Christmas Cookie Recipes

I was busy in the kitchen before Christmas so that I could pack and post boxes of treats for friends and family. I had a couple of disasters (that I blame on being on the verge of illness and NOT just being a bit rubbish) but generally things turned out really well.

I don't have any pictures of anything as I was busy making sure everything got posted out in time but I do have a few recipes for you. Everything got very good reviews from recipients.

I got the recipe for these Cranberry cookies here and they are amazing. I successfully froze the dough and defrosted it before cooking. They were absolutely delicious (a girl has to test her new recipes, right?), tasted very chocolatey and the little hint of spice really rounded them out well. I recommend these as an easy but delicious holiday treat.

I was trying to make Gingerbread men and found a recipe on Joy of Baking this recipe for gingerbread cookies but it just didn't work out for me. The dough was very soft and sticky despite adding extra flour...lots of extra flour. In the end I resorted to rolling these into balls, flattening slightly and baking for around 15 minutes in a moderate oven. They ended up being slightly cakey but still very good. The yummy treacle and ginger flavours make it taste very christmassy.

This recipe for Chocolate Chip Bars was from Cookie Madness but I made a few alterations. I used milk, white and dark chocolate chips, added some dessicated coconut and cooked it in a smaller pan so that they were more cake-like. They were really good and even my other half ate them and he's not a big cake eater. They're pretty easy to customise and add any of your favourite ingredients into the mix. They got good reviews from all who tasted them!