Bake Your Best

Readers Share Recipes to Kickstart Your Christmas

Written and Photographed by JACKIE KENNEDY

Newnan-Coweta Magazine’s third annual Bake Your Best Christmas Cookie Contest kicked the holidays off in September with judges meeting at our office to taste and rank cookies baked by our readers.

The Grand Prize for Best Christmas Cookie went to Erika Leifker, of Newnan, who won first place in the Decorated Cookie category for her Sugar Cookies. The first place winner in the Traditional Cookie category went to Carol Grizzard, of LaGrange, for her Double Drizzle Pecan Cookies.

These top winners, along with second and third place winners in each category, won gift baskets filled with gift cards, T-shirts and other prizes donated from our gracious sponsors, which included local restaurants, shops and other businesses.

Judging this year’s contest were Martha White and Linda Arnall, editor and associate editor of “A Taste of Georgia” cookbook. Published in 1977 by the Newnan Junior Service League, the wildly popular cookbook is in its 20th printing and has sold more than 300,000 copies.

In the pages that follow, we share recipes for our winning cookies. Maybe baking them will become a holiday tradition at your home.

Our Sponsors

Newnan-Coweta Magazine thanks the following sponsoring merchants who donated prizes for our Bake Your Best Christmas Cookie Contest:

Grand Prize Winner

1st Place Decorated

Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, maple extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm.

Roll to ¼-inch thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool.

1st Place Traditional

Double Drizzle Pecan Cookies

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in pecans. Place two inches apart on ungreased baking sheet; flatten slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool two minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completely. Drizzle with Caramel Glaze and Chocolate Drizzle.

2nd Place Decorated

Susan's Red Velvet Macarons with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Pour almond flour, powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a food processor and blend for one minute.

In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat egg whites and cream of tartar together until white and foamy. Increase speed to high and continue to beat egg whites while gradually adding granulated sugar a tablespoon at a time. Beat egg whites until thick, shiny and soft peaks form. Mix in red food coloring at high speed. Fold dry ingredients into egg whites in two steps, until batter resembling wet sand forms.

Gently scoop filling into a piping bag and snip ¼-inch of the end off. Flip cookie sheet upside down and place mat/parchment paper on top. Either pipe onto a special macaron mat or draw one-inch round circles and place under parchment paper. Pipe at a 90-degree angle. Remove paper circles under mat prior to baking.

When piping is complete, tap baking sheet on counter 10 times to gently release any air bubbles. At this point, sprinkle chopped pecans on top, if desired. Allow to rest for 20 minutes until a film has formed over the batter. You should be able to touch without the batter coming off.

Bake macarons at 300 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¼ cup softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
4 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup white chocolate chips, melted

With hand mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter with vanilla flavoring. Mix in powdered sugar. When all ingredients are mixed well, add melted white chocolate. Filling is best when refrigerated briefly prior to piping the macarons.

2nd Place Traditional

Delicious Cookies

Blend together butter, oil, brown and white sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, soda and cream of tartar; add to other ingredients. Fold in oatmeal, cereal and chocolate chips. Dough should be firm; add a little flour if necessary. Drop on a slightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

3rd Place Decorated

Very Vanilla Macarons

with a White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream

Using a food scale, measure all ingredients as accurately as possible. Sift powdered sugar and almond flour as fine as possible.

Whip egg whites until foamy. Slowly add fine granulated sugar. Add vanilla and whip until completely stiff peaks are glossy. At this point, turn the mixing bowl upside down over your head to check for stiff peaks.

Add about 1/3 of powdered sugar and almond flour mixture at a time to egg white mixture and fold together. After all flour has been combined, press and spread batter against the side of bowl. Pull more batter from bottom of bowl and stir once. Repeat 1 to 4 times. When batter falls thick and slowly from spatula, it is done. This is called the “macaronage.” 

Place macaron batter into a pastry bag with a plain tip. Pipe 1- to 1¼-inch rounds onto parchment-lined sheet pans. Gently tap sheet pan three times. Let macs set for 15 to 30 minutes or until outsides have dried; the batter should not stick to your fingers.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes, turning the baking sheet after the first 6 minutes. Let cool completely before removing from parchment. Fill with White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream. Brush filled macarons with Simple Syrup, and then sprinkled with colored sprinkles. Keep macarons refrigerated until ready to eat. These are better after 24 hours and are good to eat within 3 to 5 days.

White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream

½ cup butter, softened
1½ cups powdered sugar
3 ounces good quality white chocolate (not chips), chopped, melted and cooled to
room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ -1 cup crushed soft peppermint candies

Mix first five ingredients in a large mixing bowl about 3 to 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add crushed peppermint and beat until fully combined. Put in a pastry bag with a star tip. Pipe buttercream filling onto macaron shells to make mac sandwiches.

Simple Syrup

¼ cup water
½ cup sugar

Bring water and sugar to a boil until sugar dissolves. Let cool. Brush over tops of macaron shells with a pastry brush.

3rd Place Traditional

Pecan Pie Cookies

Melt ¼ cup butter in saucepan. Stir in powdered sugar and corn syrup until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often, and stir in pecans until well combined. Refrigerate mixture 30 minutes to chill.

Sift flour and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside. Beat brown sugar, ¾ cup melted butter, egg and vanilla extract in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes or until mixture is creamy. Gradually beat in flour mixture until well-mixed.

Pinch off about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. Press dough into bottom of ungreased cupcake pan cup and use your thumb to press dough into a small pie crust shape with ¼-inch walls up the side of the cupcake cup. Repeat with remaining dough. Fill each crust with 1 teaspoon of prepared pecan filling.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes or until cookie shells are lightly browned. Watch closely after 10 minutes. Let cookies cool in cupcake pans for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to finish cooling.

NCM