Classic Christmas Cookies: Pecan Pralines, Nut Rolls, & Iced Cutouts

Well, hello and welcome to At Home today. I hope that you have had your fill of turkey. You know, I am like up to here from turkey. It was so good, though, wasn’t it? I love this time of the year because it brings us back to what’s really, really important. Being thankful, being with family, and celebrating the birth of Christ. And that’s what we’re going to be doing in these next couple of weeks, because this is the first of many Christmas-oriented programs. We’re going to do cookies, gifts from the kitchen, a Christmas breakfast brunch, and a New Year’s Day dinner. All of these recipes wrapped up in one booklet. At the end of the program, we’re going to tell you all about it, how you can get it, so you won’t have to keep writing week after week after week. And we’re excited about being able to bring this to you this year. This is about the third year since At Home’s been on that we’ve been doing this. And we get such response, because you folks enjoy it. We’ll be telling you at the end of the program. You might want to get paper and a pencil so you can take down the address, the information. But we’re going to start today doing cookies. Three really, really good cookies that you can make easy and simple. And before we start, I want to give you some hints about doing cookies. This I found in a newspaper clipping some time ago. I just thought this was really interesting. It says if you make a refrigerator-type dough cookie, it says use a wire cheese cutter — you know those funny little with the little wire on it. It says use a wire cheese slicer dipped in flour to cut uniform-size cookies from refrigerator dough. Good idea. This one says around any holiday, if I find I’m in need of a special cookie cutter, I’ve discovered that the serrated edge of a discarded food wrap box can be bent into any shape and it works very well. Linda, could you give me that one? I think it’s over there somewhere. I want to show you what that’s talking about. Because you know, have you ever gone looking for cookie cutter and you couldn’t find the one you’ve been looking for? Well, I saw this, and I thought this was a great idea. Thank you. This is the strip that’s off the food wrap box. And it’s just — you have to watch, because it’s really jaggy and you can really cut yourself on it. But look how interesting this is. You put a little piece of tape on the end. If you need, like, a snowman, you could bend it in. And you could make, you know, the snowman. This stuff bends and stays however you put it. If you wanted to do a Christmas tree, you know, I’m not really artistic, but I mean if I had this taped, I could do a Christmas tree. This is a good idea. Get the kids to work on it. Just make sure that they’re very careful. Because there are some sharp jaggy edges on it. But I think with some adult supervision, that could work out. If you want to do a — I mean, all sizes of — just like in a super eight, you know, a figure like that, or whatever. They even — not even necessarily Christmas cookies, but any type of a cookie, this is good idea. This is a very good idea. I think if you’re creative, and you can — like you could do a heart, you know. I mean, you’d have to shape it and spend some time doing that, but it could work, you know. It’s not without the realm of possibility. So that’s a good idea. The other one says — another hint she says, place cookie sheets, when you’re baking your cookies, in the middle rack of the oven, in the middle of the rack. It won’t touch the sides of the oven, or baking won’t be very even. If the pan hits the sides of the oven, then it doesn’t allow the hot air to get up and circulate, and some of your cookies will be baked, and some of them won’t. The other one says use light or shiny baking sheets. This is real important. Dark ones will make your cookies too brown. That’s true. If you have a real old one that’s real brown, discard it. Get another one. Also it says if you make square cookies with a pizza cutter and save time. Less handling means that the dough will not be tough. So if you’re cutting out square cookies. Maybe you’re going to make some little nut rolls like we’re going to be making today, use a cookie cutter. That wheel is — it’s a good wheel on a cookie cutter, and it makes it nice and even, instead of using the knife. Sometimes the knife will pull the dough. Well, these are just some hints to get us started, because this program today and next week, it’s all cookies, cookies, cookies. And for me in my kitchen, when I’m doing holiday baking, I like music. So I’m going to go over, turn on the stereo, get some music started. You go check out this hint, and when we come back, we’re going to start our cookies. We’ll be back in just a minute.

