Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies—Soft Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies, Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti, Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies and Chocolate Spritz Cookies

Whew!  We’re coming down the home stretch, Friends.  Christmas is just around the corner.  I’m SO not ready.  But I do manage to keep baking away.  I’ve got three cookies to share with you for week 11 of Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies. 

First up—Soft Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies.  I made these cookies once last year after my pal, Amanda from Amanda's Cookin' blogged about them.  They were a big hit when I made them for a Christmas party.

Amanda had mentioned wanted to try the cookies with a little more Nutella than she’d used, so I went for it and made them with half a cup of Nutella instead of the one-quarter cup she’d used.  I can’t find my notes from last year, but I know I also added some chopped hazelnuts then.  These cookies really are soft and chewy and I plan to try them with just peanut butter as Amanda mentioned this was the recipe she has used and loved for peanut butter cookies for years.

I made the cookies again last week and they were just as good, though I didn’t add the chopped hazelnuts this time.  Check out the link for the cookies on Amanda's Cookin' for the recipe.  My only change was like I mentioned I added 1/2 cup Nutella and only 1/4 cup peanut butter.  The first two photos were from the cookies I made last year.  Here’s the latest.

Next I wanted to share with you some Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti that I’ve wanted to make for a while now and finally did yesterday.  I actually always thought biscotti was for dunking in coffee and since I don’t drink coffee, I had never even tried it until we made Dorie’s Lenox Almond Biscotti for TWD two years ago and loved it.  Then I had this Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti from one of Chef Paige's classes also about two years ago and it was delicious.  I consider myself one who prefers softer, chewy cookies, but there’s just something about biscotti that I really like.  I’ve tried a number of other recipes since then and they have been okay, but this one is my favorite so far.  Paige credited this recipe to her days working as a pastry chef at The Pastry Goddess in Kansas City. 

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti, from The Pastry Goddess, Kansas City

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (270 grams)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 ounces (3/4 cup) toasted pistachios, coarsely chopped

3 ounces (1 cup) dried cranberries

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (175 grams)

2 large eggs

zest of 1 orange (I used the zest of 2 clementines)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nuts and cranberries; set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Beat in the zest and the vanilla.  Stir in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.

Divide the dough into two pieces.  On a lightly floured work surface, form each piece into a 1- to 1 1/2 inch log—each log will be about the same length as the cookie sheet.  Set the logs on the parchment lined cookie sheet.  Flatten slightly.

Bake in a 325 degree oven until set and golden brown—about 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Slice on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices.  Lay the slices on their sides and return the sheets to the oven for another 5 minutes.  Turn the cookies over and bake for another 5 minutes.  Cool completely before wrapping air tight.  Makes about 50 cookies (I only got 30 as I probably sliced them more into 3/4-inch slices.

I must give these away so I don’t eat them all.  Kevin doesn’t like crunchy cookies and the boys think they are strange.  Whatever, I love them.

And we’re not quite done yet.  A couple weeks ago I was shopping and saw a cookie press.  I’ve always wanted one and decided to grab it so I could make spritz cookies.  I could fill and shoot that spritz gun for a long time.  It’s so fun. 

I made this Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies recipe from the Wilton website.  The cookies call for lemon zest, but I left that out and added 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.  I colored some of the dough green, some red and left some of it white.

I also made the Chocolate Spritz Cookies from Wilton.  The only change I made to the recipe was I used salted butter and omitted the salt in the recipe.  I had fun just shootin’ away with the cookie gun.

The chocolate cookies are good, but they spread a little more than the others.  I like when cookies you give away, especially on plates/trays with variety have a lot of color, so into the freezer these went and they will be used to jazz up some Christmas cookies plates.

I had two little helpers decorating the Christmas tree the other day and they sure did a fine job.  Check this out.

Who do you think did the most?  Some would say I should just leave it that way, but I just couldn’t do it, at least I’ve got photos.

Ah, now I can sleep at night. ;)  Check out all the other cookies this week for Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies by clicking on all the links below.

Also a quick reminder to enter the giveaway I’m having right now for a $75 CSN Stores gift code.  Leave a comment on this post to enter.  You have until tonight, (Friday), December 10 at 10 p.m. MST to enter.