Holiday cookie is a special cookie prepared particularly on the holidays. Americans are fond of cookies and they especially made flavored cookies on the holidays for leisurely eating. Holiday cookies are made with different shapes and some elaborated and rich ingredients.
There are a number of holidays observed in the American culture and each holiday has special holiday cookie recipes. The cookie assortment is a suitable gift for festivals. Christmas cookies, Easter cookies and even 4th July cookies are quite famous among American people. Holiday cookies are not only popular in American culture, but extremely famous in international cuisine as well. Peppermint meringues with chocolate filling, chocolate pistachio cookies and cherry almond biscotti are some of the well-admired holiday cookie recipes.
History and Origin of Holiday Cookie Recipes
The history and origin of holiday cookies is little mystifying. English people call these cookies as biscuits or biscotti and in Spanish cuisine they are famous as galletas. Whatever is the name, each and every cuisine has its own holiday cookie recipes. For Americans and Canadians, one of the first holiday cookies were ‘chocolate chip cookies’. They use to bake these small wonders and use to savor them as tea time snack at the time of holidays.
Ingredients Prescribed by Holiday Cookie Recipes
Though holiday cookies are prepared with the same ingredients like regular cookies but some components are especially incorporated to adorn them. Foremost ingredient is the flour that forms the base of the cookies. Flour can be of any type. Be it whole-wheat flour, oatmeal or white flour, holiday cookies are made delectable with them.
Nuts, chocolate chips, various flavoring agents and essence are used to give nice touch to the holiday cookie recipes. White butter or peanut butter is used to give richness and smoothness to the holiday cookies. For sweetness, sugar granules or powdered sugar is included. In some cookies, cream or milk is appended for extra flavor.
Preparation Method for Holiday Cookie Recipes
Like regular cookies, holiday cookies are made with the baking method. All the ingredients are combined together to form a loose dough that can be dropped by the spoon. Ingredients like chocolate chips and nuts are mixed in the end or sprinkled on the cookies just before baking. Almost all holiday cookie recipes follow the similar instructions; the only difference may be the ingredients.
Oven should be preheated and cookies should be placed either in a baking tray or in cookie moulds. Baking should be done with proper temperature in order to get crispy holiday cookies.
Serving and Eating of Holiday Cookie Recipes
Holiday cookies are served as tea-time snack. They can also be gorged in between meals or as a dessert with a spoonful of ice cream.
In some households, holiday cookies are served with warm glass of milk after meals. There is a trend in western countries to gift an assortment of holiday cookies to the friends and family members at the time of Christmas and New Year.
Health and Nutrition Facts Pertaining to Holiday Cookie Recipes
Holiday cookies are loaded with rich ingredients and of course sugar, butter and cream, hence they are not considered suitable for diabetics and over-weight people. For kids, holiday cookie recipes are good as the ingredients give energy and a filling sense to little ones. However, whole-wheat and low-fat holiday cookies are quite popular among weight-watchers.