Start Thinking Christmas Cookies with Biscotti at the top of the list!
Updated: Nov 8
This may sound ridiculous to some of you, but anyone who knows me will totally understand. I have some big shoes that I try to fill every year and to my credit, it is after Halloween!
My mom was a Christmas cookie baker and had a handful that she made every year, I grew up with this and actually got to help once in a while.
When I got my own kitchen, I’m not really sure what happened, but I took my mother’s Christmas cookie baking up a few notches.
This may have been in part due to the influence of a friend, Marlene Thalman, who was totally over the top about Christmas and baked like nobody's business. We'll get to her creme de menthe brownies, I promise!
Today I bake no less than a dozen different kinds of cookies and usually more like 14 or 15 varieties. And then, so there are plenty to give away, I bake about a gross of each. THAT’S why I am getting organized early in November.
I start the baking right after Thanksgiving and usually have everything done by the weekend before Christmas. In case any of you might want to go down the cookie rabbit hole, I am going to post a few recipes a week. Don’t worry, I’ll only send out the email once each week, but you can pop onto the site whenever to see what’s there.
I have learned over the years which recipes are more suited to baking ahead or time and which are better when baked closer to the holiday. It’s important to remember that I do keep all the cookies in airtight containers and in cold’ish’ storage for the duration of my baking frenzy. I’ve always had an enclosed porch or cool basement at my disposal, a spare fridge can be handy too.
Generally speaking, I’ll post recipes in the order that I bake them.
One of the most stable varieties is biscotti and they actually get better with some time. Snickerdoodles, ginger snaps, and Scottish short bread also lend themselves to baking earlier in the cycle.
I’m going to start with the Biscotti.
The Recipe:
1 lb butter softened
2-1/4 c sugar
8 oz sour cream
4 eggs
6c flour
1T baking soda
1T baking powder
pinch of salt
5T anise (if you aren't a licorice fan you can substitute almond, orange, lemon, or any other flavor extract you like))
Whisk flour, powder, soda, and salt until well mixed.
Cream butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.
Add sour cream, eggs and flavoring extract to wet ingredients and combine well.
Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients and blend until a smooth dough is formed. If it’s too wet, you can add more flour in small quantities to get it to the right texture. Don't overdo the extra flour though. once the dough comes together in a ball, you can refrigerate it for a while so it's less sticky / soft.
I use my stand mixer starting with the whisk for the wet ingredients and go to the dough hook when adding the flour.
When you're ready to work the dough, preheat the oven to 350º
Work on a floured surface and coat your hands in flour too. Divide the dough into 1.5" X 7" loaves. Don't make them any fatter or they won't cook through in the first round of baking.
Place loaves with at least 2" clearance on parchment paper or a baking mat lined cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove loaves to cool and raise the oven to 375º.
When loaves are cool enough to handle without breaking, slice them into 1" thick slices. They look more authentic if you do it at a 45º angle, but it's not critical.
Lay the individual slices on their sides on the cookie sheets and place in the oven for 7 minutes. Remove sheet, turn the slices over and toast for an additional 7 minutes. THEN they're done.
This recipe makes about 5+ dozen and I typically double it. I make this dough in advance and leave it covered tightly in plastic wrap for 1 or 2 nights in the fridge. I also keep the dough that I’m not working with in the fridge to keep it stiff.
Biscotti are one of our standard Christmas cookies. These are very different from other biscotti that I've had in that they are softer. Most others have a much harder consistency like those Zwieback toasts that babies teethe on. I think the difference is the use of sour cream in this recipe as opposed to cream cheese that is in most of the other recipes I've come across.
As I mentioned, other extracts will work and if there are no allergies to worry about, adding some shopped or ground almonds is also popular.
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