12 Days of Christmas: Visions of Sugarplums

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...COOKIES!!!  Those of you who know me, know that I have been known to forgo a regular meal for pretty much ANY kind of homemade cookie.  I love to bake, and making Christmas treats is one of my favorite things to do with my kids and for my family and friends.

I have three DELISH treats that always make it into the rotation.  (And psst...one of the family recipes, Aunt Lolly's Lemon Drops, has NEVER been shared with the general public. I love that I'm typing this as if more than three people read this. :)  SO! Caution to the wind:

BUTTERSCOTCH PECAN COOKIES

2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c butter (2 sticks)
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 c butterscotch morsels
3/4 c pecans

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy.  Add eggs and beat well.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Mix in morsels and pecans.  Drop by tablespoons on ungreased cookie sheets and bake 9 minutes.

Fun Fact: With their warm, caramel-ly smell, these are freakishly addictive. Sometimes a second back-up batch needs to be made...

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CHOCOLATE HAYSTACKS

This recipe is totally loosey goosey, only has 3 ingredients, and no cooking experience necessary!

Nestle Tollhouse Semi-sweet Morsels (Accept no substitutes.)

Chinese noodles

Dry roasted peanuts

Place 1 cup of morsels in a microwave-safe dish.  Microwave on high for 1 minute, then stir.  Repeat until chocolate is smoothly melted.  Add in equal parts of noodles and peanuts, mix gently until coated with chocolate.  Scoop onto wax paper-lined cookie sheets by the tablespoon.  

At this time of year, instead of finagling with the contents of my fridge to make room to chill these l'il suckers, I put them outside on my covered porch for about a half hour.

Fun Fact: my boys call these Moose Poops. :)

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AUNT LOLLY'S LEMON DROPS

1 c butter, room temperature

1 tsp lemon extract

2 tsp grated lemon zest

1 egg

1 c powdered sugar

2 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Beat together the butter, lemon extract and lemon zest until creamy.  Combine sugar, flour, salt and baking powder.  Combine butter mixture and flour mixture with electric mixture until smooth.  Cover and place in freezer for an hour.  Heat oven to 350.  Shape into 1 inch balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool.

Icing:

1 c powdered sugar

1 tbs soft butter

1 tbs lemon juice

Beat all ingredients together until smooth.  Spread on cooled cookies.  Let icing harden before storing.

These are a little fussy with the chilling et al, but they are my hands-down, no holds-barred FAVORITE cookie of all time!!

Fun Fact: Aunt Lolly was a fabulously stylish flapper in her day, and had the BEST accessories in the whole wide world: beaded handbags and dresses, fur stoles, and satin shoes.  (I still have one of her tiny white beaded clutches from the 20's.)  She couldn't cook "regular" meals to save her life, but was known far and wide to be a wonderful baker.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's eco-Christmas-love: Recycled Holiday.