Baking OVER 500 Christmas Cookies with Arlene, Paul, and Patti!

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Hello, family. Hey — hold on folks. Get ready because we’re going to get started quick because we’re making cookies today. All your Christmas cookies — tons of them — and we want to get a big quick start so we’re going to our hint. We come back, it’s cookies, cookies, and more cookies. Stay with us. We’ll be right back. Here’s today’s at-home hint. This week we are completely involved in cookie baking. One day assemble the cookie doughs, wrap them well, and place in the freezer. Later in the week, spend a day baking all the cookies you have in the freezer. Less messy days that way. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we want to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone TeleVision, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. Well, here we are in the kitchen. Hi, hubby.

Hi, babes.

You know, when we have lots to do and it’s a holiday, Paul comes and he helps us, so he’s decorating some cookies that Patty’s going to be putting together. We’ve got you set up on the end, okay?

Okay.

All right. Okay, Patty. What are you doing?

I’m making shortbread ornament cookies.

Okay. Show us one that Paul has that he’s going to be decorating.

Looks like a pretty little ornament.

Yeah. And you can use all kind of cuts. You know, kids love to do this and we have to make it part of Christmas to let kids get involved.

Right.

They love to give them to Grandma or to whoever — teachers and whatever. So she’s doing a really simple, easy one.

Yeah.

What do you have there?

I cut butter into the flour.

Mm-hmm.

And now I’m getting ready to add water and the flavorings and the salt.

Okay. She’s going to do that. I told you this is a fast show because we’re doing so much today because we want to give you a whole lot of ideas. I’m making crisp lemon sugar cookies, and what I have done was taken half a cup of butter and then the butter-flavored Crisco. One of those — half cup, and a cup of sugar. And I have creamed it. You want to cream this really, really, really well, just like this. And that’s what you’re looking for. Then you’re going to add one egg — — one egg and some milk — a tablespoon of milk, and some vanilla, and some lemon extract right here. Two teaspoons of lemon extract. And we’re going to combine that. Want your oven to be on 400 degrees for this. I like to do a plain cookie because you do all the fancy cookies. Some people can’t go that route, so I like to do the plain cookie like a lemon — just a lemon-flavored cookie. This is great. And Patty’s is more like a shortbread, a drier consistency, so she doesn’t start out with the creaming everything. Okay? And, boy, those mixers really help, don’t they, Patty?

Oh, my goodness. What a difference.

Uh-huh. Now all I’m going to do after I have that creamed — now I have two cups of flour. I’m going to add some salt, some baking soda. Okay? And I want to mix those together because you want to be sure that that gets aerated together so you don’t have just a big lump of salt and a big lump of baking soda. So you want to mix those up. And then we’re just going to add that. Easy, simple — I love it! It’s the way to do it — nice and quick. Right?

Yeah. That’s for sure, especially this time of year.

You know that’s right.

You know?

For sure.

And I know I’m going to love those lemon cookies. Oh!

They smell so incredible. Now all this takes then is — after we get this mixed, you’re going to make round balls. We’re going to flatten them and let them bake for nine to eleven minutes at 400 degrees. That’s it. What are you doing over there, Missy?

I’m getting ready to cut up my sugar cookies.

Okay?

And I’m not sure where my cutouts are.

Oh! You better find your cutouts.

Gotta find my cutouts.

Okay, maybe Laurie will find those while you’re doing your —

Yeah.

— there we go. You can see, this dough is coming together nicely. It’s going to be a little on the dry side ’cause this has to form into a ball, so I think we’re about there. Want to make sure you get all the dough combined, all the flour incorporated. I think we’re there. Now — I’m going to reach over here and get a spatula. We want to make sure that we get all of this incorporated around the edge. Now, depending on the kind of a day it is that you’re working on this, if it’s a wet, damp day, you might have to add extra flour, which I think I’m going to need here — some extra flour. And because you — this has to form a ball, you have to be able to — to roll it into a ball, and so I’m going to — it just — take some of her flour. You want to add a little bit at a time. You don’t want to add a lot because you don’t it to be real dry, but you have to be able — — to get —

We lost the cutouts!

— we’re still looking for the cutouts?

Still looking for the cutouts.

Okay. There we go. This is feeling better and better here.

That looks good.

Yeah. Smells wonderful, huh?

Sure does.

I’m going to use some more of your flour, Patty. I’m sorry to take it.

Use what you need. Use what you need. I thought I saw a cutout here.

There we go.

Here’s one. I found a — I found one we can use. I found one, anyhow.

I’m sorry, we’ll do — oh, I like the —

The snowflakes.

— yeah. Okay. Very good.

