Holiday Greetings Time-saving tips 12 recipes to kick off the produce fancy holiday baking cookie platters
T
here was this lady I knew a few decades ago who sticks in my mind. She showed up at the beginning of December in the local supermarket as a spokesperson for the dairy industry and she was handing out samples of ice cream. Each December, she kept me updated on the progress of her Christmas cookie baking. Her goal was to make two dozen varieties of cookies. She gave them as gifts and presented them like boxes of chocolates. Tiny fancy cookies, nestled in bonbon cups in flat boxes. Each year, she gave more and more of them to BEATRICE friends and neighbors, shut-ins and people in OJAKANGAS nursing homes. She collected pretty boxes during the year and bought colorful fluted paper cups to fill with cookies and arrange artistically. Baking fancy cookies can be time-consuming but very satisfying when you step back to admire your work displayed on a cookie platter. However, to make things go more quickly, I have developed my own methods to save time. So if I’m planning on doing a variety of cookies, I group the cookies into similar types. The advantage is obvious. I mix cookie doughs that require similar equipment and ingredients such as measuring cups, measuring spoons, a bowl, a mixer, a food processor, butter, sugar, spices and baking pans. Then I mix the doughs, starting with light-colored doughs, such as white butter cookie dough, and proceed with doughs that include seasonings like spices and chocolate. I wrap and chill each dough separately. The advantage of this method is that while I can clean up after mixing the ingredients, the chilling actually helps the cookies develop their flavors. To start, here is a simple butter cookie dough that can be finished in many ways.
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season like a pro By Sarah Nasello The Forum
T
he holiday baking season has begun, and I am giddy with excitement. These early weeks are the perfect time to set your plan, stock your kitchen and fill your tins and freezer with specialties that can last throughout the season. This is my favorite time of year to bake, and a little foresight and preparation goes a long way to ensuring you have an ample supply of festive holiday goodies on hand to enjoy before the season gets into full swing. TONY & SARAH The first thing I do is make a list NASELLO of all the treats I hope to make, Home with the which is now up to 21 items. This Lost Italian is where reality comes into play, as well as grace, because it is highly unlikely I will get around to every item on my list, and that’s OK. Once I have my list, I break it down into manageable sections to determine what gets made first, and then I make a list of all the ingredients and equipment I will need to get started. In this first week, I always make my family’s favorite Christmas candies and snacks, like Peppermint Bark, Chocolate Almond Toffee, North Dakota Sun Brittle and Triple Nut Spicy Chex Mix, which yield big batches and can be stored in tins for several weeks. By starting with these classic holiday treats, I know that I will have something festive on hand to serve to family and friends, no matter how much baking gets done
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(or doesn’t) later in the season. Plus, they make excellent gifts for teachers, party hosts and colleagues. Dollar stores are a great source for holiday tins and storage containers. Certain candies like toffee and brittle can require special equipment like a candy thermometer, so if you wish to keep this first step simple, I recommend starting with basic recipes like my peppermint bark and traditional or spicy Chex mix. These are easy, stress-free recipes that I made with my mother as a child and have continued to make with my son Giovanni since he was a toddler. Once I have the candies and snack mix made, I store them in traditional cookie tins and keep them in my seasonal walk-in cooler (a.k.a., my garage), to keep them fresh through Christmas.
