For every holiday a specific food comes to mind, the Thanksgiving turkey, candy on Halloween, Easter eggs, Valentine’s Day chocolate, etc., etc. When it comes to Christmas I think it’s fair to say cookies of all forms and varieties top the list.
While it makes it the worst possible time to start a diet, there is something so comforting about a house that smells of homemade cookies in the oven and the packaging of cute little gift boxes. It’s like creating a personal North Pole in your own house.
The other day I started to get curious about the connection between Christmas and cookies and did a little Google research. This is what I discovered on a website called The Food Timeline:
“Cakes of all shapes and sizes (including smaller items such as cookies) have been part of festive holiday rituals long before Christmas. Ancient cooks prepared sweet baked goods to mark significant occasions. Many of these recipes and ingredients (cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, almonds, dried fruits etc.) were introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages. "By the 1500s, Christmas cookies had caught on all over Europe. German families baked up pans of Lebkuchen and buttery Spritz cookies. Papparkakor (spicy ginger and black-pepper delights) were favorites in Sweden; the Norwegians made krumkake (thin lemon and cardamom-scented wafers). The earliest Christmas cookies in America came ashore with the Dutch in the early 1600s."
Over the years we have added our own spin to Christmas cookies, yet cookies featuring those same ingredients are shared today with love just as they were all those years ago.
A box of Christmas cookies does not cost a ton of money, and is not something you have to wait in line for, but the meaning it carries for those giving and receiving is truly priceless.
I love baking cookies more than anything and I am currently putting together a Christmas cookie wish- list of all the recipes I want to try before the season is over. However, a classic recipe I know I can always turn to in a crunch is my recipe for Cranberry- White Chocolate cookies. They festively represent the colors of the season, and make a perfect companion to a cup of hot chocolate. They are one of my personal favorites and I hope they can start a new cookie tradition for you during the holiday season.
Cranberry- White Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¼ cups all- purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Cream together butter, 1 cup brown sugar and ½ cup sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to cookie batter. Mix just until incorporated.
Fold in 1 cup white chocolate chips and 1 cup dried cranberries.
Combine the Tablespoon of sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon together. Roll the dough into tablespoon sized balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 -12 minutes.
Cool and enjoy!
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