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Here’s today’s At Home hint. For thick chocolate chip cookies that don’t flatten out when you bake them, first cream the sugar and the butter with the mixture, but stir the dry ingredients in by hand until well-mixed, then add the chocolate chips. If you’ve got a helpful hint that you want to share with us, we want to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, CTV, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. Well, to begin the program today, we’re going to make something called Praline Bars. And these are made with graham crackers. Doesn’t that music sound great? Doesn’t that just give you that feeling that Christmas is just around the corner? And we got to get things done. Well, that’s the way I feel. Anyway, today we’re going to take first of all, these — package of crackers. And this should be 48 single crackers, but 24 double. However they want to say it. Anyway, it’s for 12 of this size, a whole package of graham crackers. And we lay them in an uncreased baking dish, OK? Now we’ve taken a half a pound of butter — by the way, this recipe come from the Maciscos who live in McKees Rocks, and they’ve sent me some recipes. They’re great people. We melt the half a pound of butter in our pan, and to that, we’re going to add our brown sugar, which is one cup of brown sugar. A spoon here. That’s going to go in, because this is going to be cooking. And we’re going to make a kind of a sauce to put over those graham crackers. And we want to get that going. This needs to cook. You’re going to cook this for a couple of minutes until it thickens. So make sure, have your butter melted, then add the brown sugar. Next we’re going to add the pecans. This is about a cup of chopped pecans. I imagine you can use walnuts if you’d really wanted to, whichever. That’s fine. And this needs to boil. Bring this to a boil Watching it and stirring it. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, you’re going to have to stand and stir it constantly, because it’s really important for this to come together. And the brown sugar in there is very thick, but it will melt down, and it will thin out because of the butter being in there. But you have to keep an eye on this. This isn’t something you want to walk away from the stove and leave it. Because it’s just that good to do that. Remember that all of these cookies, this is a good time of the year, of the season to start doing the cookies because you know, you don’t want to wait until the last minute. There’s nothing worse than the last-minute shopping, the last-minute decorating, getting linens ready. Trying to figure out what am I going to have for Christmas dinner? What are we going to have for that party that we’re supposed to go to? I have to take a — you don’t want to be rushed. You want to do cookies when you’re far enough away from Christmas that you can give them some thought, you can take your time and thinking, now what do I really want to make? Do I want to add some new ones this year? Do I want to do something a little different? This is the time to give that some thought. And since this is coming to a boil, we’re going to — let me set my timer. Because it boils from three to five minutes. I’m going to do about four. OK? And while that’s cooking — and I’m going to have Dale keep an eye on this so that doesn’t boil over. Because you can’t let it boil over. We’re going to start another cookie, because we’ll come back to that. This cookie is called Ice Cream Nut Rolls. Now, we’ve done this before. And we’ve had so many comments, and if you learn the technique of doing this nut roll, I’m going to tell you, you will not use any other recipe, because this is so easy most everyone can use it. Now there’s first a couple of things you have got to remember. The ingredients are four cups of flour, one pound of butter, and one pint of vanilla ice cream, and a little bit of vanilla. You do not melt the butter. Do not — read my lips — do not melt the butter. Let it even be cold if necessary when you mix it. Now I mix it with my mixer, because it saves time. But you can do this at home very quickly and very easily. I have already mixed the butter, which should be at room temperature. Now that’s not like dripping. It’s soft or it’s right out of the refrigerator. But don’t let it be so soft that it’s like a liquid, because it’s not going to work. And I have combined my flour and my butter in here. Now I’m going to add the ice cream to bring it into a dough. Do you see how this is? This is very soft around the edge, but it’s still a little firm. That’s what you’re going to look for when it comes time to add the ice cream. And I’m going to pull the dough up. I’m going to add the ice cream to the bottom, because it will mix better. Now this can be done by hand. I did it for many years by hand before I got a nice big mixer. By the way, ladies, if that’s what you’re interested in for Christmas, you know, that’s the time to ask for it. This is a time to get one of those nice big mixers, because you buy it once, you never have to buy it again. This is a great, great, great gift. And I