janradder

(The picture isn't mine, by the way, but this is how they should look)

Of all the dishes and cookies I make for Christmas, chrusciki (hroos-CHEE-kee) have to be the biggest pain of ass of them all. Mixing up the dough for the cookies is easy enough. It's rolling them out thin enough that's the problem. But when you make them right and the chrusciki literally melt in your mouth, it makes all the trouble almost seem worth it. This recipe comes from my grandmother, who got it from her mother, who got it from their next door neighbor in Union City, CT, Mrs. Karaba.

6 egg yolks
6 t sugar
2 t sour cream
1-1/2 oz. apricot brandy (or plain brandy if that's all you have)
2 cups flour

Beat yolks and sugar, add cream and brandy. Add flour and mix until workable. Cut the dough in half. Leave one half under a damp cloth and put the other on a board dusted with flour.

Now here's the hard part: roll it to within an inch of its life and then keep rolling it some more. Don't stop until it is as close to paper thin as is humanly possible (leave it too thick and they're no good).

When the dough is as thin as you can get it, cut it into long thin strips (about 3 inches long). Cut a slit in the middle of each strip and pull one end all the way through it so that you have something that approximates wings. Fry the strips in fat (or vegetable shortening) about 5-10 seconds on each side (don't let them brown). Drain the cookies on paper towels. Right before serving, dust them with powdered sugar.

Today the boys and I mixed up a batch of pfeffernüsse dough. It's currently chilling in the fridge -- we'll bake them tomorrow. This is always the first of the Christmas cookies I make since they get better with age (they're kind of hard at first, but they soften as they sit in the canister, and the spices get a bit stronger). Here's the recipe (from a book called Christmas Cookies: Classic Recipes):

3 1/2 c. white flour
2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. ground cardamom
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1 c. softened butter
1 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
powdered sugar

Mix the first 9 ingredients in a bowl and set it aside. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the molasses and egg. Slowly add the flour/spice mixture and beat at a low speed until the dough forms (you'll have to scrape the sides a lot -- the dough is fairly dry. Also, you'll have better luck with it the slower you add the flour mixture). Shape the dough into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (you supposedly can leave it for up to 3 days but I've never tried).

Preheat oven to 350˚F and grease the cookie sheets. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (if you've left it in the fridge for longer than 30 minutes, let it warm up for about 10 minutes before rolling them into balls -- the muscles in your hands will thank you) and place them about 2 inches apart on the greased cookie sheets (you'll have enough dough to make about 5 dozen cookies or more)

Bake 12-14 minutes (or until golden brown). Cool cookies on racks and dust them with sifted powdered sugar.