A couple of weeks ago, we did a talk about our family’s traditional holiday meals. If you did not see that one, please check it out here, traditional family holiday meals.  This is a list of our Mamaw’s traditional Christmas “candies”, though they are not really candy, more like cookies. Our Mamaw was a World War 2, navy, mechanic if that gives you a bit of a view of her. One of her Holiday traditions was to make all these Christmas candies every year. If we were not living in the same state or would not be with her for the Holidays, she would make a huge batch and mail some of each to us. Getting that box of Christmas candy from Mamaw always made the Holidays for us.

Kalacky

You will need:

an electric mixer for this one

1 1/2 cup butter

1 package cream cheese

2 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

a jar of apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 375

In the mixer add the butter and cream cheese and beat until creamed and fluffy.

Add the flour a bit at a time, beating well to make a dough.

Roll the dough and chill. The dough is very sticky and needs to chill before you can easily handle it.

Here you can go one of 2 ways. You can roll the dough out to 1/8 thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut shapes. Or, as we do, roll out small balls and make hand cookies. Either way, you get thin, flat cookies.  Put the cookies on a cookie sheet.

Here again, you can go one of 2 ways. You can use a spoon to make an impression on each cookie. Or, as we do, use a clean thumb to press into each cookie. Either way, you get a dimple in the center of the cookies.

If you do not work fast enough, the dough will get warm and sticky, you will need to put it back into the fridge to chill a bit before continuing.

Take a spoon and drop a spoonful of apricot jam into the dimple in each cookie.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or so. You want the cookies to be light blond and soft, not dark or crisp.

The jam will bubble and crisp, this is normal. If you cook them too long, the cookies will be hard and the jam will run off the cookie. Do not do that.

Once out of the oven, sprinkle with the powdered sugar.

At this point, the jam is molten lava and will hurt you. Let the cookies cool for at least 10 min before you try to eat them. There is a fine line between molten lava and cold.

This will make a large number of cookies, depending on how big you make each one. You can put the cookies into a tin or box but do be sure to put waxed paper between each layer or they will stick together.

Rum Balls and Pomanders

Another of Mamaw’s Christmas candies was Rum Balls and Pomanders These are quick and easy and no-bake treats. These 2 are both ball treat, rolled in colored sugar, there are just a couple of differences in the recipes.

For Rum Balls you will need:

a mixer

colored sugar, whatever color and however many different colors you want

1 cup of crushed vanilla wafers

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons of cream or milk

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 tablespoon rum flavoring

1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts, usually walnuts or pecans

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

Form into balls, roll by hand.

Roll in colored sugars, we used red and green as these were Christams treats but you can use any color to match any theme you want year round.

Pomanders are exactly the same recipe, except for 2 things. The difference one, you omit the rum flavoring and add vanilla instead. Difference 2, you omit the cocoa powder and melt 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate and add to the mix.

The rest is the same, form balls and roll in colored sugar. This is for those that do not want a rum flavoring. We make Pomanders as we do not care for the rum flavoring.

As I said, you can make either of these year-round and match to whatever season or theme you need them for. These are nice, quick easy treats for the kids to help with and they are great for that last-minute finger food need.

Mamaw’s Kourabiedes

This is a unique, holiday tradition, I have no idea where Mamaw got this one. They are similar to wedding cookies but in a ball and with a clove in each cookie to give them a unique flavor.

you will need:

a mixer

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon lemon peel

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325

Cream the butter and sugar

Beat in the 2 eggs.

Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well.

Wrap the dough and chill for 2 hours. The dough is very sticky and needs to chill before you can easily handle it.

Form into balls, by hand.

Put one whole clove into the center of each cookie call. Make sure the clove head is sticking out on top of the cookie.

Bake at 325 for 10 to 15 minutes, until set but not browned.

Take out of the oven and let cool a bit. Dust with powdered sugar.

Make sure everyone knows to take the clove out of the cookie before they eat it. You DO NOT eat the clove. The clove gives these cookies a different flavor from most cookies you will find. They are a more natural, woodsy type treat.

Cream Wafers

You will need:

1 cup soft butter

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups flour

granulated sugar, enough to roll the cookies in before putting into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 375

Mix the butter, cream, and flour. Cover and let chill. The dough is also very sticky and needs to chill before you can easily handle it.

You can roll the dough out and use a cookie cutter to get cute shapes. But we do not.

We roll out the balls by hand and then just flatten them a bit.

Put each cookie in the sugar and flip around to get both sides covered with sugar.

Put the cookies on a cookie sheet. We use waxed paper on the cookie sheet to make for easier cleanup.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. You can these cookies to be set and firm but not dark.

The original recipe called for a cream filling to go between 2 of these cookies but that is just too much of a good thing. The added filling makes the double layer cookie very sweet. But if you want to add the filling, here is the recipe.

Cream Filling:

You will need:

1/4 cup soft butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix until smooth

Take one cookie, spread filling on one side, then top with a second cookie.

Again, these cookies are very rich by themselves so we do not make the cream filling. We just eat individual cookies with a cup of coffee.

These are some of our favorite treats that we make for the holidays. This family tradition not only gives us great finger foods for holiday get-togethers but cooking together is fun for the whole family. Cooking together is one more thing you can do to bring your family together and make good holiday memories. Please give some of these recipes a try and see how good they are. Some of these are older recipes but do not be fooled by the age, the older generations sure could cook.

We hope you have enjoyed this look into our family holiday traditional foods and deserts. Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.