It’s Holiday Season!! Even if you’re watching what you eat, this is the time when those good habits seem to go out the window. Wait!  Home-made cookies can give you the taste of treats you want with some healthy goodness and portion control.  Making, sharing, or serving homemade cookies is a way to show others you care.  Making and decorating them with family or friends can be as much fun as eating, even for the smaller family members.

Use cookie cutters for shapes or draw a shape on wax paper and trace it on the cookie dough. 

Basic Sugar Cookies for Decorating: Recipe 

   Ingredients

• 1 &1/3cup butter, softened at room temperature

• 1 & 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 large eggs, room temperature

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 3 &1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

   To Make:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

• In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs & vanilla; mix well. Sieve combined flour, baking powder, and salt over the creamed mixture and mix well.  

• Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease and flour a baking sheet Using a small scoop, scoop cookie dough on to baking sheet. Gentle roll the scooped dough into balls & pat down slightly.  Use cookie cutters or a wax paper pattern to cut out shapes.  With a floured spatula, transfer cookies to greased baking sheets. 

• Bake at 350° until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

• Decorating: See the video Make a decorating tube from a plastic bag or use a paintbrush. 

(Decorating paste recipe below)

With cookies, it’s taste, taste, taste. Without missing a bite of yummy, you can add a touch of health to your Holiday cheer. (See Tips Below) Make cookies a week ahead & store them in airtight containers with wax paper between the layers. (More recipes below) 

Now all you have to think about is caring and sharing. It’s what the Holidays are all about!

Feliz Navidad          Habari Gani              Hanukkah Sameach          Merry Christmas  

RECIPE: Jingle Bell Cookies

Pop-in-your-mouth Delicious with healthy coconut & dates

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates, (8 ounces)

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 cups toasted rice cereal, such as Rice Krispies

• 1 cup shredded coconut

To Make  Combine butter, sugar and dates in a large saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter is melted, the sugar is no longer white and the dates are mostly melted, 8 to 15 minutes. The mixture should be a shiny, brown sticky mass. Remove from the heat.

2. Add salt, vanilla, rice cereal and coconut; stir well to combine.

3. When cool enough to handle, squeeze and roll the mixture into 1-inch balls. Place on a wax paper-lined baking sheet or plate. Refrigerate until chilled.

Gingerbread Cookies: ”Lightened-up” recipe with fewer calories, but real gingery taste

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

• 1 egg

• 1/3 cup dark molasses

• 3 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp ground ginger

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp allspice

• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

To Make: Preheat oven to 350°F.

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and applesauce until smooth. Add the egg and molasses, mix well.

• In another large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and spices. Add to sugar and molasses mixture, stirring well.

• Divide the dough into two flat balls; cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

• Roll out dough on generously floured work surface, one ball of dough at a time, keeping the other refrigerated.

• Roll the dough out to 1/4 or 1/8-inch thickness, sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough if it's a little sticky.  Cut with a cookie cutter shape of your choice.

• Put cookies 1 or 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined 

• Bake 10-12 minutes.

Tips & Tricks

Decorating Paste for Sugar Cookies or Gingerbread Men: Make a paste…thin enough to spread, and thick enough to stick… using 1/2 cup soft butter, 1 & 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla or other flavoring extract.  Use separate bowls to add food coloring.  If “painting” with a brush, slightly thin paste with a bit of milk.

Healthy additions

• Nuts add extra crunchy taste & health: Almonds have more calcium than milk; pecans have vitamins A, B, and E plus lots of those minerals you need.

• Dates, naturally sweet, have minerals our diets often lack, fiber, and antioxidants

• Cut The Calories with Applesauce & Up the Taste

Substitute applesauce for eggs OR butter/oil. Replace Either the Eggs OR The butter and oil in your cookies with Applesauce

• One egg = ¼ cup of applesauce

• Oil or butter: Use the same amount of applesauce instead of the oil or butter ( 1/4 cup of applesauce = 1/4 cup of oil or butter). 

• Crispy Cookies: Use applesauce in place of eggs or use applesauce to replace ½ the butter or oil.

• Soft, Chewy Cookies: Use applesauce to replace butter

Storing Cookies: Different kinds need different containers

Cool COMPLETELY before storing.

• Soft cookies: Store in an airtight container with a piece of bread to keep them soft

• Crunchy cookies: Store in cookie jar

• Iced or delicate cookies: Store in an airtight container in single layers with a sheet of wax paper, aluminum foil, or even a tortilla between the layers

Cookie Share Party with your family or friends. Exchange cookies or make them together.  Kids love to help.  A festive way for busy neighbors to gather, have some fun & get ready for the Holidays.  

More Cookie Delights:

• Orange Spice Molasses Cookies https://www.sweetrecipeas.com/2020/10/29/orange-spice-molasses-cookies/

• Ginger Cookies https://www.bakerita.com/chewy-ginger-orange-cookies/