Monthly Archives: December 2016

Merry Christmas!

Sugar Cookies, Cran-Rasp Pinwheels, Gluten-Free Chocolate Spritz, Nut Balls, Cheesecake Stuffed Gingerbread, Browned Butter Apple Cider Shortbread

It’s just a few days before Christmas, and I am finally back in town for a little while. I will have to get some pictures of this last project together to share with you all soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to quickly share with you the cookies I made for Christmas this year. It is a shorter list than most years, since I didn’t have much time for baking. But, if you are still looking for a few ideas for this weekend, here you go!

Starting in the upper left corner, and moving clockwise:

Cheesecake Stuffed Gingerbread

Basic Sugar Cookies, decorated as snowflakes

Gluten-Free Chocolate Spritz

Nut Balls/ Russian Tea Cakes

Cran-Raspberry Pinwheels

Browned Butter Apple Cider Shortbread with Salted Caramel Drizzle

I hope you find something here that sounds good and give them a try. The Nut Balls are a long-time family favorite. I have used plain raspberry, plain cranberry, and this year a cran-raspberry filling for the pinwheels and they are always a hit. They look fancy, but are really pretty simple to make.

And the newcomer this year is the shortbread – browned butter, apple cider, and topped with a salted caramel drizzle. They were the absolute favorite of most of the people I shared them with. I had pinned a recipe for browned butter shortbread, and then I saw a recipe for apple cider shortbread. I decided they needed to be combined. And then I saw Wilton’s salted caramel candy melts (Hershey’s just came out with a salted caramel baking chip as well), and figured it was a natural match. It was a very good idea.

 

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!