December 25 – Have you started baking cookies for the holidays yet? I don’t mean to stress you out, but bakers, it’s time to get serious about this annual ritual. Recipes collected, all the necessary ingredients on the counter, ready to get started?
One person who’s already hitting it big is Julie Warner, winner of the Post Bulletin Holiday Cookie contest, who just published a book of her favorite recipes for holiday cookies, candies and breads. “Christmas Baking Traditions” is a collection of her family recipes.
“I wanted to pay tribute to my German heritage and this is how I chose to do it. Many go back decades, but others are ones I have added over the years,” she says.
The book itself is in color and the final cookie is photographed so you know what it should look like. Baking ingredients and specific instructions are very easy to follow.
In addition to the many included cookies, there is also a section on holiday breads and sweets. It could be the only holiday baking book you need, or at least a great addition.
Among the many recipes is the one with which she won the PB competition in 2012: Swedish Chocolate Balls. It proved so popular that the markets ran out of Swedish pearl sugar, one of the ingredients.
With so many family recipes and favorites, does she ever add new cookies?
“I will if I see one that particularly appeals to me,” she says. “It should add something special to the cookie dish: a little color, another sweet dimension, flavor and it should look like a Christmas cookie.”
The newest addition is Chocolate Mint Creams.
The number of cookies she bakes is impressive. It all starts in early December and continues until she’s done, days before the holidays. By the end, Warner will have baked 30 different varieties, 4-5 dozen per batch. Do the math: that’s a lot of cookies, not to mention the number of fruitcakes, candies and stollens.
She stores them in tins in a cold attic, where they keep well. Most of this goes on her coveted cookie plates that she gives to friends and family.
In addition to the cookies, she adds fruitcakes, German stollen and nut rolls.
Baking is something she has been doing since she was a little girl, about 8 years old.
“I loved being in the kitchen when my mother was baking and sometimes I was even allowed to do it alone. Sometimes it worked out, other times not so well,” she says.
Although she is known for her cookies, she is also an excellent baker of cakes, pies, breads, you name it. As a young 4-H member, she won ribbons for bread at both the Ohio State Fair and her local county fair.
What was impressive to me is how she preserves the many hundreds of recipes she has. Instead of being in a drawer, they are all neatly organized in notebooks. I saw at least five, not just pastries, but other foods as well.
I had to ask: does she have another book in the works? Yes, this one is about cakes, pes and desserts. It’s already underway, but right now she has a lot of cookies to bake.
To receive a copy of her Christmas baking traditions, email warner.jul@gmail.com.
This was her winning recipe in 2012.
4 cups plain rolled oats
1-1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons of strong black coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
Swedish pearl sugar for garnish
Mini muffin paper cups
Mix the oats, sugar and cocoa powder in the mixing bowl. Add butter and mix well. Add coffee, vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly (a little stickiness in the dough will help the pearl sugar stick. Add a dash of coffee if necessary.) Form 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls and roll in the pearl sugar, pressing the sugar into the ball if necessary. . necessary. Serve the mini paper cups. Store in an airtight container. A good recipe to make together with children.
This is her latest cookie addition.
1-1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons of butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon of water
6-oz. semisweet chocolate chips
1 large egg, at room temperature, lightly beaten
Sparkling sugar
Pastel colored mint kisses
Mix flour and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and water. Stir over low heat until the butter has melted. Add chocolate. Stir until melted. Pour into a separate bowl and let cool for 10 minutes. Stir the egg into the cooled chocolate mixture, stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. When ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Form into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in sparkling sugar. Place on baking sheets. Bake for 8 minutes. Then place the mint kiss on top of each cookie and bake for another 2 minutes or until the edges are set. Remove the cookies to the cooling rack. Refrigerate until the mint kisses are firm. Store in an airtight container. Recipe from friend Janine Yanisch.
3/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of water
Silver dragees
Mix flour and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a mixer, mix the butter and sugar until just combined. Add vanilla. Add four mixture to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Place the dough on the counter and shape it into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to bake, remove from refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut it out with a 3-inch fluted round cookie cutter. Place on trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Let cool completely on racks. To make the glaze: Combine the powdered sugar and water to make a very thin glaze. Divide evenly over the cookies. Garnish with 3-5 dragees. Let the glaze dry. Store in an airtight container.
Post Bulletin food writer Holly Ebel knows cooking. Send comments or story tips to life@postbulletin.com.
