Favorite Christmas Cookies

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 TB. butter
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (divided)
1/2 cup flour
2 TB unsweetened cocoa power
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
about 4 dozen peppermint or mint Hershey's kisses

Melt unsweetened chocolate, butter, and 1 cup of chocolate chips in microwave or on stove top. Cool. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Beat sugar and eggs for 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Stir in chocolate mixture, then flour mixture, and finally the last cup of chocolate chips. Cover and chill until firm, at least 1 hour. This will look like pudding when you first refrigerate it. Heat over to 350. Shape into 1" balls and bake about 10 minutes. While you wait, unwrap the kisses. Immediately upon taking these out of the oven, stick a kiss in the middle and push down slightly. Finish cooling on a rack.

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Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:
2 16-oz. bags semi sweet chocolate chips
1 16-oz bag white chocolate chips
6-8 candy canes

Unwrap 6-8 candy canes and put in a ziploc bag. Wrap a towel around the bag and crush candy canes with a meat tenderizer or whatever works for you. This shouldn't be powdery; some small bits are good.

Melt two 16-ounce bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I do it in the microwave for one minute and then stir, and then at 30-second intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds until melted.

In a separate bowl, as soon as the chocolate chips are done melt, one 16 oz. bag of white chocolate chips in the same way.

When the chocolate chips are completely melted (and while you are in the process of melting the white chips), add the peppermint to the chocolate. Mix well and spread evenly on a cookie sheet. When the white chocolate is completely melted, drop by spoonfuls onto the chocolate and swirl with a knife to marbelize.

Put in fridge until hard. When it's completely hard, you can take a knife and break it up into fudge-sized pieces. That's it!

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Jam Diagonals

1 stick butter, softened (don't even think about using margarine)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. raspberry jam
3/4 c. confectioners sugar
3-4 tsp. lemon juice

Mix butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt until fluffy. Gradually stir in flour until blended. Divide dough into thirds. On lightly floured surface, with hands, roll each into a 9-inch rope. Place 3-inches apart onto lightly greased cookie sheet, or, better yet, a baking stone. With finger, make 1/2-inch depression down center of each rope. (Ropes will flatten to about 1-inch-wide strips.) Fill depressions with jam. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, or until golden but certainly not crispy. Cool. Blend confectioners sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle in zig-zags over jam. When icing is set, cut diagonally into 1-inch cookies.

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Never Fail Sugar Cookies

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter (don't even think about using margarine)
3/4 c. Crisco
3 T. milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients as in for pie crust and cut in shortening. Add remaining ingredients. Chill for at least an hour. Roll out about 1/4 inch on a floured board and cut into shapes. Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes. Don't overbake. Cool and frost.

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Many, many more cookie recipes are available at Kelly's Korner, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, and at The Mom Creative .