Baking Christmas Cookies
I did a little Christmas baking this past weekend and I though I would share some of my holiday treats with you. Well, not literally, but pictures of them at least! Here are a few of my delicious morsels.
These are my grandmother’s recipe. She always called them Portuguese Walnut Cookies because a Portuguese woman down the street gave her the recipe years ago. This original recipe resulted in my producing 500 cookies per batch, using measurements in tea-cup-fulls and calling for shortening. When I was the pastry chef at the AGO I revised this recipe, standardized the measurements and replaced shortening with butter. They are dipped in a honey syrup and are moist and divine although I doubt they are Portuguese in origin, they seem more Greek or Middle Eastern to me. Here is a link to a similar recipe.
These buttery caramel walnut bars are a derivation of a Moritz Tart made in Switzerland. It is usually made into a pie but I thought it would make good bars so I doubled the recipe and changed the format to a sheet pan. They turned out great and freeze really well.
This is an old family favourite, known in Italy as Mostaccioli but in our family as “Toutouns”. This is also a recipe with questionable measurements which yields hundreds of cookies – it required much tweaking for consistent and manageable results. I reworked this one for a Canadian Living magazine story a while back (click on the link above for the recipe). Give it a try – I guarantee good results.
YUM! YUM! YUM! YUM!!!
i am most definitely baking those squares this weekend! thanks christine!!
I just brought the mostaccioli–made from your CL recipe–to a cookie exchage last night. They were a big hit and you were right: they are truly foolproof!
Wow, these look delicious, do you have a recipe for the caramel walnut bars?
My favorites. I can’t wait to sample. Lucky me!
Hey sorry all, I don’t have a standard recipe for the squares, I kind of made it up as I went along.
This is the filling:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp water
Mix together in n a saucepan and cook without stirring to caramel stage and a amber coloured. Add in:
1 1/3 cup cream and 2 Tablespoons honey,
Do this off the heat carefully, it will bubble up.
Stir in:
Four cups coarsely chopped walnuts
Let it cool before you spread it over the pastry. I used a butter pastry made with and egg, roll it to fit rimmed cookie sheet, spread in the cooled filling and top with another sheet of pastry. Prick the top and bake at 350, I can’t remember how long, at least 30 minutes, up to 45, until it is golden brown.
Let the whole thing set overnight before you cut them into squares.
Sorry for the vague recipe, this is best as I can remember what I did.
Let me know if you make it.
Wow ! Those cookies/bars look superb. Where was this article a couple of weeks ago when I had to bake 12-Dozen cookies for a cookie exchange. I am always on the lookout for non chocolate big batch baking.
Thank you for this link Canadian Living !
Thank you for these cookie recipes they look and sound so delicious that you have inspried me to try them. I still have 3 boxer shorts and one pyjama bottoms to sew but I have the material and patterns here at home in the boones. Who said that mothers and grandmothers sleep before Christmas? Thank you for the 50 day preparation and thank you everyone at Canadain living for your all year publication. Enjoy your famalies and your own personal way of celebrating.
The filling for the caramel walnut bars sound deliscious. could you use “phyllo” pastry for this ?
Whew after looking up other recipes for “caramel walnut bars” and combining ingredients and steps with your posted recipe I managed to produce something really tasty. I’ve made it a few times now. I think a recipe gets better after the first few times you make it.
Does anyone have a recipe for red velvet cake? It sounds wonderful.