Christmas Cookies!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  As you can see, I went a little NUTS this year with Christmas cookies.  I made 7 kinds.  Here's the rundown -  starting top center and moving clockwise: Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies, Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies, Italian Florentines, Butter Cookies, Ginger Spice Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cakes, and in the center, Cardamom Cookies. 

The verdict: Some of these are tested veterans and will stay on the list.  Here they are. Follow the links for the recipes!

Mexican Wedding Cakes (my favorite).  These are cake-like and buttery and have pistachios and dried cranberries in them.  They are rolled in powdered sugar when warm.  Wonderful.

Ginger Spice Cookies (second favorite).  These are chewy and spicy and have ginger three ways - freshly grated, candied, and ground.  Yum.

Butter Cookies (close second). Melt in your mouth sugar cookies.  These are just classic. I kept some plain, sugared some, and frosted others.  This was fun!

and Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies (these are my little sister's favorite and they are pretty awesome. a keeper.).  These are chocolate cookies, filled with mint filling, and then rolled in crushed candy cane. OK? Good stuff.

Of the newbies, I think only the Italian Florentines were worth keeping around.  They are thin and crispy and almondy and I used tangerine zest in them and decided not to dip in chocolate (which is traditional) because I liked their simplicity.

The chocolate hazelnut guys and the cardamom guys were both good -- i mean, they are cookies, OK? but just not GREAT.  They can't stand up to these other classics. 

Check out the recipes!  Enjoy!