More Yule Recipes

Chocolate Crinkles
Kathleen Collins

From Beiskaldi
½ C vegetable oil
4 sq. unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 C sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 C confectioner’s sugar

Mix oil, chocolate and sugar. Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed. Add vanilla. Stir flour, baking powder & salt into oil mixture. Chill several hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350. Drop teaspoon-fuls of dough into confectioner’s sugar. Roll in sugar, shape into balls. Place on greased baking sheets and bake 10-12 min. Makes 6 doz.

Notes:
1. This is a great recipe for making with kids or a helper, since it is much easier to have one person measuring the dough into the sugar and one (or more) rolling them in the sugar. Otherwise hands need to be cleaned between each batch going into the sugar, as getting it into the bowl will make the dough dry and harder to roll into cohesive balls.

2. Substitute ¾ Cup cocoa for chocolate squares, and use ¾ Cup vegetable oil instead.

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Shannon's Lemon Biscotti With Dark Chocolate And Almonds

contributed by Shannon

Biscotti is a type of Italian hard cookie, meant to be dipped in a hot drink (like tea or coffee, or hot chocolate) and promptly eaten.

* 6tbs. butter
* 1c. sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1tsp. vanilla
* zest of one lemon
* juice of one lemon
* about 2 1/3 c. flour (adjust as necessary for for wetness or dryness of your mixture)
* 1tsp. baking powder
* 1/4 tsp. salt.
* 1 package dark chocolate chips
* about 2c. thinly sliced almonds toasted

Set aside chocolate chips and almonds, to be used later. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Mix all wet ingredients and sugar until smooth. Add all dry ingredients except flour and mix. (make sure there are no lumps in the salt or baking powder, no one wants to bite into a clump of that!) Add flour, starting out with 2c. and then slowly adding more until dough just pulls away from sides of bowl. (It'll be a little sticky, you want it to be somewhere in between chocolate chip cookie dough and bread dough) flour your hands and separate dough into two approx. even balls. Form dough into two logs approx. 10in (or so, doesn't have to be exact) in length and place on greased cookie sheet (make sure there's a couple of inches in between). When Shannon did this she covered her cookie sheet with aluminum foil and greased that, which made cleanup much easier. Bake in a 350 degree oven for half an hour. Take out and let cool completely. When cooled, slice on diagonal (about a 45 degree angle), and place cookies cut side up on baking sheet. Still at 350, bake cookies for about 8 min., take out, turn over, and bake for another 8 min. or so (for harder crunchier cookies, bake for longer, for softer ones, decrease cooking time. This dough is actually not as crunchy as many, so keep that in mind when adjusting for personal tastes).

Melt chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler over not in boiling water. Carefully spoon melted chocolate over 1/2 of biscotti on both sides (by one half I mean 1/2 of the length) holding it over pot of chocolate to let drips fall back into pot. Be careful, 'cause the cookies may be a little crumbly and you don't want to loose half of your cookie in the chocolate! While chocolate is still warm, press toasted almonds into chocolate, and then lay biscotti out on wax paper to let the chocolate cool. Enjoy!!

Stollen


* 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
* 2/3 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

* 1 large egg
* 1/3 cup white sugar
* 1/2 tablespoon salt
* 1/3 cup butter, softened
* 2 1/2 cups bread flour
* 1/3 cup currants
* 1/3 cup sultana raisins
* 1/3 cup red candied cherries, quartered
* 2/3 cup diced candied citron
* 6 ounces marzipan
* 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture with the egg, white sugar, salt, butter, and 2 cups bread flour; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has begun to pull together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead in the currants, raisins, dried cherries, and citrus peel. Continue kneading until smooth, about 8 minutes.
3. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the marzipan into a rope and place it in the center of the dough. Fold the dough over to cover it; pinch the seams together to seal. Place the loaf, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), and bake for a further 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow loaf to cool on a wire rack. Dust the cooled loaf with confectioners' sugar, and sprinkle with the cinnamon.