It's that time... the 2024 Christmas Cookie List

 

Briefly popping in to the mostly-neglected recipe blog to update my 2024 Christmas Cookie List.
I really should say 'idea' list though as I brainstormed a list a couple weeks ago, but more than likely will change and adapt it as I go along.  There are currently 17 recipes on the list but I usually end up making between 22-26 so I know I'll have more when I make up the trays and boxes.  

2024 Current Christmas Cookie Idea List

1. Russian Tea Cakes (or sometimes called Mexican Wedding Cakes)
2. Angel Bars
3. Cream Wafers
4. English Toffee (maybe)
5. Harris Fruitcake
6. Gateau Bonbons
7. Pretzel Bites with Rolos, Kisses and M&M's
8. Peppermint Meltaways
9. No Bake Cookies
10. Peanut Blossoms
11. Peanut Butter Fudge
12. Salted Nut Chews
13. Sugar Cookies - Trees for sure, maybe Mittens and Hats too.
14. A second style Tree shaped sugar cookie
15. Molasses Cookies
16. Macarons
17. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Red and Green M&M's

Reposting an older blog post page because I already have links included on that year's list and I don't feel like taking all the time/work to link anything right now.  PAGE:  https://www.housewifebarbie.com/p/blog-page_2.html

  Almond Macrons
  Mexican Wedding Cakes (or Russian Tea Cakes)
  Fruitcake Bars (no bake)
  Molasses Ginger Cookies
  Homemade Chocolate Truffles
  Cream Horns (easy with Puff Pastry!)
  Cut out Sugar Cookies with an easy Glaze
  Peppermint Meltaway Cookies with Crushed Candy Canes
  Homemade Girl Scout Style Thin Mints
  M&M Kiss Pretzels
  Cream Wafers
  Peppermint Pretzels
  Candy Striped Cookie Sticks
  Melted Snowman Cookies
  Stenciled Icing Sugar Cookies
  Peanut Blossoms
  Peanut Butter Fudge
  Sugar Cookies:  Snowflakes with Edible Glitter
  Red Velvet Cake Balls
  Gateau Bon Bons
  Swedish Rosettes
  Peppermint Teacakes
  Salted Nut Chews
Sugar Free, Low Carb Cinnamon Spice Cookies
Sugar Free Mexican Wedding Cakes
Mini Peanut Blossom Muffin Tin Cookies
Mittens and Winter Hat Sugar Cookies

 

 

Knafeh Bars (the viral Dubai Bars with Pistachio Cream Centers)

 

So apparently there was a 'viral' recipe on social media this Fall.  I had no idea.  My personality is such that I don't pay attention to what people are doing - I rarely use social media and frankly, I'm too dang busy in my own life to bother.  I actually stumbled upon this fad honestly - and accidentally.

Two things.  First, I've been wanting to find a cheap 'candy bar' style silicone mold to have on hand.  Have wanted this for about 2 years.  Didn't want one bad enough to buy one, but I'm part of a product review group and after a year of waiting, searching, keeping my eye out and looking, I stumbled upon one!  Ordered it post haste.

Within a couple weeks I stumbled upon shredded phyllo dough.  Yes please!  I LOVE phyllo dough and had never heard of nor seen shredded.  But I had it, so I had to find something to do with it.  That is when I put those words into a search engine and realized there was something called a Knafeh Bar - or a Dubai Bar.  It used shredded phyllo AND it used a silicone candy bar mold.  BINGO.

I also happened to have pistachio's on hand (always) and cream and other ingredients (always).  It was meant to be.

 

 

 My pistachios were roasted and salted. I simply ran them under water to get rid of some of the salt.  Next time I probably won't bother - I'll just not put any salt in the rest of the filling to make up for it.

I thought this was pretty cool...  My stick of butter said it was 113 grams on the wrapper.  I wondered if it would really be exactly that?  I weighed it. 

IT WAS.  Exactly 113 grams in one stick of butter.  I didn't actually need exactly one stick, I'm just a geek and wanted to weigh it.

