holiday cookies Archives - Feasting Is Fun

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Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies. The only Christmas cookie recipe you need as it is so easy to follow, make and bake. Actually, they are the ideal bake to get the whole family involved in, especially children. Also, think about the chocolate deliciousness that are these festive, fun cookies that are perfect to share.

Hello everyone, how is the run up to Christmas going for you?

This time of year can be completely manic and overwhelming for me and strange as it may seem, a day spent baking and creating, although a luxury, is a great way for me to chill out and really enjoy the festive season.

I have baked these Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies twice now, the second batch was larger because they disappeared so quickly the first time! Quick note, since originally posting this recipe these cookies have become a must have Christmas tradition in our home. While certain friends and family also look forward to their cellophane bag of fresh Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies neatly tied with a festive bow!

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Giving Cookies As Christmas Gifts

Ah the look on our little (teenagers but still my babies) cherubs face as I give these cookies away is priceless! I thought I’d done a pretty good job as a mum, teaching them to share. Apparently not!!! Because I’m sure these cookies would be kept in a locked safe if our children had their way.

Rich chocolate cookies, with a hint of brownie flavour, topped with melted white chocolate and sprinkles. Utterly divine, decadent and delicious and perfect for Christmas baking.

The chocolate smell as these cookies bake will have people knocking at your front door, drawn by the aroma. If it could be bottled, the chocolate smell would be a hit. As it is, we get to bake the cookies and then eat them – sharing of course!

Due to their popularity, I would highly recommend making a double batch of the cookie dough. Since it’s hardly any extra effort and you can choose to bake all the cookies in one hit, or leave half of the dough in the fridge for up to a week.

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies.

My Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies make perfect presents. Pop a few in a cellophane bag, tie with pretty ribbon and hand out to friends, family, neighbours, the postman. I honestly don’t think a gift made with love by ourselves can be beaten.

Making these cookies is a whizz! Since the cookie dough comes together in moments, then rolled into a log, wrapped in cling film and refrigerated until it is firm. The chocolate, dough log is then sliced and the slices are baked. As soon as the cookies have cooled spoon on white chocolate, add sprinkles and wait to set.

Recipe : Makes approx 25 Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

225g/8oz Unsalted Butter – at room temperature

150g/5oz Light Soft Brown Sugar

1 Large Egg Yolk

1tsp Vanilla Extract – I use Nielsen-Massey

1/4tsp Salt

225g/8oz Plain White Flour

50g/2oz Cocoa Powder – I use Callebaut

100g/4oz White Chocolate

Sprinkles for the top of the cookies, I’ve used holly leaves and berries which I found on Amazon. Alternatively, you can also make the decorations from coloured fondant icing.

Method:

Making the Chocolate Cookie Batter

Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl. Whisk until light and fluffy.

Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and salt. Whisk until fully incorporated.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl. Mix slowly until you have all the ingredients combined.

You now have a bowl of the most delicious chocolate cookie dough!

Wipe your work surface with a clean, damp, cloth. Lay a good length of cling film onto the damp surface – the water ‘sticks’ the cling film in place so that it stays flat and doesn’t move.

Shaping the Cookie Dough

Place the dough onto the cling film in a rough sausage shape.

Wrap the dough up and roll the dough into a sausage shape approx 1.5″/3.5cm diameter.

Place the dough log into the fridge for at least 2 hours (it will keep for a week, well wrapped). The dough log needs to be cold and firm before you can slice the cookies.

Preheat the oven to 180/160C fan, gas mark 4, 350F.

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper (you may need to cook the cookies in batches). Remove the chocolate dough log from the fridge. Dont worry if the bottom of the log has flatted slightly, it just adds to the christmas pudding look.

Slicing And Baking The Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Unwrap the cookie dough and slice into individual cookies approx 1cm/0.5″ thick.

Place the uncooked cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, allowing room for expansion between each cookie.

Place the baking trays into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending how thick/big your cookies are. My cookies took 20 minutes to bake.

It is difficult to tell when the cookies are cooked, due to their colour! They are baked when the surface looks dull however, they don’t set hard until cooled.

As soon as the cookies are baked remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes on the baking tray (it is fine to leave them to cool completely on the tray) you can then move them, using a palette knife to a cooling rack. If after 10 minutes cooling they break when trying to transfer them, pop them back into the oven for another 5 minutes.

