Snowball Cookies

My sleigh, stacked with gifts all wrapped for Christmas morning, has found it's place under our Christmas tree.

We've been having the most dreary of winter days lately, with the sun making no appearance at all. It makes it quite a challenge to photograph, so unfortunately that will have to come later.

In the meantime, the boys and I have kept ourselves busy baking cookies and doing activities around the house.

This is a new cookie for me, and has quickly become one of my favourite recipes. I've actually made it three times this week, never daring to keep more than a few in the house.

They're my take on a Melting Moment Snowball Cookie. The basic recipe was found here, and then I added the following ingredients to it.

1/2 cup of good quality milk chocolate, chopped

1/2 chopped pecan pieces. chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp espresso powder

The cookie plain was delicious, but with the combination of cinnamon and chocolate and nuts and coffee... divine.

While still warm, each cookie is rolled in powdered sugar to give it a bit more added sweetness.

These are perfect with a cup of coffee. The texture is crumbly, and true to their name, they really do melt in your mouth. They're also super easy to make.

As you can see, it's hard to keep them around for any length of time.

An Annual Cookie Exchange

This past weekend was my annual cookie exchange with my mom and sisters, aunts and cousins from my mom's side of the family.

We all bake half a dozen cookies for each person attending and a dozen to sample the night of. Then we enjoy eating the delicious assortment of cookies while sipping festive drinks like eggnog, mulled cider, cocoa, and tea.

It's a lovely way to spend an evening catching up.

And the best part? At the end of the evening you're left with dozens of different Christmas cookies and all your Christmas baking done! 

That Saturday morning I had popped out to something new and wonderful in my neighborhood. A Vintage Christmas market. Though I didn't find anything for myself this time, I did leave very inspired. There were some lovely vintage finds from Oliver and Rust, as usual, gorgeous flowers by Fleurish Design Studio, handmade soaps from Harmony and lots of other unique Christmas ideas from local vendors.

Needing something for the buffet and tables, I went from there to the shop to pick up a few cut flowers to make my own arrangement.

This little silver plated piece was found at a new thrift store in town, Renewed Thrift and Vintage. 

It was $1.

We've been making these little arrangements at the shop since we opened, and we love finding new things to create them in.

It was small, and fit just right on the buffet. It worked well with the silver plated tea and coffee pots.

I tied the leftover greens with some snipped Narcissus blooms for a small bouquet for the table.

The living room is almost finished for Christmas. I simply need to hang my garland on the hooks in the bay window and maybe add a few touches to the cabinet.

How delicious do these cookies look? I'm always amazed at what arrives each year. They're always different, and make a lovely assortment.

This year, I actually went to two different exchanges. For the first I made Buckeye Brownie Cookies; a brownie cookie bottom with a peanut butter ball on top, covered in chocolate and sea salt. The other was a Turtle Thumbprint; a chocolate cookie rolled in pecans, filled with caramel and drizzled with milk chocolate.

If you're interested, there's another Vintage Christmas Market happening the evening of December 11th from 6:30 until 9. The details will be posted on either the Fleurish or the Oliver and Rust website linked above.

Traditional Shortbread

Knowing that the holidays are really just right around the corner, I purchased a couple new kinds of tea from Harney and Sons; Vanilla Comoro and English Breakfast. It's always nice to have something on hand for when company pops in for a visit. And if there's anything makes a cup of tea more delightful, it's a buttery, homemade cookie.

When the tea arrived in the mail, it was clear that the best thing to do was to make a batch of cookies to enjoy a cup with. I've been collecting cookie recipes to test for an annual cookie exchange I host each year and I was eager to bake something instead of just drooling over delcious photos.

Not wanting anything too complicated, I decided to make a classic butter shortbread. Basically butter, flour and sugar. How much more simple could it get?

I began by sifting one cup of powdered sugar.

I then creamed the powdered sugar with one cup of soft unsalted butter in my mixer with the paddle attachement. After about 10 minutes, I added a teaspoon of vanilla.

Next I sifted 2 cups of flour with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of baking powder.

I then added the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar, and continued to mix it until it was well combined.

Once the dough started forming a ball in the mixing bowl, I emptied it out onto a sheet of parchment paper and made a ball.

Using the parchment paper, I rolled the ball out into a log shape. The parchment helps make a smooth, even log.

I then sliced the log into even slices of dough, roughly 1/2 inch thick.

I arranged them on a lined baking sheet and sprinkled them with raw sugar for added crunch and sweetness. I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Now, the recipe only called for 10 minutes, and warned not to over cook them. I prefer my shortbread a little drier and more crumbly however so next time I might leave them in for a few minutes longer. Just don't let them brown too much.

While they were baking, I lined a takeout box with parchment and took out some Christmas gift tags I had been working on the day before.

A little ribbon and twine made a perfect little package. I sent them to my Papa, who's favourite cookie is shortbread.

And then I enjoyed one with a cup of tea.

The original recipe was found here, I just altered it slighty to my personal taste.