Enjoy these recipes from neighbors. Thank you for your submissions!
Make sure to join us for our Holiday Party on December 15 to try some of these cookies for yourself and perhaps even contribute your own.
Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies with Flaky Sea Salt
Samantha Gallagher
Ingredients:
4 oz unsalted softened butter
½ cup tahini
1 cup sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 ¾ cup chocolate chunks/chips
Flaky sea salt!
Directions:
Cream butter, egg, tahini, and sugar. Add vanilla.
(They say in a separate bowl do this… but I never listen). Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Fold in chocolate chips. Best when you also throw in some chocolate chunks you’ve cut from a bar. YUM!
Refrigerate dough for 12 hours. (DON’T SKIP THIS).
Form dough into balls and bake at 325°F for 13-16 minutes.
Granny’s Gingerbread Cookies
Hannah Fierle
This recipe was passed on to me from my maternal grandmother, Shirley Veahman, who attributes it to her own grandmother, Granny Alice Weyanet Hugus. Granny Alice was the eldest of twelve children and the daughter of Irish-American immigrants, and my Grammy remembers her as stern yet loving.
Ingredients
1 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 egg
½ cup buttermilk OR 1 Tbsp vinegar into measuring cup, then fill to ½ cup with regular milk)
About 4 cups flour (enough to make dough firm)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
1 tsp soda
Directions:
Mix wet ingredients together.
Add dry ingredients.
Mix flour into dough until firm enough to roll out.
Roll out onto a floured cutting board until about ¼ inch thick and use floured cookie cutters to cut out cookies.
Bake at 400°F for 7 minutes.
Snowball Cookies
Gracie Irons
My grandma used to make these cookies for us each year, so they are my favorite cookies during the season!
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar + more for coating
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 ¼ cups chopped pecans
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F and line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla and salt and mix. Slowly add flour. Once a dough forms, add chopped pecans and mix well. Allow dough to rest in fridge for a couple of hours.
Scoop 1 Tbsp of dough and roll into a ball onto cookie sheet. Continue until all the dough is in balls around the same size. Place on sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
Allow cookies to rest before rolling them in the sugar. Make sure they are slightly warm when rolled in sugar.
We usually store them in a cartoon of powdered sugar. This recipe should make around 48 cookies.
Chewy Coconut Macaroons with Chocolate
Lizabeth Gray
Ingredients:
1 14-ounce package sweetened shredded coconut (about 5 cups)
5 large egg whites, lightly beaten
⅔ cups sugar
⅓ cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
¼ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
6 oz dark chocolate, melted for dipping
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Throw the coconut, egg whites, sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla into a bowl and give it a stir until combined.
Using a cookie scoop, drop the cookies an inch apart on a baking sheet; suggest using parchment paper.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes and make sure to rotate the sheet halfway through. They should be a golden toasty color when you take them out of the oven. Transfer onto wire rack to cool.
Once the cookies are cool, dip the bottom of each cookie into the melted chocolate OR you can drizzle the chocolate across the top of the cookies. Put them on a parchment sheet until they are cool.
You can store these cookies for a week in an air-tight container.
You can switch things up by adding crushed pineapple to the coconut mix and then drizzling with white chocolate instead of dark.
Lemon Cheese Triangles
Andrea Boykowycz
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/3 cup butter or margarine, soft
8 oz. package soft cream cheese
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar un-sifted
3 cups flour un-sifted
1 1/3 tsp grated lemon peel
1 1/3 tsp lemon juice
Filling:
4 cups dry cottage cheese
3 eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour un-sifted
1/3 cup lemon juice
4 tsp grated lemon peel
¼ tsp salt
Directions:
Crust:
Blend butter and cream cheese on low speed. Add rest of ingredients and blend until dough forms.
Cover dough. Chill 30 minutes, or hold up to 3 days if desired.
Filling:
Blend all ingredients at low speed on mixer.
