Chocolate, Nut & Spice Cookies

I am a third-generation cookie baker. From my grandmother, to my mother and her sisters, and then down to myself and my sister, wintertime is cookie time! If there's a smell that makes me think of the holidays, it's the delicious aroma of freshly-baked cookies.

The traditional flavors of baked treats during the cold months of the year reflect what's available during the winter: dried fruits (cranberries, apricots), nuts (almonds and walnuts), spices (cinnamon and ginger), and exotic ingredients (chocolate and liqueurs). Many of these recipes are sweet enough to please the kids, but refined enough that adults will love them too!

Here is a collection of cookie recipes that reflect those tastes. Check out the options for delicious Gingerbread, Cranberry, Liqueur Cookies and more. There's even a special section on Gluten-Free Cookies!

I was introduced to this cookie at a holiday gathering in 2009 and brought a few home for the family.  My sister shared them with a friend of hers who is gluten-intolerant and she immediately came back to me, asking for the recipe.  They are amazing fresh out of the oven!  The traditional German name for this cookie is "Zimtsterne."  Note:  you will need to chill this cookie dough overnight!

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 4 C. powdered sugar
• 4 C. unbleached almond meal (this can be bought at Trader Joe's)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• some additional powdered sugar
• a 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter
  

Beat the egg whites using an electric mixer until you get stiff peaks. Then add the powdered sugar and mix until well blended, about five minutes.  Remove 1/2 cup of this mix to use for the powdered sugar icing. Put it in a container, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator.

To the remaining egg white/sugar mix, add the cinnamon and almond meal, and blend thoroughly. When all the ingredients are mixed, put the dough into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. If you do not do this, the dough will be too sticky to work with.

To Make The Cookies:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Remove the icing that was saved in the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature.

Sprinkle some powdered sugar on the kitchen counter or on wooden cutting board. Using your hands, pat out the chilled dough until it is about 1/4 inch in thickness. Using a star-shaped cookie cutter that has been dipped in powdered sugar, cut out your star cookies. Re-roll and pat out the dough again until you have cut as many cookies as you can.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, and place the cookies on it.  Spread a thin layer of icing over the raw cookies. Bake for about 18 minutes.

These are a cookie that I like to bake around Samhain and Day of the Dead. A goddess temple mailing list that I was on had a posting about making remembrance cookies. The cookie recipe was very similar to others that I had. My sister remarked they were almost exactly like what we grew up calling "the Chanukah cookies." We laughed over that one. The rosemary I use for this comes from an bush in my own yard. It's

Ingredients for Remembrance Cookies:

• 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 c. butter or margarine (softened)
• 1 egg
• 2 t. vanilla
• 1 t. almond extract
• 2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 T. chopped rosemary

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, beat together your sugar, butter, egg, vanilla extract, almond extract, and rosemary until creamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

3. Then gently fold flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Beat until dough forms and refrigerate for three hours.

4. Roll out a portion of the dough to 3/16 of an inch on a floured surface. Be careful of handling the dough too much, the higher butter content makes it too soft once it starts to really warm up.

5. Cut out desired shapes and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat rolling and cutting others portions of the dough. You can save the dough wrapped in plastic wrap and make cookies the next day too.
6. Bake for 5-7 minutes. If the edges are burning, cook for less time or roll out your dough a bit thicker.

The version of the recipe that I read suggested that the cookies be cut out into little people shapes. I decided that a nice autumnal shape would be to make them like leaves. A local store had a set of little cookie cutters, so most of the cookies I baked were in fact three-leaf clusters, some matching and some contrasting. I split the dough into different portions before chilling it. Once chilled, I colored each ball a different color with organic food color. It rolled out and cut best when chilled again after coloring. The natural tones went well with the leaf shapes too.

Some of the cookies baked are left outside as an offering and the rest are suitable for eating by everyone!