Thursday, December 20, 2018

Date Nut Balls and Christmas Cookies

Clockwise from back left: Raspberry Thumbprints, Sugar Cookies, Date Nut Balls, Magic Cookie Bars and Stove Top Cookies


Years ago I gave up making hundreds of dozens of cookies and culled my recipes down to the five essentials, per my husband and the children  requests.   What I failed to plan was to incorporate a favorite cookie for myself.  Each year I enjoyed the baked fare but always felt reminiscent over the things I recalled from my childhood and first marriage years that I had made and enjoyed.   This year, I decided to remove one of John's favorites which I make through out the year anyway, and add in one for me.  I chose to make Date Nut Balls.

I used a recipe from Flint Electric Membership Cooperative, published dogs years ago when I was first married.  Granny had purchased copies for Mama, herself and me.   I'd used mine until it literally fell apart and I recently found a copy that apparently went unused all these years.  I found the recipe for the Date Nut Balls inside and decided that this year, that would be my cookie.

Date Nut Balls

1 egg, beaten
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
1 8 ounce package of chopped dates
1 cup of sugar

1 cup of nuts
zest of one orange (or use 1 tsp of vanilla extract)
2 1/2 cups crisp rice cereal (the kind that snap, crackles and pops)

Over medium low heat in a deep heavy boiler, cook and stir constantly the egg, butter, sugar and dates.  My recipe said cook for 8 minutes and I started the timer as soon as the butter was fully melted.  The mixture will thicken as it cooks and be about like a pudding texture.  You'll feel the difference as you stir.  Cook until you reach that consistency.  It will be at a barely boiling stage if the heat setting is just right.

Pull off heat and add in the nuts, rice cereal and flavoring.  (I opted for the orange zest).  Stir to just combine then walk away and let it cool about 10 minutes or so until it's just warm and not hot.

I found that forming the balls was a bit of work.  If the mixture is still warm, taking a small portion of it, sort of compress it into a rough ball in your hand.  As it cools in your hands it will become firmer and you can shape it into a round ball.  If the dough is almost hot, it will take longer to form.  I didn't find it necessary to coat my hands with butter or water to prevent sticking.  There's quite enough butter in the mixture to keep it from sticking to your hands.

Set formed balls on a wire rack to complete cooling.  

You can coat in one of two ways: roll or shake them in powdered confectioners sugar or in moist coconut flakes (the kind you'd buy in a can).   I opted for the sugar coated ones this year since two of my cookies already incorporate coconut.   If rolled in coconut, the balls are usually called 'Shaggy Dogs' in our region.

about the coconut:  I don't pay a premium price for canned moist coconut flakes.  Instead I buy dry coconut flakes when I find them on sale and as I use it, I add a teaspoon or so of water to each cup or 1 1/2 cups of coconut flakes then heat in the microwave for 15 seconds.  Results in moist lovely coconut for cakes or cookies.

Other cookies made this year include:

Raspberry Thumbprints
I use half the sugar cookie dough to make these cookies.  The bit I've copied from my recipe blog below says Strawberry preserves, which is what I initially made.  Katie's developed a strawberry allergy over the years and I switched to raspberry preserves for her sake.  She and Sam both love these cookies and fight over who gets the most of them.


Best Sugar Cookies

Tried and True: Sugar Cookies






While my family is all about pie, I am a cookie and cake sort of gal.   A few years ago I determined that homemade is really and truly the best tasting.  To that end I've been trying to build a file of recipes for cookies that I enjoy making and eating.  In my very young married years, I often made dozens of cookies each Christmas, but I seldom made them at any other time because they weren't my favorites.

John convinced me years ago to forgo the annual cookie bake.  Over the years I've pretty much stuck to a very few recipes for day to day use: chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter.  At Christmas I make sugar cookies, magic cookie bars, stove top cookies and chocolate chip.  I've never been happy with my sugar cookie recipe, though I've used it for years upon years.  This past Spring I found a new to me recipe, which I wrote down.



This is the recipe I made this morning.  I halved the recipe because I was unsure if I'd like it or not.  It's a pretty good cookie, sort of crisp but not hard.  It's a very soft dough.  I did not chill before forming into balls since the recipe didn't call for it.  It worked up pretty well, wasn't overly sticky despite being soft. I found rolling the cookie dough ball in sugar and then pressing with a cut glass dish to impress a design on the cookie worked better than the suggested method in the recipe.  I'd like to have had some coarse sugar on hand.  The sugar I buy at Aldi is very fine stuff.
I don't know where I got the recipe, if it was one of the vintage magazines or online.  I didn't notate that when I copied it out several months ago.
Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
Additional sugar for topping
Mix butter, oil and sugars.  (I whipped until light), then add eggs and vanilla.  Mix flour and leavening and then add to the wet mixture.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.  (I used parchment lined sheets).  Moisten bottom of glass with water then dip in sugar and use to press cookies flat. (I rolled in sugar and flattened with a pretty cut glass dish).  Bake 10-12 minutes until just brown around edges.  Cool on rack. Makes 11 dozen cookies.
This is the FULL recipe.  I halved the ingredients (except vanilla) and the recipe made about 4 dozen.  My cookies were a wee bit larger than 1 inch when I rolled them into balls.  
I like this recipe a lot, more than my old recipe, and John likes it very well, too.  He's helped himself to cookies without any push on my part, a sure sign that he likes it.  I'll definitely keep this recipe for future cookie making.