This week I’ll share recipes I like making around Christmastime. Daughter Elizabeth brought a batch of this dough on Wednesday. It is a delicious cutout cookie that works really great. The children loved rolling out the dough and decorating the cookies. On some of the cookies they overdid the sprinkles. Haha! They all took cookies home. I have a similar sour cream cutout cookie recipe but I think I’ll stick with this one from now on.

Frosting
1/2 cup Crisco
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar

For cookie dough, combine sugar, butter, and shortening; add eggs and sour cream. Beat well. Add flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and vanilla and mix well. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Roll out with a little flour and cut and bake. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8–10 minutes or until golden brown on bottom edges. Cool.

For frosting, beat ingredients together until light and fluffy. Frost and decorate cookies as you wish.

December White Christmas Cookies
1 cup Crisco
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon extract
5 cups flour, approximately
1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup cream or milk

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract and beat well. Combine flour, soda, and salt; alternate adding dry ingredients and cream to shortening and sugar mixture and mix well. Roll out very thin and cut into various shapes. Decorate with colored sugar sprinkles or whatever you like. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 5–8 minutes. Store in tightly covered container.

December Cornflake Candy
5 cups cornflakes
2 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups salted peanuts
1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
1 cup Karo syrup
coconut (optional)
1 bag milk chocolate chips (11.5 ounce)

Mix cereals and peanuts together in large bowl. In saucepan, combine sugar, cream, and syrup and heat until mixture just begins to boil. Pour over cereal and stir well. Press into 9 x 13-inch buttered pan. Top with thin layer of coconut, if desired. In saucepan, melt chocolate chips and pour over the candy. Cut into squares and serve.

Christmas Salad

Layer 1:
1/2 cup lime Jell-O
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water

Dissolve Jell-O in hot water; add cold water. Pour into 9 x 13-inch pan. Let set.

Layer 2:
1 cup cherry Jell-O
2 cups hot water
8-ounce package cream cheese
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup whipped cream
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup chopped nuts

Dissolve Jell-O in hot water. Stir in cream cheese. Add pineapple when beginning to set. Add whipped cream, marshmallows, and nuts too. Pour onto first layer. Let set.

Layer 3:
1/2 cup lime Jell-O
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water

Dissolve Jell-O in hot water; add cold water. Pour over second layer. Let set before serving.

Chex Chocolate Blast
6 cups Rice Chex
1 cup vanilla baking chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
2 cups M & M’s (red and green)
1 cup dry roasted peanuts

Line 2 cookie sheets with wax paper. Pour 3 cups of cereal in each of 2 bowls. Melt vanilla chips and pour over the cereal in one bowl. Melt peanut butter chips and pour over the cereal in the other bowl. Spread contents of each bowl out onto cookie sheets. Let cool and dry. When dried, gently break up into little pieces and combine in large bowl with M & M’s and peanuts. Store in airtight container.

3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Balls
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar and mix until a thick dough forms. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her three cookbooks, The Cherished Table, The Essential Amish Cookbook, and Amish Family Recipes, are available wherever books are sold. Readers can write to Eicher at Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email  [email protected] and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.