remember the year that my dad bought me mine. I was whipping up, mixing up stuff left and right, because it was a — it’s a great, great gift. Alright. We’re going to mix this together. When this comes together in a dough, then you’re going to roll this out with powdered sugar. By the way, this recipe is in our cookbook, too. It’s called Arlene’s Ice Cream Nut Rolls. So if you are the cookbook, you know, you can get that recipe. But we’ve also put it in with our Christmas booklet that we’re going to be telling you about at the end of the program. I’ve just added a little bit of vanilla. Now we’re — it’s coming in to a dough. You can see that. What you’re going to do is, take this dough. You’re going to divide it into eight round balls, and you’re going to put it in the refrigerator for about eight hours or overnight. And what it will do is give you — you make balls about this big. Now if it feels like it’s a little wet, add a little more flour. Four cups of flour is normally just right, though, for this. And you’re going to make them about that big. You’ll get eight of them. When you have those done, you put them in the refrigerator, like I said. Refrigerate them. When they’re ready to be rolled out, I’ll show you what you’re going to do. First of all, you’re going to do powdered sugar all over — get rid of some of these things. The powdered sugar is going to go all over the board. You’re not rolling in flour. You’re rolling in powdered sugar. OK? And you have to do it a lot. And do it a lot. This is what it’s going to look like when it comes out of the refrigerator. And you bring out one ball at a time and you work it. It’s a nice dough. It’s an easy dough to work with. Lay it on your counter. Turn it over. Make sure that the powdered sugar covers it completely. And then you just start rolling it out. And what you’re going to roll it into is a circle, like a pizza. About that size. A 12-inch pizza. Because this is one of the absolute easiest doughs to work with. There’s only a few ingredients, like I told you. There’s just the ice cream, the flour, the butter, and the vanilla. And you know, that’s what makes this a flaky, flaky cookie is because it’s cold. And you know a cold dough always makes flaky. Then you’re going to take this, and you’re going to cut it like a pizza. Take your little pastry cutter. [Alarm beeping] Excuse me one minute. Let me see. Has it boiled? I believe it’s done. We’re going to pour this — let’s go back to our other cookie recipe now. We’re going to pour this over the crackers. OK? We’re going to put these in the oven. Boy, does that smell good. Spread this out. Spread it all over. Nice and evenly. Thank the Maciscos for this recipe. And we want to make sure it covers, because we’re going to put these in the oven now to bake for just 10 to 12 minutes. And it has to be on a 350-degree oven. So make sure that, you know, when you start to put this together, get your oven good and hot. I can’t tell you how important that is to do. You absolutely have to have a pre-heated oven for cookies or cakes, pies, for that to turn out right. Of course, unless the recipe tells you not to do it. Then you have to listen to the recipe. Alright, this will go into the oven. For 10 to 12 minutes. We’ll give it a 10. OK? Now, back to Ice Cream Rolls. We’ve cut them one way, now we’re cutting across. Now we’re cutting like a pizza. You can see how easy this dough is to work with. It’s just — it’s simple and easy as can be. Now we’re going to divide them again. One more time. Divide each of these. And this is just a handy little pastry cutter. You can find these anywhere. It’s nothing special. If you don’t have it, use a plain knife. Doesn’t matter. Alright. Now we’re going to do our nuts. I have one pound of walnuts that I have ground very fine. And what I’m going to add to that is a cup of sugar, and this is 3/4 of a cup of scalded milk. You say, Arlene, why are you scalding the milk? Well, it cooks the walnuts enough so that you don’t get that — the — I don’t know what that stuff is. What is that stuff that gets — it hurts your mouth when you eat a lot of walnuts anyway. And if you scald the milk, the heat from that will cook the walnuts enough so that it doesn’t hurt or make your mouth sore. A lot of people I talk to say, oh I like walnuts, but boy, they really bother my mouth. So what you want to do is make your — you just grind the nuts, add the sugar. You can add the sugar to the milk after you’ve scalded it. That’s fine. Or you can add it to the nuts and then just pour the milk in like I’ve done. There’s not really a right or wrong way of doing this. You can just — you mix it — when you get it done — I’m going to add a little vanilla to that, because I like the flavor of the vanilla with the nuts. Just a little bit, because this is strong vanilla here. OK? And you have them to a spreading consistency. If it seems like, boy, these feel like they’re awful thick, just add a tiny bit of milk. Don’t dump a whole half a cup or even a fourth of a cup. You do it by teaspoons when you get to this point. OK? See how that — that’s the proper consistency right there. Because