The Cooky Book: Christmas Bells

Where the heck have the cookies been? I admit to taking a short Cooky Book hiatus. I'm only human. But I'm back on the horse. Back on the horse.

So yes, I obviously made these some months ago, for Christmas. Because they're called Christmas Balls and one makes them at Christmas time, right? Or, at least I did, because I thought they'd be festive and worth serving to guests. Or so I thought.

These are not guest-worthy cookies. They were boring and bland and contained way too much food colouring. And they don't really look like Christmas balls at all. People didn't want to eat them because they don't even look like food. How could you blame them?

The Cooky Book: Shamrock Cookies

The Recipe: Shamrock Cookies from Betty Crocker's The Cooky Book

The Substitutions: butter for shortening

The Verdict: I was truly expecting these little nuggets of Irish-ness to be the Shamrock Shake of cookies. Then I remembered that Shamrock Shakes are too sweet and never quite minty enough. With that said, these little green mounds are indeed the Shamrock Shake of cookies.

I made these a week early for St. Patrick's Day so that the Irish-y anticipation could build. They were so boring in taste thought that I ended up sticking all five dozen of them in the freezer so that they could just be taken to work on the day itself (all cookies are appreciated in offices, even boring, barely minty ones). I put in the maximum required amount of peppermint extract and the mint factor barely registers. Also, it should be noted that they're made with icing sugar rather than regular granulated sugar, which makes the texture really soft and flaky. My final complaint is that they're just a pain to make, with each cooking having to be individually molded. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Not even close.

The Recipe: Chocolate Stout Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting from Swerve magazine.

The Substitutions: Not a one, though I did sprinkle some crushed candy cane over the top for extra festive-ness.

The Verdict: Yum. My mom saw this recipe in the paper and asked me to make it for Christmas Eve dinner. Since the recipe was by Julie Van Rosendaal, a local blogger/food celeb who I really admire, I thought it was a pretty good idea. And it really did make for a yummy cake.

I am generally not a fan of cream cheese icing -- I think anything involving cream cheese is vile. But since this icing doesn't cover the entire cake, I could get behind it. And there's beer in the icing, which kind of makes up for the cream cheese, I guess. The cake itself was moist and dense. There's so many flavours in there -- stout, chocolate, and gingerbread -- but not a single one of them overpowers the rest. It's just a harmonious intermingling of deliciousness. This one will likely go into my regular Christmas repertoire and I don't think I'm going to get any complaints.

Fruit Jellies

The Recipe: Fruit Jellies from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

The Substitutions: I used pom/cranberry juice and raspberry jam.

The Verdict: Not a Christmas miracle by any stretch of the imagination. I was a little obsessed with candy making when it came to my holiday planning this year, and this one was my big failure. They look so cute and yummy in the magazine. In reality they were sticky, gooey and way too tart (but that was probably due to a bad juice choice). I'm sitting here looking at the magazine, feeling the urge to make them again, because I am such a sucker for good food photography. Let this one pass. It'll save you money (since the recipe calls for an entire jar of jam) and a lot of heartache.

The Cooky Book: Merry Christmas Cookies

The Recipe: Merry Christmas Cookies from Betty Crocker's The Cooky Book.

The Substitutions: I used the rind and a squirt of juice from one lemon rather than "lemon flavoring." I also put some peppermint extract into the Easy Creamy Icing.

The Verdict: Okay. I kind of hate these kind of Christmas cookies. My mom used to make white cut-out Christmas cookies that we iced every year and I couldn't stand them. I liked decorating them and all, but I hated eating them. They were just so... lacking. These guys aren't all that different. The lemon adds a little bit of interest, but overall they're just not that exciting.

But they're kind of a necessary Christmas cookie to have in one's repertoire, no? It's like being able to make a good tuna casserole -- you don't love to eat it, but you should be able to make it. Again, I don't love these cookies, but I feel satisfied that I made them. How's that for a mixed review?

Salted Caramel Sauce

The Recipe: Caramel Sauce from Simply Recipes.

The Substitutions: Added a couple of pinches of fleur de sel to make it Salted Caramel Sauce.

The Verdict: Thumbs up. This is easy peasey. For some reason, this year I've become a little obsessed with homemade candy. I've always been afraid of all that stove-top sugar boiling, but now that my kids are old enough to stay out of the kitchen if I give them a stern warning, I'm a little more confident that I'm not going to fatally burn anyone with molten sugar. This sauce takes about five minutes to make and is pretty delicious. Next time I would have added more salt. That's all I have to say on the matter.

The Cooky Book: Scotch Shortbread

The Recipe: Scotch Shortbread from The Cooky Book by Betty Crocker

The Substitutions: none

The Verdict: I needed to make some shortbread, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone by doing the Cooky Book version. Meh. The dough was incredibly hard to work with, thus incredibly hard to roll, and incredibly hard to cut. The result is a very small yield of crumbly, time-consuming shortbread. Sure, it's buttery and all that, but disappointing. The plan was to serve these guys up with some salted caramel sauce and lemon curd, but I think I'm going to have to (wait for it...) go and buy some pre-made shortbread from the grocery store. Because I only ended up with about two dozen of these guys and I don't want to go through the pain of having to make another batch. Sad.

