Holiday Recipes 2012

Family recipes from the members of GIG of ECW.

If you are making this recipe for a gluten-free guest, please read our Guide to Gluten Cross-Contact.



Nut Balls

Submitted by Becky

This is a recipe from my Mom.

Ingredients:

½ lb. butter
2 T honey
2 c flour (Meister's Gluten-Free Flour)
¼ t salt
2 t double strength vanilla (Penezy's)
1 1/4 c finely chopped Pecans or Walnuts nuts (Nuts.com)

Directions:
Beat butter until creamy. Stir in honey.
Add flour, salt, vanilla and nuts and mix thoroughly.
Chill dough 1 hour.
Form into balls the size of walnuts. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake @ 300 approximately 35 min, or until light brown.
Roll in confectioners sugar while hot and again after they’ve cooled.



Aunt Loula’s Ginger Cookies

Submitted by Becky

Ingredients:
1 c white sugar
1 c lard or shortening
2 eggs, beaten
1 c molasses
1 c sour milk or buttermilk
1 t baking soda
1½ t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
4 cups flour
pinch of salt

Directions:
Can scoop the dough with a spoon, or bag it and pipe it onto the cookie sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and press the cookie down. Bake at 325 13-14 min.


Fresh Cranberry Relish

Submitted by Kimberly

This to me is the taste of the holiday season...orange, cranberry, walnut and cinnamon

Ingredients:
1 package (12 ounces or 3 cups) of fresh cranberries
2 medium Pippin or Granny Smith apples quartered and cored (I prefer skins on, but some like them peeled)
¾ cup sugar
½ cup orange marmalade
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons (or more!) of Grand Marnier...Brandy works nicely too in a pinch!
2 cups of chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I use more like 1 Tablespoon since I LOVE cinnamon)

Directions:
Chop cranberries in a food processor. Remove. Chop apples in food processor. Add to cranberries and then add remaining ingredients. Stir well and enjoy. This tastes better if it is refrigerated overnight. This relish can be refrigerated up to 2 months! Often I will make a double batch at Thanksgiving and eat until New Years!


Peanut Blossoms

Submitted & GF conversion by Peg
Original recipe: Nancy Brown from Mt. Zion Lutheran Church Cookbook

Ingredients:

1¼ cup
Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
½ cup
Bob's Red Mill GF Sorghum Flour
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 tsp Arm & Hammer baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup butter
¼ cup Butter Flavored Crisco
½ cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp double strength vanilla
1 egg
Hershey's Kisses

Directions:
Combine in a large mixer bowl. Mix at low speed until a dough forms. Shape dough into balls using a rounded teaspoonful of dough. Roll balls in additional sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven. Top each hot cookie with a Hershey's Kiss – pressing down so cookie cracks around the edge.


Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Submitted by: Peg
Original Recipe:
Jules Shepard

Ingredients - Cookies:

½ cup shortening (Earth Balance® Shortening Sticks) or [½ cup of butter]
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
¼ cup milk [use slighlty less if using real butter]
1 teaspoon double strength GF vanilla extract
Food coloring (optional)
2 ¼ cups
Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Calumet baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Ingredients – Icing:
¼ cup butter
¼ cup Crisco
1 tsp gluten-free Vanilla
4 cups of powdered sugar
¼ cup of milk

Directions:
Cream shortening and sugar until very fluffy. Add egg, vanilla extract, milk, and food coloring (optional], beating until integrated. Add the dry ingredients last, mixing until evenly blended. Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate or freeze until cold and no longer sticky, at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375ºF (static) or 350ºF (convection).

Lightly flour the rolling surface, rolling pin and cookie cutters with Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. Roll the dough to approximately 1/8-inch thickness and cut shapes, re-rolling dough to utilize all the dough.

Place cut-out cookies onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and decorate with colored sugar or sprinkles, if desired. Bake approximately 8–10 minutes, but remove before they begin to brown at the edges. When baked and cooled, frost with Easy Cookie Icing, if desired.

Directions - Easy Cookie Icing :

Combine frosting ingredients in mixer bowl.
Beat until fluffy

If frosting is too dry or stiff – add small amount of milk until it's easily spreadable.

Note: Peg made two different versions of these cookies. One batch following Jule's recipe, another batch using real Wisconsin butter – just like Happy Cows intended. During the group's blind taste-test - butter was the winner!


Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Submitted by: Al
Original recipe: Cook's Country

This is our favorite and go-to mashed potato recipe.

Ingredients:
4 lbs russet potatoes, peeled, quartered, ½” pieces
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
12 garlic cloves, minced [We use 4-5]
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper

Directions:
Place cut potatoes in colander. Rinse under cold running water until water runs clear. Drain thoroughly. This is a very important step to eliminate excess starch, which produces gluey mashed potatoes.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook garlic and sugar, stirring often, until sticky and straw colored, 3 to 4 minutes. Add rinsed potatoes, 1 1/4 cups half-and-half, water and 1 teaspoon salt to pot and stir to combine. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered and stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from heat, add remaining butter to pot and mash with potato masher until smooth. Using rubber spatula, fold in remaining half-and-half until liquid is absorbed and potatoes are creamy. Season with salt and pepper.