Ina Garten’s rugelach. I made the standard filling of apricot jam, walnuts and raisins. A half-batch made 24 cookies (a few got eaten from the first batch before I could get a photo). These were fun and easy, and a nice holiday treat – more like little pastries than cookies.
There is one other rugelach recipe I hope to try this year: the chocolate rugelach from Jenn Segal’s website (as mentioned by @MidwesternerTT up-thread)
Beautifully shaped. Understandable that such great looking treats would get “sampled” extensively.
Indeed. They are perfect !
Leite’s orange olive oil cake. A test bake made with fancy-but-expired olive oil I had in hand; I ordered a special bottle for the “real” bake and was surprised to realize that the recipe calls for nearly the entire bottle. So I had to run the test with less fruity, less special oil.
This is indeed a delicious cake. The batter is very very wet (5 eggs, 1.5 CUPS fresh orange juice, and 355 ml of oil) and took a very long time to bake. Here on day 2 I still get a bit of the oil mouthfeel that I don’t love in this style cake, but I’m trying to educate my palate.
Next time I’ll add 1/4 or 1/2 tsp orange oil.
Thank you! They looked a lot messier while still on the sheet pan - sugar sprinkles everywhere and leaky filling, but I’m happy with them. Having now sampled them both warm from the oven and cooled, the texture is definately better if left to cool first. 
Spectacular!!!
Sugar cookies with sugar sprinkles. This recipe contains a bit of melted white chocolate. Anna says white chocolate adds moisture and a bit of sweetness. It also uses cornstarch. I used sprinkling sugar instead of multi colour s
Beautiful cookies! I love your idea of using small cookies to add color to the tray.
I’ve seen so many positive references to this book (Anna’s Baking Wisdom). Are you familiar with her other books? And if so, would you consider this one the best of her books?
I only have one other book which was published in 2005 and in it she bakes and cooks with her husband Michael who is a famous chef in Canada. The pie crust recipe in BW is fantastic. iBaking Wisdom is a good book, it gives lots of advice for beginner and intermediate bakers. Its also a huge book that weighs 5lbs and i have trouble propping it up in my stand. Maybe Mary(Pavlova) can chime in, i think she might have more books.
Just in case you don’t know and for anyone interested, she has a YouTube channel with tons of recipes, often from her book. She has a playlist of recipes from Anna’s Baking Wisdom with fourteen videos.
A good cookie for the holidays:
Thanks for sharing your finds!
I don’t have any of her books but I’m attracted to Christmas cookbooks and have had hers on my possibles list for a while.
I’m a few days behind on my calendar, but today’s jar was honey:)
Yesterday I opened a jar of
Raspberry-chocolate spread and had it with an English muffin. If I had access to good croissants or brioche here in PA, I think they would’ve been a more suitable vehicle.
I’ve been tempted by the Bon Maman advent calendar but haven’t indulged.
Second time I’ve put this post in the wrong thread. Sigh!
Well at least it wasn’t just me 
!
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I made the ones with the chocolate. First problem-the dough was too crumbly. I added more egg yolk and a little molasses to make it workable. The original recipe from Sweet uses 1T of cocoa instead of 3T -maybe the problem? When using the stamps, I didn’t have a cookie cutter big enough so had to cut around each cookie with a knife. This was kind of tedious. Next problem, the glaze was too thick so my first batch has too much glaze. They look much better with thinner glaze. They sure are pretty. Now to taste one…
No pictures yet, but on the holiday docket so far:
Soft Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Glaze
My grandmother’s anise biscotti
Seven Layer Cookies (Italian Rainbow Cookies)
Oatmeal Scotchies - nephew’s request as my mother used to make these and he is missing her
Caramel Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Cookies With Peppermint Chips -for the students at work to sell on the coffee cart
Bakery Style Peanut Butter Cookies
Russian tea cakes
3 loaves of focaccia with whipped ricotta/hot honey/pistachios - various holiday open houses
@rstuart’s cranberry cream cheese poundcake - in-laws require me to bring it Christmas day
A large batch of homemade chex mix which I’ve almost finished off and as per usual, have made myself a litlte sick by overindulging
My husband will make some kind of sweet bread for Christmas morning. Last year he did poteca, but I may ask him to go back to an old favorite.
A peppermint cheesecake dip with gluten free brownie chips (purchased) - request of a GF friend for a party we are both attending
If I have the energy, I may add to the list! I have had the apricot foldovers that were mentioned here on my list, as well as the marzipan shortbread for the past two years. Hopefully, this is the year I make it happen! I have several of the doughs made and the biscotti already done. Wish me luck!
This recipe is the closest to what I knew as Pfeffernusse growing up. No candied fruit bits, no sticky glaze and just the perfect amount of anise flavor! A lovely dunking cookie for me.
