Christmas Cookie Swap

I found a new blog the other day, This Beautiful Life, and saw that she was hosting a Christmas Cookie Link up to swap recipes.  I thought how fun!  I managed to get my mom in on the action too (meaning she made the cookies and I took pictures!) 

I’ll be honest, I don’t like baking.  I never get into holiday baking.  When I was a kid my mom and her two best friends would take a day off work and bake ALL. DAY. LONG.  From before I left for school until long after I came home.  They made 15-20 different kinds of cookies, triple and quadrupling the batches.  Then they would split them up and everyone they knew would get cookies.  People would look forward to it because they make such amazing cookies like Norwegian Krum cakes, Kudabees and Baklava.  My all time favorite Christmas cook is baklava and I would love to share it with you but I can’t.  My mom was given the recipe by a Greek coworker who made her promise that she would never share it, only pass it down in the family. 

Instead I’m going to share a new favorite cookie of mine, White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread.  I’ve linked you to the original recipe as the one I’m going to share with you has been tweeked a little bit.  The main change?  We didn’t use white chocolate!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and finely chopped

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup cold butter

2/3 cup of mini semi sweet chocolate OR 2/3 cup of normal size chips, finely chopped in the food processor (we skipped the chopping and they turned out just fine!)

4 squares semisweet baking chocolate

1/2 teaspon almond extract

2 teaspoons shortening

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spread cherries on paper towels to drain well.

2.  In large bowl, combine flour and sugar.  Using pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles find crumbs.  Stir in drained cherries and chocolate.  Stir in almond extract.  Knead mixture until it forms a ball

3.  Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls.  Place balls two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1-1/2 inch rounds

4.  Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until centers are set.  Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet and then transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool

5.  In a small saucepan, combine baking chocolate and shortening.  Cook and stir over low heat until melted.  Dip half of each cookie into chocolate and allow excess to drip off. 

What’s your favorite Christmas cookie?