Family Christmas Cookie 5: Grandma Ruth’s Apple Fruit Cake

Each year, my husband’s family anxiously awaits the arrival of grandma Ruth’s apple fruit cake, which is another favorite from the family cookbook. I love this fruitcake for three reasons – most importantly, it reminds me of my favorite grandmother-in-law, secondly, it has a lovely sweet flavor without the bitter bite of citrus rind that…

Family Christmas Cookie 4: Spritz Cookies

I think just about every family has a spritz cookie recipe that only comes out around Christmas time. Ours originated from my mum’s church cookbook, and features a light cookie with hints of both vanilla and almond. My grandma used to make these with the wreath shape in her cookie press, tint the dough green,…

Family Christmas Cookie 3: Russian Tea Cakes

Like yesterday’s Snickerdoodles, Russian Tea Cakes were in the first edition of my husband’s family cookbook, and were a staple at my mum’s family Christmas gatherings. My favorite thing about these is that they’re not too sweet, making them a great alternative to biscotti with a nice cup of coffee on Christmas morning. This post…

Family Christmas Cookie 2: Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles were a recipe in the first edition of my husband’s family cookbook, and a favorite at many of my own family gatherings. These were some of the first I cookies I baked and distributed at PAX as a member of the Cookie Brigade, and not only did they sell out faster than my monster…

Family Christmas Cookie 1: Gingersnaps

These classic Gingersnaps are made from a recipe passed down by my husband’s Grandma Lorraine. While I wasn’t lucky enough to meet Lorraine, these hold a special place in my heart as one of the family recipes we shared on our wedding dessert buffet. This post is day 1 in the series Mayhem’s 12 Days…

Drop Sugar Cookies

I hope all of my American readers had a fabulous Thanksgiving – I know I sure did! Most of the time we need to juggle holidays between my side of the family and my husband’s side, but this year we were fortunate enough to celebrate twice, once on Thursday with my family, and once on…