Christmas Baking Extravaganza!!

Right after we returned from Vegas I had to kick it into high gear! Christmas is fast approaching and I needed to start getting ready and getting my treat buckets mailed out. Plus, my in laws were set to arrive Thursday Dec 17, with Tony's Master's graduation on Sat Dec 19, so I really needed to get everything done! So I began baking Monday night and finished Wednesday night. I began with 5 dozen sugar cookies. The recipe is as follows, and is the same recipe for the reindeer cookies, I will talk about further down, the additional ingredients for them are listed in parenthesis.

Basic sugar cookie dough (taken from Publix Family Style Magazine, Winter 2008):
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour

Additional ingredients for reindeer cookies:
(1/4 unsweetned cocoa powder)
(128 tiny pretzel twists)
(128 semi sweet or milk chocolate chips)
(64 red M&M candies)

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer  on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking soda and salt and beat until combined.

2. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour as possible with the electric mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.

3. Divide dough in half and chill for 2 hours. I went ahead and wrapped each dough ball in some saran wrap and chilled it overnight.

To make the cut out cookies use additional flour to sprinkle on surface, sprinkle additional flour on dough and roll out using rolling pin to about 1/4 in thickness and cut out with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool on cooling racks.

Then I made the glaze, which I apply to the cooled cookies with a paint brush.

Frosting Glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl mix ingredients, adding more milk or water as necessary until desired consistency is reached.

Makes about 1 3/4 cups

Tuesday I then piped on the designs. I used a different frosting recipe, because I felt the glaze was too watery and not holding up so well when it was being piped, so the decorating icing is as follows.

Sugar cookie frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup shortening
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon almond extract
food coloring (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, beat together powdered sugar, shortening, water, and almond extract. Add food coloring if desired.
2. Spread frosting on cookies and, if desired, top with sprinkles.

So after the sugar cookies were made, now it was time for reindeer cookies!! These are seriously the cutest things I have ever seen! I just had to make them. They came from the same Publix magazine, at step 2 in the basic sugar cookie recipe you add in 1/4 cup coca powder with the flour. Divide the dough in half and chill for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Shape each half of dough into an 8 inch square. I wasn't quite sure how to do this, so I sprayed down the inside on my 8 x 8 Pyrex dish with some Pam and pressed the dough into in to get the square shape and then flipped it out onto the counter. Cut each square into 16 2-inch squares. Halve each square diagonally to make a triangle. I went ahead and used my handy bash 'n' chop blade thingy to cut the dough.

 

Then place the triangles 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, I put parchment down on all my cookie sheets when baking so I can easily transition between batches without the cookies sticking to the bottom of the pan. For each reindeer, place 2 tiny pretzel twists just under the long edge of the triangle for antlers. Place a red M&M in the point opposite the antlers for the nose. Add semi sweet or milk chocolate chips for the eyes. Bake about 8 minutes or until set. Remove and cool on wire racks. Makes 64 cookies.

Before going in the oven:

After:

I then moved on to avalanche brownies! See, I told you there was a lot of baking! The avalanche brownies were probably the easiest thing I made, so simple and so yummy!!

Avalanche Brownies (from Woman's Day Holiday Cookies):

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips

8 peppermint candy canes, crushed (I used 16 mini candy canes)

1 10 oz bag mini marshmallows

1 12 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips, melted.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13x9x2 inch baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, butter, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir until smooth. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, then stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

4. While brownies are still hot, sprinkle the top half of the crushed candy canes, followed by the marshmallows and the remaining crushed candy canes. Drizzle with melted chocolate chips. Cool. Cut with a sharp knife.

Okay, one more recipe and then I'll show you the treat buckets! Finally, I decided to make some gingerbread men. I have never made gingerbread in my life, but I got a super cute new gingerbread boy cookie cutter, so I just had to try it out!

McCormick Gingerbread Men:

3 cups flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

Frosting Glaze recipe from above, and red and green M&Ms.

1. Mix flour, finger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg; beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disc. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

2. Roll out dough to 1/4 in thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with a cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

3. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 8-10 minutes or until edges are set. Cool on cookie sheets 1-2 minutes. Remove to wire cooling racks; cool completely. Decorate as desired.

I piped on the faces using the frosting glaze recipe from above, and then made buttons out of the M&Ms.

Finally, it was time to assemble the treat buckets! Whew! I am tired and if you made it this far, bravo to you!! So I saw this adorable idea in the Woman's Day Holiday Cookies magazine, that I just had to try. Basically you buy an empty, brand new silver gallon paint bucket, and then cover it with holiday themed scrap paper, cut out the holes for the handles on the sides using a craft knife, and then cut out the paper in a circle to cover the lid. I used double stick tape to stick it all on. Then filled the buckets with parchment paper and the treats, tied a ribbon around it and put a gift tag on it, and they were ready to be mailed off to the family! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of them completely done with the ribbons and tags, but I was pressed for time...