I accidentally macerated the cranberries in the brandy for, uh, a week rather than the four hours it calls for. Hey, a girl gets busy. They turned out extra boozy and I can say with confidence I didn’t hear a single complaint. The leftover cranberry brandy? Well, let’s just say it didn’t go to waste. Oh, and don’t worry too much if the kids get into these. There’s a little nip of brandy in the berries after cooking, but the sugar will rile them up more than the booze.

Tipsy Cranberry White Chocolate and Almond Cookies

By Meghan
“This is a recipe I have been fooling around with for years, always trying to make it just a little bit better which is hard because it was such a great recipe to begin with. But last year I think I perfected it when my family told me it was the one thing that always had to be at Christmas Eve dessert. Always.”

Ingredients:
1 cup of brandy (to soak the cranberries in, reserving 1 1/4 teaspoons of it for the dough)
1 cup of dried cranberries
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of lightly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of white chocolate chips
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Directions:
Put the cranberries in a wide and shallow bowl. Pour in enough brandy to just cover the cranberries. Cover and place in the fridge for one to four hours. When done soaking, place a colander over a bowl and pour the cranberries and brandy through. Set aside both the cranberries and the reserved brandy.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until light, fluffy and well incorporated.

Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and add 1 1/4 teaspoons of the brandy that the cranberries soaked in. Beat well until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.  Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then add to the mixture a cup at a time, beating until just mixed. Fold in the brandy soaked cranberries, white chocolate chips and almonds. Let chill for 15 minutes in the fridge.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place rounded spoonfuls down on the sheet. Bake at 375°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pretty and light, these are spiced cookies of the season.

Persimmon Cookies

Judie Lepisto
“This is My Grandmothers recipe and we make several batches at Christmas every year
to give to all our friends.”

2 cups ripe persimmons
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
2 cups walnuts
4 cups flour
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup Craisins
1 cup apple juice or wine

Soak fruit in apple juice (or wine) for 20 Mins.
 Peel and de-seed soft, ripe persimmons and puree into a paste.

Cream with baking soda, sugar, and Crisco until creamy
. Add eggs, flour, and spices and mix well. Drain fruit. 
Mix in fruit and nuts.

Drop by spoon on greased cookie sheet
. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool and ENJOY
Makes about 8 dozen + or – depending on size of spoon drop

These are really different, but delightful. Basil can sometimes be a little tough to find in the winter, so if you’re really pressed, you can use about a 1/3 cup of the stuff in the squeeze tube. It’s not as good, but it will work. I bumped up the tangerine juice and zest a pinch so the orange flavor popped, as well.

Basil Orange Italian Cookies

Tammy Rossitto
“My family teases me because I like to watch Chopped. So they challenged me to make something with tangerines, sweet basil and bittersweet chocolate chips. Makes about 5 dozen. They taste better the next day.”

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp tangerine juice
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp finely grated zest (colored part only) of tangerine|
½ cup fresh sweet basil, washed and dried and finely shredded
1 12oz bag of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375º

Cream softened butter with basil, tangerine zest and the sugars until light and fluffy.
  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
 Add tangerine juice, beating well.
 Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
 Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat for 2 minutes.
 Add chocolate chips.

Let mixture rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.
 Use cookie scoop to scoop dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, use a tablespoon and spoon rounded spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheet.
 Bake 9-11 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Remove from oven.
 Let rest on cookie sheets for 2 minutes.

Remove to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

This is by far one of my favorite cookies of the year, but I’m especially partial to shortbread recipes. I used Chai honey from Beekind to spice up my glazed nuts. You’ll be the hit of the party if you make a few extra nuts for snacking on.

Yes We P’Can Tarts

By Smoran

“I combined my favorite glazed nut recipe with a rich cookie recipe, added orange zest and these were a big hit. When you’re done, declare cocktail hour and eat any leftover nuts with a…let’s see…Whiskey Sour perhaps.”

Cookie Dough
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
2 egg yolks (save whites to glaze cookies if desired)
1 Tbs. orange zest
2 1/2 cups flour

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the corn syrup, egg yolks and orange zest, beat to mix. Fold in the flour. Form the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for two hours or more. Meanwhile make the glazed nuts.

