Christmas Baking

It just doesn't feel like Christmas around here without a week spent baking up all sorts of goodies. I may have gotten a bit overly ambitious this year and done a few too many types of goodies, but it was fun and they have been super yummy. I will say that yesterday I bagged up all the rest and sent them to work with Matt because I just kept eating them. Too much snow and too many Christmas cookies can just be, well, too much sitting and eating. :-)

My grand experiment for this year was to make all my cookies using absolutely no white flour. I recently discovered white spring wheat and have been grinding it and I'm finding that it's great for substituting in just about anything that calls for white flour. White whole wheat flour can also be found preground in most grocery stores. Still has all the benefits of being whole wheat, but it's a bit milder than the more traditional red wheat. We gave them away to neighbors and Matt's coworkers and I don't think anyone even knew their cookies were whole wheat.

One of my favorite recipes was out of a Taste of Home cookbook I have. I followed the directions exactly except that I subbed whole wheat flour for all purpose flour. They turned out great and were super cute. You can find the recipe here.


My other favorite recipe for this year was a sugar cookie recipe passed on to me by one of my Bible Study leaders from San Antonio. Once again I subbed whole wheat flour for the all purpose flour and I also used sucanat instead of refined sugar. Of course they look a lot darker that your typical sugar cookie, but they tasted fantastic!

Here's the recipe:

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. sucanat

1 large egg

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 t. almond extract

2 t. baking powder

3 c. white whole wheat flour

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. This takes a little extra creaming when using sucanat. Add the egg and extracts and beat well. Mix in the baking powder and then add in the flour one cup at a time. Divide your dough in half and roll into two logs. Slice cookies and place on cookie sheet. bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until barely browned.

For the icing, combine 1/4 cup butter with 1/2 t vanilla extract and 1/2 t almond extract. Beat in 2 cups powdered sugar and 1-2 T. milk. Adjust the amount of sugar and milk until you reach your desired consistency. If using colored sugars for decorating, sprinkle them on immediately after frosting the cookies as the icing will quickly form a crust.