The best for last ...

Okay, this is the most stupid-simple recipe in the world. Plus, it's the most fantastic. The recipe calls for "nuts" so you can use any type you like. I usally use pecan pieces. You could make it Peanut Butter Brickle by using peanut butter chips. Or, a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter.

Looking for last-minute presents or hostess gifts? Make a couple batches of Brickle this weekend. After it's chilled and broken into pieces, place in Ziploc bags and put those in decorative gift bags. Voila! You're a genius.

Funny story about this recipe that ran in 2002. A woman called afterward and complained that the melted butter ran off the pan and into the oven, making a mess. She had used a cookie sheet with no edge on it. Whoa. Kids, don't try that a home.

Stir Crazy will return on Wednesday, Dec. 26, with a few days of appetizer recipes. Until then, have a fantastic Christmas and don't forget to cook!

Brickle
40 saltine crackers
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 12-ounce package chocolate chips
Chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover baking sheet with 1-inch edge with foil and cover lightly with non-stick spray. Place saltine crackers in single layer on foil.

On stove, melt butter and brown sugar. Bring to full boil and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove and pour over crackers. Bake for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Leave until melted, less than 5 minutes Spread out the chocolate and sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Break into pieces. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Source: Judith L. McVaugh, Beverly Hills; Carol Latta Milner, Seminole.

Coconuts over these macaroons

We went a little crazy for the 2003 cookie issue. Our photo editor and my buddy Patty Yablonski made little decorations for each cookie. This one was pretty simple, but some where really very Zsa Zsa Gabor. You've got to look.

That year,I picked the recipes from cookbooks. No surprise, they took up one entire page more. The recipes from readers always reflect what real home cooks are making. In the cookbooks, you find much more fussy stuff.

This is not one of those fussy recipes. The macaroons come together so easily and the little dip of chocolate really elevates them to fancy stuff. You've got time ... make them!

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons
2-2/3 cup flaked coconut, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unbleached flour
4 egg whites, unbeaten
1 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine coconut, sugar and flour. Stir in egg whites, almonds, vanilla and almond extract. Form balls from rounded tablespoonfuls and place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden. Remove from pans while hot and allow to cool.

For or chocolate edge: Melt chocolate in double boiler, stirring until two-thirds melted; remove from heat and continue stirring until completely melted. Dip one edge of each cookie into chocolate and set on waxed paper to allow chocolate to set.

Makes about 30.

Source: “Christmas from the Heart of the Home” by Susan Branch (Little, Brown & Co., 1990).

Mocha macadamia mama

Mocha Macadamia Shortbread is a departure from what you usually find on the Christmas cookie tray. When I select recipes for our annual cookie issue, I always imagine how they would all look on a plate laden with goodies. I want a variety of tastes and shapes. Coffe, or mocha, is a good flavor that doesn't find its way into holiday cookies too oftn.

This recipe is interesting because the pricey macadamia nuts aren't in big chunks in the cookie, but rather they are pulverized in a food processor along with the sugar. This leaves their flavor but not the bits in the cooie.The shortbread is good on its own but the mocha icing really seals the deal. If you want it less sweet, don't ice the entire cookie like the ones in the photo. Just drizzle little squiggles over the top.

These slice-and-bakes beat anything you'll find in a tube in the grocery store ...

See you back tomorrow for another sweet treat. 

Mocha Macadamia Shortbread
3/4 cup (3 1/2 ounces) salted macadamia nuts
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into half-inch pieces
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Mocha icing:
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
3 tablespoons boiling water
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place the macadamia nuts and sugar in a food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds, or until the mixture resembles a fine meal. Add the vanilla extract and butter. Process just until smooth. Add 11/4 cups of the flour and pulse just until the flour is incorporated. Stir in the remaining cup of flour and process just until the dough starts to form a ball. Briefly knead the dough to fold in any loose crumbs.

Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a log about 8 inches long on a sheet of waxed paper or plastic wrap. Tightly wrap the dough and twist the ends closed. Chill for several hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the chilled dough into 1/3-inch-thick slices and place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake in the center of the oven for about 8 to 9 minutes, or just until set but not brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack (careful, they're fragile while they're still warm).

To make glaze, dissolve the coffee in boiling water. Whisk in the melted butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Cover the icing with plastic wrap, with the wrap actually touching the surface, until you use the icing.

Glaze the cookies while still warm with mocha icing, using a pastry brush. For less sweet cookies, drizzle the glaze over cookies. Store completed cookies in an airtight container to retain crispness.

Makes 4 dozen.

Bake your bonbon, bake your bonbon

2004 was a very good year for Christmas cookie recipes. This one from Linda Siedle of Palm Harbor creates a frenzy in our house. I made a batch over the weekend and was forced to hide a dozen in the far-reaches of the fridge. My young wolverine loves them so much he'll eat 'em frozen.

Often adults have warm and fuzzy memories of holiday cookies. I get lots of letters from people who tell very sweet stories about how just a bite of this cookie or the smell of that treat makes them remember their mothers or grandmothers. I always get choked up when I read them. I hope I'm making those kind of memories for my son.

But here's the reality check. These are his very favorite cookies. He calls them the Christmas Turds. You can see why from the photo. Go figure.

Be warned: they will be very soft when they come out of the oven. Do not fear, the firm as they cool.

Holiday Chocolate Bon Bon Cookies
1 package (6 squares) white baking chocolate
11/2 packages (12 squares) semisweet baking chocolate
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop each white chocolate square into 8 chunks; set aside.

Microwave semisweet chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on high 2 minutes, or until butter is melted, stirring after 30 seconds. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Blend in milk and vanilla. Add flour and walnuts; mix well (dough will be stiff).

Shape 1 level tablespoonful of dough around each white chocolate chunk, enclosing white chocolate completely. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until soft and shiny (cookies will firm as they cool). Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Source:

A week of Christmas cookies

As promised, I'm sharing the recipes for my favorite cookie recipes this week. All of them come from our annual Christmas cookie issue and most of them submitted by St. Petersburg Times readers. With Christmas just a week away, it's now or never for baking. C'mon, start your mixers!

Peppermint Wands were submitted in 2004 by Marion Haupt of Zephyrhills. I've made them every year since, sometimes even twice a season. They get me off of the hook from making the frustrating candy cane cookies my husband so adores. You know the ones, dye half the dough red (really pink), roll out ropes of dough and then braid them together to make a candy cane. Mine always crumble or break in two after baking.

The dough for Peppermint Wands is essentially the same, and so is the taste. It's very tender because of sweetening by confectioners' sugar rather than granulated. Don't make logs larger than suggested. I smash up candy canes for sprinkling because they crush easier than candies. Somebody could make a lot of money coming up with peppermint candy pieces for baking. Did I just give up my million-dollar idea?

Peppermint Wands
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
For coating:
4 ounces German sweet chocolate, melted
10 red, green and white peppermints, crushed, or finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. (We used parchment paper.)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in bowl; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. On low speed, beat in flour mixture until combined. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll 1 teaspoon of dough into a log, about 21/2 inches long. Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, placing cookies 11/2 inches apart.

Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until pale golden at edges. Remove cookies to wire racks to cool.

For coating: When cookies are cool, dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate. Return to wire rack. Sprinkle each dipped end with 1/4 teaspoon crushed peppermints or finely chopped nuts. Cool on racks in refrigerator for 20 minutes to set. Store in airtight containers at room temperature. Makes about 7 dozen cookies.

Source: Marion Haupt, Zephyrhills, 2004

My favorite Christmas cookies

Join me everyday next week for my very favorite Christmas cookie recipes, most of them submitted by readers of the St. Petersburg Times. For the last six years, we've published a cookie issue and some of the recipes have become part of my family's holiday traditions. Like the Peppermint Wands from 2005 and the Thumbprints from the year before.

Feel free to ask me your baking questions, too. And I'll share what I just told a reader who called: If there's stuff crawling in the flour, don't use it.