Happy New Year’s Eve!  Tonight I am featuring the sixth and last treat we make on my family’s annual cookie making day.  I have already featured Colleen’s Candy, Almond Bark Pretzels, Star Cookies, Spritz Cookies, and Cut-Out Sugar Cookies.  This fudge is a wonderful mix of caramelized sugar and chocolate chips.  You will love this soft and rich fudge, making it the perfect addition to any cookie platter.  It is very easy to make.  All you need is a candy thermometer.

In a heavy pan combine 1/4 cup of softened butter, 3 cups of sugar, 2 tablespoons of white corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1 cup of cream.

Stir everything together and put your candy thermometer in the mixture.

Now cook to soft ball stage or 235 degrees on the candy thermometer.  Stirring constantly while you are heating it up.

When the fudge gets to the soft ball stage on the thermometer, remove it from the heat.  If you don’t remove it right when it gets at this stage, the fudge will become too hard when it sets up. After removing the pan from the heat, stir the fudge constantly until is gets thick.

Once it has thickened, add the 1/3 cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips.

Stir the chips for just a minute and then pour the mixture into an 8×8 inch buttered pan and swirl the chips around with a knife.

Let the fudge set out for about an hour to cool and set.  Then you can cut it and serve it or put it in containers in the freezer.  This fudge freezes very well just like the other 5 recipes we make on my family’s annual cookie making day.  

This is the fifth cookie of the six cookies that we make on my family’s cookie baking day.  I have already featured Colleen’s Candy, Almond Bark Pretzels, Star Cookies, and Spritz Cookies. Tomorrow I will feature the last treat we make which is Carmel Chocolate Swirl Fudge.  This cookie is by far the best Cut-Out Sugar Cookie recipe you will ever find.  Have you ever been tricked at a party by great looking cut out cookies?  You finally give in to trying them based off their great looks only to find they are flavorless. Well that will never happen to your guests with this recipe. This cookie is soft and full of flavor. You can make it at any holiday: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St.Patricks’s Day, the 4th of July, Halloween and so on.  They are also a hit for other events like birthday parties, etc.  My sister has baked these cookies for almost every holiday and party event.  For example, she loves to make pumpkins at her Halloween party and hearts at her Valentine’s party.  She always has the cookies all baked, and when the kids arrive, they can frost them as an activity at the party.  So let’s get started making Cut-Out Sugar Cookies. 

First cream the softened butter and sugar together.

Beat eggs in a bowl and stir into batter.  Next dissolve your salt and soda in 1 Tablespoon of warm water. Now add this mixture to the batter. Then add the vanilla.  Now gradually add the 3 cups of flour to the batter.

Scoop the dough in a freezer safe bowl and chill in the freezer for at least an hour.  We actually had ours in the freezer for a week.  

After chilling in the freezer, get a portion of the dough out and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface.  Put the remaining dough back into the freezer until you are ready to use it.  It is very important to put the remaining dough back in the freezer between each rolling out of the dough or it will be too sticky to work with.

Then get out your favorite cookie cutters and cut out your shapes. We cut out all the shapes that will fit on the rolled out piece of dough, then we take scrap dough that is leftover from around each cookie cutter and put it all together as a ball so we can roll out the dough for a second time.  After the second roll out you can throw away the scrap dough.  This keeps the dough from getting too much flour incorporated into it.  Then you can get out your next portion of dough from the bowl in the freezer and repeat the rolling out process until you use up all of the dough.

Place the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.  

We always frost them with buttercream frosting.  In a mixer blend 1/3 cup of softened butter, 1 lb. of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 tsp. of vanilla and 1/4 tsp. of salt until smooth. You may have to add a little more powdered sugar if the frosting is a little too runny or a little milk if it is a little too thick.

Then we add food coloring to the frosting.

Now you can frost the cookies and add colored sugar and sprinkles.  This recipe also freezes well.  We freeze the finished frosted cookies until we are ready to take them to parties or give them as gifts.

Today I am featuring the fourth cookie of the six cookies that we make on my family’s cookie baking day.  I have already featured Colleen’s Candy, Almond Bark Pretzels, and Star Cookies.  We added the Spritz cookie to our cookie baking day about 2 years ago, and were glad we did. It’s fun to have this traditional cookie, and it’s a favorite!  Spritz cookies are made from a buttery cookie dough which is squeezed out of a cookie press and baked.  They were originally a Christmas cookie from the Scandinavian countries.  In order to make Spritz cookies, you will need a cookie press to make the trees, wreaths, and other shapes.  You could make this cookie for any holiday party or for any fun occasion.  The butter and almond flavor will dazzle your guests!

Start by creaming your butter and sugar together in a mixer.

Add in your beaten egg and almond extract.

 In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together.  Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Then add it slowly to the butter and sugar mixture.

Mix thoroughly.

 Fill cookie press.

Add the design to the top of the press.

Turn the top of the cookie press to drop cookies onto a plain cookie sheet.  Do not use parchment paper and it needs to be ungreased.  

Add colored sugar sprinkles before you bake the cookies or the sugar will not stick.

Bake 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Now you can share this traditional cookie with your family and friends.  This cookie like the other four cookies freezes very well so put any extras in the freezer.