Mincemeat Pillows, by Sylvia

And another sweet creation by my sister......"I just put a little finely chopped mixed peel into a sugar cookie recipe, then cut tops and bottoms and filled with my homemade mincemeat, drizzled with a little icing when cool. Are they ever good!"

Walnut Rum Balls by Sylvia

My ever-creative sister just sent me this recipe for rum balls. They look great.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, melted with 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- about 50 ml or a jigger of dark rum
- 2 cups ground walnuts
- 1 cup of your preferred cookie crumbs (vanilla wafers, chocolate wafers, graham wafers, shortbread)


Instructions:
Place the cookie crumbs and ground walnuts into a medium sized mixing bowl, then stir in the rum.
Pour the melted chocolate and coconut oil over top of the crumb/nut mixture and combine thoroughly. Chill the mixture until firm then roll it into small balls and finally, roll the balls in ground walnuts.

Makes 40

Shortbread- the ultimate Christmas cookie.

I struggle with shortbread and have tried numerous recipes in an attempt to find one that I like. Elva and Helen have shared their Aunt Pearl's recipe with me, and what a recipe it is!

Ingredients:
- 1 lb. room temperature butter
- 1/2 pound icing sugar(or 2 cups sifted)
- 4 cups sifted flour

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Place all three ingredients in a large mixing bowl and have at them. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients and work the mixture until you can press it together into several large balls of dough. Roll the dough on a floured board until you reach the desired thickness, (thick or thin depending on your preference). Cut the rolled dough with a cookie cutter or use a sharp knife to define bars,(A.K.A. 'fingers'), approximately 1/2 inch wide by 2 inches long. Bake the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets until very light brown. 

More Thoughts on Shortbread....

I happened upon the following in my recipe box and made it because I liked its name, Ultimate Shortbread. However, I read the recipe incorrectly and added too much flour. With great difficulty I managed to roll the dough sufficiently to produce four snowmen cookie cutter snowmen. With the remaining dough I gave up rolling and made round 8 inch patties of shortbread about 1/2 inch thick, scored them before baking and cut them into 8 wedges while they were still warm, then sprinkled them with sugar. Ultimately, it worked.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 cups flour plus additional flour if dough is sticky

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With your fingertips gradually add in 2 cups of flour, adding more if necessary to make a soft but not sticky dough. Roll dough to about 1/3inch or 8 mm. thickness and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool on wire racks.

My sister P. chimes in with her thoughts on shortbread.....

"I find the recipe on the back of the cornstarch box very easy. Variations: you can add 1/4 cup cocoa (Fry's) for chocolate shortbread. You can add 3/4 cup sliced filberts, roll into a 1 1/2 inch log, refrigerate, cut into 1/4 inch slices...

Mom used to roll the dough around a red or green maraschino cherry, then ice them after baking with pink or light green icing.

At a public school Christmas party, someone's mother had made cookies like candy canes. There were two colours of dough (pink and white) twisted together with a crook at one end to make a cane shape. It seems to me there was also a peppermint flavour."

Church Windows...surprisingly tasty

Here is an easy, retro recipe for making a large volume of a Christmas treat that resembles a stained-glass window. They're retro yummy too.

Ingredients:
- 1/4 pound of butter (equivalent to 1 stick or 1/2 cup)
- 1 bag of chocolate chips (340 grams)
- 1 bag of multi-coloured miniature marshmallows (400 grams)
- 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts

Instructions:
Melt the butter and chocolate chips and stir gently until smooth, then cool. Pour over the marshmallows and nuts and stir to combine. Roll the mixture into logs and refrigerate; this is easier said than done, and takes a little bit of coordinated effort. I laid out 2 fairly long sheets of waxed paper, blobbed half of the mixture onto each sheet and used my hands to form the mixture into 2 loosely held- together 'log' shapes, each about 16 inches long. After washing my hands, I brought one (long) edge of the waxed paper up and over the log and squeezed gently while rolling it to cover the log completely in waxed paper, then held the whole thing together by twisting the paper at each end.

After the logs have hardened in the fridge, they can be removed from their waxed paper covering and sliced.

I guess I'll never be hired as a "technical writer". Darn it.