HAVE-SUM-MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

HAVE-SUM-MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Edited: - This recipe was published in the local Newspaper of Airdrie  "Here's the Scoop" on 18th December 2015.
Edited- This recipe was featured on Friday free for all blog hop on 18th December 2015. Here is the link. 

Christmas time is a festive time, and the whole month of December I can feel the festivities when everybody is in a mood of celebration. In this festive season, shops, malls, and houses are all illuminated with lights and other decorations. Even though this festival does not bear any religious significance to me, I can still feel the festive season and mood in my house as my grandchildren love to celebrate Christmas. As November rolls around, they start asking, “when are we going to put up our Christmas tree?”.

A big Christmas tree sits in my living room, from the last 20 days, and my grandchildren are having fun decorating it every day with their new ideas. They know the person to go to and demand for new tree ornaments that is me, they know that I cannot refuse their demands, I am the grandma after all! Whenever I go shopping I get their list ready with the instructions from the young one (who is only four years old), “Naani (grandma), you must buy these items.”

During the weekend, when the whole family was going out for dinner at a friend's place, my grandchildren were counting the lit houses, screaming and really enjoying looking out for all the lit up decorations on our drive. Later I heard them demanding their dad to put up more lights and decorations outside our house too, the lit up the rim on the eaves-trough was not enough, we needed some more lit up trees and reindeer in our yard.

These shortbread cookies are inspired by the famous Bakers Eat-SUM-MORE, which we all loved to eat when we lived in Botswana. The cookies are buttery and melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Traditional shortbread does not have cream cheese like in this recipe, I feel cream cheese adds more texture and make the cookies more manageable when shaping them.


 RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

FOR COOKIES

• 100 gm cream cheese
• 225 gm butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cups brown sugar (or regular sugar)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup vegetable oil

FOR FROSTING

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbs milk

METHOD

• Preheat oven 320 F.
• Beat the cream cheese and sugar well.
• Add butter and beat until light in colour.
• Add vanilla essence and corn starch and combine.
• Add flour and combine all the flour into this buttery mixture and try to bring it together.
• Add ½ cup oil into the mixture and try to bring together, keep adding a ½ cup and combine into a dough.
• Divide into portions (preferably 4) that you can roll out, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.
• After 30 mins, take one portion out, roll out to 1/2 cm thickness, you can roll it out 1/4 cm for thinner cookies, cut out using your favourite cookie cutter shapes, and place on a tray lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 15 mins (for thinner cookies), 20 mins for thicker cookies, or until just before golden. Don’t overcook these cookies, cool them on a rack.
• For the frosting- add the milk to the icing sugar and beat, drizzle on the cookies or pipe them on and let it dry for a couple of hours.

Bakes 70 thick cookies/ 90 thin cookies.

I am sending this recipe as my blog entry for the treat-petite event.
And another Christmas-Recipe-round-foodie Friday event., and with Festive Food Friday, and also sharing with Meatless Monday, with What'd you do this weekend and with Food year linkup, and with Friday free for all, with Hearth and soul blog hop, and Tasty Tuesday Creative Kids, and with Funtastic Friday, and with Fiesta Friday 100th edition, and with Cook once and eat Twice link party.

Also sending this post as my blog entry to Cook and Celebrate event, and Bake Fest event.

               







I am also sending my post to " My Treasured Recipe # 4-Ho Ho Ho its Christmas (Dec 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody eats well in Flanders and co hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.
And also for Bake-a-thon event at eastwestrealm, and for Bake of the Week. and for March Family Foodie Baking., and with Two favorite things on Thursday.