Christmas cooks make nice for Santa

Editors note: This story originally ran in the Big Sandy Mountaineer a week ago. Our faithful reporter Robby Lucke and Mountaineer cohort Leslie Gregory did a fantastic job and we wanted to share it with our readers.

When Leslie Gregory suggested that we do a story about Christmas cookies, I cringed. I cannot bake. No exactness about what I cook. But that is exactly what Leslie can do is stick to the directions and come out with some great cookies.

At the Big Sandy Christmas Stroll crafters had all manners of wonderful and glorious goodies to sample and give as Christmas presents or at the very least, delicate Christmas stocking stuffers.

There was another group of crafters who sold their wares from the Senior Citizen's Center and they had some of the best Christmas treats ever!

One who got an amazing amount of raves was Karma Hale who sold truffles stuffed with peanut butter, cherries and caramel centers. I heard about them all week long. Karma said she is still trying to catch up on orders she has to get completed by Christmas. Yes truffles are technically candy, but they count as Christmas cookies too. Anything that good has to! My aunt Jan made the most wonderful divinity candy that you can imagine!

There are Snow Balls, which are also called Mexican Wedding Cakes, thumb print cookies filled with raspberry jelly, all kinds of bar cookies with swags and sprinkles of chocolate and caramel swirled all over the top and sides of them.

There is divinity, all kinds of fudge, taffy, peanut brittle, all kinds of mocha and that is just for openers.

We said we needed a recipe here and there in this story so here is the first one of them. Today in a little magazine called "Relish" they had a recipe for a basic bar cookie that is made simply from a white cake mix.

Basic bar cookie dough

1 15oz box white cake mix

½ cup or one stick of butter, softened

3oz package of cream cheese softened

1 egg

In a large bowl place the cake mix, butter, cream cheese and egg. Using an electric mixer on medium beat 2 to 3 minutes stopping once to scrape down the bowl. For all recipes preheat oven to 350. Grease or spray the bottom and sides of a 13 by 9 inch pan. Bake until completely done. Let cool. Cut, and then decorate. Then add your caramel swirls or your four chocolate swirls coving the sides and top of the cookies. Sprinkles go well but they must stick on so put them on with a sauce that will harden and hold everything else on.

Having said all that, let's go exploring the wonderful world of Christmas Cookies a little more.

Christmas cookies go back a long, long way. Here is some history about those wonderful pieces of decorated dough.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Why do we eat cookies for Christmas? For lots of

people, it's not Christmas without cookies. Our kids leave cookies out for Santa, we spend weeks baking and decorating our cookies, and there's always a cookie plate at any party. The gingerbread man has become synonymous with Christmas. But how did cookies come to be such an important symbol of Christmas?

COOKIE TREES

Germans are responsible for associating Christmas trees with Christmas cookies. As early as 1597, Alsatians hung oblaten (decorated communion wafers) on their tannenbaums. Americans hung Barnum's Animal Cracker boxes on trees in the 1800s (the boxes were designed for this purpose). Today some people hang faux gingerbread men on their trees, continuing the tradition.

CUT-OUT COOKIES

In the more recent history of Christmas cookies, cut-out cookies are now almost universally associated with the holidays in the US. We can trace these cookies back to mumming, a Christmas tradition in colonial areas where the Church of England was influential. In mumming, Christmas stories were acted out and food was used to help depict the stories. Yule dows were cut-outs made in this tradition, often in the shape of the baby Jesus.

In the 1800s, Pennsylvania Dutch children created large cut out cookies as window decorations. Around this same time, Yule dows became popular again and were called Yule dollies. They were made with tin cutters and shaped like people, elaborately decorated with icing (like today's gingerbread men). The face was always made out of a scrap of paper cut out of magazines, which had to be removed before the cookie was eaten. They were controversial because some factions felt the cookies were not religious enough (i.e., not depicting Jesus).

In the 1840s, Santa became associated with Christmas and dollies representing him, with a scrap face, were made. Some of these cookies were so beautifully decorated that they weren't actually meant to be eaten (like today's gingerbread houses). Yet another connection to Santa comes from the Dutch, who believed that pepernoten cookies were thrown around on Christmas by Black Peter, Saint Nicholas's helper.

MORAVIAN COOKIES

Moravians were a Protestant sect that formed in the 1740s and were known for creating pyramids of cookies as Christmas decorations for their Christmas Eve services. Today, spicy Moravian cookies are part of Christmas for many people.

COOKIES FOR SANTA

Ever wondered why size-challenged Santa is left cookies to fuel him on his one-night journey? Historians believe the tradition Cookies began during the Great Depression, as a way for parents to encourage generosity in their children. The tradition stuck, and Santa isn't in danger of needing a smaller suit any time soon.

Here are some Christmas Cookie Favorites:

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

ADD CHECKED ITEMS

TO GROCERY LIST

Directions

Watch how to make this recipe.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Mexican Wedding Cookies or Snowball Cookies

INGREDIENTS

SERVINGS 36 YIELD

3 dozen UNITS

1

cup butter, softened

1⁄2

cup powdered sugar

1

teaspoon vanilla

2 1⁄4

cups sifted flour

1⁄4

teaspoon salt

3⁄4

cup chopped walnuts

powdered sugar (for rolling baked cookies in)

DIRECTIONS

. Cream together butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy; stir in vanilla.

. Whisk together flour and salt; add gradually to butter mixture; stir in chopped nuts.

. Chill dough if it seems too soft.

. Form dough into 1 1/4" balls and place onto parchment-lined or ungreased baking sheets.

. Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes or just until the cookies start to turn light golden-brown; remove from oven and allow to cool slightly; while cookies are still warm (but NOT hot) remove them from baking sheets and roll, a few at a time, in powdered sugar until evenly coated; cool cookies completely on wire racks.

. Cookies may (optionally) be rolled in powdered sugar a second time once cooled to room temperature.

. NOTE: Forming dough into 1" balls will increase yield to 48 cookies.