Delicious Cookies For Spreading Thanksgiving Happiness

The holidays are a wonderful time for baking and sharing traditional chicken recipes with family and friends. Trading family recipes from every culture is a great way to keep things interesting in terms of your holiday baking. All of these recipes have been tested enough & loved by all generations, which works in any ovens & easy to make by anyone from the family. Spreading happiness with sweetness is an amazing feeling ever. So get ready for sharing delicious surprises to your loved ones! Here are a few recipes from around the world to share at your next cookie swap:

Italy – Nidi di Uccelli

Sometimes called bird’s nest cookies, these tiny tarts are a sure fire hit!

For The Crust:
● Cream Cheese: 3 oz, softened
● Butter: 1 stick, softened
● Flour: 1 cup

For The Filling:
● Brown sugar: 1 1/4 cup
● Butter: 1 tablespoon
● Walnuts: 1 1/2 cup, chopped
● Eggs: 2
● Vanilla extract: 1 tablespoon

Necessary equipment: Stand mixer, pastry shaper OR mini cupcake tin, preheat oven to at 375F.

● Combine the butter and cream cheese in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
● Add flour and mix until all is absorbed.
● Form dough into a ball and place it a plastic wrap, in the fridge, for one hour.
● While the dough rests, prepare the filling as follows.
● Beat eggs in a bowl, add butter and vanilla extract and combine. Mix in walnuts. Add brown sugar and mix until the sugar has dissolved completely.
● When your dough has rested, roll a small piece, the size of a golf ball, and place it in the dip in the cupcake tin. Spread the dough against the bottom and sides to create the bottom of your basket. If you have a pastry shaper, use that instead to shape the baskets.
● Place a teaspoon of the filling mixture into each basket.
● Bake on a cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes.

Sweden- Pepparkakor (Swedish Gingerbread)

Pepparkakor has been eaten in Sweden since at least the 14th century. Although they originally were eaten all year round and were popular with the royalty, in modern times they mean Christmas to Swedes. According to legend pepparkakor will make those who eat them kind:

Ingredients:
● 500 grams or 17.64 ounces of butter, room temperature.
● 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon.
● 1 tablespoon of ground cloves.
● 1 tablespoon of ground ginger.
● 1 tablespoon of finely ground cardamom.
● 4 deciliters or 11.43 ounces of white refined sugar.
● 2 deciliters or 6.8 fluid ounces of light molasses.
● 1,5 or 5.1 fluid ounces deciliters of water.
● 1 kilo or 35.27 ounces of bleached all-purpose flour.
● 1 tablespoon of baking soda.

#. Please note, you may need to play with some of the measurements converted from their original state, the European metric system. Both figures are provided in some cases.

● Mix the butter and all the spices in a large bowl.
● Put the sugar, molasses and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Pour the hot mixture over
the spiced butter and let cool.
● Mix the flour with the baking soda and stir it into the batter. The resulting dough will be very loose. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 24 hours.
● When it’s time to bake preheat your oven to 395 degrees F and get the dough out of the fridge.
● Divide the dough into conveniently sized pieces and roll them thin on a well-floured surface. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many cookies as the dough allows and place the cookies on a baking sheet covered in a parchment paper.
● Classic Swedish Christmas shapes are hearts, stars, men, women, and goats. Repeat this process till you’re out of dough or you just can’t take it anymore.
● Bake the cookies in the middle rack for about five minutes. The thinner they are, the faster they’ll cook. They should be crispy and a vibrant brown colour but they will crisp up more as they cool down so don’t overdo it.
● Older swedes often prefer the edges of the cookies to be burnt which gives a bittersweet flavor to the end product. That’s all up to you though.
● Serve as is, or make a simple icing and dip the cookies before serving.

France- Pine Nut Crescents

These delicious cookies will bring a little french tradition into your home for the holidays.

Ingredients:
● Butter: 1 cup, softened
● Brown sugar: 2/3 cup, firmly packed
● Egg yolks: 3
● Orange zest: 1 teaspoon
● Vanilla extract: 1/2 teaspoon
● Flour: 2 3/4 cups
● Pine nuts: 1/2 cup
● Honey: 3 tablespoons
● Orange flower water: 1 teaspoon, if available

● Preheat oven to 325F. Use an egg beater and large bowl to mix the butter and sugar into a creamy consistency. Add egg yolks one at a time, then orange flower water, zest, and vanilla extract. Add flour and mix until blended.
● Roll approximately 1 tablespoon of dough between your floured hands to make a 2 ½ inch rope. Place ropes on a greased baking sheet and shape into crescents. Keep around 2 inches of space between each crescent.
● Scatter pine nuts on each crescent and press into the dough.
● Warm the honey over low heat until it is runny and paint over each cookie.
● Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden in color and transfer to a rack to cool.

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to everyone and may peace be with you this season, and all year long. Share these cookies & recipes from around the world for a very continental holiday!