Cookies, cookies, cookies

   Recently my friend Pam sent me a link to a cookie swap at GingerbreadSnowflakes  Perhaps you want to follow the blog and join the cookie swap which is held each year.  Now that my 2011 craft shows are behind me I can get down to the business at hand, which is Christmas - baking,  decorating, shopping, wrapping, and sending Christmas cards.

This past weekend baking was on the agenda - my daughter and I baked 180 NUT TOSSIES,   which our family loves.  I am including the recipe in this post:



Dough: 1/2 lb butter,          
             6 oz. cream cheese                                            
             2 cups flour
Cream butter and cream cheese together then add flour and mix til crumbly.  Work together with   hands and mold into 60 nickel size balls and place each in a nut tossie cup                 

   Syrup
2 eggs beaten  
2 tsp melted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar     
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Place syrup mixed  in a container with a small opening or spout for pouring (see picture below) put about 2 teaspoons of the syrup into the bottom of each lined cup  and add about a  tablespoon of crushed nuts  to the level of the doughs top edge. It makes about 60 tossies - bake at 350 degree for about 20 minutes til dough has a tint of brown around the edges.  Store them in a plastic container with a not so tight lid in a cool place.

It was a chore to make tossies until I found a crafter who made this little tossie pressl that  fits into the bottom of one  tossie cup (1 3/8 inches in diameter and about 3" high, as seen in  the inserted picture on the left) you  dip the bottom end of the tool into a little  flour and slowly press on the ball of dough in the cup -  the dough squeezes up the sides and leaves a center  for filling.  What used to take me hours is done in a short time with this little tool, which is easily made wood.

Each  year  5 favorite family  cookie recipes are chosen from the Christmas Recipe file plus one new one to try.  This years new one will be a fruit and  nut  recipe  which a friend sent me - I'm going to be make small ones  in the tossie pans.  Pam has a recipe blog where she posts unique recipes from "down under",  and a Cloth to Creation blog on which she  posts images of what she creates and sells - practical items and unique ones using vintage materials.  Right now she is working on a blog challenge to post a photo every day for the month of December!  It's a tough challenge to keep, but Pam is doing it, and  I'm finding the posts very interesting because Pam is an interesting person and I'm getting to know her more and more through her blog.

the kardlady