you can spread with that. What you’re going to do, you take a spoonful of the nut filling, you spread it over the outer edge of the cookie. And then you bring it forward, spread it forward. Then you start to roll. You roll from the back to the front. We’re going to place these on greased cookie sheets, OK? Again you take some nut filling. Now, you don’t want to overdo the nuts, because I tell you what will happen. They will definitely cook out when you get them into the oven. So go lightly. Don’t get carried away with it. You think, oh, I’ll put lots of nuts in, we love nuts. Well, you’ll be amazed at how the nut flavor will be in every bite on these. Look how easy this is. This is a wonderful dough to work with. You can make them larger. You can make them smaller. I tend to think if you make a small nut roll, and it’s a dainty piece, then it tastes better. If you have a great big piece of something in your mouth, just doesn’t taste as good as a dainty little nut roll. So you would continue to do this. Then you’re going to bake these at 350 degrees for about 18 to 20 minutes. You’ll know when they’re done, because they’re browned and they’re beautiful. And they smell so good. And you’re going to have to hide these from the kids and from your husband. Trust me. Because they’re going to want these, and they’re going to be after you, about Mom, how about some of those nut rolls? You’re going to end up having probably to make another batch before Christmas. So like one lady said, I packaged them, marked “liver” on the outside, the kids don’t bother them then. And it’s worked so far, so don’t worry about it. Anyway, you get the idea. You bake them. When you bring them out you put them on a rack. You powder sugar them all over again while they’re still hot. When you package these away, you don’t put them in an airtight container. This dough will get soggy if you do that. So you put them in a shirt box, like a paper box, like a gift box. Line it with wax paper. Put the powdered sugar on the bottom, put the cookies in it, powder sugar them one more time, and put wax paper between the layers. You can freeze them like that if you want to. They will sit for several days like that. But you don’t want to trap the moisture of the nuts in there, because this dough will go soggy, alright? OK. I’m going to leave this, because I want to show you one more additional cookie that I think is a great cookie. And this is one that the kids can get into, because the kids can actually decorate. This is called a rolled — decorated rolled cookie. And I got this recipe from a girl at church. Her name is Shawn Kaydar [assumed spelling], and she’s a great girl. Appreciate it. She just moved into the area. And so she gave me this. She said Arlene, this is one of those easy, easy recipes that you almost can’t mess up. So we have one cup of butter. And we have a cup of sugar. And — let me get my trusty mixer here. This time I’m going to see if I can get this plugged in. Because they’re all razzing me. I can never get them plugged in. But I’m going to do it. Hello.

[ Laughing ]

Where is the plug? I cannot find this plug, because I’m like [Laughs]. Yes, Dale, could you come [Laughs]? There has to be an easier way, folks. If there is, I just have — I got it! I got it! I’m so proud. Thank you, Dale. OK. Here we go. Now — see, you always need help in the kitchen, my goodness. OK. We’re going to start this right away. This dough is very easy to work with. We need to cream that butter and the sugar together. Isn’t it great, just to be at home, wherever you are? There’s no fancy, oh, we have to do it perfect. Life isn’t like that. Life is not perfect. And you just roll with whatever happens, and that’s the way we are here At Home. Anyway, we’re going to do these Christmas cookies. These are called rolled cookies, and these are the ones you’re going to use cookie cutters to shape them. And you can decorate them, or you can just do them with the Christmas sugars or whatever. It’s a great dough to work with. Easy dough to work with. If you’re, like, intimidated by different cookie recipes, you don’t think you’re so great or whatever, this would be the one that you want to work with. Alright. So we have creamed that together. I’d beat that probably just a little bit more if I had the time. Now I’m going to add my one egg. Going to add some vanilla. Just add a little bit of vanilla. OK, this makes about several — I’d say about three or four dozen of cookies, because you can usually tell how many dozen of cookies you’re going to get out of a recipe by how much flour is in it. If it’s got five cups of flour, you’re in there for a long time, folks. And you’re going to get a lot. If it’s got two or two-and-a-half cups, it won’t be as many. But you’ll get a nice three or four dozen out of it. Alright. Now we’re mixing this very well. And I am going to rush a little bit. You want to do this just a little bit more. Now I’m going to add my flour. Let’s see, we have flour here. And some salt. Little pinch of salt. Got that in there. Now we’re going to continue to mix. You can do this with your mixer, because it will work. You’re