Merry Christmas Cookies from Mamapedia!

Here at Mamampedia “HQ”, we had a cookie swap, and we wanted to share a little of the fun with you. If you bake any of these recipes, please leave us a comment. Happy Holidays to everyone from all of us on the Mamapedia Team!

Angela whipped up Chocolate-Espresso Snowcaps

(Recipe from Martha Stewart)

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 teaspoons instant espresso
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, for coating

Directions

• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well combined; mix in cooled chocolate. With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients; beat in milk just until combined. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar twice.
• Place balls on prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 18

Artie bakes… who knew? Blueberry Mochi

• 1 lb. mochiko (sweet rice flour)
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 can 12 oz. evaporated milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 can blueberry pie filling, partially drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir sugar into melted butter. Add milk, and mix well. Add eggs, and mix. Stir in baking powder, mochiko and vanilla. Pour into an ungreased 9×13" pan. Fold in the blueberry pie filling, to create a marbelized look. Bake at 350 for 1 hour, or until a test toothpick comes out clean.

Sarah’s delicious Maple Pecan Cookies

(Adapted from Gourmet)

For cookies:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

For icing:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon butter, softened
• 4 Tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 to 1 1/2 Tablespoons milk

Whole pecans to garnish

1. In a standing mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in maple syrup and egg yolk until mixture is combined well.
2. Sift together salt and flour over mixture and stir into maple mixture.
3. Roll dough into 12" log. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 2 hours. Dough may be made 4 days ahead and chilled.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut dough into 1/8 inch thick slices. Arrange cookies on buttered or parchment lined baking sheets.
5. Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are golden, about 12 minutes, and transfer to racks to cool.
6. While cookies are baking, make icing: sift powdered sugar into a bowl. Cream butter into sugar. Stir in maple syrup and vanilla. Add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until icing is the consistency of a thick glaze.
7. Spread a little bit of icing over each (cooled!) cookie and top with a whole pecan. Makes at least 5 dozen

Cookies keep in airtight containers 1 week.

Julie made her Mom’s Shortbread (Thanks Mom!)

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
  Optional: dark or semi sweet chocolate for drizzling over the top

Cream slightly softened butter, and add sugar. Add flour gradually and mix well. Turn the mixture into a 8" cake pan., pressing it well, and flute the edges. Bake at 325 degrees until light sandy brown. Do not remove from the pan until fully cooled, but cut the pieces while it’s hot.

If desired melt chocolate over a low heat, thin with a small amount of butter and drizzle over the cooked shortbread.

Justin’s zingy Molasses Spice Cookies

This is a modified version of the Cooks Illustrated recipe (basically, add more of all the spices).

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 12 Tbsp butter (1 1/2 sticks butter)
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 dark molasses

The spices:

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
• 1 tsp kosher salt

Preparation:
Let the butter sticks soften while you get everything else together.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the flour, baking soda, and spices and salt and set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed.
Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat on low speed for around 20 seconds.
Add the molasses and beat on low speed for around 20 seconds. Use the spatula to scrape around the bowl and make sure everything is incorporated. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just barely mixed. Use the spatula to scrape around and make sure there are no unstirred pockets of flour.

Set out two bowls- one with water and one with granulated sugar. Dip your hands in the water so the dough won’t stick to them, then roll balls of dough (around 1.5" diameter, the size of a large gumball maybe) and drop them in the sugar and roll them until covered. Space cookies about 2" apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake cookies for around 11 minutes (halfway through, turn the cookie sheet 180 degrees). They will still look a little raw at the 11 minute mark; that’s okay, they really are done. Note: you can only bake one sheet at a time – if you pop in a second sheet on the lower rack, the texture suffers a lot.

Mary’s Snickerdoodles were a hit

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl.
Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture. Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl. Scoop 1 inch globs of dough into the sugar/ cinnamon mixture. Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture. Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet, and bake 10 minutes. Remove from pan immediately.