I love browning butter for baked goods, but find many recipes will call for that step and the results don’t truly highlight the nutty flavor that well. I find it best showcased in a shortbread cookie, where there are not a lot of competing ingredients, just a bit of vanilla to enhance the overall sweetness.
Nothing says the holidays like cranberries! Every Thanksgiving, I look forward to using them for chutney to serve alongside the turkey, and I always end up with extra cranberries. So, why not use them for dessert?
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It isn’t the holidays without a spice cookie. Gingerbread is probably the most common one, but I reserve that for constructing houses. I like the more cinnamon-y flavor profile of speculoos cookies. Every year, I turn to my baking bible, the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook, for the recipe. I added a little ginger and cloves for a bit more punch. For the cut-outs, I was inspired by adorable round reindeer faces found on Pinterest, but I decided to go with a rectangle to resemble their slender frame.
My favorite part about making these cookies is decorating! I was snacking on chocolate from my friends at Kellermanni Chocolate (dark milk is my favorite) and broke off a few chunks from to use for the reindeer’s facial features. To finish, I used red candies for the signature Rudolph nose.
I love making snowball cookies during the holidays! They’re also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes but snowballs feels more Christmas-y. Typically raw walnuts or pecans are used, but I was given the loveliest basket of assorted candied nuts from Santé Nuts and chose my favorite, candied pecans.
The toasted nuts add warmth to the cookies, and to account for the sugar coating, I adjusted the amount of powdered sugar in the dough so it wouldn’t overpower the nutty flavor. With the sweet, there’s also a little spice, in the form of cardamom. A dash of it makes these cookies very festive. Happy holidays!
