Day 11: No-bake haystacks offer ‘out-of-this-world’ taste

Today’s holiday goodie is a crowd-pleasing, no-bake haystack cookie from Julie Mikuska.

This recipe comes from the Canadian Foresters Centennial Cookbook, co-edited by my mother Shirley, published in 1979. It was submitted by my sister, Laura, but I don’t know where the original recipe came from. We made these cookies often, as they are so easy and so good.

When my daughters were small, we made these cookies mainly at Christmastime, and they later made them more often. They couldn’t remember the name of the recipe so they called them “Earth” cookies. I still get requests from them for the recipe.

‘Out-of-This-World’ Cookies750 ml (3 cups) rolled oats125 ml (1/2 cup) chopped walnuts or pecans250 ml (1 cup) fine unsweetened coconut60 ml (1/4 cup) cocoa powder5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla500 ml (2 cups) white sugar125 ml (1/2 cup) milk125 ml (1/2 cup) butter or margarine

Pineapple and cherry slice: Classic dessert bar a holiday staple

Today’s holiday dessert is a sweet nostalgic slice courtesy of Joy Leschasin.

This dessert bar has been included in my holiday baking for over 40 years. It has also been a go-to recipe for bridal and baby showers over the years.

When he was little, our son used to pull up a footstool and watch me assemble the ingredients for this slice. I think of him when I look at this recipe.

Pineapple and Cherry SliceBase

Day 9: Traditional Scottish treat

Today, our annual baked-goods spectacular brings a simple but delicious favourite from reader Jeanie Dubberley.

This was my mother’s recipe. I don’t know where it came from originally — possibly one of the weekly English women’s magazines that she used to buy. She valued the simplicity of the traditional recipe, because her own mother (who had died when Mum was a toddler) has been born in Glasgow before emigrating to Canada with her large family when she was nine years old (1903).

Mum insisted, and I agree, that real shortbread has only these three ingredients; add anything else — vanilla, lemon zest, chocolate chips, or anything else — and the result is a very nice cookie, but not shortbread!

My earliest memories of this shortbread are of my mother’s beautiful hands, creaming the butter and sugar, working in the flour, kneading, rolling out, and cutting the dough, then tenderly placing the cookies on the cookie sheet. Eventually, she let me help, and I was thrilled to be entrusted with the awesome responsibility.

Day 8: No-bake snowballs

Day 8 of our annual baked-goods celebration brings a coconut-dusted confection from reader Marlene Cyncora.

I used to make these every Christmas, and it was one of my children’s favourite treats. I had to hide them in order to have some left for Christmas Day. Of course, whenever I thought I’d found the perfect hiding place, not so! Someone always found them.

It’s an easy recipe to prepare and does not require baking.

Christmas Snowballs250 ml (1 cup) dates, chopped180 ml (3/4 cup) sugar125 ml (1/2 cup) walnuts, chopped125 ml (1/2 cup) butter2 eggs, beaten2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) salt5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla500 ml (2 cups) Rice Krispies1 pkg unsweetened coconut

Day 7: Candy Cane Brownie

When asked for a holiday recipe sans regular sugar, chef Richard Warren opted for a festive brownie made with coconut palm sugar (a sweet alternative made from palm-tree sap). The result is a fluffy, minty chocolate treat without a hint of substitution.

Candy Cane Brownie250 ml (1 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temperature450 ml (1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp) coconut palm sugar*4 eggs, large240 ml (1 cup) all-purpose flour120 ml (1/2 cup) cocoa powder10 ml (2 tsp) peppermint extract60 ml (1/4 cup) crushed candy canes

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper.

Stretching your supply: Tips for home bakers navigating the sugar shortage

The white stuff — both sugar and snow — has been hard to find in Winnipeg this holiday season.

While chef Richard Warren, a professional baking instructor at Red River College Polytechnic, can’t control the weather, he does have some tips for home bakers navigating the local sugar shortage amid the ongoing strike at the Rogers Sugar refinery in British Columbia.

If you have sugar in the pantry, scaling down the amount used in a recipe is an effective way to stretch your existing supply.

“Quite simply, you could just reduce the sugar by 10 per cent,” Warren says. “You can’t take so much out because it would upset the formula; everything’s a chemical reaction in baking.”

Day 6: Christmas dainty platter all sewn up with Chocolate Thimble Cookies

A dollop of raspberry jam gives a festive look to these cookies submitted by reader Eileen Ewanchuk.

My mother made this recipe every Christmas since the 1960s and it was my favourite holiday cookie growing up. I have continued to make this recipe for my family.

When sewing was a more common home activity, metal thimbles were readily available and it was much safer to press the hot cookies with a thimble than a thumb. I have a thimble set aside just for this purpose. It’s part of the tradition.

The Christmas dainty platter wouldn’t be Christmas for me without these Chocolate Thimble Cookies. The chocolate cookies with the red jam centre are also stunning.

