On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me twelve Wax-less Cookies, eleven Almond Crescents, ten Christmas Butter Balls, nine Greek Apple Cookies, eight Cinnamon Stars, seven Basler Christmas Cookies, six Pumpkin and Pineapple Cookies, five Chestnut Rings, four Poppy Seed Cookies, three Peppermint Macaroons, two Orange Date Cookies and a freshly baked Ginger Snap
The last day of Christmas cookies! And another different type. These aren't baked, but mixed and coated in chocolate. While some of the recipes, notably the ginger snaps on Day 1, and the butter balls and almond crescents on days 10 and 11 were traditional Christmas cookies in my family, these, with a couple of modifications, are from my husband's family Christmases. They have always been his favourites, and so were a must. As such, he did most of the work on these, although I did help with the chocolating a bit.
Ingredients:
1 c butter, melted
1 1/2 c biscuit crumbs (the original recipe calls for graham crackers, but those are unfindable here so we use digestive biscuits or some other plain biscuit type)
1 c chopped nuts, toasted (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, your choice!)
1 c dried coconut
3/4 c peanut butter
2 c powdered sugar
about 300 g of chocolate - we used a mix of dark and milk
1) Mix all ingredients except the chocolate in a bowl until well combined.
2) Melt chocolate over a Bain Marie (keep it nice and gentle! The water should be barely simmering)
3) Form the peanut butter mix into marble sized balls and swirl in the melted chocolate to coat, then fish the balls out and allow to chill on a baking tray until set (we put them on the balcony in snowy January temperatures and the set fast and well).
Note: Using the left-over melted chocolate for hot chocolate is a little odd when you come across pieces of coconut or nuts... It works though! These are my husband's favourites (although he says that about any cookie in his mouth at the time). We did both find them a little sweet. We reduced the sugar from 3 1/2 c to 2 c but it could be reduced even further. In the original recipe, paraffin was used, melted in with the chocolate to stabilise it. Given the ambient temperature here, we don't need to do anything to keep the chocolate from melting, but elsewhere, like Florida where my husband comes from, I could see why this might be necessary.