The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day Four - Chocolate-Butterscotch Bars

 These are one of the easiest cookies to make because they mix and bake in the same pan.  Everything you need to make them is pictured here:

On the left is a 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish.  Inside is a stick of butter.  Next to it is 1 cup of chocolate chips, 1 cup of butterscotch chips, 1 1/3 cups shredded sweetened coconut, 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (I'm using walnuts but any nut will work) and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Make sure it's not evaporated milk.  

Place the butter in the baking dish and place in the oven.  Set to 350º and allow the butter to melt while the oven heats.  Once the butter is completely melted remove from oven.

Sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs into the melted butter.  If necessary, smooth out with a rubber spatula.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the graham cracker crumbs.

Sprinkle the butterscotch chips next.

Follow with the chopped nuts.

Sprinkle the coconut on top, covering as much of the chips and nuts as you can.

Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the entire surface.  Do not heat the can to make it pour faster.  Just let it pour at room temperature and work your way from one end to the other and then from side to side.  It does not have to completely cover the entire surface.

Bake at 350º for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and it will look like this:

Place the pan on a wire rack and let cool for five minutes.  Then use a rubber spatula around the edges to pull them away from the pan.  Let cool completely before cutting into 24 pieces.

The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day Three - Jelly Thumbprints

 

Thumbprint cookies are fairly easy to make.  Their ingredients are simple, and any competent baker will have everything already on hand.  In the photo above, from the lower left and going clockwise we have 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/3 cup powdered sugar, vanilla extract (1 tsp, not the whole bottle), 1 stick of butter at room temperature, one large egg, a jar of strawberry preserves (you can use any kind of jelly or preserves that you like) and 1/3 cup granulated sugar.

I like this particular recipe because it's done entirely by hand.  Start by mixing the butter with the powdered sugar.

Add the vanilla and egg and mix together.

Add the flour and mix until blended.

This recipe will make 48 cookies.  You can measure them out by the spoonful, or divide the dough in half and make each into 12 balls.  The dough will be a bit sticky.  Roll the balls in between your palms, then roll in white sugar (not powdered sugar).

After rolling them in sugar, roll them between your palms again (they will have lost their roundness in the rolling).  Then place them two inches apart on a baking sheet.  I use a silicon baking pad on my cookie sheets.  

Dip the bottom of a glass in the sugar and lightly press the cookies down.

Using the handle of a wooden spoon or your fingers, make an indentation in the dough.

Here I made the indentations with a bottle cap.

Take a small amount of the jelly and mix it up.  This will make it easier to work with.

Drop small spoonfuls into the indentation in each cookie.

Bake at 325º for 15 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

When cookies are completely cooled, dust with powdered sugar.