Who doesn't love a holiday romance? I was just telling BilbioJunkie Nat that I want to buy all the Christmas books - all of them! Check out the fantastic covers in the banner - aren't they awesome? And combining awesome holiday books with awesome holiday food? Yes, please!
‘Tis the season to celebrate! Five of
Forever’s authors with brand new Christmas romances are sharing their favorite
holiday recipes and memories.
CAROLYN
BROWN’S PUMPKIN BREAD
Kids, grand children, great-grands, all
coming home for the holidays—the aroma of pumpkin bread baking in the
oven—everyone waiting for it to get done so they can slice it up while it’s
still hot, slather butter or whipped cream cheese on it, and tell the age old
stories about the holidays we’ve had in the house. That’s the stuff memories
are made off and every time I smell pumpkin bread it puts a smile on my face
for the whole day.
PUMPKIN
BREAD
This
makes 2 loaves and 8 muffins; Or it makes one Bundt cake
½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
2 2/3 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin (one 15-16 ounce
can)
3 ½ cups flour
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soda
1 cup pecans (optional)
2/3 cup of cold strong black coffee
(NOTE: I use all butter if I’m out of
shortening or even oil)
1.
Cream
first four ingredients.
2.
Add
canned pumpkin.
3.
Add
dry ingredients alternately with coffee
4.
Bake
at 375 degrees for 1 hour for loaves or bundt cake, 25 minutes for muffins, or
until they test done in the center.
5.
Cool
10 minutes before removing from pan.
6.
Cool
completely before frosting with Harvest Moon Frosting (below).
HARVEST
MOON FROSTING
3 egg whites
1½ cups brown sugar
6 tablespoons water
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients except vanilla
in a double boiler. Cook 7 minutes, beating the whole time with an electric
mixer, over the boiling water. The
frosting will stand in peaks when done. Add vanilla. Beat until thick enough to spread.
PAULA
QUINN’S CHRISTAS COOKIES
My dad used to live across the street
from us. Every year, when my
kids were little, he would dress up
like Santa, climb out his window
on the second floor, and hang Christmas
lights on his fire escape. My
kids would watch from our window with
wonder in their eyes, unaware
that it was grandpa. He would turn and
wave to them, sending them into
little fits of breathlessness. Later,
we would visit grandma and
grandpa’s
for homemade cookies (left there for them by Santa). The
house
was always fully decked out with every Christmas decoration
imaginable
with Alvin and the Chipmunks on repeat while the kids
hunted
down little “pre-Christmas”
gifts he’d hide for them. I loved
witnessing
the magic of Christmas and love through their eyes. Now
grown,
my kids will sometimes still look out the window at his fire
escape
and smile, remembering a grandpa who loved them beyond measure.
GRANDPA’S
CHRISTMAS COOKIES (A favored Italian recipe)
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3½ cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1.
Sift
dry ingredients.
2.
Cream
butter and sugar, beat in eggs; add
vanilla and dry ingredients.
3.
Knead
and add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to hands.
4.
Pinch
off dough, roll in your hands to form a log and then twirl into
shape.
5.
Place
on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.
ICING
2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 teaspoons water
Combine all ingredients in a medium
sized bowl. Stir until creamy. Dip
cookies into icing and sprinkle with trim. Place on wire rack with wax paper on
counter to collect the dripping icing and sprinkles.
DEBBIE
MASON TREE TRIMMING PARTY
One of my family’s favorite holiday
traditions is our tree trimming party. We’ve held one every year for the past
thirty years. Though I don’t know if it qualifies as a party seeing as it’s just the immediate family. But we do make a
thing of it with our favorite carols playing in the background, fire on (mostly
for ambience), hot chocolate served in festive mugs, lots of holiday treats,
and a special ornament for each of the kids and grandkids to open before the
tree decorating gets under way.
But I think the most fun for all of us
isn’t decorating the tree, it’s unpacking the ornaments. I’ve always tried to
buy an ornament that’s uniquely suited to each of the kids, whether it was a
sport they were into that year or a movie, book, or hobby they loved, so
unwrapping each one brings back a lot of special memories. Here’s a peek at
just some of the collection. I don’t think it will be long before we have to
break from tradition and let the kids take some of the ornaments home to
decorate their own trees. Either that or we’ll have to put up another tree.
