Today is the start of the second annual 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies bloghop. I again am joining other fabulous food bloggers around the net who will post a new cookie recipe every Friday for the next 12 weeks. I plan to post new cookie recipes, as well as a couple of my favorite cookie recipes that for some unknown reason I haven’t blogged about yet. Hopefully, we’ll end up with some great ideas and fabulous cookies to give away to friends and family for Christmas. I can’t believe Christmas is only 12 weeks away.
My first recipe comes from a cute little cookie cookbook, One Dough Fifty Cookies. I was the winner of a cookie contest hosted by the wonderful Jaime, of Sophistimon. (Thanks Jaime!) My prize was from Ice Box Bakery and included fun cookie baking accessories in addition to the cookbook. Ice Box Bakery sells premium all-natural cookie dough, ready to slice and bake. You can buy Ice Box Cookie dough at many locations, including Whole Foods in Utah.
The cookbook gives you a master cookie dough recipe that makes 12 to 20 dozen cookies. Then it gives you 50 recipes to use to change the basic butter cookie dough into nearly any type of cookie you’d like to make. You can make all the cookies at once, or you can freeze part of the dough and make different kinds of cookies later. This would be a great option if you are pressed for time but still want to make a wide variety of cookies.
I tried two of the recipes in the first section of the book, Spritz and Hand-Formed Cookies. The first cookie, Jelly Bowls, is a basic thumbprint cookie which used 1/2 of the Master Dough recipe and 3/4 cup of jam. I used my homemade peach and strawberry freezer jams.
The second recipe, Zesty Lime and Almond Sticks, was my favorite of the two. Both cookies are a crisp, crumbly and lightly sweet cookie, but I loved the added zip from the lime and the extra crunch from the almonds in the lime cookies. I added a white chocolate drizzle to dress them up a bit.
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole natural almonds
- 1/2 recipe Master Dough*
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 3/4 cup confectionsrs' sugar
- 3 large egg whites, lightly beaten with 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350º. In a food processor, process the almonds until finely ground. (I used almond meal.)
- In a large bowl, beat together the dough, lime zest, juice and 1/2 cup of the ground almonds with an electric mixer on medium speed until thoroughly combined. Chill the dough, if necessary, until firm enough to roll.
- *Or use your favorite butter cookie dough recipe. It would be fun to try it with Ice Box Bakery sugar cookie dough.
Notes
http://www.barbarabakes.com/2010/09/zesty-lime-almond-sticks/Be sure and check out all of the fabulous cookies the other 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies bakers baked up for this week. If you’d like to participate weekly in our 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies posts, we’d love to have you join us and add your cookie recipe links. April, http://abbysweets.blogspot.com/, is the group’s founder, you can contact her at aprilsattic at comcast dot net to join.
Some of the links in my posts may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting Barbara Bakes when you shop!
I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
I love Christmas cookie time! How exciting
These sound delicious
These totally got my mouth to water, lol…YUM! Looks fabulicious girl!
Congrats…Almond sticks… perfect snacks for the holiday season
Oh these look so good. I have a weakness for those goofy star shapped cookies with the little chewy cherry in the middle. This might be a much better and HOME MADE substitute.
Awesome!
I love the flavors in these – I’ve become quite the lime fiend, lately. Nice kick-off!
The lime in your cookies sounds wonderful and I love the way you’ve done the icing too. Making Christmas cookies and other treats is such a lot of fun!
I still remember when you started the twelve weeks of christmas cookie baking last year and can’t believe an entire year has gone by!
These look so unique and delicious!
Look and sound amazing! yum!!
Zippy…zesty…and crunchy…this cookie is calling my name Barbara…thanks for sharing this one ;o)
I’m glad that this grand cookie list is out…however, I’m still not there in my mind…I’ll be scouting out the holiday cookies a little later ;o)
Flavourful wishes,
Claudia
This dough must be wonderful. Your cookies are original and look lovely. As usual, Barbara, you do a great job.
I do want to try these, sometime, along the way. Thanks for your help as I mustered my way, getting to my first cookie.
I can’t get over how close christmas is already? but what a perfect celebration with great bloggers…I love your cookies lime and almonds together….perfection
sweetlife
i cannot wait to try this:) they look so cute and yummy!
What a great way to get an early start on holiday baking! These lok absolutely amazing. Wish I had one right now to enjoy post lunch.
Oh my goodness, you mentioned the C word and we’ve not even had Hallowe’en yet! They look very nice though!
These are so beautiful Barbara! I wish I had time to play along
Wish I could quit my job and just bake and craft all day. Maybe someday eh? I HAVE to make these, so yummy looking!