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Food and Dining

Best of the Best: Holiday Cookie Favorites

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! With the holidays just around the corner and finals getting into full swing, there’s no better time to warm up your oven, bust out the apron and satisfy your sweet tooth (while conveniently procrastinating on all that studying)!

I hosted a Holiday Cookie Baking Get-together this year, and after several taste tests, sugar comas and much debate, my friends and I came to a consensus and decided on the best cookie recipes of this holiday season.

If you’re in the mood for sugar, spice and everything nice, look no further than the Molasses Sugar Cookie. These treats are delightfully soft and chewy, with just enough spice to accompany a tea or hot chocolate, but enough sweetness to stand on their own. The molasses taste is reminiscent of gingerbread but mimics the texture of your favorite soft, sugar cookie.

Here are some tips for perfecting the recipe:

  • You might be tempted to skip the Crisco/shortening, but don’t! That’s the key to their chewy-ness.
  • Sprinkle with sugar as they’re cooling for the perfect presentation
  • Be sure to stack the plate high because these cookies go fast!
Recipe courtesy of Norah Houtz, a third-year theater design student
Norma’s Famous Peppermint Krispies are a great holiday take on the classic rice krispy. My friend Teresa and her mom, Norma (a true kitchen-magician) whip up these cookies every December. I have no doubt that once you give these a whirl, your apartment or family will join in on the tradition as well. To add that extra zing, dash a bit of peppermint extract into the mix. The contrast of the pink peppermint candies against the luscious dark chocolate glaze is a perfect ode to the holidays!
Recipe courtesy of Teresa Bufford, a third-year applied mathematics student

My friend David is famous in his apartment complex for his unique and daring cooking concoctions, in particular his Cinnamon Roll Cookies. It’s two well-loved treats in one delicious package.

  • Start out with Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix and add an egg and a stick of butter
  • Add cinnamon sugar to the dough
  • At this point, you can roll the dough into a log, slice and bake it
  • Or, you can take heed from David’s lucky mishap that turned out to be a convenient (and delicious) adaptation of the recipe! David had to leave for a few hours, so he put the dough in the fridge. When he came back a few hours later, the dough was firm, so he added a 1/2 stick of warm butter, rolled the dough in balls and cooked them for 9 minutes.
  • For the glaze, mix 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract and drizzle over the tops of cooled cookies.
Recipe courtesy of David Nauta, a third-year civil engineering student
Whether you’re determined to win first at a cookie competition, bake treats as gifts for friends or in the mood for some sweets to fuel you through finals, these three tried and true recipes are the best of the best! Happy baking!
Photos by Bryant Hom, a third-year fine arts student

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Friday
12/7/2012
6:33 pm