I am going to the supermarket Monday to buy the makings for my Christmas cookies. I make the same recipes every year, may try out a new one if it looks good. We usually have a cookie baking day with my family, it starts around ten in the morning and goes on till after six in the afternoon. My daughter has a large country kitchen that is the perfect place for our bake-a-thon. We have old ladies, young mothers and little girls - lots of family love and bonding. We will be baking week after next when everyone is in town.
Here are my old Christmas Cookie stand-bys
Orange Chocolate Chippers
Chewy oatmeal
Sugar Cut-out Cookies
Gum Drop cookies - so colorful on the cookie tray
Angel slices (from old Joy of Cooking)
Lemon Bars
Peanut Butter Cookies (Grandson's favorite)
Gingerbread boys (from Joy of cooking)
I am posting the Orange Chocolate Chippers below
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Orange Chocolate Chippers – Revised - Dec. 2013 (makes about 6 dozen)
My mother (who passed away in 2004) took this recipe from the Recipe of the Month section of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine back in the early 1950’s. It has been a family favorite ever since. When the family gets together, out come the cookies sheets and a batch of these cookies is baked for all to enjoy.
The original recipe called for a 3 oz. package of cream cheese and only made 3 dozen cookies. Many grocery stores no longer carry the 3 oz package of cream cheese and this recipe is so good that 3 dozen cookies is never enough, so I adjusted the recipe to use an 8-oz package of cream cheese and makes 6 or 7 dozen cookies. This is truly the Queen of cookies – the best cookie recipe hands down. I am always asked for the recipe.
2 cups shortening (do not use butter)
2 cups sugar
1 8-oz. Package cream cheese
4 eggs
5 or 6 tablespoons finely chopped orange peel, use mirco plane zester for fine peel
4 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 12-oz bags semi sweet or milk chocolate chips (1 of each is best) Best is the blue bag Ghiardelli chocolate chips
Cream shortening, sugar and cream cheese together. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Add orange peel and vanilla. Mix well.
(Note: I grate the orange peel with a micro planner, it is a very fine grate. This gives the cookie a more intense orange flavor)
Sift flour and salt together. Add to creamed mixture. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.
Drop by teaspoon full, 2 inches apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until edge of cookies just start to brown. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet a minute, then move to wire rack to cool.
Watch closely as these cookies burn easily.
Family Note: My granddaughter, Carol, who is an experienced baker, had also revised the recipe to use an 8 oz package of cream cheese. We had a bake-off one day and tried each of our revised recipes and all on hand agreed that my revised recipe was the best.
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