Baking Time- Pecan Dainties

Tuck these cookies in a vintage jar for a great little gift !

My wonderful mom- she has taught me everything I know about baking. We've been making cookies together forever.

Pecan Dainties

1 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 t. salt
2 cups flour

Cream butter.  Add powdered sugar and salt and then cream well.  Add flour and blend well.  Shape into two rolls 1 1/2" in diameter.  Wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight.  Cut into 1/4" slices and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Frost with Brown Butter Frosting.

Brown Butter Frosting

2 T butter                                                1/2 cup chopped pecans for sprinkling
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 T hot water
milk or half and half

Brown butter in saucepan. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and hot water.  Stir until smooth.  Add enough milk to make the frosting a good spreading consistency.  Frost and sprinkle with pecans.

Recipe from the 1956 Wisconsin Electric Power Company cookbook.

Baking Time- Fairy Drops

-Fairy Drops-

1 cup butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 t almond extract

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar
1 t salt

In a large mixing bowl beat butter until smooth.  Add powdered sugar and granulated sugar, beat until fluffy.
Add oil, eggs and almond extract, mix until just combined.  Combine remaining ingredients and gradually add until just combined.  Cover and chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

To shape cookies, roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls. (Dough will be soft).  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  You may wish to flatten them with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar or bake as rolled.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Cool and frost with Almond Frosting.  Decorate with sprinkles.

-Almond Frosting-
In a small mixing bowl beat 1/2 cup butter until fluffy.  Beat in 1/2 t almond extract and 1/2 t vanilla.  Alternately add 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar and 3 T light cream or milk.  Beat until smooth.

Baking Time- Almond Toffee Crunch

These taste even better than they look!

My good friend Jane is an amazing cook and this is her most requested recipe.  Trust me that this is saying a lot!  When we worked together she always made these for our Open House events and I think half of the people came just for them.

Almond Toffee Crunch

Crust-

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

Toffee-

1 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

Topping-

1  1/2 cups toasted sliced almonds

1  1/2 cup brown sugar

Crust- combine ingredients together and mix until crumbs are very fine.  Pat firmly into an 11" x 15" jelly roll pan.  Sprinkle with toasted and cooled almonds.

Toffee layer- combine butter and brown sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the entire surface boils.  Boil 1 minute.  Pour over crust and bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.  Do not under bake as this will result in a chewy rather than crunchy consistency.

 

Remove from oven.  Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and as chocolate melts swirl slightly.  Partially cool. Cut into small squares, remove from pan and fully cool on rack.

 

Just a note- the photo shows slivered almonds and while they work in a pinch, sliced are better. This is what happens when you don't explain the difference between slices and slivers to the man who is going to the grocery store : )

Baking Time- Spice Cutout Cookies

This is a generous recipe, you will have two good size rounds of dough to roll out.

Love to pull out the antique cookie cutters for the cookies and then use them for display for the season.

The scent of these baking is just wonderful !!!

The old trees and squirrels are my favorites.

Roll Out Spice Cookies

4 cups flour

1  1/2 t cinnamon

1 t ginger

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 t salt

1/4 t allspice

1/4 t cloves

1  1/2 cups butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 t vanilla

Sift flour and spices together and set aside.  Cream butter, add sugar, egg and vanilla and beat until

fluffy.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Divide dough into two rounds, press flat and refrigerate for 

at least one hour.  Roll out on a floured surface to 1/4" thickness and cut with cookie cutters.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.  Frost with a light glaze and decorate if desired.  

Baking Time- Praline Strips

This is a great recipe, really fast and easy.
plate- allthingswhite

Another great start to a delicious cookie!

When you take it out of the oven the topping should be bubbly .

 

Cooled and ready to cut.  I use a pizza cutter, it works really well.

Praline Strips

12 whole graham crackers

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

Arrange graham crackers in an ungreased 15" x 10" cookie sheet.  Place butter and sugar in a heavy saucepan.  Heat to boiling, boil two minutes whisking constantly. Stir in pecans and and spread evenly over crackers.  Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Cool and cut into squares.

Baking Time- Mexican Wedding Cakes

Plate- allthingswhite.  Cookies- keep reading.

Freshly baked Mexican Wedding Cakes !

We bake a lot of cookies at our house each Christmas.  A snap of part of the table as I assembled cookie plates last year.

My brother used to get a whole little tin of these all to himself when we were kids because they were his favorite.

Mexican Wedding Cakes

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 cups sifted flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

additional powdered sugar for dusting

Cream butter, add powdered sugar and cream well.  Add flour, salt and vanilla, blend.  Mixture will be stiff.

Pinch small pieces of dough and roll into balls.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.  

Roll cookies in powdered sugar immediately after removing from oven.  Makes about 4 dozen.

That is straight from the 1956 Wisconsin Electric Power Company Christmas Cookies book.   Many of our 

family favorites come from these old books given out by the gas or electric companies for over 50 years.  

Here are a few things we have learned about these cookies-  rolling them in sugar is hot hot hot!  For years my mom

was the only with tough enough fingers to do it.  Now I must be officially old because my tough hands can do it too!

About 5 minutes after I roll them in the powdered sugar I take a small sifter with more sugar and go over them again.

They look much nicer with a second coat dusted on top,  that first layer kind of soaks in from the heat and it isn't very

pretty.  Darn tasty but not pretty.  These store well in a tin in a cool place or the freezer for several weeks.  Enjoy!

Baking Time- Almond Bread

We do a lot of baking in our house, especially around the holidays.  Cookies, breads and more cookies -many to share and many to eat.  Baking together is lots of fun and the stories from when we were younger are often retold in the kitchen over bowls of dough and piles of cookies being frosted.  Here is a favorite recipe of mine- Almond Bread.  Breads are so easy to make and freeze and I love having them on hand.

I am a big fan of vintage Pyrex for baking.



 

The old glass pans bake very evenly and with a little shortening used to prepare them, I never have trouble getting the bread out of the pan.



Easy Almond Bread

4 T. butter softened
2 eggs
1 container of vanilla yogurt- 6 oz. size
1 cup sour cream
2 t. almond extract
4 cups flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/2  cup chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 2 large or 4 small loaf pans.

Combine butter, eggs, yogurt, almond extract and sour cream and mix well.
Add remaining dry ingredients and combine until just moistened.
Pour batter into pans.   Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cool on rack before turning out of the pan.

This recipe has quite a bit of room for playing.  When I first used this it was a lemon poppy seed bread and I have changed it up quite often.  If I have only a flavored yogurt I go with that flavor and add what nuts, dried fruits or extracts will work well with it.  Sometimes I use white flour, sometimes I do half whole wheat and half white.   If I don't have sour cream I will use all yogurt and perhaps and extra tsp of butter.   I will often sprinkle sugar over the top before baking or make a simple powdered sugar glaze and drizzle that over after they are out of the pan.  Have fun with this and make it your own- just don't stray too far with the basic ingredients or I can't be held responsible for the results !

Stay tuned to the recently neglected blog,  I plan to do quite a bit of posting as we progress through the ridiculous number of holiday cookies that we traditionally bake!