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Once I’ve finished making these goodies, I turn to items that can be made now and frozen to bake and decorate later, like cookie dough for gingerbread or chocolate sugar cookie cut-outs. These doughs can be stored in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for several months, and if I have enough time, I will also roll the cookie dough out and cut it into shapes now before freezing. Once baked, the cookies can be frozen again until you are ready to decorate them, if desired. There is hardly a better treat for cold winter mornings than a freshly baked scone, and I always make a couple batches early on as the dough can be cut into scones which I freeze so that I can bake them off in small batches throughout December. I have a variety of recipes that fit the holiday brunch season well, like my Fresh Cranberry Orange Scones, and even a savory Bacon, Blue Cheese and Chive Scone
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Sarah Nasello / The Forum
Holiday candies like Peppermint Bark, Almond Toffee, Sun Brittle and Chex snack mixes are the perfect treats to make early to enjoy throughout the Christmas season. recipe for cocktail parties and evening snacking. With tins full of candy and snack mix and a freezer filled with cookie dough and ready-tobake scones, I know that I can move on to other specialties that
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are more advanced or require extra time or special equipment, like Norwegian Krumkake, Belgian Lukken Waffle Cookies, Italian Butter Sweets and Joyce Family Peanut Bars. I may or may not make all 21
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items on my holiday baking wish list, but I will probably get close to the dozen I have mentioned here. At the very least, by setting a plan and starting early, I know that I will have plenty of goodies to last
throughout the season. Happy holiday baking to all! “Home with the Lost Italian” is a weekly column written by Sarah Nasello featuring recipes by her husband, Tony Nasello. The couple owned Sarello’s in Moorhead and lives in Fargo with their son, Giovanni. Readers can reach them at sarahnasello@gmail.com.
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‘Leave it to Beaver’ star Hugh Beaumont once owned a Christmas tree farm in Minnesota By Tracy Briggs The Forum
sign behind the two men advertising “Minnesota GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. Trees,” it’s likely it was a — As many of you head publicity photo taken at a to the Christmas tree lot lot in California. And if this story to pick out that perfect pine, what would you weren’t unusual enough, think if one of America’s Wegner said Beaumont favorite TV dads, Ward had an interesting partner in his Christmas tree Cleaver, sold it to you? Yes. That Ward Cleaver, business. “The guy who owned as in June’s husband and the other half of the Wally and Beaver’s dad. Sounds likes a fever 40-acre farm was a fordream (like Greg Brady mer Marlboro Man,” taking your order at Star- Wegner said. “So you’d bucks or Gidget soaping see the pictures of him up your tires at the car around. But he must have wash). But Ward Cleav- been friends with Hugh, er helping you with your because they got into Christmas tree actually business together.” Wegner says the farm could have happened. was eight miles east of Hugh Beaumont, who Grand Rapids on Highstarred as Ward Cleaver in the popular family sit- way 2 and south about com “Leave It to Beaver” four miles. By the early 1970s, from 1957 to 1963, was the Marlboro Man had once the proud owner of a Christmas tree farm in sold his half of the farm to Wegner, who was a Grand Rapids. However, most likely, young farmer just startBeaumont wasn’t the guy ing out. Wegner said later strapping the spruce to Beaumont approached your car top after you purchased it. (And as far him about buying his as we can tell, Barbara part of the farm, but he Billingsley was also never wasn’t able to do that. spotted on the lot in her It was eventually sold to someone else. high heels and pearls.) According to Carl WegWhat brought ner, a longtime Christmas tree farmer in Grand Beaumont to Rapids, Beaumont’s Minnesota? business plan was to Beaumont, a native of raise the trees in Minne- Lawrence, Kansas, was sota and ship a number most likely first attracted of them to California to to Minnesota because his sell to customers there. wife was born there. Kathryn Elizabeth One popular photo from the Minnesota Historical Hohn was born July 15, Society shows Beaumont 1920, in New Ulm, Minpresumably selling a tree nesota. After the death to North Dakota native of her Methodist minLawrence Welk. Given the ister father, Rev. Chris-
