Is there anyone who doesn’t love Christmas cookies? No matter what our religious or holiday traditions, we all turn into Cookie Monsters this time of year.
Since my newest mystery, AS THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE CRUMBLES, came out last summer, I’ve been talking cookies with readers. The top two faves, by my unscientific survey of taste buds across the country, are sugar cookies, cut and decorated for this most wonderful season, and the classic known as Russian Teacakes, Snowballs, or Mexican Wedding Cakes. In fact, Russian Teacakes are a key to solving the mystery in AS THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE CRUMBLES.
There are as many variations in the cookies themselves as in the names. This recipe is the classic shaped cookie, a ball rolled in powdered sugar. But sometimes I like to make them as roll-and-slice cookies—skip the powdered sugar and dip or drizzle the cooled cookie in melted chocolate. A reader suggested the Dirty Snowball—add a little cocoa powder to the powdered sugar when you roll the cookie. A delicious idea, especially since a snowball plays a crucial role in the climactic scene, where my amateur sleuth, intrepid shopkeeper Erin Murphy, confronts the killer and lives to tell the tale.
Whatever you call these scrumptious little treats, I know they’ll be popular with everyone you see this holiday season—even the Grinch and Mr. Scrooge.
Merrily’s Russian Teacakes
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened1/2 cup powdered or confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/3 cup additional powdered sugar, for rolling
optional:
2-3 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, for dipping
1 tablespoon cocoa powder, for Dirty Snowballs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, and vanilla. Combine the flour and salt and stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in pecans. Chill up to an hour.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes. Pour the additional powdered sugar into a flat bowl or on a plate; for the dirty snowball, add the cocoa powder. When cool enough to touch but still warm, roll cookies in the powdered sugar. Cool, then roll in the sugar again if you’d like.
For slice-and-bake cookies, shape the dough into two logs, about 2 inches wide, and wrap in waxed paper, plastic wrap, or parchment paper. Chill about 20 minutes. Slice and bake 18-20 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
Melt the chocolate and dip one end of each cookie in the chocolate, or drizzle a bit on the end with a spoon. Return to rack to allow chocolate to harden.
Makes about 4 dozen.
How are YOU celebrating National Cookie Day? Leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of AS THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE CRUMBLES -- your choice of the paperback or a set of audio CDs -- and a set of Christmas-themed cookie cutters. (Include your email address so I can reach you. US addresses only. Winner to be chosen Thurs, December 6.)
"Budewitz's finely drawn characters, sharp ear for dialogue, and well-paced puzzle make Jewel Bay a destination for every cozy fan." --- Kirkus Reviews
In Jewel Bay---Montana's Christmas Village---all is merry and bright. At Murphy’s Mercantile, AKA the Merc, manager Erin Murphy is ringing in the holiday season with food, drink, and a new friend: Merrily Thornton. A local girl gone wrong, Merrily’s turned her life around. But her parents have publicly shunned her, and they nurse a bitterness that chills Erin.
When Merrily goes missing and her boss discovers he’s been robbed, fingers point to Merrily—until she’s found dead, a string of lights around her neck. The clues and danger snowball from there. Can Erin nab the killer—and keep herself in one piece—in time for a special Christmas Eve?
Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries—and the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. A past president of Sisters in Crime, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.
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