Christmas Cookies

Food styling and photos: Brooke Echols

The second annual Alabama Living Christmas Cookie Contest attracted more than double the number of recipes as last year’s contest, and included some traditional favorites along with some new cookies we hadn’t tasted before. The magazine staff baked 11 of the cookies and enlisted the help of our food blogger and columnist Brooke Burks of The Buttered Home, along with staff members at the Alabama Rural Electric Association to be our judges. The winners were Sarah Baxter of Baldwin EMC, who won the $100 first place prize for her “Praline Cookies,” Edwina F. Bell of Clarke-Washington EMC, who won the $75 second place prize for “Noels,” and Emily Strickland of Covington EC, winner of the $50 third place award for her “Nuttin’ But Good” cookies. We hope you enjoy making these cookies for your family and friends this holiday season! — Lenore Vickrey

First Place: Praline Cookies

Sarah Baxter, Tuscaloosa, Baldwin EMC

Sarah Baxter has been making her Praline Cookies for more than 20 years. “I love pralines,” she says. “What I like about it is that the recipe makes so much that I can make pralines with the leftover topping (her recipe includes the instructions).” The secret to making the best topping is beating it with a wooden spoon, she says. A retired teacher, Sarah says the original recipe was part of an annual Christmas cookie swap with an investment group years ago. “It reminds me of cookies we made in home economics; we called them ice cream cookies. I’ll be making some again soon.”

Praline Cookies

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 12/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture, stir until mixed. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten just slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute. Remove to cooling rack. Cool completely. 

Topping: 

Put cream and brown sugar in medium pan. Heat almost to a boil and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly (don’t let it boil at all). Remove from heat, add sugars and pecans at once. Beat well with wooden spoon until thick, 3 or 4 minutes. Drop teaspoonful on each cookie. There will be leftover topping. Drop by teaspoonful on wax paper and you have delicious pralines to serve with your cookies. Store in airtight container. Makes about 30 cookies.

Second Place: Noels

Edwina F. Bell, Jackson, Clarke-Washington EMC

Edwina Bell has made her Noels (other recipes may call them Mexican Wedding Cookies or other names) for many years, and they are a special favorite of her daughter who lives in Tennessee. Luckily, pecans are plentiful in her family, as her older brother has pecan trees and he shares their bounty. Shelling the pecans is made easier when Edwina takes them to a local nursery in Leroy that shells them, and she’s ready to make another batch of the powdered sugar treats.

Noels

• 1 cup margarine
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup nuts, chopped (pecans recommended)
• 2 cups flour

Cream together margarine and powdered sugar. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Shape into small balls and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Partially cool and roll balls in more powdered sugar.

Third Place: Nuttin’ But Good

Emily Strickland, Enterprise, Covington EC

Our third place winner, Emily Strickland, already has experience winning prizes for her cooking. The 18-year-old college student took first place in the junior cookie division at the National Peanut Festival for her “Nuttin But Good” cookies. “I wanted to make a peanut butter cookie,” she says, “so I took a basic peanut butter cookie recipe and added my favorites.” Those included Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut Butter Chips and Peanut Butter M&Ms, for plenty of rich peanut butter flavor but without actual peanut butter.

Nuttin’ But Good 

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ bag miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, cut into thirds
• ½ bag miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
• ½ bag Peanut Butter M&M’s

Whisk dry ingredients together: all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt. (Whisking ensures ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout cookie dough.) Next, beat the butter and both brown and white sugars together for 1 to 2 minutes until they are well combined. Mix in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla extract. Additionally, stop to scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add your dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until they are just combined. Mix in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, M&M’s, and chips by gently folding them into the cookie dough until they are incorporated. Line baking pans with parchment paper so cookies will not stick. Use an ice cream or cookie scoop to dip out cookie dough, allowing each cookie to be an equal proportion. Set the oven to 350 degrees and bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. Cookie tops should be set and have a golden-brown edge. Remove from oven and cool. 

Runner Up: Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Jane A. Smith Joe Wheeler EMC

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons milk

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

1¼ cups old fashioned rolled oats

½ cup pecans, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 4 baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes. Beat in flour, salt, milk, vanilla and orange zest until well mixed. Stir in oats and pecans with wooden spoon until evenly mixed. With lightly floured hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls and place about 3-inches apart (9 per sheet.) Bake 11-13 minutes until cookies are flat, bubbly and turning golden brown. Cool cookies on pan for 1 minute, carefully lift parchment with cookies onto counter to cool for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely. Cook’s note: can drizzle melted white chocolate or milk chocolate for decoration.

The Buttered Home

Seeing all the great cookies included in this contest inspired us to make something new and different. We use Priester’s Pecans Fiddlesticks candy to create a delicious holiday cookie. Warm cinnamon accents the chocolate, caramel and pecans of this basic vanilla cookie. Start a tradition in your home by making homemade goodies with the addition of ready-to-eat treats!

Cinnamon Fiddlesticks Cookies

• 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla flavoring
• 3 cups plain, all-purpose flour
• 21/2 cups Priester’s Pecans Fiddlesticks candy, cut and cubed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until well mixed.

Add baking soda, cinnamon and half the flour. Mix well. Add the other half of the flour and mix again. Stir in cubed Fiddlesticks until well combined. 

Spoon out cookies on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Chill for at least 30 minutes. 

After chill time is complete, bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool on pan for 10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!