Monkey Bread...

...pull apart loaf....sticky roll...

Whatever you call it, it's delicious.

This item is one of my family's Christmas traditions -- we always serve it Christmas morning for breakfast after opening gifts.

Even though we celebrated Christmas with my family a week early, we still had our breakfast!

I've discovered our recipe is a bit different than most, because of the inclusion of the cook-and-serve vanilla pudding. But personally, I love the vanilla undertones in the ooey goodness.

Monkey Bread

(Family Recipe)

2 loaves frozen bread, thawed )but don't let them raise)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 small cook-and-serve vanilla pudding (NOT instant!)

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired

Directions

- Grease a bundt pan

- Pull 1 loaf of thawed bread into bite-sized pieces, and place in the bundt pan

- On the stovetop in a small saucepan, mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla pudding, milk, cinnamon, and nuts (if desired

- Once everything is mixed and the consistency is smooth, pour over the bite-sized pieces of bread loaf in the bundt pan

- Pull the other loaf apart into bite sized pieces and place on top of the brown sugar/pudding mixture in the bundt pan

- Let raise on the countertop for 2-3 hours, or until bread reaches the top of the bundt pan

- To make the night before and bake in the a.m.: cover the bundt pan with saran wrap after it rises, and place in the refrigerator. Remove in the a.m., remove the saran, and place in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes

- To make right away: once bread reaches the top of the bundt pan, bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

- Remove from oven and let rest for a few minutes, then invert it and "dump" it onto a platter.

- Serve immediately.

Christmas Cookies 2008: Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Katie and Ashlee are right -- these ARE the best sugar cookies! They were super-duper easy to work with, roll out, cut, etc, and they're very tasty as well!

I wasn't thrilled with the icing recipe I arbitrarily chose for these guys...so if you have a royal icing recipe that's tried-and-true, please pass it my way.

You'll also notice I have no patience for decorating. I like to BAKE. Not DECORATE. This results in my sugar cookies looking like a 4 year old probably iced them :-)

I'm okay with that.

The Most Fabulous Sugar Cookies

(Good Things Catered by way of Ashlee)

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 Tbsp lemon zest

5 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Powdered sugar, for rolling

Directions

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

-Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes.

-Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly.

-Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.

-Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time.

-Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
-Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away.

-Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.

-Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.

Ashlee says this makes 80, and Katie got about 30 on the recipe I saw on her blog. I did small-ish cut-outs and got about 50. It really depends on your thickness and the size of your cookie.

Christmas Cookies 2008: Peanut Butter Blossoms

These are a traditional Christmas cookie -- but my family and friends LOOOOOOVE them :-)

They're very easy to put together, and there's just something incredibly satisfying about squishing that Hershey's Kiss into the hot cookie fresh from the oven!

Hershey's Peanut Butter Blossoms

(Hershey's)

48 Herhsey's Kisses Brand Milk Chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar

Directions
- Heat oven to 375°F.

- Remove wrappers from chocolates.

- Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.

- Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

- Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

- Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges.

- Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

*This recipe says it makes 4 dozen -- but I got more like 3 dozen.

Completed Italian Cookies

Viola!

Recipe here.

Christmas Cookies: Spritz Cookies

I'd never made -- never HEARD of spritz cookies until I got married.

I received a cookie press at my bridal shower, and quickly discovered the only "cookies" I could make with it were apparently something called spritz cookies.

Well, we got married in November of 2007 -- and just now, this weekend, the cookie press made it's debut. Surprisingly, it worked really well! I had the dough stick a couple of times, but all-in-all it worked out.

The cookies have a nice buttery/almond-y flavor to them. I like them and they're easy to make!

Spritz Cookies

(Lovestoeat, by way of Wilton)

9 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

- Thoroughly cream the butter and sugar

- Add the egg, milk, vanilla and almond extracts and beat well

- Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough

- Do not chill your dough!

- Place the dough in a cookie press and press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I added sprinkles to mine at this point before I baked them)

- Bake for 5-7 minutes, remove cookies from sheet, cool on rack

Christmas Cookies: Italian Cookies

I saw these and they were so cute, I had to have them. I admit it -- I was swayed by good pictures!

But luckily, these little devils are delicious.

You'll get non-glazed pictures for now -- I always wait to glaze my cookies until closer to their serving date, so they stay fresh and delicious longer.

Italian Cookies

(Noble Pig by way of Bunny's Warm Oven)

Approximately 100 cookies (this is according to the Noble Pig page -- I only got 60 or so? I guess mine are bigger!)

For the cookies:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

5 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

2 teaspoons lemon extract (okay to use anise or vanilla too!)

Directions for cookies:

- Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

- In the microwave melt butter and shortening (make sure the shortening is fresh or it will taste bad) together in a bowl.

