Baking Christmas Cookies:

I guess Zahed/Mirfield is not a good combination when it comes to baking cookies. I tried baking them all afternoon and all I got was chocolate soup! Michael and I kept adding flour, even Zadok, our roomate suggested more flour. More flour. A bit more. It felt like chewing gum in my hands. We burst out laughing, we even had tears in our eyes but it did not help. Maybe more flour. Alright, let's put it in the oven and see...
(20 min. later)...
Try with a hammer, maybe you can break it...More flour?... How about calling a dentist?

Well, I promised myself not to step in the kitchen. That was two days ago. Today, I baked cinnamon star shapped cookies, French sables with apricot jam and some icing on top and a New Zealand sponge cake with forest berry jam, quite yummy! Merry Christmas everyone, wish you were here!
Here are some finger licking receipes for this holiday.

Butter Cookies:



Prep Time:
15 Minutes
Cook Time:
10 Minutes
Ready In:
1 Hour 40 Minutes

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, put together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least one hour. Chill cookie sheets.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Press dough out onto ungreased, chilled cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly golden at the edges. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Put jam on top, icing sugar or anything else you fancy.

Another Bonus!
Dark Chocolate Heart Cookies



Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1(3­-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 egg
1 (18.25­-oz.) pkg. Food Cake MixFROSTING
1/2 cup Vanilla Frosting (from 15.6-­oz. can)

Preparation Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, combine butter and cream cheese; beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate and egg; beat until well blended. Add cake mix; beat until well mixed.
2. On lightly floured surface, roll half of dough at a time to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with floured 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1/2 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake at 375°F. for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are set. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets. Cool 10 minutes or until completely cooled.
4. Heat frosting in a small pot for 15 seconds; stir frosting until smooth. Drizzle frosting over cooled cookies.
Et Voila! Bon Appetit!

Maybe another one!

Cinnamon Stars or Zimtsterne:



Ingredients:

400 grms almond powder
3 eggs
300 grms sugar
peel 1 fresh lemon
1 soup spoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ntmeg powder (optional)

Method:

Beat the egg white with sugar. Take four soup spoons of the beaten meringue and keep on the side for later. To the remaining mixture, add all the other ingredients and blend carefully.
Sprinkle the table with sugar and roll the dough to cut in star shape cookies or any other shape. Put the stars on a tray with the meringue on top to be baked in the oven for 12 min at 180 degrees C.