December Meme: macaronielbow asked

[roxy]

December 5--Favorite holiday recipe? Is there story behind it?


Probably my very favorite recipe is peanut butter kiss cookies. I like it because it looks labor intensive and is so not, and it's very American. All the cookies I grew up with were European-style—I love them but I suck at making them. So the peanut butter cookies are a tradition in our family and for the kids, it's not Christmas unless we have them—just like it wasn't Christmas until I'd snuck the first vanillekipferl off the tray.

Comments

[gingersnap1224.livejournal.com]

Yum! Can we have the recipe?

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I'll post it tonight after work! So easy, which is why I love it!!

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

We had a German neighbor who babysat us and lavished affection on us. When I think of European-style cookies, I think of her. I had to look up vanillekipferl (the name didn't ring a bell) but they must be a lot like the so-called Russian tea-cakes that Ida made for us. Yum!

What are peanut butter kisses?

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

They are very much like that--a little firmer and more of a vanilla taste, though. I can make tea-cakes but my kipferl are awful. My sister was the one who could make them all and they'd taste so good...I miss those cookies. :)

eta:peanut butter kisses are little chocolate and peanut butter bits of heaven--I use a flourless recipe I *love*. I'll post it after work!

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna try this recipe. It's in German so it has to be good, right? I don't know what one packet of vanilla sugar is--I don't think that's something commonly found in American stores--but I bet sticking four or five vanilla beans in a bag of confectioner's sugar for a few days would have a similar outcome.

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh--I can only pick out a word or two. :(

Oh dear, I've let half my heritage disappear! Now I'm feeling all down and mopey. So, if you make them and they come out good, you have to send me some so I'll feel better. Not that I'm trying to play on your sympathies or anything.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

*not-smiley-face*

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Me, I just clicked that button at the top of the page that said, "This page is in German. Do you want to translate it?" Well, ja, I do.

So anyway, I made some of these cookies this afternoon. I'm a terrible baker--I rarely follow recipes. Plus, gluten-free, so the consistency is never going to be what one remembers from a wheat-filled youth. Also-also, no vanilla sugar so I put a LOT of homemade vanilla extract into the dough.

Anyway, the outcome? Delicious. No clue if they'd be anything like what you remember, but they're powdery little crescents, lighter than air, really super crisp, melt-in-your-mouth, and sweet. Very sweet. And I would seriously box some up and send them to you, but they're so delicate that they would arrive as a box of crumbs. :-(

Sorry! But these were really easy to make.

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

omg! way to totally destroy my self-esteem!!!!!

Nah, seriously, they sound wonderful. Maybe I'll give them another shot! :D

[tabaqui]

Awwwwww!

Just like, it's not xmas to me without pfeffernüsse cookies. So good!

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know, for lots of folks they mean Christmas! *nostalgia*

:)

[macaronielbow.livejournal.com]

Yeeeesss. Chocolate and peanut butter. Yum. I've been meaning to try out this recipe for years.

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

When I come home from work I will post this really insanely easy recipe!

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

OMG, peanut butter kisses. My mom, rest her soul, made them every Christmas and my brother would eat them all. She also made a refrigerator cookie with chocolate and oatmeal that were awesome.

In what way are European style cookies different?

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

The cookies my mom or my Oma made were more buttery, and mostly plainer than the cookies I make. To me, that was what a Christmas cookie was, jam and butter, if we wanted to get exciting, lol! We had a linzer torte cookie, and cookies that were basically jam sandwiches and I don't remember the name, we had butter cookies sprinkled with hazelnuts, the crescent cookies. Then Mom cheated and bought the other traditional types. That was fine with us, we only really liked hers. A mom's cookies are always the best, no matter what kind, right? :)