- Beat the melted butter and shortening together until it is completely incorporated, about 2 minutes.

- Add granulated sugar and mix well.

- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, about 1 minute each.

- Mix in lemon extract.

- Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture slowly, until fully incorporated. Don't overmix.

- If the cookie dough is too sticky to roll in the palm of your hand, add a bit of flour. However, the dough should remain very soft, so don't add too much.

- Roll the cookie dough in small balls (they puff up quite nicely) and place them on ungreased cookie sheets.

- Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes (mine took 8 minutes). The bottoms of the cookies should be lightly browned but the tops of should remain light in color.

- Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and move to a wire rack. Cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze:

3-4 Tablespoons milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon extract (okay to use anise or vanilla)

Directions for the glaze:

- Slowly mix milk with powdered sugar and lemon extract.

- The glaze needs to be thick to adhere to the cookie.

- Dip the top of each cookie into the glaze.

- Sprinkle each cookie with nonpareils and leave them to completely dry.

See Noble Pig's glazed and finished cookies here -- aren't they cute?

Christmas Cookies: Russian Tea Cakes

Do you know the difference between Russian Tea Cakes and Mexican Wedding Cookies?

Most people think the names are interchangeable, but actually, Russian Tea Cakes generally contain walnuts, while Mexican Wedding Cookies generally contain almonds.

See? Now you've learned something. :-)

Russian Tea Cakes

(Allrecipes)

24 cookies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions

- Cream butter and sugar together

- Slowly add the flour until combined

- Stir walnuts in by hand until mixed

- Refrigerate the dough until chilled ( I don't reccommend leaving this dough in the fridge long -- maybe 1/2 hour. If you leave it in, it gets hard and is impossible to work with)

- Roll the dough into 1" balls and bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven

- Once baked, roll while still hot in confectioners' sugar until coated

- Let cool, then roll in more confectioners' sugar before serving/storing.

Christmas Cookies 2008

Since my mom and I are 250 miles apart, and we can't bake together, we're both baking select types of cookies, and we'll exchange some of each when we celebrate Christmas.

We're celebrating the weekend before Christmas this year -- I'm completely tired of fighting the traffic to make the drive for the actual holiday.

Anyway, here's this year's line-up -- I'll try to get them all posted soon!

Mom
- chocolate chip cookies
- pizelles (orange and vanilla i think -- i hate anise!)
- soft sugar cookies
- peanut butter cookies

Me
- russian tea cakes
- italian cookies (i made mine lemon. again. hate anise.)
- spritz cookies
- peanut butter blossoms
- cut-out sugar cookies

FAIL: Elfin Shortbread Cookies

Okay..so I discovered these cookies via Tastespotting, and the woman who posted them had such a rockin' picture of them, I HAD to make them. And I decided to make them this weekend as a "trial" for whether or not I'd make them for Christmas.

Thank goodness I did. If I'd have had this much trouble with them while baking a dozen other kinds of cookies, I'd have had a meltdown.

Mine did not come out nearly as cute as Elle's. She does warn in her post that if you work the dough too long, it'll turn pink from the sprinkles. I was aware of this.

But if I HADN'T worked the dough that long, it would've remained in crumb form, rather than ball form as requested. It fought me on being a 'ball' right down to the end, to be honest.

I don't know -- was it the temperature of my butter? I used cold butter, like I always do for shortbread.

The only thing I can come up with is -- I don't have a food processor. Maybe it really does help this recipe come together??

Regardless...I don't think I want to fuss with this one again for Christmas.

Elfin Shortbread Cookies

(Elle's New England Kitchen)

1 1/4 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 TB red and green sprinkles

Directions

- If using a food processor:

- Pulse the flour and sugar until blended.

- Add in the butter until it all resembles fine crumbs

- Add the sprinkles and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. (Don't overdo it, or the dough will turn pink from the red sprinkles like mine)

- Remove to a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until the dough forms a ball.

- Pat the dough out into an 8x5 inch rectangle on a parchment lined baking sheet.

- Cut the dough into 1/2 inch squares, and separate them on the baking sheet. (A bench scraper works really well for cutting them.)

- If you're not using a food processor:

- Mix the flour and sugar in a medium bowl.

- Cut in the butter until you get fine crumbs, stir in the sprinkles and knead until smooth.

- Continue with cutting and baking the cookies

- Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-14 minutes, and then transfer the cookies on the parchment to a cooling rack.

- Store in a tightly covered container at room temp for up to three days or in the freezer for up to three months.

-This is supposed to make about 160 little cookies, but neither Elle nor I got that many!

And sorry for all of the really bad pictures lately -- our new kitchen has terrible picture lighting! I guess I'm going to have to make a lightbox after all.