Italian Anise Cookies

Hi everyone! Nice to meet you, I feel like I know you all since my wifey (aka Boston Sweetie) tends to drop my name in a post every now and then (aka "Hubs"). You can call me Boston Sweetie Hubs or
B-hubs for short.

I am not ashamed to say that the 25 days of Christmas this year has made one of the most delicious Decembers that I can remember. Tonight, I decided to keep the daily trend going with one of my favorite types of cookies - Anise! Inspired by some of my favorite North End bakeries like Bovas, Mike's and Modern - I decided to save myself the walk and make my own.

After browsing a few recipes online to inspire myself, I found the one - look no further than Food.com.

Check out the picture of my finished product below - they look good huh?

HoHoHo these look good!

The recipe consisted of two parts - Making the cookie batter and making the icing - which gave me two bowls of extra batter bits to eat....

Anyways....

The first part consisted of mixing a stick of butter, eggs, sugar, anise, and milk- to create a nice anise fluffy sugar mixture which now needed some flour mixture. The flour mixture consisted of some baking powder and ....Flour! After about 10 minutes of mixing with the magic of the Kitchen Aid - we had some nice fluffy anise cookie batter.  Using a cookie scooper to portion - I created some nice round dollops of cookie batter and into the oven they went.  Ten minutes they were done.

The finishing touch was a mixture of confectionary sugar, milk and a drop of anise for the glaze. Simply take the baked cookies and dip them into the glaze, finish with sprinkles and we have Anise cookies!

Merry Christmas!

Only 14 more days 'til Christmas everyone- enjoy the cookies and I'm sure I'll be speaking to you soon again.

You can access the recipe here.

Bye for now,
B-hubs

Easy Almond Butter Cookies

Hi Sweets!  So sorry for missing a day yesterday, I promise to make up for it at the end.  The hubs and I just got home from a weekend away in Lake Placid, NY which was amazing and unfortunately left no time for baking any cookies.  We spent our days touring the Olympic sites and attractions- we even rode the bobsled; it was so intense!!!

We got home a little after dinner tonight and I was super tired so wanted a quick and easy cookie to feature.  These butter cookies are about as easy as it gets.  You mix everything up all at once, roll the dough out into balls and bake for 10 minutes.  They are simple, cute and if you use the right sprinkles, very festive!

Did anyone do any baking this weekend?

Need:
1 stick of butter
5 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 tsp. almond extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Do:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all ingredients together, roll out into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  I pressed mine flat with a fork which created little dips for Christmasy sprinkles to sit in.  The dough isn't very sticky, so you'll need to either press any type of sprinkle into the cookie or create ridges like I did.  Bake for 10 minutes.

25 Days of Cookies!

Hello Sweets!  It's been way too long, I'm sorry for going off the grid for the past few months!  My husband and I moved into the city and while that has been beyond amazing, the tragedy of the move was leaving almost all of my baking pans in the old apartment!  The only things that came with me were a bread pan, 2 round cake pans and 1 very small cookie sheet.  It has been a nice break from baking and I think I've lost a little weight because of it (woohoo!) but with Christmas approaching, the bug is back.

I decided to bring BostonSweetie back to life with a promise to do a post a day from now through December 26.  Each of these posts will be about one of my favorite treats- cookies!

The first cookie I have to share with you is a classic chocolate chip recipe that I've been baking with my mom since as far back as I can remember.  This was our cookie that we made for Santa, gave to the neighbors, and ate with milk while watching Rudolph and Frosty.  I've always loved them straight out of the oven, nice and hot, but these are sooo good the next day, too!  These whip up fast and bake fast too- so they are an excellent choice for a quick turnaround.

The special thing about this exact batch that I'm showing you, is that my husband made them!  It took him about 10 minutes to get the dough mixed up and then 10 more minutes to bake.  He is the best!

I don't know what cookbook it comes from- it's a really old photocopy that my mom has had forever, so if someone recognizes it from the photo, please let me know and I'll attribute the recipe accordingly.

If you try this recipe, let me know how you liked it in the comments below.  And if you have suggestions for a cookie recipe I should try this month, please share that below, too!

Mum's handwriting on the recipe - too bad I left all my cooling racks at the apartment too!  If anyone is in the same boat, a plate works just fine :)

White Chocolate Cherry Shorbread Cookies

When I think Christmas cookies, I think of pretty, festive, and most importantly, delicious bite-sized treats-- and that's just what these little pink cookies are!

I recently took place in the first annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, where food bloggers bake and send a dozen cookies out to three bloggers, and in return, you receive a dozen cookies from three other bloggers.  Needless to say, my husband thinks this is the greatest blogging project I've ever participated in!  I loved it for the fun of receiving three packages of treats, and finding six new food blogs to read!

Choosing which cookie to make was not as easy as I thought it would be.  I'm inspired daily by others' creations that I see on Pinterest, and I changed my mind four or five times before deciding on these, but in the end I think I picked the right cookie!  They're small, chewy, cheery pink and cherry-flavored with festive white chocolate and red sprinkles.  I sent off three pink cookies jars full off to Stephanie at Okie Dokie Artichokie, Erin at The Spiffy Cookie, and Allison at Allison Eats.

In return, I received almond crescent cookies from Return to Sunday Supper, Snickers Surprise cookies from Lindsay at The Little Foodie and gluten-free Chai Snickerdoodles from Catherine at Munchie Musings.  They were all delicious- and I thank you all so much for your generosity, and beautiful packaging!!!

For anyone who thinks these shortbread cookies have a place on your holiday table, the recipe is fairly easy, though time-consuming if you make lots of little cookies like I did.  For a quicker turnaround, I'd suggest making fewer, bigger sized cookies.

And for any fellow food bloggers who missed out on the swap this year, you can sign up here to get notifications for next year's swap!

Happy Holidays!

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

Need:

• 1/2 Cup Maraschino cherries 
• 2-4 tbsp. of juice from the cherry jar
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 sticks cold butter
• 1 package of white chocolate chips - chopped in processor or by hand
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 2 tsp. shortening
• Red sprinkles (or any kind of sprinkle you'd like)

Do:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Chop the cherries (stems removed) in a food processor as finely as possible; you can also chop them by hand but I love the speed and ease of the processor.  Pour the cherries and their juice (add 2-4 extra tablespoons of juice from the jar to the bowl as well- use two for color, four for color and flavor.)
• Mix the flour and sugar in a large bowl, and then using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until it is combined into a crumbly mixture.  I WRECKED my pastry cutter doing this- my butter may have been too cold- just a heads up to be careful!
• Stir in cherries, cherry juice, 2/3 cup of white chocolate bits, and almond extract.  Knead all ingredients together and form a nice smooth doughy ball.
• Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls (if you want to make LOTS!) or 1 - 1.5 inch balls for bigger cookies.
• Place each ball 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Take a water glass, dip the bottom in water and then into sugar to coat it.  Smush the balls of dough into thin discs with the sugar-coated cup. 
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet and then move to wire racks to cool completely.
• When all the cookies are cooled, mix the rest of the white chocolate with the shortening in a small saucepan.  Stir over low heat until melted and combined.
• Dip half of each cookies into the chocolate and let the extra drip off, or scrape it off with a spatula or spoon.  While the white chocolate is still wet, roll the edge through the sprinkles to decorate.