And these don’t puff up. There’s no leavening, so you can put them a little closer. So —

So you don’t have to worry. That’s a very good idea to —

And then you can get more on your sheet.

Sure.

And that always helps.

Okay.

But this dough is really nice to work with, too. Sometimes sugar cookie dough can be real crumbly and hard to —

I know! It really can.

— and this isn’t. This is nice.

Yeah.

But what you have to do with it, which is different, you have to put it in the fridge. Once you roll them out, you stick them in the fridge for about a half hour and then you bake them —

Oh, okay.

— which is — I’ve never done that before, but —

Never have either. But, hey, if it works.

— if it works. Yeah.

That’s the important thing.

I guess being it’s shortbread, they want it cold-cold?

Sure. Makes sense.

Yeah.

Okay. We’re just going to take —

I’m running out of —

— we — we have no room. Yeah. And I’m going to just drop my little spoonfuls of dough into sugar and I’m just going to roll it in there — just like that — and put it on my parchment paper. Parchment paper is your baker’s friend.

Oh, my goodness.

You have to get it because it helps you. You don’t have to clean up the pan off immediately as soon as it comes out of the oven because you can take that parchment paper, take it off, set them to cool, and use the pan immediately. That’s a plus.

And you don’t have to worry about anything sticking.

Sticking. That’s right. And the clean-up is wonderful.

Yes, it is.

Okay. So that’s basically what we’re going to do here with these. And how are we doing over there?

Oh, we’re doing good.

Okay. Good.

And look what Paul’s doing — some beautiful things over there.

Yeah! Nice! Very nice! Nice job, babe. My — you know, I was telling Paul the other day, some of the fondest memories I have is my mother and me when we would bake those kinds of cookies. We would be in the kitchen and I’d be baking them, running the ovens, and running, you know, the mixers and stuff. And she would sit with that stuff all around her and she decorated them all. And she loved it!

Aw!

She’d say every year — when are we baking? When are we making the cookies? I’d say, we’re going to do ’em, Mom. And she would — she was just —

That’s wonderful!

— she loved to do it. We looked forward to that every year.

I used to bake with my mom, too.

Yeah.

And then it got to where I took over the baking.

Yeah. And then she —

And she liked that.

Yeah. She said, you do it, Patty.

Yeah. Exactly.

Well, I think making memories with your kids doing stuff like this is so important.

It really is.

And everybody can make a simple — even if you just buy a pack of dough already made, refrigerated, and bring it home and do something with your kids, it’s worth it.

Yeah, it really is.

‘Cause that’s a memory.

My kids have a ton of baking memories.

Yeah. Like, Mom, do we have to?

And their friends, too. They all come over and we all bake.

Well, it’s great.

A lot of good times. Yeah, it really is.

A good thing. Nothing wrong with that. That’s memories. That’s what life is full of — good ones, bad ones, but they’re — they’re all there. So —

Yeah. And it’s not Christmas without it.

No.

You know?

You know, and sometimes you think, oh, I’m not going to go to that trouble. And then you say, oh, geez, it doesn’t seem like Christmas because —

You miss it. You really miss it.

Sure you do.

I don’t think I’ve ever not baked.

Well, I — we have. Yeah. We always have. Paul really helps a lot now since my mother is gone, so we just keep —

He’s a good decorator, that’s for sure.

He’s intense, man. He’s intense.

I might steal him for Christmas at my house.

I remember going to Patty’s house at about three o’clock in the morning after we did about three thousand lady locks. My arm was like this — I felt like a cripple — because she was taking orders like crazy.

Mm-hmm.

Remember — you used to sleep three hours a day?

Yeah. That was on a good day.

Crazy.

Normally, I’d stay up for three days. It was insane. That was when I was young.

She was, like, out of it because you’d say, hey, Patty, are we going to make — ? Oh, yeah, we are. Oh, yeah, we’re there.

That was back in the day.

Back in the old day, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah. Some were good and some weren’t so good. Hey, listen, we’re going to keep going and stay with us ’cause we’ve got a whole bunch more. Stay tuned. We’ll be right back in just a minute. Well, if you just joined us, you’ve joined us on cookie day here in the kitchen — Christmas cookies. All kind of cookies. Wait ’til you see at the end what we’ve been doing. And, Patty, I feel like a — one-armed paperhanger, as they say. We’ve been motoring around here just to get —

Yes, we have.

— and you know what? All the instructions are so great. You’re going to — these are easy cookies. Just bear with us. Okay?

Right.

You’re starting one that’s called —

The Greek.

— butter cookie.

Right.

