Grandma's Christmas Bars

 

Everyone loves grandma's Christmas bars and cookies. Here are some of the family's favorites that she makes:

7 layer bars

This is a recipe from Lois, and called "Naomi's bars" on the recipe card. She uses butter instead and omits the nuts.

Mounds Bars

Molasses Cookies

From Pam's grandma Miller

Spritz

• 1 c butter
• 2/3 c sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 c flour
• 1 tsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar, add yolks and extract. Beat well. Add flour and salt, beat. Press through cookie press onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake in 400 oven about 12 min, or if dough is colored at 350-375. Note- when I've baked these my note is to bake at 375 for 8-9 min. Makes about 70.

Peppermint Patties

• 1/4 c softened butter
• 1/3 c light corn syrup
• 1-2 tsp peppermint extract
• 3 c powdered sugar
• melted dark chocolate for dipping

Mix first 4 ingredients, chill slightly, roll into patties, dip into melted chocolate.

Gingerbread Pancakes

I've been making these for years- I don't know where I got the recipe.

Gingerbread Pancakes

1 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

dash ground cloves

1/2 c milk

3 Tbsp molasses

1 Tbsp oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine dry ingredients, combine wet ingredients, then combine all. Makes 6 generous pancakes. Delicious served with homemade apple butter or apple sauce.

Six Inch Pie

A 9" pie can be too much for two people who are trying to be reasonable. You can buy half-sized pie plates, but I have a 6" diameter cast iron skillet which is half the area of a 9" pan according to my basic geometric calculations. While I sometimes use a press in oil crust (my dislike of rolling pastry is well documented) I decided to do an all-butter rolled crust for this, which turned out to be pretty manageable to roll and shape for this smaller pan. I halved the recipe for a single crust from my trusty Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook:

Single Crust for a 6" pie

• 1/2 C plus 2 Tbsp flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/6 c (scant 3 Tbsp) butter
• 2 Tbsp cold water

For the filling, I used some of our frozen home-grown sour cherries, lovingly picked and pitted this summer and halved the filling and crumb-top from this "Best Tart Cherry Pie" recipe. The half recipe worked well for this pan size. Despite halving the recipe, it doesn't halve the bake time- I ended up baking this for 70 min. Next time, reduce the amount of crumb topping.

Crumb topping on- ready to bake