Cook in double boiler until thick, stirring occasionally—about 10 minutes.
Cool over cold water.
After preparing dough and filling:
Divide dough into 4 parts. Roll each part on surface lightly dusted with flour OR between parchment paper to a 10” square. Measure with a ruler and keep edges straight.
Cut into 2 ½” squares—4 across, 4 down.
Place 1 tsp filling in center of each square OR press mixture through pastry bag with a plain ½” tube.
Fold squares to form a triangle—line up edges neatly. Seal edges with tip fork dipped in flour.
Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes.
When cool, dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Hrebintsi
Andrea Boykowycz
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
½ lb butter
1 tsp sour cream
Juice of ½ lemon
1 egg yolk
Apricot pie filling
Directions:
Dough:
Beat together all ingredients except for apricot pie filling.
Refrigerate overnight.
Next day: roll flat to about ¼ inch. Cut into rectangles roughly 3” by 2”.
Stuff with apricot pie filling.
Fold over dough long-ways (“hotdog-style”), seal, bend slightly so that the rectangles are now arched, and press edges down with fork.
Brush rectangles with egg white.
Sprinkle with coarse sugar/nuts.
Bake at 375°F for 20-25 minutes.
Alexander Torte
Andrea Boykowycz
Ingredients:
½ lb butter
2 ¾ cup flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cups seedless raspberry preserves
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
½ cup water
2 tsp lemon juice.
… a little bit of vodka (optional)
Directions:
Dough and Filling:
Blend butter, flour, and sugar. Beat with egg (and a little bit of vodka, if desired) until smooth.
Refrigerate until firm.
Divide dough in two. Roll between lightly floured parchment paper until thin (roughly 1/8 inch).
Preheat oven to 250°F on buttered and floured sheet for 40 minutes.
Heat seedless raspberry preserves.
Spread raspberry preserves across surface of one of the baked sheets of dough, layering the other sheet on top (like a sandwich!)
Icing:
Beat together confectioners’ sugar, water, and lemon juice until smooth.
Spread icing on top layer of the torte.
Finally…
Cut into diamond shapes.
Lemon Snaps
Andrea Boykowycz
Ingredients:
12 Tbsp (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure lemon extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp salt
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup (2 oz.) minced crystallized ginger
Makes about 30 cookies.
Directions:
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 375°F.
Place butter and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until just combined. Add the lemon extract and continue to beat until combined.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, salt, and lemon zest in a small bowl.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until the dough is smooth. Add the crystallized ginger and continue to beat until it is evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Roll pieces of the dough between your palms to form 1-inch balls. Arrange the dough balls on ungreased baking sheets, 1 ½ inches apart.
Bake the cookies until lightly golden, 10 to 15 minutes.
Place the baking sheets on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Then, using a spatula, remove the cookies from the baking sheet and place them directly on the rack to finish cooling. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
Italian Lemon Cookies
Maria Sciulli
Ingredients:
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
Rind of 1 lemon grated
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 ½ cups flour—maybe more, until dough can be rolled in your hands
Directions:
Mix oil, eggs, sugar, lemon rind, and juice. Slowly add flour until a soft dough forms.
Shape into small balls and roll in powdered sugar.
Bake at 390°F 15-20 minutes, until slightly golden.
Chocolate Crinkles
Jared Cline
My family used many classic Betty Crocker recipes, including this one from 1963, my favorite at Christmastime. You can see what it looked like in the original cook book here.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 sq unsweeteened chocolate (4 oz.), melted
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups Gold Medal Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Directions:
Mix oil, chocolate, and granulated sugar. Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed. Add vanilla. Measure flour by dipping method or by sifting. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt into oil mixture. Chill several hours or overnight.
Heat over to 350°F. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into confectioners’ sugar. Roll in sugar; shape into balls. Place about 2” apart on greased baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 min. Do not overbake! Makes about 6 doz. cookies.