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies place onto a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. www.feastingisfun.com

Once the cookies have completely cooled it’s time to get creative and frost them WITH CHOCOLATE!

Decorating the Cookies – Childs Play!

Chop or break up your white chocolate and place into a heat proof bowl. Either place the bowl on top of a saucepan as I did here Chocolate Sparkle Cake , or melt the chocolate using a microwave, on medium setting, in short 20 second bursts, stirring after each zap! Remove the bowl just before the chocolate is completely melted and stir continuosly, the heat already in the bowl will melt the remaining chocolate.

Note: When making these cookies with children, if the bowl is hot, decant the melted chocolate into a cool bowl before decorating the cookies.

Melt the white chocolate.

Using a teaspoon, place the melted chocolate on the top of the cookie, encouraging it to ‘drip’ down the ‘christmas pudding’ with the back of the spoon.

The effect is so easy, yet incredible. These Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies really do look like the real thing with cream dripping down from the top.

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Storing and Packaging the Cookies

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies last for a week in an air tight container. I used a tin to store ours in and placed a piece of parchment paper between each layer, to keep the cookie’s presentation perfect. This is good advice if you are cooking alone and making these ahead of time.

When baking and decorating these with children, to be completely honest, you will be very lucky to even see the chocolate set!! So it’s rather a nice idea to have some already made and packaged in small cellophane bags, tied with ribbon. This way the children can take home extra cookies to share with their families.

I’m assuming everyone bakes with their children and their friends, when they come round for tea?

If you are a teacher/teaching assistant/child minder or Sunday school teacher, making the undecorated biscuits ahead of time and then letting little and big kids alike decorate their own, is a wonderful pre-Christmas activity.

As well as these Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies you may like these other Christmas Bakes:

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies can you stop at one?

Sparkling Snowflake Cake

Sparkling Snowflake Cake edible diamonds and a dusting of flavoured icing sugar set this cake off www.feastingisfun.com

Peppermint Candy Cane Topped Brownies

Peppermint Candy Cane Topped Brownies

Please post photos of your cookies on Twitter/Instagram and tag me in @sammiefeasting. I would love to see what fantastic decorations and creations you bake?

Do you enjoy the build up to Christmas or dread it?

Whatever you do and whoever you bake the with and for, I hope you have lots of fun and these Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies bring smiles from all who eat them!

Have a happy Christmas.

Sammie xx

No part of this post may be reproduced or duplicated without the written permission of the owner. Please see my Disclosure Policy.

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Ok, please don’t hate me? I know it’s only October and yes I am posting a recipe for mince pies. Just hear me out for a sec please? Because these Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies are totally, out of this world amazing and it would be completely unfair for me to have waited any longer to share these with you.

Phew! I said it.

Just look at them. They are so cute and little and perfectly bite size. They’ve even got a dusting of snow.Tell me you’re not interested now – thought so!!

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies

Cream Cheese Pastry – the easiest pastry you will ever make:

So, who would have thought of putting Cream Cheese in pastry? Yet, this recipe is based on a Pampered Chef recipe I jotted down years ago at one of their parties. Since they, (the Pampered Chef’s) are masters of quick, delicious, recipes and whilst their cooking and bakeware may be a little on the pricey side, it lasts forever. Also, this is not a sponsored post, I genuinely love their stuff.

Anyway, back to the pastry. I first saw this made and demonstarted at a Pampered Chef Party (if you host one you get great discounts – just saying!). The Cream Cheese Pastry was used to make some mini Pecan Pies and delicious they were too.

With me being me, I like to fiddle around with recipes. Because the pastry has a subtle, yet beautiful tang to it, I was sure that it would pair beautifully with sweet mincemeat. Resulting in these Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies.

Making a recipe work

So, with recipes I tend to be a bit of a rebel. Because if someone tells me something isn’t going to work, I want to know why and then try to figure out a way to make it work.

It was heavily stressed, during the cooking demonstration, that this pastry could not be rolled out. Well I just had to take that as a challenge and prove them wrong. And so I did.

The Cream Cheese Pastry is unbelivably soft, which is why it produces such a tender crumb. Yet, if you chill it for long enough and work quickly and methodically with it, then my lovelies, you sure can roll it out. And this little tip transforms a one recipe pastry into a whole new realm of possibilities, including my Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies!

