My grandson is coming over today, so I decided to make some Christmas Cookies for him to enjoy after dinner or before dinner or during dinner, whatever.
What I did is use a recipe, unwritten, of course, and stored in my head from my Mom when she baked a specific Jewish dish called Hamentoshen. It consists of the following:
1. 1 cup of butter which equals 2 sticks of butter.
2. 1 cup of sugar
3. 1 tbs of vanilla
4. zest of 1 orange
5. zest of 1 lemon
6. 1 package of Philly cream cheese
7. 2 eggs
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
Make sure the butter and cream cheese is softened for a mixer.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
Cream together the above ingredients until they are smooth.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
Add 3 cups of sifted all purpose flour until a smooth dough and texture is achieved. The dough should not be sticky and easy to roll. If it appears sticky, then add a little bit of flour until you have the texture you are looking for.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
Roll the dough into one inch balls and place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Using your thumb, punch an impression deep enough to hold some preserves of your choice. I used peach and strawberry. Then place a 1/2 teaspoon of preserves into the depression.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
Preheat your oven for 375 degrees. Place the cookie tray into the oven and bake for 23 minutes.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
When you remove the cookies, place the tray on a wire rack to cool for a few minutes, then, move to a serving plate.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
After 15 minutes sprinkle the cookies with powdered confection sugar.
![Grin ;D](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif)
Then give them to someone else to eat because they are as fattening as hell.
![Undecided :-\](https://letstalkbbq.com/Smileys/akyhne/undecided.gif)
My wife is my taster and she said they were good. Here's a few pictures of the process.
![](http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l494/edsigman/IMG_20131208_115906_886.jpg)
![](http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l494/edsigman/IMG_20131208_115914_885.jpg)
![](http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l494/edsigman/IMG_20131208_120530_498.jpg)
![](http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l494/edsigman/IMG_20131208_115923_601.jpg)
![](http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l494/edsigman/IMG_20131208_131307_401.jpg)
And, it gave me another opportunity to use this big fellow which made the results very easy!
![](http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l494/edsigman/IMG_20131208_121242_384.jpg)
Thanks for looking.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! (not happy holidays)
Ed