It's Christmastime

No doubt many of you are spending more time baking than reading blogs these days. Clearly I'm spending more time on holiday things than writing blogs! But I have been making my traditional coconut nests (check previous December entries!) with the great green and red swirled chocolate chips available at the grocery store now.

I also had some time to dig out the Christmas Cookie books this weekend too. I have many devoted just to this. This is from 1985 and has more Snowman recipes than you can possibly eat, but also a few ones I have not seen elsewhere:

Maple Yule Logs

"Though tradition says that a Yule log be oak, pine or ash, maple is a tastier choice for these cookies." (ha ha ha)

3/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons maple flavoring

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter or margarine

3 to 3 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon maple flavoring

That's a lot of flavoring, I know.

Beat butter till softened. (Amy's tip - use microwave...) Add brown sugar and beat till fluffy. Add egg, 1 1/2 teaspoons maple flavoring, and salt and beat well. Add flour and beat till well mixed. Cover and chill about 1 hour or till easy to handle. (interesting term; not sure how that would be judged)

Divide dough into eight parts. On a lightly floured surface roll each eighth into a rope 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut into logs about 3 inches long. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375 oven for 8 - 10 minutes. Remove and cool.

For frosting, beat 1/4 cup butter till light and fluffy. Gradually add about half the powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in milk and 1 teaspoon maple flavoring. Gradually beat in enough of the remaining powdered sugar to make frosting spreadable. Frost tops and sides of cookies, swirling frosting to resemble bark. Makes 48.

Fluffy is used a lot here and I'm all for a good fluffy cookie. I also like some fluffy romance reading, but I've been digging into mysteries for fun lately too. I'm devouring The Christmas Cookie Murder by Livia Washburn.

It seems all of my friends are searching high and low for a Wii Fit. Confession time - I've had one for three months and have not opened the box!

Happy holiday eating!