 
The shredded phyllo (fillo) has to be cooked with butter to make it brown and crisp.

 
This is the mixing of the pistachio cream with the crispy phyllo.

 Getting ready to mix the candy bar filling - the phyllo, pistachio cream, vanilla, peanut butter, extra chopped pistachios...

 The candy bar mold was already lined/filled with a thin chocolate layer.  This is the molds being filled.

 By this point I was over it... I sent this message to my family.

 But in the end... they turned out quite well!  Here I am un molding them... they were dusted with edible gold dusting powder and drizzled with a tiny bit of green as well.

 Taste test..

 Bagged up and ready for my family to enjoy.

Knafeh Bars

In a candy bar silicone mold, dust a little bit of edible gold luster dust and green if you have it or use white chocolate colored green and drizzle that.  Or just use luster dust and forget the green - not sure why people insist there should be green.  Gold is just fine and looks pretty.

Brush or pour/spread melted chocolate of choice.  I used what I had on hand and mixed a bunch different bits.
Chocolate almond bark, sugar free chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and some chocolate bars from Turkey.

Pistachio Cream

2/3 c pistachios
1/3 c sugar
1/2 c chopped up white chocolate or white chocolate melts
1/3 c butter
1/2 c cream or half and half
vanilla
almond extract
salt

Put into a blender and blend smooth.    Chill until needed if you've made it ahead of time.

Crisp the Shredded Phyllo

In a pan on the stove, heat some butter.
Add the shredded phyllo (kataifi)
Cook and stir until it's golden brown and crispy.  Set aside.

Filling

1 c shredded phyllo (kataifi)
1/2 cup of the pistachio cream you made
1 T peanut butter
2 T extra chopped pistachios

Fill the chocolate lined bar molds with the filling, be sure to flatten and smooth the filling and leave enough room to top with more melted chocolate.  When the bars are topped and you can't see any filling - it's totally encased in the chocolate in the molds, place them in the refrigerator to harden.

When the molds are cold and the chocolate hard, pop them out of the molds.

Pork and Lemon Ragu with Pasta

  

The photo above is when it had started to thicken upon standing a few minutes, but wasn't the finished product.  I could have taken a better 'finished' photo but honestly I was hungry, it smelled (and tasted) so good I started to eat it, and didn't really care about getting a better picture.  It's just for my personal blog - I don't make any money for posting recipes I make, and I have no income from the time I spend on this site, so... yeah.  LOL.

I would normally use a different pasta with this one, but for a number of crazy things going on in our life right now, I have cleared out the pantry except for mere basics and all I have to choose from currently is macaroni shapes and spaghetti shapes.  So, I chose spaghetti this time. 



Pork and Lemon Ragu with Pasta

Bacon, cooked and crumbled or use real bacon crumbles bought - about 1/3 cup
olive oil
1 lg onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 t salt
1 t thyme
1 t fresh black pepper
1/2 - 3/4 c cream or half and half
1 1/2 - 2 c water
1 1/2 lb. boneless pork roast
1 t dried lemon peel
1/4 c lemon juice
12 oz. pasta of choice
Romano or Parmesan cheese

In an oven proof pan with a lid, cook the bacon bits in the oil until they start to crisp up, add the onion and cook til soft and turning golden.  Add the garlic and salt, pepper and thyme.  Add the cream and water and whisk/stir.  Add the pork roast, cutting it into half or even quarters.  Bring to a boil and then remove, put the lid on and place into a 350 degree oven.  Roast until tender (about 1 1/2 hours).

Add the lemon juice and zest.  Let it set as you cook the pasta.  When the pasta is almost done, use two large forks to pull apart the pork into shredded pieces.  Add the pasta to the sauce reserving just a bit of the pasta water in case you want to thin the sauce.  It should have a bit of liquid at this point as it will thicken as it stands.  Let it thicken about 10-15 minutes before serving.   You can stir in a bit of the pasta water to the leftovers before refrigerating, as it will absorb the liquid and become really thick by the next day. 




