Russian Tea Cakes!

These are my husband's favorites... so rich and buttery they melt in your mouth!

1 cup softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

In a large bowl combine ingredients on low speed of mixer about 1 minute. Blend well. Gradually add flour at low speed until just combined; stir in nuts.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls; place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes until firm to the touch; note from experience:

Do not overbake- they will crumble when you try to pick them up if they're cooked even a minute too long. These cookies don't brown when done!

While warm, roll in powdered sugar. Cool; re-roll in powdered sugar before serving.


***I tripled this recipe and made 10 dozen cookies***

Raspberry jam thumbprint cookies

Morning everyone! Here's my second recipe for some pretty easy but snazzy looking cookies:

1 (1 pound 1.5 ounce) pouch Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 egg
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 cup white chocolate chips


Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg and flour until soft dough forms.

Roll dough into 3/4-inch balls; place 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Take the backside of your 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, dip in sugar (before each impression) and make an indentation in the center of each cookie. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon jam into each indentation.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Melt white chocolate chips over a double boiler until smooth then spoon melted chips into a small ziptop plastic bag; cut a tiny hole in corner of bag. Squeeze bag gently to drizzle melted chips over cookies.

***one batch yields approximately 5 dozen cookies***

Maggie's Cookie-o-rama

Tara and I were chatting yesterday about blogging, working on our gift lists (she's mostly making, I'm mostly buying) and baking. She encouraged me to post pictures and recipes for the cookies I was working on. She said it would be cool to feature bunch of cookies on our blog. I sort of agreed (typed "k", while thinking "no way"). But I knew she would not just let it go away- I would either have to do it or tell her I am a dork who couldn't do it!

I was whining to Tara -"My food photos stink!" but she was having none of that since she managed her fabulous pinwheel picture with no flash on her camera! So I decided to go ahead and blog about my cookie adventure of the day. If nothing else this will show how very different Tara and I are! Tara's cookies are works of art in every way, while mine are more utilitarian - meant only to feed my giant and perpetually starving teenagers.

Scroll down and you will see that Tara has taken a wonderful picture of her cookies on a lovely plate. Well, cookies at my house rarely touch a plate. I usually put them in ziplocks as they cool and then my family grabs them out of the bag. Only if I am taking some to a party or family event do they see a plate. I am pretty sure if I put them on a plate around here, no one would eat them because they would be afraid they were not meant for our family, but for some event! I took the portrait of my chocolate chip cookies on the wire cooling rack. Oh, and the recipe? You can find it on the Nestle chocolate chip bag just like I did! I actually have a recipe I usually use, but for some reason today just made the one on the bag.

A few weeks ago, I went looking for cookie recipes that would be good to mail, because I was making cookies to include in care packages that were to be mailed to the college students from our church. I found this nice site, Recipe4living, which had this great article about mailable foods. I made the Butter Pecan Bars , and they were super fast and really very good. My 13 year old was sad that all those cookies got baked and then immediately left the house, so I promised him I would remake some. I chose those Butter Pecan Bars and this batch was better than the first! (Oh and see, Tara, I told you my food photos stink!)

Cranberry pinwheel cookies

Cranberry pinwheel cookies
Originally uploaded by mornindew2822

As promised, here is the first recipe of the four cookie types I am making this Christmas:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely ground cranberries
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons milk

In a large mixing bowl, combine first four ingredients; beat until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl occasionally. Combine the dry ingredients; add to the creamed mixture; form into a ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

In a small bowl, combine cranberries, walnuts and orange peel; set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 10-inch square; combine brown sugar and milk; spread over the dough then sprinkle with the cranberry mixture, leaving about a 1/2-inch edge at both ends of the dough; roll up tightly, jelly-roll style. Wrap with waxed paper; chill several hours or overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 375F. Cut roll into 1/4-inch slices and place on a well-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 14-15 minutes, or until edges are light brown.

** *I made a double batch (two jelly-roll logs) and it yielded 5 dozen cookies***

Happy baking!