The Cooky Book: Candy Cane Cookies

The Recipe: Candy Cane Cookies from Betty Crocker's The Cooky Book

The Substitutions: I skipped the crushed candy topping (because I'm freezing them and it all would have fallen off anyway) and I used butter instead of shortening.

The Verdict: Surprisingly great. I'm officially going rogue on the Cooky Book for the holidays -- that is, I'm doing some of the recipes out of order so that I wouldn't have to make Candy Cane Cookies in July. I'm practical that way. I wasn't too excited about these cookies because cute novelty cookies are usually pretty short on flavor, especially in the Betty Crocker universe. Imagine my surprise to learn that these aren't only cute, but kind of delicious.

The dough in these cookies is basically a almond-flavored plain cookie dough and the almond really saves a day. Maybe it's just because I'm a sucker for marzipan, but these are really yummy. I realize my execution in twisting the candy canes is far from perfect, but I had the help of a very excited five-year-old, so I can blame the lack of perfection on her. Either way, these will be a pleasant addition to my Christmas buffet, which seems like a very Betty Crocker kind of thing to say.

Peanut Brittle

The Recipe: Peanut Brittle from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

The Substitutions: nada

The Verdict: Easy peasy. It's peanut brittle -- there's not much to say. Hard, stuck in your teeth, crunchy, peanut brittle. My only word of caution: you cook the sugar for 20 minutes -- when you're getting close to the end of that 20 minutes, WATCH THE STOVE. I burned the first batch and not only did it stink up the house, but I suddenly had all of this molten blackened sugar and didn't know what to do with it. I was afraid of pouring it into a bowl because I knew once it hardened, I'd never be able to get it out. I also knew that pouring it down the sink could result in a hefty plumbing bill. I ended up pouring it into a paper plate after it had cooled slightly and then threw the plate out when it was hard as a rock. On the upside, it all washed out of the pot in the dishwasher, which was a pleasant surprise.

Oh, and it tastes delicious. Not the burnt stuff, batch #2.

The Cooky Book: Lemon Squares

The Recipe: Lemon Squares from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book

The Substitutions: none.

The Verdict: Severe disappointment. There are a million recipes for lemon squares. Everyone has their favourite specifications: the right crust, the right amount of filling, and the right balance between sweet and sour. When I was making this recipe I said to myself "there is not enough lemon juice in here. I should up the lemon juice." But did I do it? Not really.

Last year's lemon bars (and I can't remember what recipe I used for the life of me) were too tart, so I was a bit gun-shy about going off-recipe and adding a bunch of extra lemon. The recipe only calls for two tablespoons. I juiced a small lemon and it yielded about three tablespoons and I put all of it in. Still, not nearly tart enough. Not even close. The lemon flavor is faint, at best. I also think that there is generally not enough filling or, alternately, the crust is too thick. I also baked this for the minimum time (and with my oven I usually have to bake for the max), and it was too brown in the middle in too chewy around the edges.

So is this a flawed recipe? Perhaps. Or perhaps those of you who don't like anything that's too tart would love it. But why would you make lemon squares if you don't like things that are tart? Anyway, it'll be back to the drawing board next Christmas, but for now these are happily hanging out in the freezer, ready to hit my holiday cookie plate. Because while they're not perfect, they're still lemon squares, which is worth something.

The Recipes: Irish Beef and Stout Stew and Irish Soda Bread, both from Martha Stewart.com (stumbled upon them from her weekly email update).

The Substitutions: nil

The Verdict: Obviously, these were made on Wednesday, for St. Patrick's Day. I really love the idea of theme cooking, and St. Paddy's Day is always a fun one, since Irish Recipes tend to be simple, yet unmistakably in their Irish-ness. I've gotta say, these two might become my festive standards. It was all easy peasy to make, and pretty yummy, as far as Irish recipes go (with my family's penchant for curry, anything without full-on zing is often frowned upon).

First up, the stew. It is a fairly average, but foolproof Irish stew. It's done in the oven, which is nice, because you can tuck it in there and basically forget about it. I think I would consider adding additional veg next time because it was a little low on nutritional value with just potatoes and peas. The stout (I used Guiness, natch) was a good flavour booster, making the gravy taste almost like it had been spiked with red wine. Rich and delicious. It's also pretty good served over rice the next day.


The bread was also a winner, but I think I liked it more than just about anyone else in the family. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've made bread that actually requires kneading, and I looooved making it! I think Aaron considered it kind of amateurish because it didn't come out of the oven in a perfect bakery-style loaf, but I loved its rustic quality. I usually am not very big on caraway and I considered skipping the caraway seeds, but the flavour is actually pretty muted. Hooray for soda bread! This meal was a real success. Luck of the Irish, I suppose.