going to bring this all together. That was two and three-fourths cups of flour. OK? And a fourth of a teaspoon of salt. I’m so glad that we can put all these recipes together in one booklet for you this time, because I enjoy doing that so you don’t have to keep writing. And you can get a head start on your Christmas baking, if you start and send for that booklet today. You’ll have it, you can get started. Now I’m going to keep pressing this. This you’re going to roll out in flour, not in the sugar like we did the last one. You’ll roll this out in flour. Now this seems a little drier to me than normal, but the heat of your hand will help to bring this dough together. OK? And you can decorate them with sugar. You can decorate them and ice them. The kids can get involved in this. This is a great time. Make it a family project to have the kids come in and bake cookies with you. You say, but Arlene, you don’t know how sloppy my kids are. That’s OK. You got soap detergent, you got rags, you got a dishcloth, you got a broom. You can clean it up. You’re going to make memories with those kids that you will cherish all the rest of your life. I have letters from elderly people who said oh, Arlene. You bring back such memories of when I was in the kitchen with my mom. Or my grandmother had me in the kitchen. We used to make this. We used to make that, whatever. Those are the times that you will never, ever be able to relive. And so you want to make those memories every time that you can. Now this is coming together, OK? And what you’re going to do is, just roll this out a little bit at at time. Don’t want to roll it all at once, because you don’t want to make the dough tough. So we’re just going to take a piece of it. Clean your board off, so you don’t have these little nubs here. OK? And I’m going to flour it down. OK. And we’re going to roll it out. Get rid of this here. These will back at 375 degrees. See how nice and easy that dough is? And you can see that I didn’t really work it that much. These need to be about a fourth of an inch thick. Then you take your favorite cookie cutters, and let the kids pick some of them, too. There’s a star. Of course, we have our At Home cookie cutter. So we have to have a house. Here’s a Christmas bell. here’s a little Christmas tree. Now what you’ll do with these is put them on a greased cookie sheet, and — [Alarm beeping] excuse me one minute. And you can either — if you’re going to decorate them, then you don’t do anything on them. If you aren’t going to decorate them, then you want to put your sugars on them now. And you just tap some sugar on the top of it, and place it on the cookie sheet. When we come back, we’re going to show you all kinds of cookies that we’ve prepared just for you today. We’ll be back in just a minute.

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To receive your special Christmas recipe packet 175, containing all of this month’s holiday recipes, listen very carefully. Just send a self-addressed business-sized double-stamped envelope, yes that’s two stamps, with a dollar or more to At Home 175, CTV, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. You will only need to write once this month to receive all our Christmas recipes from At Home. And have a blessed holiday.

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Now, don’t forget, this is a little bit different this time, because we’re asking you to send a large envelope. You must send this large envelope. And you must include a dollar or two to help us with defraying the cost of the printing and putting together this great little booklet just chock full of all of the delicious, delicious recipes that we’re going to be presenting in the whole month of December. So don’t forget, self-addressed stamped business-sized — two stamps, please. Because they’re just packed full of recipes. Well, like I wanted to tell you, we’ve done our praline bars. Here they are, hot from the oven. And they’re crunchy because praline is kind of like a caramel-y thing. Delicious. Here’s our — look how flaky these are, and light. Absolutely the best and easiest of all the nut rolls you’ll ever make. And then our decorator cookies, which are butter cookies basically. And I just wanted to show you, we also included a Philadelphia cream cheese frosting recipe that you can frost your cookies with if you don’t want to do the sugars. And these are some of the ones that we cut out on the program that we’ve baked for you. This is a great frosting, goes on very easily. You can frost like that, and then just do the sprinkles on top. That’ll hold them that way. Or you can get really decorative with the kids. Have them get involved. That’s the important thing. Let the kids get involved with decorating the cookies. Do you know what’s really important? It’s important for your kids to feel a part of what you’re doing. It’s important for your kids to feel part of Christmas. So stay with us, now. Next week, Part 2. And like I always say, be sure to join us next time, because it just won’t be the same without you here At Home. See you then.

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