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tian Hohn, it appears the family relocated to Crookston, where she attended Central High School. Following graduation, she attended Hamline University, where she competed and won a radio contest called “Gateway to Hollywood.” She began using the stage name Kathryn Adams and scored her first screen part in 1939’s “5th Avenue Girl,” starring Ginger Rogers. She is most remembered as Mrs. Brown in the 1942 Alfred Hitchcock film “Saboteur.” She married Beaumont in 1941, and according to newspaper reports of their wedding, the couple planned to honeymoon in Minnesota. The couple eventually had three children, Hunter, Mark and Kristan. Kathryn retired from show business to raise the children. However, she came back briefly in 1946 to co-star with her husband in “Blonde for a Day.” It’s not clear how often the Beaumonts came to Minnesota, but the Facebook group “Sharing Minnesota History and Experiences” features not just the story of Beaumont’s Christmas tree farm, but also details about the family’s life there. The Beaumonts reportedly had their own island on Lake Wabana near Grand Rapids. While the official name of the island is Balgillo, it was
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nicknamed “Beaumont’s Island” for obvious reasons. Steven Ferrell said he remembers the Beaumonts being in Minnesota in the mid-1960s. “My stepdad, Dr. Ferrell, was his doctor when he was there in the summer. We had dinner there once when I was about 8 and his son Hunter was there,” he wrote on the Facebook page. “He would fly there in a seaplane. Had meals at Wa Ga Tha Ka Resort on Wabana,” said Doug Kelder. Others who said they met Hugh Beaumont in Minnesota said he was “pleasant and down to earth,” and generous. “He used to play some golf at Pokegama. When I was 12, I caddied for him. He let me play along with him when I caddied. He was extremely pleasant
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and friendly. Tipped well, too. I liked him,” wrote Terry McArdle. Others on the page said they believed he might have also had a cabin on Clubhouse Lake by Marcell. While his time spent in Minnesota was long after his “Leave It to Beaver” days, Beaumont kept busy writing screenplays (perhaps penning a few while enjoying the serenity and call of the loons on Lake Wabana). He also followed in his father-inlaw’s footsteps, becoming a Methodist minister. In 1969, he told the Minneapolis Tribune that, despite making recent guest appearances on shows like “Mannix,” “The Virginians” and “Petticoat Junction,” he didn’t want to talk about TV. He preferred to talk about his Minnesota-born wife and how he
enjoyed being behind the camera. He directed local theater in St. Paul, Grand Rapids and Hibbing. It seems one of America’s favorite dads enjoyed his quiet life in Minnesota. After suffering a stroke in 1970, Beaumont retired from acting and according to his obituary in the New York Times on May 16, 1982, he spent his later years living in Minnesota. It is believed his ashes were scattered over Lake Wabana. Kathryn Adams and Hugh Beaumont divorced in 1974. She remarried and became a successful psychologist and author. She died in Mankato in 2016 at the age of 96. Readers can reach Forum reporter and columnist Tracy Briggs at tracy. briggs@forumcomm.com.
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Basic Butter Cookie Dough
► 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, preferably unsalted* ► 1/2 cup sugar ► 1 egg yolk ► 1 teaspoon vanilla ► 1/4 teaspoon salt ► 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ► Rum, liqueur, milk, vanilla or water (optional) In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg yolk, salt and vanilla. Blend in the flour to make a smooth dough. If the dough is really crumbly it may be because the flour is dry and in that case, mix in a few drops of water, or something flavorful like rum or a favorite fruit-flavored liqueur. Wrap the dough in plastic or waxed paper. Chill until you are ready to bake. For all of the variations, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. *Many people question the value of using unsalted butter. I have found that unsalted butter develops a richer butter flavor and a smoother dough. But, if you prefer, go ahead and use salted butter.
Melting Moments Cut the dough into 60 pieces and roll into smooth, round balls. Place on parchmentcovered cookie sheets evenly spaced. Bake 15 minutes or until the cookies feel firm, but not browned. Roll the cookies while still hot in powdered sugar and cool.
Almond Fingers
Chill the dough for 30 minutes until firm enough to handle. Divide into eight parts and roll each part into a long rope. Brush the rolls with egg white. Cut into 1.5-inch logs. Roll in finely chopped almonds. Place in parchment-covered cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Makes about 5 dozen logs.