And this one in my office doesn’t countJ Every year, my family gifts me with an
ornament too. This year they gave me these three adorable oranaments to
celebrate the release of the first book in the new Harmony Harbor series,
MISTLETOE COTTAGE, and the short story, CHRISTMAS WITH AN ANGEL.
HOPE
RAMSAY’S GINGERBREAD COOKIES
Every year for the last
quarter-century, or possibly longer, I have set aside the Saturday closest to
Christmas to bake gingerbread cookies with my children, and now, with my
grandchildren. These are the only
cookies I make at Christmas time, and the activity is more about family fun
than turning out a perfect cookie. Usually
I do most of the rolling, cutting, and baking.
And the rest of the family does the decorating.
The magic is in the royal icing. The white icing is a snap to make, and it can
be divided up into small bowls and colored with food dye, creating pots of
colored cookie paint. I give each child
(or adult) a watercolor paint brush and let them paint the icing onto the
cookies. The kids have a blast, and the
cookies always come out looking wonderfully homemade.
To me, cookie baking embodies
everything I love about Christmas: kids, family, baking, and yummy desserts.
GINGERBREAD
COOKIE DOUGH
Makes
about 6 Dozen
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1 egg at room temperature
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1 egg at room temperature
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1.
Whisk
together the dry ingredients – flour cocoa, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, backing
soda, and salt.
2.
Using
an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and
fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and
beat thoroughly.
3.
On
low speed, add the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.
4.
Cut
the dough into thirds, pat into disks, wrap in plastic and chill until firm – 2
hours or overnight.
5.
Preheat
the oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly
floured surface, roll out the dough about 1/16 inch thick and cut cookies with
cookie cutters. Transfer the cookies to
an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for
about 10 minutes, until the edges of the cookie turn brown.
6.
Let
cool on sheets and then transfer to a wire rack. Decorate with royal icing.
ROYAL
ICING
2 egg whites, at room temperature
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup water
Using a mixer, place all ingredients in
a mixing bowl and beat at high speed until fluffy, thick & shiny (about 10
minutes.) Divide the icing into smaller
bowls and color it using food coloring.
OLIVIA
MILES SNOWFLAKE COOKIES
In my newest release,
CHRISTMAS COMES TO MAIN STREET, my heroine owns a cookie bakery. As this story
takes place over the holidays, I thought hard about a signature cookie she
might make, and eventually I settled on charming snowflake cookies. Of course these
are not just any old cut out cookie, though. No, Kara makes them by the dozen,
sure to keep each one in the batch distinct in shape and decoration, because no
two snowflakes are ever the same, after all! And it’s these snowflake cookies
that she delivers every day to the inn in Briar Creek…where a Christmas visitor
falls in love with more than just her cookies. I hope you all enjoy these snowflake cookies as much as Nate does! J
KARA’S SNOWFLAKE COOKIES (sugar cookie cut-out and royal icing recipes courtesy of Martha Stewart)
4
cups sifted all-purpose flour
1
teaspoon baking powder
½
teaspoon salt
1
cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2
cups granulated sugar
2
large eggs
2
teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt
into a bowl.
2. Put butter and sugar in the bowl
of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed
until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually
mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap
each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees with
racks in upper and lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room
temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough
between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of
plastic wrap. Cut out cookies. Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a
baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about
15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer and transfer shapes to baking
sheets lined with nonstick baking mats. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat
with remaining disk of dough.
4. Bake, switching positions of
sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes.
Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
ROYAL
ICING
2
large egg whites, or more to thin icing
4
cups sifted confectioners' sugar, or more to thicken icing
Juice
of 1 lemon
3
drops glycerin
Beat the whites until stiff but
not dry. Add sugar, lemon juice and glycerin (if using); beat for 1 minute
more. If icing is too thick, add more egg whites; if it is too thin, add more
sugar. The icing may be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for
up to 3 days. Decorate each as you wish!
I don't know about you guys, but I need some Christmas cookies and a good book, stat! Happy Holidays!
~ Shel, Bel, and Nat
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