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December 6, 2007
Kitchen Mailbox: O Christmas treats! Favorite cookie recipes
No trash talk from us before Sunday's game. We'll just steal the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's fans' favorite holiday cookies -- well, the recipes anyway:
Clockwise from the center top cookie, the cookies are Allspice Wafers; Neopolitan Bars; Maple Twists; Whirligigs; Chocolate Fruit Bars; White Chocolate Cherry Biscotti; Triple Chocolate Cookies; Pecan Shortbread; Grandma Carlisano's Orange Cookies; Exquisite Chocolate Mint Sticks; Pecan Shortbread again; Rich Carposy's Nut Rolls; Cream Filled Wafers; Chocolate Walnut Squares; Graham Cracker Nut Cookies; and Date Roll Cookies.
All on one page, quick in and out, there you go.... they promise the rest next week. (Later: Now published, here they are.)
Whirligigs and Mounds Bar Cookies sound especially good.
MOUNDS BAR COOKIES
PG TESTED
Mary Kraus of Oakmont says these "taste just like a Mounds candy bar."
* 1 box cake-like brownie mix, family size (makes a 9-by-13-inch pan)
* 2 cups coconut
* 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup milk chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the brownies following directions on the box. Pour batter into prepared pan; set aside. Mix coconut, cream cheese, sugar, flour and eggs together using an electric mixer. Spread over brownie batter. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over brownies. Return to oven for about 1 minute or until the chocolate chips melt. Remove from oven and spread over brownies. Cool and cut into bars.
Makes about 36 bars.
WHIRLIGIG COOKIES
PG TESTED
Regent Square's Kerry Kelty writes: "This is the first cookie I ever baked (when I was 10 or 11 years old) and it's from the only cookbook that my mother owned, 'The Betty Furness Westinghouse Cookbook.' My mother, Blanche, was a fabulous cook who never actually used a cookbook, but like so many women in the Turtle Creek valley in the '50s and '60s, she was a Westinghouse wife! I suspect the book must have come with one of the Westinghouse appliances that filled our little house in the suburbs and I'm glad it did, for it gave me my signature cookie: The Whirligig. Everyone in my extended, formerly Westinghouse family loves it and requests it for the holidays. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share."
* 1/2 cup shortening (or softened butter for richer texture)
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup peanut butter
* 1 egg, unbeaten
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 6 ounce-package semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream shortening, brown sugar, granulated sugar and peanut butter together thoroughly, add egg and beat until light and fluffy. Sift flour with soda and salt. Add to egg mixture and blend well. Roll dough into oblong shape 1/4 inch thick on a sheet of wax paper. If dough is too sticky to roll, sprinkle with additional flour. Melt chocolate chips in microwave. (The book calls for a double-boiler, but this is no longer necessary -- thankfully!) Spread chocolate on rolled dough with spatula. Roll up like jelly roll and chill. When firm enough (about 1 hour) slice off cookies 1/4 inch thick. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack immediately after baking.
Makes about three dozen cookies.
Posted by Sheila Lennon 
at 8:16 AM to Desserts
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