So sorry about the long wait! You know the holidays. Rush, rush, rush. So i supposed I'd better start out with the items i bakes for Thanksgiving. To begin, i only made two items. Rugelach cookies and lemon meringue pie. Rugelach is a type of cookie originating somewhere in the Middle East. I have had people from Iraq tell me they are Iraqi cookies and people from Israel say they are Israeli and books tell me they are Jewish, but it is always somewhere in the Middle East so that is all i can tell you about their background. The recipe I use may not be quiet as authentic as you might find in the Middle East, but some personal friends of mine from Iraq say the recipe is very authenic.
It is a small cookie in the shape of a cresant with a chocolate filling most commonly but it can have other fillings as well. To make it you simly mix up the dough, refidgerate it for awhile, roll it out, spinkle the filling, cut into wedges and roll. If you are feeling lazy or are in a hurry, you can skip the wedges, roll, and then cut, making the cookies more of a pinwheel than a cresant. Be careful of adding too much filling or the cookie will be messy. It is absolutely delicious. The dough is sweet and soft, and so creamy (probably a result of the cream cheese) and the filling is chocolately with a hint of cinnomin making the chocolate filling irrisistable.
Also for Thanksgiving I made a Lemon Merinque Pie, which was fairly simple. I used a premade piecrust and a box mix Cook & Serve Lemon Pudding for the filling. The recipe for the pie can be found on the box.
A few weeks later and its Christmas time! Jesus gets a lot of baking on his birthday! I personally made three types of cookies; gingerbread, candy cane cookies, and peanut kisses. Only the candy cane cookie recipe will be published on this website because they are family recipes, but I will give tips. When making any cookie dough where you have to shape it, such as candy canes and gingerbread, make sure it reaches the right consistency. If it is too soft or gooey it will be hard to work with but if you add too much flour it will be dry and crumbly. If you should happen to have dough too gooey and soft, just add some more flour but be careful not to add to much. You can also try wrapping it in plastic and sticking it in the fridge to harden up. If you add too much flour try adding more water, but again be careful not to add to much. If you happen to rip or tear your dough you can wet your fingers and stick the dough back together.
As for the peanut butter kisses, all I can say is make sure the cookie dough is fully or close to fully cooked before adding the kisses to it. If you add the chocolate too early you will have to bake it longer and will burn the chocolate. The lovely thing about chocolate is that in most cases it will hold its shape no matter how long it's cooked but it can still burn and nobody likes burnt chocolate. If you should happen to add the chocolate too early you can always put a piece of foil over top of the cookies. This will trap the heat so as to cook the cookies but not keep it in too long so that the chocolate burns.
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday Jesus, and a Happy New Year!