You can make six different shapes and flavors of cookies out of one basic dough. Tell us what’s in —

This is great. The dough is real simple. It’s butter that’s soft in a cup. Three-quarters of white sugar and an egg, vanilla. Mix it all up. And then you add two and a quarter cups of flour. I mean, it goes together —

That’s it!

— real nice.

And it’s a nice — look how nice that dough is.

Oh, yeah.

Very easy. And all you’re going to do is make different shapes. And these are the four shapes that you’re going to make out of that — that cookie dough.

Right.

This is a crescent. This is the S. This is the log.

Right.

And this is the round. Now these rounds you can make a lot of different things. You can — you’re going to see, we put white chocolate, we put raspberry and white chocolate — sandwiched two together. They’re great. These — after they bake — we dip them half in chocolate and then roll them in real finely-ground walnuts. The S we made like, just when they come out when they’re hot, do the confectionary sugar. Just plaster that all over. That’s a real buttery, flakey — oh, it goes —

Wonderful.

— gone! And then the crescent we dipped half in chocolate chocolate and half in white chocolate. And that’s a nice variety. I mean, they’re great. Makes a beautiful, beautiful presentation.

Yeah, they’re gorgeous.

Paul is still over here doing all kinds of —

We have him decorating cookies like crazy.

— you’re the Cookie Monster, baby!

Oh, haha!

He’s just at it — and you know what? You need somebody that does nothing but decorate while you’re doing all the others. What I’m making is my turtle cookies. Again, this is a simple dough. You’re going to up it together with flour, baking soda, salt, butter, brown sugar, some eggs, vanilla, and your — pecan halves. What you do — you put on three pecans, just like this. You make the dough — what I just told you. All the instructions are here. You dip it in — like this. You have your dough ball. You dip it in your eggwhite — only the bottom. You line up your — your three nuts like this and just lay it on top and push it. You do that so that that holds it together — — like that. Very simple. Easy to do. Supposed to resemble a turtle. Kind of does, but it tastes good.

Yeah, I think they do. I think they’re adorable.

Yeah. It tastes good, ’cause we’re still not through with it, even though they would probably be very tasty just like that. But these only bake for, like, ten to thirteen minutes. These — these are done fast. So, after you bake them, then you’re going to make chocolate icing. While they’re still warm from the oven, you take a spoonful, and you’re just going to drizzle it. You want this icing to be kind of thin so it, like, just rolls off that cookie. And with your spoon, you just want to make sure that it goes all over that cookie, clear down to the edge. You put it on foil so it doesn’t stick real bad. And when that’s — huh! Does that look good?

— look good.

Does that look good or what, I’m asking you? Absolutely. Again, this is very simple. This is made — this icing is made in the microwave. Couple squares of chocolate, some butter, some milk, and some powdered sugar. And that’s it.

Yeah, can’t go simpler than that, huh?

No. And then you know what you do? You let those set up. Then they freeze well. Just put some wax paper in between if you’re going to freeze ’em. If not, you’re going to eat them just like that. Oh, they’re so good.

They look wonderful.

Okay. So — what’s your other dough over there?

Next one, which I think is really neat, is the —

Old standard.

— ice cream nut rolls.

That we’ve made how many times and everybody asks every year —

But I’ll tell you what — it’s the nicest recipe.

Sure it is.

It’s so easy to do. All it is is you take flour —

Okay.

I think it’s about four cups of flour.

Uh-huh.

There’s, I believe, a pound of butter.

Pound of butter, four cups of flour.

And you do the butter cold, so you cut it in.

Sure.

And then you put ice cream, two — like a pint of vanilla ice cream.

Good ice cream.

Right.

Don’t buy the cheap. And you know what? I like the golden vanilla or the French vanilla, as they call it. Those are all very good — it rich — it riches the dough.

Right.

Then your dough comes up like this.

Right.

Here’s the key. Don’t let that ice cream melt down to its liquid. It just has to be soft. Like, if you take it and let it set in your refrigerator for about an hour or two, and just is soft but not running. Running, it will not set up into a dough, I’m telling ya.

Right.

Okay?

Makes eight — makes about eight dozen, because you make eight balls and you get a dozen out of each ball.

Makes about a hundred cookies. Yeah.

So — makes a lot. And it’s so easy to do.

Absolutely.

So now —

You don’t mind doing.

While she’s doing that, let me tell you about my apricot jam cups. This is so good. This also is a very easy — like a shortbread dough. And you roll them into balls, and you put them into little muffin tins, like this. Now — this is a tamper. This tool is a tamper. Piece of wood — has a small side and a big side. You dip it in flour and then, after you have your ball made, you just tap it in. Is that easy, or what? How many years I used to make pecan tassies and be sitting there playing with that. Oh, horrible. This is so easy. Like so.

