Holiday Sweets!!!

Yes, there is no reason like the holidays to bake...of course when everyone is doing it then there are way too many temptations all around. I say enjoy a little! To that end I have made a few treats for festive get togethers and play dates.

Here are the pistachio cranberry biscotties(sp?) I made for book/dinner club.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti (a semi homemade) recipe from Betty Crocker - I cannot take the credit!

Ingredients:
1 pouch sugar cookie mix

1 box pistachio instant pudding and pie filling mix

1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted

2 eggs

1/2 c. dry-roasted salted pistachio nuts, finely chopped

1/2 c. dried cranberries

2 tbsp powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix, pudding mix and flour. Stir in melted butter and eggs until soft dough forms. Stir in nuts and cranberries. Divide dough in half. On each of 2 ungreased cookie sheets, shape half the dough into 1x2 inch log.

Bake 18-20 min or until golden brown. Cool on cookie sheets 20 min. Reduce oven temp to 250. Place logs on cutting board. Cut crosswise into 3/4 in slices. Place slices cut side down on ungrased cookie sheets.

Bake 40 min, turning once, immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool 10 min. Finsihing touches - sprinkle powdered sugar on top or dip into your fav chocolate. This time I melted dark & white chocolate and dipped them.

The skinny (for the cookies only) - 100 cal, 4 1/2 g fat, 15 g carb, 1 g protein

Here is a lil glimpse into a playdate we hosted yesterday. We had great lunch and tied in a cookie exchange as well. Thx to all my wonderful Mommy friends for their tasty creations. We had everything from peanut butter blossoms, chai tea spiced, peppermint bark, gluten free PB&J yummies, and caramel salted macaroons to name a few. A new annual O'Rand get together has been born!!!

Here are the two cookies that I contributed. I thought it was only fitting that I start this new event with one of my Grandma's recipes.

Grandma's Snow Balls (yes, my Grandma Pulsinelli)

Ingredients:

1 c. butter or margarine softened

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 c. chopped walnuts (black walnuts if you can find them)

Heat oven to 400. Mix thoroughly butter, sugar and vanilla. Work in flour, salt and nuts until dough comes together. At this point I let the dough set for several hours or overnight/

Shape into 1 inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 10-12 min or until set, not brown (they crack a little). While warm roll in powdered suagr. Let cool and roll in sugar again.

Makes 4 doz.

Naughty and oh so nice - Christmas rocky road (its almost like fudge). This is a Nigella Lawson recipe. And no baking requirred!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 c. mik chocolate, chopped, I used semi sweet

3/4 c. butter, softened

1/4 c. light corn syrup

4 c. small amaretti cookies (not the soft ones, I get these from Cost Plus or Italian market)

1 c. shelled whole Brazil nuts (Trader Joes find)

2 1/2 c. mini marshmallows

2/3 c. candied cherries

1 tbsp powdered sugar

Melt chocolate and butter with corn syrup in a heavy bottomed pan ove rlow heat. Put cookies in a freezer bag and crush them to get a mix of big crumbs and sandy bits. Set cookies aside ina small bowl then crush nuts in same bag. Take pot off heat and add cookies, nuts, marshmallows and cherries. Turn carefully to coat everything with chocolate. Pour mixtre into a 9x12 pan lined with foil, smoothing top with spatula. Refrigerate until firm about 2 hrs. transfer block from pan to cutting board. Sprinkle top with sugar. Cut into 48 amost squares.

Makes 48 bars

The skinny - 135 cal per piece, 9 g fat, 15 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 1 g protein

Happy Holidays!!! May they be sweet.