Monday, November 22, 2010

RAGGEDY ANNE COOKIES

And the winner of week two of Krista's Christmas Cookie Contest is . . .


Wait a minute. Hold everything. I haven't been here in an entire week.

Okay, I've been posting this everywhere, so a lot of you have probably seen it already. But, just in case there's still one person in the world who hasn't seen it -- here's the new book trailer for THE DIVA COOKS A GOOSE!





Don't forget that Cleo's HOLIDAY GRIND is available this year in paperback!



Cleo, congratulations on hitting #18 on the Barnes & Noble paperback bestseller list!





And now, back to Raggedy Anne Cookies. Our winner this week is Helena Georgette Mann, who sent a recipe using two ingredients that I love, but wouldn't have thought of combining -- maple and coconut.

Here's Helena's recipe ~

This cookie recipe comes from my mother. It is a tradition to have cookies with hot chocolate after decorating the Christmas tree. This is one of the three cookies we have. It's a dense cookie with the essence of maple, texture & taste of coconut & the sweetness of sugar. It's a delicious cookie!

RAGGEDY ANNE COOKIES

Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 large egg
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
granulated sugar

Directions
Beat together brown sugar, shortening, egg & maple flavoring until fluffy. Add flour, baking powder & salt; mix well. Stir in coconut. Drop by spoonfuls, 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Grease bottom of glass with shortening & dip in granulated sugar. Press cookies flat with glass. Reapply shortening to glass as needed & dip in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.





Krista's take ~

On our difficulty scale of one to three, Raggedy Anne Cookies came in at less than a Nina Reid Norwood (a one). Anyone with a mixer and an oven can whip these cookies up. In fact, I think it took me twenty-five minutes from the time I pulled out the mixer to the time I pulled the first tray of baked cookies from the oven. These are great last minute cookies for those times when you need cookies fast.



The recipe says to drop by spoonfuls, but my dough was fairly thick, so I used my fingers to plop small rounded amounts onto the baking sheet.



I had to look for a glass with a flat bottom. Who knew so many of my glasses had concave bottoms? Greasing the glass, dipping it in sugar and flattening the cookies would be a wonderful job for little helpers. Don't twist when removing the glass, though, that makes it stick. Just lift straight up.



I thought the coconut might give these cookies a fuzzy look, sticking out at the edges, but it blended in very well. You can see a few of the slightly bigger pieces in the pictures.



The smell is heavenly! I found maple extract without any problem at all at my natural foods store. If you're a fan of maple, these are the cookies for you. They're also a great choice if you're making a lot of different kinds of cookies because they're not similar to anything else.

Thanks for sending me your recipe, Helena! Your tree trimming tradition is lovely and must be a lot of fun for the whole family.


If your recipe didn't win this week, don't worry. All recipes are still contenders. We have three weeks of recipes to go, so keep sending your favorite Christmas cookie recipes to Krista at KristaDavis dot com!




There's one popular cookie ingredient I haven't seen yet in any of the recipes . . .

12 comments:

  1. Maple and coconut together! Interesting! Sounds really delicious...congratulations to Helena. :) And congratulations to you, Krista, on your great trailer. Can't wait to read "Diva Cooks a Goose!"

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  2. Thanks, Elizabeth! I enjoy making trailers. It's a fun change of pace.

    One of the thing I like about these cookies is the strong maple flavor. They're very good.

    ~ Krista

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  3. I'm loving this cookie contest. Such a great idea! This recipe sounds easy and delicious and I will give it a go, for sure. Love your trailer, too, Krista. Those are so creative and so much fun.

    Can't wait to see what's up for next Monday. And I can't wait to read DIVA COOKS A GOOSE!

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  4. Thanks, Julie! I love receiving the recipes. It's hard to choose. But as I noted, there's one ingredient that I haven't seen yet. I hope people keep sending recipes!

    ~ Krista

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  5. Congrats to Helena for winning this week! Raggedy Anne is such a creative name for a cookie. Love it. Perfect for the holidays! I also agree with you, Krista, that maple and coconut is a really fresh flavor combo. Do you think a maple glaze or frosting would work on these, too? Thank you for the very kind shout-out on Holiday Grind. Counting down the days to The Diva Cooks the Goose! (Love the book trailer - you have a wonderful voice for narration!)

    ~ Cleo
    Coffeehouse Mystery.com
    Cleo Coyle on Twitter

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  6. Cleo, the process of pressing the cookie with a sugar coated glass pushes sugar into the cookie. Kind of cool, really. However, I think you could skip that step, flatten the cookies without the sugar and add a maple glaze after they bake. A nice twist!

    ~ Krista

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  7. I love the name and I love the maple with coconut. Novel! Congrats to Krista's winner!

    Krista, love the trailer. So cute and clever.

    Cleo, congrats on your ranking!!! Wahoo.

    ~Avery
    AveryAames.com

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  8. Yum, maple & coconut! Congrats, Helena.

    Krista, I wonder if the mystery ingredient you've been missing could be....chocolate? And, are you going to tell us, or is it a secret until the contest is over? Inquiring minds want to know! ;o)

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  9. How did you know, Lynn? I'm so surprised that no one has sent a recipe using chocolate. Not in the cookie, not on top, not on bottom, not in a bar!

    ~ Krista

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  10. OMG! That trailer is the BEST!!! I'm so impressed, Krista. I can't wait for this book.

    Congrats, Helena! I love the recipe and the name for the cookie. Brilliant!

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  11. Krista, "Elementary, my dear Watson"!;O)

    Actually, I'm a confirmed chocoholic,so chocolate's always on my mind! Just not usually in our Christmas cookies, for some reason!

    BTW, I live in the boonies and we're still on dial-up, so it takes forever and a day to download videos, BUT, when I have time some evening and not doing Nano, I'd love to see everyone's trailers!

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  12. Thanks, Jenn. It was fun to make. Took me a while to come up with the words, though!

    Lynn, you are indeed an excellent sleuth. Don't you think it's interesting that people don't think about chocolate when they think Christmas cookie?

    I live in the boonies, too, so I understand completely. The day I was able to get a faster connection, I celebrated!

    ~ Krista

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