Cookies for the freezer, pot roast for the slow cooker
Welcome to the busiest of days. If you have time, please answer these questions.
A.E. wants to know how to make the confection called Reindeer Food.
B.F.B. asked about the safety of canned goods past their expiration date. “I think they should be thrown away, but I wanted to make sure.”
Finally, and this one is anonymous, “Is there a place locally to find lemon-flavored finishing salt?”
FREEZABLE COOKIES
As the final Christmas cookies hit the oven and then get transferred to the consumer, Peggy Flynn answered the question about storing those cookies. “I have made a dozen or so recipes for cookies every year for decades. I store them in Rubbermaid containers in the freezer with wax paper between the layers of cookies. I have made them as early as November, and it doesn’t seem to affect them at all. I take out a plateful at a time to thaw, and they are fine. Wait until they are completely cold before freezing.”
Ms. Flynn also sent her favorite Christmas cookie recipe, with this affirmation: “Totally worth the trouble.”
Christmas Ribbon Cookies
1 cup butter 1 1⁄2 cups sugar 1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
2 1⁄2 cups flour
1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking
powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 cup finely chopped
candied cherries Lemon juice and rind to
taste
1 ounce melted semisweet chocolate
1⁄4 cup pecans
Cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and then add to butter mixture.
Divide dough into 3 equal parts.
First part: Add cherries. Second part: Add lemon juice and rind to taste.
Third part: Add melted chocolate and pecans.
Line a bread pan with wax paper. Put the 3 doughs in layers in the pan, with chocolate at the bottom, cherry in the middle and lemon on top. Chill overnight in refrigerator. Remove from the pan, and slice 1⁄4-inch thick. Bake on parchment paper on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees until light browned, 7 or 8 minutes. Let cool a minute or so, and remove to rack. These freeze beautifully.
SLOW-COOKER CLASSIC
Margaret McNeil, whose recipes are accessible on her blog, Margaret’s Morsels, has a year-round slow-cooking house. “Slow Cooker Pot Roast is a meal by itself. The only thing missing is a pan of cornbread. The vegetables take longer to cook so they need to be placed on the bottom of the crock pot.”
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
1⁄2 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper 1 (3-pound) pot roast
2 to 3 medium potatoes,
peeled and quartered 2 to 3 carrots, peeled and
sliced
1 medium onion, peeled
and quartered
1 (10 1⁄2-ounce) can
mushroom gravy
1 cup water
Combine flour, salt and pepper; coat meat with flour mixture. Put vegetables on the bottom of a 5-quart slow cooker. Put roast on top of vegetables. Pour mushroom gravy on top of roast; add water around sides of roast. Cover and cook on low 10 to 12 hours.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
RESPLENDENT DESSERT
Roseann Strazinsky responded to the request for favorite holiday recipes with a generous hand. Here is a dessert fit for the fanciest occasion.
Brandy Alexander Pie
Crust:
2 cups ground chocolate
wafer cookies
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped, separated 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Finely grind chocolate cookies and half of semisweet chocolate in processor. Add melted butter and blend in using on/off turns until moist crumbs form. Press mixture onto bottom and up sides of 9 1⁄2-inch diameter deep-dish glass pie dish. Bake until crust is set, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle remaining chocolate over crust: let melt. Using back of spoon, gently spread chocolate over crust. Cool.
Filling:
1 ¼ cups chilled whipping
cream, divided
¼ cup white crème de
cacao
1 ¼ teaspoon unflavored
gelatin
9 ounces white chocolate (such as Lindt), chopped
¼ cup brandy
½ cup sour cream Dark chocolate curls
Combine ¼ cup whipping cream and ¼ cup crème de cacao in heavy medium saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin over and whisk to blend. Let stand 10 minutes to soften. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves. Add white chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in brandy. Transfer mixture to large bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
Beat remaining 1 cup cream and ½ cup sour cream in medium bowl to stiff peaks. Fold cream into white chocolate mixture in additions. Transfer filling to crust. Refrigerate until filling sets, at least 4 hours or overnight.
Mound chocolate curls atop pie. Cut into wedges to serve.
Makes 8 servings.
ANYTIME MUFFINS
Barbara Smith’s pumpkin and cream cheese muffins, sent from Rutledge, Tenn., seem just right for a holiday breakfast or, really, for any time of day.
Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins
8 ounces cream cheese 3 eggs, divided
2 1⁄2 cups sugar, divided 2 1⁄2 cups flour, divided 1⁄4 cup pecans, roughly
chopped
3 tablespoons butter,
melted
2 1⁄2 teaspoons cinnamon,
divided
1⁄2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking
powder
1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda 1 1⁄4 cups solid-packed
pumpkin
1⁄3 cup vegetable oil
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
extract
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat 2 (12-cup) standard muffin tins with oil, and set aside.
Mix the cream cheese, 1 egg and 3 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl, and set aside.
Toss 5 tablespoons sugar, 1⁄2 cup flour, pecans, butter and 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon together in a medium bowl, and set aside.
Combine the remaining sugar and flour with the salt, baking powder, baking soda and remaining cinnamon in a large bowl.
Lightly beat the remaining eggs, pumpkin, oil and vanilla in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and pour the pumpkin mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until moistened.
Evenly divide half of the batter among the muffin cups. Place 2 teaspoons of cream cheese filling in each cup, and fill with the remaining batter. Sprinkle some of the pecan mixture over the top of each muffin cup, and bake until golden brown and a tester, inserted in the muffin center, comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Here’s to the good things that will come from your kitchen; here’s to the good things that will be given to you, served up with graciousness and love.