Day 5: Cheese please: savoury cookies offer respite from sweet

Day 5 of our annual baked-goods extravaganza brings a savoury snack from reader Debbie Hurrell.

I worked as a nurse in an outpatient clinic at the Misericordia Hospital many years ago. These cheese cookies were brought in frequently by one of our patients and quickly became a favourite with the staff and other patients, especially at Christmastime.

They’re a nice savoury nibble as an alternative to all the chocolates and sweet things.

Savoury Cheese Cookies1 (230 g) pkg MacLaren’s Imperial cheese spread (red tub)125 ml (1/2 cup) oil250 ml (1 cup) flourDash Worcestershire sauce2 cups Rice Krispies

Day 4: Pinch of pepper adds punch to classic holiday ginger cookies

For Day 4 of our holiday baking series, reader Sarah Phillips submitted her take on ginger cookies, which are given a special heat with the addition of black pepper.

These cookies are a holiday staple for me. Having spent the vast majority of every holiday season apart from my family since I was 17, I had to develop recipes for the winter that would remind me of family and home but were still perfectly my own, and easy enough that I could handle baking them alone rather than in a bustling kitchen full of family as so many other people do that time of year.

My mother made very similar cookies in my childhood, though I haven’t had them in decades.

Having been very self-taught in the kitchen, I learned a few things that make these truly spectacular. The blend of white and brown sugar gives the perfect consistency and allows them to spread just the right amount. Keeping the clove to a minimum lets the other spices shine more, and adding the cracked black pepper adds a cosy warmth that no one can ever place as being pepper. (I do a similar substitution in my pumpkin pies with rave reviews.)

12 Days of Christmas Cookies

Homemade Holidays is an annual roundup of 12 holiday baking recipes submitted by Free Press readers. 

Day 3: Easy to make peanut butter balls simply delicious

Day 3 of Homemade Holidays is a simply delicious treat from reader Denise Robidoux.

I have been making this recipe since 2003. Every time I serve these crunchy peanut butter balls, I am asked for the recipe. People are surprised at how simple they are to make and how delicious they are.

I don’t remember which magazine this recipe came from; it might have been Taste of Home. Enjoy this lovely treat!

Crunchy Peanut Butter Balls250 ml (1 cup) smooth peanut butter500 ml (2 cups) marshmallow creme\375 ml (1 1/2 cups) Rice Krispies625 ml (2 1/2 cups) chocolate dipping wafers, melted

Day 2: Next-level biscotti feature almonds, chocolate and three kinds of ginger

Day 2 of Homemade Holidays features a recipe from Saskatchewan poet laureate dee Hobsbawn-Smith, a former chef and cookbook author.

This is my all-time favourite cookie, one I made by the millions at Foodsmith, my restaurant and catering company, back in the ’90s when I was a working chef in Calgary. This recipe has appeared in a few newspapers, including in my former column in the Calgary Herald.

I still make it by the dozens, and pack up double handfuls to give away as gifts at holiday time. It’s a great keeper, perfect with a midday coffee, and its crisp, crunchy texture is a welcome relief after holiday cakes and pies.

The biscotti are packed with my favourite ingredients — chunks of dark chocolate and crystalized ginger.

Day 1: Chokecherry or saskatoon berry jam a perfect piquant replacement for black currant jelly

We’re kicking off our annual cavalcade of Christmas cookies with a submission from reader Katharina Haigh, who adapted a traditional Austrian recipe with a Manitoba twist. The measurements, as in most European baking recipes, are by weight, not volume.

I grew up in Austria and I used to make these cookies, called Ischler Kringel, with my mom. They are still a big hit whenever I bake them. My mom got this cookbook, Großmutters gute Weihnachtsbäckerei (first published in 1970), sometime in the 1980s and passed it on to me. The title translates to “Grandmother’s Good Christmas Cookies” and these recipes more or less go back to the turn of the last century.

“Ischl is a place in Austria, and a Kringel is an old term for a ring, essentially a doughnut. The original recipe calls for black currant jelly, but I have adapted it to Manitoba by using homemade chokecherry or saskatoon berry jelly.

The magic lies in the contrast of these very delicate cookies, the strongly flavoured jam and the topping. Originally, the cookies were decorated with sugar frosting and sprinkles on one side, and chocolate and pistachio nuts on the other side, but I usually only do either of the two.

Irmie’s Honey Spice Drops, 1975

Are holiday cookie parties still a thing? Because, as Free Press food writer Evelyn Larson attests in 1975, they sound like a great way to reduce time spent baking while increasing the variety of said baking.

Divinity fudge answers prayers for those with a sweet tooth

Divinity fudge? More like a sticky, marshmallowy nightmare. I’m not sure the task of cleaning rock hard egg whites and syrup from the beaters of my mixer was worth the pretty, but cloyingly sweet results of this recipe (which I had to make twice because the first batch was too runny to cut).