Cookies Around the World 5 of 5

Submitted by CoolMonday

"This is a great recipe for variety (English, French, Greek, German, Finnish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Turkish, Mexican. I have split them up two to a recipe, but if you want them all, there are 5 separate recipes. They are made from one basic cookie dough. I think some of them may be posted individually, but at Christmas I make the entire variety. Each batch of basic dough makes a batch of two of the cookies with the ingredients I have listed."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 20

ingredients

• BASIC COOKIE DOUGH

• 1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, softened
• 1 1⁄2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

• TURKISH TWIRLS

• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons grated lemons, rind of
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1⁄2 cup colored crystal sugar

• MEXICAN SWIZZLE STICKS

• 1 (1 ounce) envelope premelted chocolate
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 ounce premelted chocolate
• 4 teaspoons milk
• 1⁄4 1/4 cup chocolate sprinkles or 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts

directions

1. BASIC COOKIE DOUGH.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Add flour slowly, and mix well.
5. Divide in two.
6. TURKISH TWIRLS.
7. Preheat oven to 375.
8. Add to 1/2 basic cookie dough- lemon peel and ground cardamom.
9. Mix well.
10. Shape dough by rounded teaspoons into pencil-like strips, about 6 inches long.
11. Roll strips in colored sugar.
12. Coil around into spiral shapes.
13. Bake on ungreased baking sheet about 10 minutes until set.
14. Immediately remove from baking sheet.
15. MEXICAN SWIZZLE STICKS.
16. Preheat oven to 375.
17. Mix into 1/2 basic cookie dough- premelted chocolate and cinnamon.
18. Using star plate cookie press, for 4 inch fingers on ungreased baking sheet.
19. Bake 5-7 minutes, or until set.
20. Cool.
21. Drizzle with chocolate glaze made as follows.
22. blend confectioners sugar, premelted chocolate, and milk.
23. Sprinkle with colored shot, chocolate shot or nuts.
24. Or, if desired, dip ends in or dust with Cinnamon/sugar made by blending 1/4 cup confectioners sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.

Reviews

[Pamela]

I used this recipe for my Wednesday night kid's club cooking class and it was perfect! I made up a big batch of the basic dough and then divided it into 4 of the variations. This recipe fit well into my 'around the year theme'. I used red, green and yellow coloured sugar for the coating.

 

[justcallmetoni]

Wonderful collection and it amazing that the final results for each addition results in a unique cookie with its own texture and taste. From this recipe I made the Mexican Swizzle Sticks which were a hit on my holiday traces. The light amount of cinnamon was just wonderful in these crispy wafers of joy. I will miss you my friend.

 

[kiwidutch]

Wonderful!!! These little shortbread-type cookies went down a treat. I made a double batch of the basic recipe and then discovered that the kids had depleted the red and yellow food colouring so ended up with only blue and green coloured sugar to work with. I did find it tricky to get the sugar to really stick to the twirls, mine are not really tidy, but we got the idea. I made both plain cookies and Turkish with and also without the coloured sugars, and Mexican with a half-dip into chocolate and then the hundreds and thousands on top. These made excellent gift baskets for our neighbours and were very well received. I love the idea that dividing a single batch of dough and then adding a little extra to each portion and it makes such a difference to the end result without too much effort at all. This was also my first foray into using coloured sugars.. but not my last. Please see my rating system: an excellent recipe that taste great no matter which way you make it. R.I.P. Cool Monday, you will be missed but not forgotten. These cookies are heavenly.

 

[coconutcream]

I haven't made any of these yet, but I love the idea of making all these different cookies from the same basic dough, love how you posted them all together, and love the pictures - what a colorful Christmas cookie tray you must have!