1 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
red and/or green colored sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and extracts; beat until light and fluffy. Add flour and nuts and beat until just moistened. Cover and chill until firm enough to handle. Shape into 1 inch balls; Place 2 inchs apart on a greased baking sheet. Flatten with a glass dipped in colored sugar. Bake until cookies are set.

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar, then egg, then vanilla. In separate bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients. Add alternately to creamed mixture, buttermilk and sifted ingredients. When finished mixing, place bowl in refrigerator, covering the bowl with plastic wrap. Chill 8 hours. Form dough into figure eights, handling the dough as little as possible. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10 to 15 until just barely brown.

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup butter (do not use margarine)
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup dairy or nondairy eggnog
sifted powder sugar
ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F. In large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, cream butter, about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and mix well. Add the flour mix and eggnog alternately to the sugar/butter mix.
Cover and chill at least 4 hours. Dough may still be sticky but it is a soft dough and will be.
Take out half the dough at a time (leaving rest in the fridge). On a lightly floured surface, take one tablespoon of the dough and roll into a rope shape (about 1/2 inch thick and 8 inches long) On an ungreased cookie sheet, place the rope in a loop, cross one end over the other. Make the shape slightly oval. Bake 6 to 8 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove cookies and cool on wire rack. While still warm, sprinkle tops with powdered sugar and nutmeg.

This much-loved cookie recipe is quick, easy, delicious, and pretty. You can’t go wrong!

Makes about 50

For the cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) container of ricotta cheese
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
milk
sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all of the cookie ingredients well until the dough sticks together into a big ball. It will be sticky. Drop by teaspoonfulls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until the bottoms turn golden brown. Let cool for 1 minute and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. In a small saucepan slowly stir milk into the powdered sugar until it creates a glaze thin enough to be spread over the cookies. Stir over low heat then spread over cooled cookies. Quickly top with sprinkles.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teasponns lemon extract (or marsala wine)
1/2 cup butter, softened
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a baking sheet. Beat the butter until creamy. Add eggs, sugar and lemon extracts and mix well. In a seperate bowl combine flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture, adding a small amount of milk if the batter is too thick or dry. Mix batter until dough forms. Shape pieces of dough into a thin cigar shape, about 4 or 5 inches long, and then loop the dough into a knot shape. Place knot-shaped dough onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

2 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups butter — (4 sticks) softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 1/2 cups sifted flour
Red and green colored sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Blend in dissolved yeast. Gradually stir in flour. Chill dough for about 2 hours. Shape into 3/4″ balls. Dip one side in red sugar, the other in green sugar, leaving a clear stripe down the center. Place on buttered cookie sheets. Bake in pre-heated 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from immediately to wire racks to cool. Can be frozen.

Makes about 48

2 cups shortening
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs
8 cups all-purpose flour
7 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
pinch salt
milk
3 - 5 pounds of figs
1 pound raisins
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1 whole orange (with peel)
1 small apple
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

To make dough, cream sugar and shortening: add eggs, vanilla, and salt. Blend in flour and baking powder by hand. Knead dough until smooth and workable. Add milk to reach workable consistency.

To make filling, cut up figs, orange, and apple into small pieces, then pass through a food mill or grinder. The spices and chopped nuts are added to the ground fig mixture. After the fig mixture is ground, sprinkle them in over the mixture and mix it in by hand.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Roll out some dough faily thin. Put fig mixture in a line. Wrap dough over mixture, sealing figs inside dough. Trim to desired length, using a diagonal cut. Make small diagonal slits in the sides of the cookies. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.

1 cup almonds, blanched
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 lb butter
1/2 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup fresh ginger, minced
3 eggs
3 cups flours
1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
1/2 teaspoon cloves, ground
1/2 teaspoon allspice, ground

Place almonds in a 8 to 9 inch square pan. Bake in a 350 F. oven until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool, coarsely chop, and set aside. In large bowl of an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, molasses, and ginger until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. In a bowl, stir flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and almonds. Add to egg mixture; stir to blend. On two greased 12×15 inch baking sheets, use well-floured hands to pat dough into 4 flat loaves, spacing them evenly on sheets; each loaf should be about 1/2 inch thick, 2 inches wide and the length of the baking sheet. Bake in a 350 F. oven until browned at edges and springy to touch, about 25 minutes; switch positions of pans halfway through
baking. Let loaves stand on baking sheets until cool to touch, then cut into long, 1/2-inch thick diagonal slices. On baking sheets, arrange
slices close together with a cut side down. Return to oven and bake at 350 F. until cookies are brown, 15 to 18 minutes longer; switch positions of pans halfway through baking. Transfer biscotti to racks and let cool completely. Serve, or store airtight up to 1 month; freeze for longer storage.

1 cup blanched almonds, finely chopped
1/2 cup mixed candied fruits & peels, finely chopped
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a bowl combine almonds, fruits and peels; set aside. In a medium saucepan combine butter, milk, sugar and honey. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in almond mixture; stir in 1/4 cup flour (adding more if mixture is too liquid). Drop by level tablespoonfuls, at least 3 inches apart, onto a greased and floured baking sheet. (Prepare only 6 cookies at a time on a baking sheet.) Using back of spoon, spread dough to 3-inch circles. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 1 minute on baking sheet. Carefully remove with spatula to waxed paper. Cool completely. In a small saucepan melt chocolate pieces and shortening over low heat. When cookies are cooled, evenly spread bottom of each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of the chocolate mixture. When chocolate is almost set, draw wavy lines through it with tines of a fork. Store cookies, covered, in refrigerator.

Makes about 36

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup sliced almonds
8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat liner. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and melted butter into the dry ingredients. Stir in the cranberries and almonds. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Flour your hands so that the dough won’t stick to them, and divide the dough into 3 equal 8×2x3/4-inch logs. Place one log on the baking sheet and bake 24 minutes or until firm and dry to touch. Remove from oven. Reduce oven to 325°F. Transfer baked log to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut the log diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place slices, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes or until dry and dark. Transfer to racks; cool. Repeat with the other two logs. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Dip each biscotti into the chocolate, at an angle, coating the end. Return to a cooled baking sheet and chill about 20 minutes or until chocolate is set.