Stirring in the half and half or cream to the onion/bacon mixture
Adding the pork to cook
Shredding the pork
 

Add the pasta and cheese (I used quesa fresca as I didn't have Romano on hand)  It will be VERY LIQUID at this point as it hasn't thickened up at all yet.  It will in the next 10-15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Using up Fruit "Everything" Pie with a Crumble Topping and Traditional Pumpkin Pie

 

Everything Fruit Pie with a Cinnamon Crumble Topping

This pie is to 'use up' lots of different fruit.  Over the course of a couple months I'd toss 'extra' fruit into the freezer.  I also had extra jars of home canned apples I wanted to use up.  I also had bought our favorite frozen fruit mixture at the store many times, but the peaches in frozen fruit mixes are always terrible - never ripe or sweet - so the peaches area always picked out and tossed into a ziplock in the freezer to use for other things.  Like this pie.

Into a big pan on the stove I added a bunch of fruit.  Everything I had on hand that needed to be used that could go into a fruit pie.   This time the mixture was/is:  apples, cranberries, strawberries, rhubarb, peaches, mango and... maybe something else.  I can't remember.   Brought to a boil, then reduce to be simmered on the stove with sugar and cinnamon added, along with a cornstarch/water slurry to thicken.  I didn't want to use it right then so I let it cool, refrigerated it, and put it into a food sealed bag and popped it back into the freezer.

I tossed the bag into the refrigerator last week to thaw and sit until needed.  Yesterday was a pie making day. 

1 unbaked pie crust
Crumble topping (recipe below)
Fruit of choice, with sweetener and flour to thicken (you could also use just apples, apples and cranberries, blueberries, etc)


Topping:
12 T sugar
6 T butter
1/2 c flour
6 T quick cook oatmeal
3 t cinnamon
1/4 t dried lemon zest

Crumbled together with your fingers, a fork, or pulsed a few times in a food processor.  Crumble onto your unbaked pie and bake as directed.

Baked at 350 for about 45 minutes.  Cool completely.

 

 

Pumpkin Pie

2 eggs
3/4 c brown sugar
5 oz. evaporated milk
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ginger
1/8 t nutmeg
(or just use about 2 t pumpkin pie spice instead of all the above)
2 T boiling water
1 t vanilla extract
1 2/3 c pumpkin puree
1/4 c half and half
1 pie shell, unbaked

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Put the pie crust into your pan.
In a food processor or a bowl, beat the eggs, add the sugar, milk, spices and boiling water.  Beat.  Add the pumpkin and half and half, beat again briefly just to smooth.  Pour into your pie shell.

Bake 15 minutes at 425.  Lower the temp to 300 and continue to bake until the center is 'set' - about 30 minutes.  Cool completely.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

 

Flat Bread or Naan Style Bread

 

 

For many reasons and many things going on in our life right now I've not had Our Daily Bread in the refrigerator for quite some time.  Yesterday morning however, I decided to make up another batch.  I left it on the counter to work its magic for a few hours, then popped it into the refrigerator to use it as some point but was too busy to think about it at the time.

Last night I glanced at the George Foreman grill on the counter and had the idea that my bread dough, made on the George Foreman might make a delicious flat bread or naan style bread!   I grabbed the bucket out of the fridge, formed 4 little mounds of dough on a piece of parchment and let them sit while I did other things.   About an hour later I came back and plopped a piece of dough on the hot griddle and closed it.  Upon opening, I had a perfect hot flat bread.

I sent off photos and an explanation to all three of my young adult kids so they could make them if they wished, as it was just so easy.   And adding it here so they can find it later.

• Use the Bucket Bread recipe.
• Grab a handful of dough about the size of your palm.
• Place it on a piece of greased parchment, foil or plastic.
• Let it warm and/or rise a bit for about an hour.
• Heat the George Foreman grill.  Spray or oil the grill.
• Place the dough on the grill and close the top, not squishing it down, just close it over the dough and leave it.
• When the lights heat up to show it's ready again, open, and remove the flat bread.
• Serve with butter or with garlic butter.