Making Favorite Christmas Cookies - A Family Event

At Mommie 911, we have certain Christmas traditions and one of those is making special Christmas cookies that have been made by our great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and now we make them with our own children. We believe that you can never be too young to start in with the cookie making. We like to get even the youngest kids involved by age 18 months and, as we all know, they want to help! Stirring, mixing, rolling, tasting ... they want to do it all.

It's important to set aside enough time to not be rushed so that it is truly a memory in the making.

Some of our favorite cookies to make are sand tarts, snickerdoodles and, of course, everyone's favorite, chocolate chip. We hope you have as much fun as we do!

SAND TARTS

1 cup Butter
2 cups Sugar
3 Eggs
4 cups Flour
Colored sugar/ cinnamon & sugar

Use real butter for this recipe. Soften and cream butter. Add 2 cups of white sugar and mix well. Add one egg at a time and mix very well. Stir in flour, one cup at a time. Chill for at least an hour before rolling.

Preheat oven to 350. Using a pastry cloth (or pillowcase), flour surface well to avoid dough sticking to cloth. Roll dough out to desired thickness. Some people like thinner and some like thicker sand tarts, so try a batch of each first. Cut out with cookie cutters and arrange on baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with colored sugar or the cinnamon & sugar mixture.

Bake until edges are turning light brown. (8-10 min) Remove immediately. Yum!

SNICKERDOODLES

1 cup Soft Shortening (use part butter)
1 1/2 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 3/4 cup Flour
2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
Sugar & Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400. Mix butter, sugar and eggs. Blend in all dry ingredients. Roll into ball about the size of small walnuts. Roll in mixture of sugar & cinnamon.

Place balls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes.

TOLL HOUSE CHOCOLATE CHIP

1 cup Margarine
3/4 cup white Sugar
3/4 cup brown Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Hot Water
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups Flour
2 cups Chocolate Chips
2 cups Oatmeal (optional)

Cream margarine and add sugars. Mix well. Add vanilla, then disolve baking soda in hot water and add, along with salt to mixture. Mix in one egg at a time and then, slowly, add flour. Mix in chocolate chips and oatmeal.

Drop by rounded teaspoons full onto cookie sheet, keeping about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will be lightly browned.

Holly Berry Cookies
Ingredients:
1 Bag of Marshmallows
4 TBS Unsalted Butter
1 ts Vanilla
4 Cups Corn Flakes
Green Food Coloring (1-2 drops)
Cinnamon/Red Hot Candies

Melt the Marshmallows and Butter in a Saucepan over medium heat. As soon as the mixture is melted, remove from heat and add vanilla and 1-2 drops of food color (to tint the mixture a rich Green) and stir until blended. Add in Corn Flakes and stir until the Corn Flakes are covered with the Green Marshmallow mixture.

Immediately spoon small spoonfuls of the Corn Flake mix onto wax paper. Add 3 Red Hots to each cookie while the cookies are still hot/sticky.

Let cool off and enjoy or give with other Christmas cookies to make your gifts look more festive.