Glazed Nuts

2 1/2 Tbs. Honey
2 Tbs Maple Syrup
2 cups pecans
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
1 Tbs. orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the honey and maple syrup in a large bowl. Toss in the nuts and stir to coat. Place on parchment -lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with oil or use a Silpat baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring twice.

While the nuts are roasting, put the butter in a n ovenproof dish and place in the oven just a minutes to soften. Remove and stir in the vanilla and orange zest. When the nuts are done, remove them from the pan and stir them into the butter mixture. Sprinkle with the salt. Place on a parchment paper to cool.

To Bake:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Form cookie dough into medium sized balls. Bit larger than a walnut, more like a mutant walnut. Glaze with slightly beaten egg whites if desired. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven, gently press 2 -3 pecans on end into the center, return to oven and bake 10 minutes more or until golden brown. There may be nuts -glaze goo leakage. It should harden up. Remove to wire rack to cool.

The cream cheese dough is reminiscent of a rugelach. Filled with savory and sweet spices and sugar, it’s a unique take on the usual holiday cookie.

Rosemary Cardamom Pinwheels

By Amy Meiers

“My mom’s cousin Dolly and I have been getting together every Christmas to bake cookies for our friends and family. We start in late November and get together at least 2 more times in December to bake. Every year we try a new cookie or technique to keep it interesting! My mom had always been our official “cookie tester” but this August she lost her battle with breast cancer. So I merged two of her favorite cookies into one to create this cookie in her memory! The rosemary isn’t a something that’s usually used in cookies and the cardamom has such a wonderful aroma. These do take a little extra work but are so so worth it!”

Dough:
2 ½ cups of flour
2 TBS granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into chunks
8oz cold cream cheese cut into chunks

In a stand mixer combine flour, sugar and salt. Stir a couple of times to mix together. Add chunks of butter until crumbly then add the cream cheese and mix until just combined. Refrigerate for about an hour.

“Rolling out” sugar:
½ cup of granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom

Filling:
½ cup of granulated sugar
1 tsp of very finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the refrigerated dough in half and roll each half into a rectangle (aprox 18” x 10”) using the “rolling out” sugar to prevent it from sticking to the board or rolling pin. Put a thin layer of the filling over the dough and roll. Refrigerate another half hour then cut into quarter-inch slices. Sprinkle the rolling out sugar on top of the cookies. Bake for 8 minutes then flip over, re-sugar and bake for another 3 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Death By Chocolate Chip Cookie

By Judy Johnson Smith

COOKIE DOUGH:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2-1/4 cups unsifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (or more if you wish up to 1/2 tsp.)
2 cups (12 ounce) package best quality bittersweet chocolate chips (such as Ghirardelli’s)
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
TOPPING:
1/3 to 1/2 cup very finely chopped toasted walnuts
4 to 8 oz.very high quality bittersweet chocolate chips

COOKIE DOUGH:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Toast the walnuts lightly in a saute pan and set aside to cool. While nuts are cooling, gather your ingredients, mixer and kitchen tools, then measure out your ingredients. Chop one cup cooled walnuts for the cookie dough and set aside, then mince up the rest of the walnuts for the topping and set aside. Cream butter , sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beat well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until combined. Gradually beat the dry mixture into creamed mixture. Remove bowl from mixer, Stir in 2 cups chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped walnuts. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet using a portion scoop or by spoon-full. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly on baking sheet, then remove from cookie sheet and cool on rack.

TOPPING: To finish, you’re going to dip the cookies in bittersweet chocolate and sprinkle the chocolate dipped side with some of the very finely chopped walnuts.

Before beginning the dipping process, place a sheet of foil or parchment paper on the counter under the bowl of chocolate to catch the drips. Place another parchment sheet on the counter to put the finished dunked cookie on. Place the finely chopped walnuts next to the parchment the dipped cookies will go on.

Melt the chocolate  over a hot water bath (low heat) until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Pick up a cookie by one side and dunk the other side in the bowl of melted chocolate, so that the cookie is at least half-covered with chocolate, use the bowl edge to scrape excess chocolate off the bottom of the cookie, then place on the parchment paper. As soon as the cookie is placed on the parchment paper, before the chocolate solidifies, sprinkle a pinch or two of the very finely chopped walnuts on top of the chocolate. Then wait for the chocolate to cool completely onto the cookie. Store in cool, dry area, in an airtight