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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Italian Christmas Cookies!

Part of my family is Jewish.
Part of my family is Catholic
The Catholic side is Italian and oh do they know how to cook and bake.
There is never a special occasion or a holiday that passes when we don't get a massive tray of delicious, homemade cookies from my great aunt/God mother.
As part of my bridal shower gift 5+ years ago, she made me notebook full of family recipes and recipes she had found online and managed to slip into her repertoire.

(I love how she put a picture of my little cousin on the front and put the pages in plastic protectors.  I'm so messy when I bake, so it's good that the pages are protected!
I mentioned not to long ago that my parents had gone away for their 35th wedding anniversary and I took advantage of having the house to myself and did some baking.  I'm finally getting around to sharing my 2 favorite recipes with you!

Cookie Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 TSP lemon extract
1 TSP orange extract
6 cups of flour
3 sticks of butter
1 cup OJ
1 TSP baking soda
6 TSP baking powder
Mix the eggs, butter, and sugar, then add the OJ, lemon and orange extracts.  Mix well!  Then add the baking soda, baking powder, and flour.  Again, mix well!  Shape the batter into 1-2 inch balls and bake at 350F for 6-8 minutes.  Frost cookies when cooled.

Frosting Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
1 box confectioners sugar
milk 
Instructions:
Mix ingredients, add milk as needed depending on the desired texture/consistency.
Additionally, you can add food coloring if desired.  You can also add sprinkles!

Ingredients:
1- 15 oz box of Graham Crackers, crumbled
1 box confectioners sugar
28 oz jar of peanut butter
1 stick of melted butter
melting chocolate
Instructions:
Blend all ingredients, minus the chocolate, together.  Roll into 1-2 inch balls.  Place on wax paper covered baking sheets and let set in refrigerator for about an hour.  In the mean time, melt down the chocolate right before you pull the balls from the fridge.  Dip each ball in the chocolate and replace on the baking sheets.  Leave in the fridge until the chocolate is solid.
Do you like to bake?  
Is your family full of bakers like mine?
What are your favorite recipes for around the holidays?


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15 comments:

  1. OK the peanut butter balls sound and look amazing! Thanks so much for linking up today! All of these look delicious!

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  2. Peanut butter balls and aginettes are my favorite! I grew up in an italian household and those are amazing:)
    Buon appetite!:)

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  3. These sound amazing. I'm Italian too and we have sweet tables that could win awards. I love our holidays because the food is amazing!!

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    Replies
    1. So true! The food is beyond! My grandmother cooks for an army lol

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  4. Replies
    1. Those peanut butter balls look so good! I just made some with a friend yesterday but her recipe is slightly different. I've been munching on them like crazy.

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    2. OMG yum! I made one batch and literally just chowed down on the filling with some girlfriends. It's better than cookie dough since there's no raw eggs hahaha

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  5. Wanna know something really ironic? I just send a guest post for the exact same Italian Christmas cookies :)

    Aren't those the tastiest?!

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    Replies
    1. No way! Oh gosh, I hope the recipe is a least a little bit different, otherwise my family recipes will only be "family" recipes haha. They are so stinking good though!

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  6. Hey this recipe for Italian Christmas Cookies is great! It is looking so yummy. Last year our office party was in Italian style. There were so many unique Italian dishes. They were very tasty. I was familiar with some dishes but some of them were very new to me.

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