Raspberry Ribbons
Have ready about a half-cup of raspberry jam in a small zip-close bag or in a pastry bag with a half-inch tip. Cut the chilled dough into four parts. Using the palms of your hands, roll each piece of dough into long strands about 3/4-inch in diameter and the length of your cookie sheet. Place the strands about 2
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inches apart on an ungreased or parchment-covered cookie sheet. With the side of your little finger, press a groove down the center of the length of each strand. Bake for 10 minutes until the cookies feel firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and press (or spoon) the raspberry jam into the grooves. Return to the oven for about 5 minutes until the cookie strips are light golden brown. Mix about a half-cup powdered sugar with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice, milk, cream or rum to make an icing. Drizzle the frosting over the length of the cookies. While still warm, cut the strips into 1-inch pieces. Cool. Makes about 48 cookies.
Thumbprint Cookies Shape the chilled dough into 1-inch balls. Place them about 2 inches apart on an ungreased or parchmentcovered cookie sheet. With your thumb or a finger press an indentation into each ball of dough. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the cookies feel firm. Drop a half-teaspoon raspberry jam into the center of each cookie. Makes 48 cookies.
Jan Hanson’s Fruit Rocks
To add variety to the cookie tray, here’s a favorite recipe from a friend who lives in our apartment complex. Jan makes these cookies, along with other favorites for her friends. What makes her recipe different is that colorful candied fruits are not easy to find so she uses canned, well-drained, cherries and pineapple slices instead. The resulting cookies stay deliciously moist. Fresh Medjool dates that are available at this time of year add to their moistness, too. ► 1 cup (sticks) butter, softened ► 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, well packed ► 2 eggs ► 2 1/2 cups flour, divided ► 1 teaspoon baking soda ► 1 teaspoon cinnamon ► 1 teaspoon vanilla ► 1/2 teaspoon salt ► 1 cup whole pecans ► 1 cup filberts or almonds ► 1 cup walnuts, chopped ► 2 cups pitted dates, cut up ► 1 cup canned maraschino or plain pitted cherries, drained, red and green if desired ► 4 slices canned pineapple,
Contributed / Susanna Ojakangas
When these piggy-shaped Finnish Nissu Nassu cookies, front, appear in Finnish bakeries, kids know Christmas is coming. drained and cut up Cream the butter and sugar and blend in the eggs. Add 2 cups of the flour along with the soda, cinnamon, vanilla and salt. In a large bowl, mix the nuts and fruits and add the remaining half-cup flour coating the fruits and nuts evenly. Mix with the creamed ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased or parchment-covered cookie sheets. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes or until cookies feel firm to the touch. Makes about 60 cookies.
bowl of a food processor or into a mixing bowl. Process or mix with hand mixer until well blended. With the processor or mixer going, add just enough water to make a smooth, soft, dough. Chill about 30 minutes or until ready to roll out. Roll a quarter of the dough at a time to one-eighths-inch thickness. Cut into cookies and place on
a parchment-covered baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes until firm and lightly browned. Frost with royal icing: Beat the egg white and 3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar and flavoring until smooth and turn into a plastic bag or decorating tube.
Cut across the corner of the bag to make a quarter-inch opening. Press out to decorate the baked cookies. Makes 5-6 dozen cookies depending on the size of the cut-outs. Beatrice Ojakangas is a Duluth food writer and author of 31 cookbooks. Find her online at beatrice-ojakangas.com.
Finnish Nissu Nassu
In Finland, when these piggyshaped cookies appear in local bakeries, kids know that Christmas is coming as this is their favorite classic spicy confection. The dough is perfect for any shape of rolled-out spicy Pepperkaker. ► 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter ► 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark) ► 1 tablespoon cinnamon ► 2 teaspoons ginger ► 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves ► 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda ► 2 cups all-purpose flour ► About 1/4 cup water ► Royal icing ► 1 egg white ► 3-4 cups powdered sugar ► Few drops almond, lemon, or vanilla For the cookie dough, measure all of the butter and dry ingredients into the work
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