— have the right tools to make a difference.

You do! It makes a difference in the world. Okay. So that’s done. When they’re done, then you’re going to fill them, just like that, with apricot. And if you can get this bagged stuff at a bakery, do it. If not, just use apricot jam that you get at the store. Jam or preserves — either one. I like this bakery stuff because it doesn’t tend to cook out like the pastry — or like the preserves do.

Yeah.

So you want to —

And that has such a good flavor to it, too.

Oh!

It’s my favorite.

Absolutely. Okay. After you have that done, then — two cups of flaked coconut, two eggs, and a cup of sugar. We’re going to mix that together because that egg is going to hold all this together. Really going to be a delicious — these — these come out so cute. I just love them.

Yeah, I think they’re wonderful.

Now, Patty. You put those balls in the refrigerator. Right?

Yes, I did. And you’ve got to refrigerate them at least three hours or overnight.

And then you roll them out in powdered sugar —

Right.

— which is good ’cause there’s no sugar in that recipe except what’s in the ice cream.

Right.

So you’re going to need to have a little sweetness there. And, also, when you bring them out like we’ve told you how many — this is probably four or five times we’ve made them, and every year people bug me and ask me about them.

They’re the best. I mean, they’ve really, really —

They are!

— they come out flaky.

Absolutely.

Delicious.

Okay. So once this is mixed up, all you do — — is just take a little bit of this and just lay it on top. How much easier can that be? That gets toasty, like, almost like a coconut cream pie toast on top. You know how that coconut gets? Ah! So good.

They are good.

And these only bake for about twenty-five minutes. And you have to let these cool in the pan because that — that pastry that’s on the bottom is very, very fragile. Very — ‘short,’ as my dad used to call it. Boy, that’s a short cake there. And, look, we — it makes about forty.

— eat them, you know what you mean when you say “short.”

Exactly. Exactly. So these go into a 350 degree oven. Patty is cutting out her ice cream nut rolls. Paul continues, and we’re taking a break. When we come back, you’re going to see everything we’ve been making today on — on At Home. Here’s how you can get all the recipes and so much more. Stay with us. I hope you’re going to send for those recipes because look at the variety of cookies that we made today. Over five hundred cookies. If you made them all, this is what we have. This has been amazing. We — we had everybody working in the kitchen today. All the elves were here. We’re going to start with the ornament shortbreads that Paul and Patty had a hand in. She baked and he decorated, and even Nino helped us out and Tony helped us out. A lot of people helped us decorate. Look at these! Are they beautiful, or what?

They are gorgeous.

And wouldn’t that be nice to give somebody a nice canful of those cookies for — for a neighbor, the mailman, whomever. That’s a welcome gift. Okay. Next are the turtle cookies. Look. This is what they look like and when you pick them up —

Oh, my.

That’s what you give somebody.

Oh, my.

What’s the matter with that? Not a thing. Yummy! Okay. And then we have the ice cream nut rolls which is an old standard that you always love. There they are there. We have a whole tray here. And we even filled some with apricot because some people like apricot, so we did that also. Then we have our Greek butter cookies. Remember, it’s one recipe Patty put together that you can make six different cookies. This is the variety here — look. These are the — the logs with, you know, dipped in chocolate and nuts. The crescents. We have the ones with the white chocolate and the raspberry put together. I mean, there’s all kinds of variety there. If you only made that one cookie, you’d have six different kinds of cookies. And then we had the lemon sugar cookie which is just a beautiful plain cookie. Some people don’t like all this sugar and stuff. It’s okay. Make a plain cookie, have that with a cup of tea, with a mug of hot chocolate, something like that. That’s a nice, plain cookie. Older people enjoy stuff like that with their tea with lemon in it. That’s delicious. And then we have our apricot jam cups. Look at these bad boys. Don’t they look like little mini pies? And they are so flaky, full of that apricot — delicious. All of these freeze very, very well. You just want to be sure that you put wax paper between the layers in a good airtight container. If you’re freezing these — likewise — airtight. If you’re not freezing, you’re just keeping them, don’t put them in airtight. You’ll trap the moisture and they get soggy. You want these to be crisp. So put them in, like, a hat box or something like that. I tell you what — couldn’t have done it without everybody pitching in today. But we hope you’ve enjoyed it. We hope you got some ideas. And we hope that you’re going to get your family, your friends, the kids, and bake some cookies. Okay? All right. We love you. We thank God for you. Just keep a heart full of Jesus during this whole season, and be sure to join us the next time because it just wouldn’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then.

Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.

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