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies

Since I haven’t ever made anything bigger than a regular sized mince pie, using this pastry, I am doubtful it woud have the strength to hold together for a large tart. But I am willing to be corrected. And now I’ve written that, I may have set myself a challenge!!!

Aside from the deliciousness that this pastry brings to the mince pies, it is so easy to make. No mixer, food processor, just a bowl and a fork – really it’s that simple. Here I’ll show you how.

Recipe : Makes 36 mini Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies (approx 18 regular sized ones)

225g/8oz Very Soft Unsalted Butter

200g/7oz Cream Cheese – I used Philadelphia I really do think that it is the best cream cheese to use in this recipe

275g/10oz Plain White Flour

Sweet Mincement – I use Waitrose

Jam any flavour

Method :

Making the Cream Cheese Pastry

Add the butter and cream cheese to the flour in a large bowl.

Using a fork gently mix the 3 ingredients together to form a dough.

Form the pastry dough into a disc, wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Keep chilled and make your tart cases

A good tip, as this dough warms up very easily, is to have everything you need to make the pies, ready before you start rolling the dough.

Also preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan, gas mark 6, 400F.

On a well floured surface, break off 2/3 of the dough and roll out to 1/2cm.

Ensure you have plenty of flour, cutters and a palette knife handy.

Due to the high fat content I never grease my tin. Feel free to do so if you are unsure of it’s non stick ability.

Line your tin with pastry cups.

Gather up the pastry and re-roll if needed to cut all of your pie bases out. Make sure you have plenty of flour on the work top, otherwise this pastry will stick.

And if the pastry does start to get too sticky, wrap up in cling film and pop back in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill it.

Adding the filling

Fill your pastry cups with mincemeat or alternatively jam.

Importantly, do not overfill your pastry cups, you will literally just end up with a heated mess.

I used a scant 1/2 teaspoon of filling in each of my mini pies.

You can see the 2 vertical lines on the left are filled with blackberry jam – youngest daughter not keen on mince pies!

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies – use a cutter that just fits the top of your pies.

Use the reserved third of pastry for rolling out the lids.

Top each pie with a cutout pastry shape. I used stars for mince pies and mini flowers for jam pies.

Sprinkle a little demerera sugar on the star topped mince pies for added sparkle.

Time to bake

Place into a preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until puffed and golden.

As soon as they are baked, remove from the oven and immediately remove the pies from the tin and place on a cooling rack. Be careful the filling is extremely hot.

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies

These Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies are delicious warm just as they are, or drizzled with cream, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream……

They can be kept at room temperature for 3 days in an airtight container, or frozen, once cold for one month. Perfect to make before Christmas and stash in the deep freeze.

Watch out for the last mince pie!

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies are a revelation on your taste buds.

If you have enjoyed this recipe recipe for Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies you may also like these:

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Snowy Black Forest Roulade

Snowy Black Forest Roulade – with a gluten free option.

Peppermint Candy Cane Topped Brownies

Peppermint Candy Cane Topped Brownies

While Christmas is first and foremost about celebrating the birth of Jesus, it is also a time for meeting up with friends and family. Almost every shelf in the shops are laden with edible Christmas treats and they do have a place. Yet making and baking homemade goodies is also fun too. Above all, homemade treats are made with love, something that cannot be bought. And they taste a million times better than their shop bought counterparts!

So, whatever you are making, baking and creating in your kitchens have fun preparing and sharing your feast.

Sammie x

No part of this post may be reproduced or duplicated without the written permission of the owner. Please see my Disclosure Policy.

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Tag: holiday cookies

Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies

Cream Cheese Pastry – the easiest pastry you will ever make:

Making a recipe work

Recipe : Makes 36 mini Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies (approx 18 regular sized ones)

Making the Cream Cheese Pastry

Keep chilled and make your tart cases

Adding the filling

Time to bake

If you have enjoyed this recipe recipe for Cream Cheese Pastry Mince Pies you may also like these:

Giving Cookies As Christmas Gifts

Recipe : Makes approx 25 Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Making the Chocolate Cookie Batter

Shaping the Cookie Dough

Slicing And Baking The Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies

Decorating the Cookies – Childs Play!

Storing and Packaging the Cookies

As well as these Chocolate Christmas Pudding Cookies you may like these other Christmas Bakes: