Holiday Baking -- Cookies

Yum! Holiday cookies. I've had a bit of time to do some baking, and so i made a few batches of festive cookies for Dave, and as possible gifts for neighbors and Dave's work friends. I made M&M cookies from the M&M web site, some cinnamon-sugar puff pastry snails with anise hot chocolate, and chocolate wafer cookies filled with pink peppermint buttercream--these are based on a Martha Stewart recipe.

The M&M Cookies are a classic, and are one of my favorites--crisp on the edges but chewy in the middle.

Puff Pastry Snails just take minutes to make--spread a thin layer of butter or margarine on a sheet of puff pastry, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and roll into a loose log. Slice the log into 1/2-inch slices and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a 400F oven until pastries are puffed and browned.

I don't use a recipe for hot cocoa--it's basically just milk, cocoa powder and sugar--but this time I added some star anise during cooking, and a little rum in each glass. The star anise and the rum were delicious with the cocoa--a winning flavor combination.

The Chocolate Sandwich Cookies are awesome--there are definitely not any left for gift giving. I followed the recipe but rolled by cookies out a bit thinner and cut out circles instead of squares--only because I don't have a square cutter. I made the buttercream with a few drops of pure peppermint oil and some pink food coloring. The combination of the crisp fudgy-tasting chocolate cookies and the squishy minty buttercream is just magic. These are really, really good and not at all difficult to make.

I hope you are all having a great holiday season so far with lots of yummy treats.