor intensive cookie, but oh, so worth it! It is always easier to do with a buddy. This year my cream wafer helper was my niece Hannah. We had a ton of fun and made two batches.
2 cups flour
1 cup softened butter
1/3 cup whipping cream
sugar for coating
Measure flour into large mixing bowl. Add butter and gently mix to break up the butter. Begin gradually adding in cream while continuing to mix until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Chill for about 1 hour or until firm.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll small amounts of dough to about 1/8 inch thick and cut into circles with small round cutter. (I use the removable center of a doughnut cutter, which is about an inch in diameter.) Put some sugar into a shallow bowl or a shallow pan like a pie plate. Place cut circles in the sugar and shake a bit to coat. (Some sugar will stick but they won't exactly be coated.) Place on ungreased baking sheet and prick with a fork. Bake 7-8 minutes, till puffed, but not brown. Remove from cookie sheets after a few minutes, then cool completely before frosting the flat side of one cookie and topping it with another.
Cream Filling
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. milk
Thoroughly mix the butter and powdered sugar. Add vanilla and milk and mix well. (I always tint this frosting pink. I don't know why, but I always have and it is pretty.)
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| I often roll out a bit more dough than pictured, but you can see the cutter is little and the dough is thinly rolled. I like to use a floured pastry cloth. |
Strawberry Santas
Do your best to find nice red strawberries in December. I would say we got lucky!
I mixed 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese with 1/3 cup powdered sugar then folded in about 1/2 carton of Cool Whip (that's what I had leftover from something else). Slice off the tip of the strawberry after it has been washed, dried and stemmed. Cut out a bit of the strawberry.
Put the filling in a pastry bag and pipe into the berry and put the top back on!
We planned to use a small tip and add a white pom on the top of the "hat" and some white buttons, but I forgot to bring the small tip. I also bought some little chocolate sprinkles for "eyes", but we decided they were just fine the way they were. Delicious little Christmas goodness! We will certainly make those again.
Santa Bread
I saw this on a Facebook page called "Slice Of Life" and thought it was really cute. I made five of them this year to share with friends and family. Maybe next year I will abandon the cookies and just make Santa Bread! Ha! That will never happen. I tried to find the link, but couldn't. I will look deeper and post it when I find it.
Mom's Caramels
This will have to be a post of its own along with stories about Mom. Some day.
Soup
I made this using what I had at the time, which I often do. Hence, no two batches are alike. This one had chicken broth and tomatoes which I had in my freezer. I added chopped celery, leaves and all, chopped onion, a grated zucchini, strips of mini peppers of every color, parsley, oregano, basil, and let this all cook for a while, till the veggies were all softened. I then added a little handful of skinny noodles and a couple of leaves of kale cut into ribbons.
I probably would have added some corn or a can of beans but didn't have any on hand. Use whatever you have and you will have some yummy soup.
I almost forgot, I had a dab of leftover pizza sauce (maybe 1/3 cup). It went in the soup, too.
More To Come
As we approach Valentine's Day I will post the recipe for Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Cut Out Cookies. I really like sugar cookies and I am toying with playing around with Royal Icing, so I will share what I come up with. I need a few weeks to de-Christmas my body before I start baking for another holiday!
Psalms 34:8 ~ Oh taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.
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