From the category archives:

Recipes for Christmas

Sables

by Laura 18 November 2010

I sometimes wonder how many incarnations of the simple butter cookie have been developed. I love them all, but this is my favorite of all the butter cookies I have baked. It’s a slice and bake, ridiculously simple, and it is rich, buttery, mellow, tender, and utterly delicious. You could make endless varieties—add cacao nibs [...]

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Pfeffernusse with Rum and Orange Liqueur Glaze

by Laura 17 November 2010

My Dear Husband’s wonderful grandmother baked peppernuts, or Pfeffernusse, every year for Christmas. They were spiced little bite-sized cookies which she cut into squares, and they were distinctively hers. I have her recipe, but not her guidance, and though we’ve been without her for some years now, it’s still too hard to think of baking [...]

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Chocolate-dipped Lebkuchen

by Laura 16 November 2010

My Honey Girl is a sculptor, and when she was younger she made busts of culinary heroes for me. An animated, joyful Julia Child sits on my crowded cookbook cases across from a serene looking Marion Cunningham. If she ever offers to make another, Duluth, Minnesota native Beatrice Ojakangas will be next on the shelf. [...]

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Sugar Cookies with Almond Cream Icing and Luster Dust

by Laura 15 November 2010

The kitchen nisse were looking over me last night. I was so tired while I was baking that I left six baking sheets of more than 100 sugar cookies in the oven. Overnight. And they were still delicious the next morning! They needed just a couple more minutes when I last checked them, not six [...]

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Almond Biscotti

by Laura 13 November 2010

I don’t think of biscotti as particularly festive, but they’re awfully nice with a couple of shots of espresso, so one year I made a few batches to tuck into my Christmas cookie and candy boxes. They were declared the favorite cookie of the year by my beloved butcher, Austin, and I haven’t been able [...]

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Teeny Tiny Spritz Flower Cookies

by Laura 11 November 2010

These are my Honey Girl’s favorite Christmas cookie and the first thing I bake each season. When my Dear Husband and I were first married, my sister-in-law Osa gave me a little Spritz press and inside the box was tucked a little printed recipe. It’s a magical one. The dough is supple and soft, it [...]

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Cookie Baking and Candy Making Plan for Christmas 2010

by Laura 7 November 2010

Every year around this time of year, I pull out my thick, green ring binder. It’s full of lists from Christmases past: menus and recipes, card lists, ideas, letters my children have written. I lug it along with a stack of cookbooks and magazines to a greasy spoon and have a long breakfast all by [...]

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