Holiday Cookies

I usually go for the tried and true chocolate chip cookies whenever I need to bring a baked good to a get together. But I felt like experimenting with something a little more festive without the stress of decorating a cake/cookie. Each recipe made a few dozen. So I give you my experiments...

I played around with measurements on this one as you can too.

Mint Chocolate Chunk

For the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, etc.), use your favorite sugar cookie recipe. These are basically dressed up sugar cookies.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
7 drops of green food coloring
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, beat dry ingredients with butter, food coloring, peppermint extract, and egg until dough forms. Next, stir in chocolate pieces.  Using a teaspoon, scoop dough and drop onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Eggnog Cookies
Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggnog-cookies-i/ 


1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
 
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg. Bake 20 to 23 minutes until bottoms turn light brown.