Holiday treats

Published 9:08 am Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Cranberry Christmas Cake

I first had this cake at my husband’s aunt’s house during an extended family celebration and I couldn’t leave it alone. With the red of the cranberries showing through the butter sauce, it’s a festive end to a holiday meal. — Geri McShane Murtaugh

2 cups flour

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1 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/3 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

3 T. melted shortening

2 cups whole raw cranberries

Stir together dry ingredients. Add milk and melted shortening; mix until smooth. Stir in cranberries gently. Pour into a greased 9-inch round or square pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Serve with hot butter sauce.

Hot butter sauce

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup heavy cream

Melt butter. Add sugar and boil. Add cream and simmer 10 minutes. Serve warm over cake.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Having something ready to share with others is becoming a Christmas tradition for my wife and I. She does the preparation and I do the sharing. Last year it was an apple pie, This year it’s peanut butter cookies, lite or regular. This last part is based on using either sugar or Splenda to comform with dietary requirements. — Ed Shannon

1/4 cup margarine

1 cup sugar or 1/2 cup Splenda

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1/3 cup low fat milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine margarine, sugar or Splenda, and peanut butter.

Combine egg, milk, peanut butter and add to first mixture. Sift flour, salt and baking powder and add as well.

Drop by spoonfulls on greased cookie sheet. Flatten with fork dipped in water.

Bake 10 minutes.

Soft Ginger Cookies

While looking for healthier recipes to make for my Christmas treats, I came across this recipe on SparkPeople.com that looked like it’d be good to try. I tried it out, and even my husband liked the cookies. (He actually still doesn’t know there’s Splenda in the cookies instead of sugar.) They were a great hit, and I decided to dress them up a little by drizzling melted white chocolate on top. — Sarah Stultz

Serves: 24

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup butter

1 cup Splenda for baking

1 egg

1 T. water

1/4 cup molasses

2 T. white sugar (for rolling the balls of dough in)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and Splenda until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses.

Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture.

At this point you will want to chill the dough for a while, or it will be too sticky to handle.

When the dough is suitably chilled, shape it into walnut sized balls and roll them in the remaining 2 T. of sugar.

Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven.

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Watergate Salad

My mom makes this tasty dish all year long and I started making it when I needed something quick and tasty to whip up for a group of people. Plus, it’s always a fun thing for a journalist to make (get it, Watergate salad). This is a good dessert addition to the piles of cookies that are always made during this time of year, and kids can make it because there is no stove or oven involved and it’s inexpensive. — Brie Cohen

2 packages of pistachio Jello pudding mix

1 20 oz. can of crushed pinnapple or pinnapple tidbits, in its own juice

2 cups miniature marshmellows

1 8 oz. tub of whipped topping

Combine pudding mix, entire can of pinnapple and juice and marshmellows in a large bowl until well mixed. Fold in whipped topping. Refrigerate for one hour. If you are feeling extra fancy, you can add in some maraschino cherries.

Gingerbread House

This is no old family favorite, but it is fun to do on a wintry December day. Sara Aeikens likes to spend time with my son, Forrest, who is 22 months old. We call her Grandma Sara. She bought a gingerbread house kit for $9 at Joanne Fabrics.

“I saw it and got into that childhood fantasy of, ‘That would be fun to do’,” she said.

Sara dropped it off a week prior as a gift to rest under the tree. On Saturday afternoon, during the snowstorm that struck Albert Lea, she stopped by. Forrest and his mother, Lisa, and Sara began building the house but didn’t really follow instructions. In fact, Lisa dug right in. She added water to the pre-mixed frosting, filled the bag and started connecting gingerbread walls.

“She just got right into it, and she didn’t care if she got messy,” Sara said.

Forrest helped by sorting the candy into bowls — without eating it. He seemed to understand it had a purpose. He enjoyed watching the frosting at first but lost interest after 10 or 15 minutes and left the two women to make the house.

They built the whole thing quickly, but it kept sliding apart. When the frosting dried hard and held, they began putting on the candy decorations, but the frosting still was a bit gooey and the roof slid apart again, Lisa said. Finally, they looked at the directions and learned that they were supposed to connect two pieces together and let them dry for an hour or two before adding another piece.

Finally, they just sat there holding the house together with their hands until it was solid enough for the candy decorations and additional frosting.

— Tim Engstrom

Recipe:

Go to Joanne Fabrics and look for the Wilton Pre-Baked Gingerbread House Kit. It might be in other stores, too, this time of year. Yes, a kit is not the same as baking gingerbread from scratch, but it nonetheless is fun to construct a house from food at the holidays. There are pictures of three different designs you can make. Sara and Lisa sort of made the Enchanted Estate.

Peanut Butter Bon Bons

Bon Bons come from my family making them every Christmas for as long as I can remember. My mom got the recipe from her home economics teacher in high school, Miss Fisher. When I asked my mom why we started to make them she just said, “Because they are just sooo yummy!” — Danielle Boss

2 cups powdered sugar

2 cups peanut butter

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

package of chocolate almond bark

Combine sugar, peanut butter and crumbs together in a medium to large bowl. The best way to combine these are with your hands. Mix together until there are as few crumbs as possible.

Melt chocolate in another bowl in the microwave. To prevent burning the chocolate, stir every 30 seconds or minute.

Form mixture into about quarter width balls or any desired sized.

Roll the balls in the chocolate until completely covered. Place on wax paper.

Let dry.