Food prepared, styled and photographed by Brooke Echols
Judging our annual Christmas cookie contest is a special occasion for us at Alabama Living! This year, we broadened the contest to include Christmas treats as well. You’ll see that two of our winners are definitely some treats you’ll want to make for your family and friends. Congratulations to our winners of the top prizes of $100, $75 and $50. We think you’ll agree our Alabama cooks are the best!
1st Place • Toffee Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Tiffany Pelham, Central Alabama EC
Tiffany Pelham says she has been baking and cooking for as long as she can remember. “Cooking is my comfort pastime,” says the Billingsley resident. “Crazy as it sounds, I am a bodybuilder and just won a show this past weekend. So cookies and candy are my favorite ( because I know I’m not supposed to have it!).” She learned how to cook from her grandmother “and how food and the kitchen is the heart of the home; it’s what brings everyone together. I host so many family get-togethers, holidays and football get-togethers that everyone comes to me to pull off the food.” Tiffany’s prize-winning recipe reminds her of a Kitchen Sink Cookie with its a little bit of sweet and salty: “The best of both worlds.” She cautions not to overbake this recipe because the cookies continue cooking after coming out of the oven. “I prefer a soft, gooey cookie.” So do we! – Lenore Vickrey
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 11/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup toffee pieces
- 1/2 cup pretzels, lightly crushed
Brown the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly until the butter begins to foam and turns a golden brown, emitting a nutty aroma. Make sure you only brown the butter lightly. When butter browns, the liquid evaporates, which can dry out your dough. As soon as the butter starts to turn brown and smell nutty, take it off the heat to prevent any more liquid from escaping. Take butter off the heat and allow to cool. In a large mixing bowl combine the cooled brown butter and sugar. Beat until mixed together. Add in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Mix well. In separate bowl mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix half the dry ingredients into the wet until everything comes together. Slowly add in the remaining flour a little bit at a time, stopping if the dough starts to get too dry. Fold in the chocolate, toffee pieces and pretzels. Do not over mix. Refrigerate the cookie dough for a half hour or up to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Use a 1-ounce cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough out into balls, placing them 2-inches apart on the prepared sheet. Bake for 11 minutes or until the edges are just golden brown and the centers have puffed up but are still gooey. Allow to cool before eating. Makes 16 cookies.
2nd Place (Tie) • Cranberry Pecan Clusters
Jo Hodge, South Alabama EC
An aunt of Jo Hodge’s husband shared her Cranberry Pecan Cluster recipe with Jo several years ago and she’s adopted it as one of her own. The creamy concoction combines the sweetness of white chocolate chips with the toasted crunch of pecans and chewy dried cranberries in a very simple recipe. “You can also use milk chocolate morsels if you want,” says Jo, who lives in Elba. She’s been cutting and saving recipes out of Alabama Living for many years, she says, and is now happy that hers will be one that is saved by others.
- 1½ cups pecans, chopped
- 1 12-ounce package Toll House Premier White Morsels
- 1½ cups Ocean Spray dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pecans on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes or until toasted. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave white morsels on high for 30 second intervals, stirring periodically until white chocolate is melted. Add pecans and cranberries, stirring until coated with white chocolate. Drop by teaspoonfuls on wax paper and let sit.
2nd Place (Tie) • Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Jane Smith, Joe Wheeler EMC
When Jane Smith makes her holiday Chocolate Cookies, she usually puts maraschino cherries on top for a touch of color and sweet taste. But for our contest, she decided to change up her recipe and substituted chopped peppermint candy canes for the cherries. The result was a winning recipe that tied for second place in our annual contest. “I usually make Italian wedding cookies for Christmas but this time I decided to do something different,” says the Decatur resident. It paid off for the retired pharmacist who has submitted winning recipes to our magazine in years past. In 2022, her Oatmeal Lace Cookies earned her an honorable mention in our Christmas Cookie Contest. –Lenore Vickrey
Chocolate Peppermint
Cookies
- 2 cups self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup candy canes, coarsely chopped
Sift flour and cocoa together. Beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Reduce mixer speed to medium, add eggs and vanilla. Reduce mixer to low, add flour and cocoa, fold in chocolate chips and candy canes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. Use 1-ounce cookie scoop, place on pan with parchment paper 3-inches apart. Push any exposed candy canes back into dough. Bake at 350 degrees until the center is set, about 12-15 minutes. Cool on pan 10 minutes and on a cooling rack 20 minutes. Makes 24 cookies.
3rd Place • Sweet and Salty Santa Treats
Joy Griswold, Dixie EC
Joy Griswold of Fitzpatrick has been a long-time contributor to Alabama Living’s food pages, so she was especially thrilled when her recipe for “Sweet and Salty Santa Treats” was chosen for third place honors in this year’s contest. She’d seen similar recipes over the years, but they called for a mixture of different kinds of chocolates, such as milk chocolate and semi-sweet. But being a fan of white chocolate, Joy made her own recipe with that version. “I just like the way it looks,” she says. And while other recipes put sprinkles on the top, she opted for sanding sugar (a large crystal sugar used for decorating) because it gives it an “expensive” look. When she made a large batch of the treats for her work colleagues at the Department of Transportation, it was a big hit. “They said, ‘You nailed it!’” she recalls. Her family agrees that it is “the perfect mix of everything, not too sweet and not too salty. Nothing overpowers the other ingredients.” –Lenore Vickrey
- 1 11-ounce bag baking chips (recommended: white chocolate chips)
- 11/2 cups dry roasted, unsalted peanuts
- 2 cups salted pretzel twists, broken into pieces (but not crushed into crumbs)
- Gold sanding sugar, for sprinkling
Melt the baking chips in an oven safe bowl over a boiling pot of water. When the chips are melted, stir until smooth. Add pretzel pieces and stir well, then add the peanuts and mix well. Drop 1 tablespoon of the mixture on wax paper. Sprinkle with the sanding sugar and let sit until the treats are completely cool.
The Buttered Home
Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Cookies:
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon center:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Icing:
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 to 3 teaspoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until combined. Add egg, vanilla and buttermilk. Mix just until combined. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to wet ingredients in two batches and mix just until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a flour surface and flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
Take dough out of refrigerator and place on a floured surface or board. Press or roll out into a large rectangle, about 9×12-inches. In a small bowl mix brown sugar and cinnamon. Brush cookie dough with melted butter and sprinkle brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over the top leaving the edges bare. Carefully roll long end like a jelly roll and tuck ends under. Place on a sheet pan and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 30 minutes to one hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take dough out of freezer and allow to stand 5 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and slice cookies starting at the end. Shape cut ends into cookies and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Pay careful attention to make sure seams are sealed. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on pan and move to cooling rack.
In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add milk a little at a time until smooth icing forms. Spread or brush with glaze and allow glaze to set up for 5 minutes. Enjoy!
