Be creative, festive when baking for a New Year’s Eve party
When hosting a New Year’s Eve Party, food is an important part of the celebration. As a baker, I often think first about desserts. For this type of party, I’d imagine finger food is best, something people can grab quick while mingling with other party goers while you wait for the big ball drop at midnight.
I reviewed my recipe files to see if I had anything that can be converted to be more festive for a New Year’s Eve celebration. These are a few recipes I look forward to making for New Year’s.
Chewy Sugar Cookies (New Year’s Eve Balls)
To make these cookies more festive for New Year’s, roll in silver sugar sprinkles to make them New Year’s Eve Balls. Ingredients 2 ¾ cup flour 1 tsp. baking soda ½ tsp. salt 1 ¼ cup butter 2 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla Stir together flour, baking soda, salt.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Gradually stir in dry ingredients. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll in white sugar. To make it more festive for New Year’s, roll in silver sugar sprinkles to make them New Year’s Eve Balls.
Place 2 inches apart on sheet and flatten slightly. Typically the recipe calls for the balls to be flattened slightly but wanting to keep them as balls, I’d experiment to see how skipping this step would affect the recipe.
Heat oven 350 degrees. Cook 9 minutes.
Soft sugar cookies
This is one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes. It’s quick and easy and always pleases the crowd, no matter the situation or celebration. This would be a good cookie to coat with blue colored frosting and colored sprinkles to look like confetti. This is an idea I saw on- line while searching for decoration ideas. Ingredients 2/3 cup shortening 2/3 cup butter 1 ½ cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 3 ½ cups flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt Preheat oven 350 degrees. Cream butter, shortening, sugar. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Chill in fridge. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and flatten with glass. Place on sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 9 minutes. After cookies have cooled, frost cookies and add colored sprinkles.
No matter what you decide to make for New Year’s, remember to be creative and festive for your party.
Keep on baking!
Lisa Mitchell is an editor for Berks-Mont Newspapers. Contact her at lmitchell@ berksmontnews.com.