‘Tis the season
to celebrate! Five of Forever’s authors with brand new Christmas romances are
sharing their favorite holiday recipes and memories.
I know I am actually in love with food--hopefully you are too! All of these darling, delicious recipes will soon make their way into my oven. Let the eating begin. Be sure to leave the authors some holiday well wishes. Checking out their books would also be appreciated.
CAROLYN BROWN’S PUMPKIN
BREAD
Kids, grand
children, great-grands, all coming home for the holidays—the aroma of pumpkin
bread baking in the oven—everyone waiting for it to get done so they can slice
it up while it’s still hot, slather butter or whipped cream cheese on it, and
tell the age old stories about the holidays we’ve had in the house. That’s the
stuff memories are made off and every time I smell pumpkin bread it puts a
smile on my face for the whole day.
PUMPKIN BREAD
This makes 2 loaves and 8 muffins; Or it
makes one Bundt cake
½ cup butter
½ cup shortening
2 2/3 cups of
sugar
4 eggs
2 cups canned
pumpkin (one 15-16 ounce can)
3 ½ cups flour
1½ teaspoons
cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soda
1 cup pecans (optional)
2/3 cup of cold
strong black coffee
(NOTE: I use all
butter if I’m out of shortening or even oil)
1. Cream
first four ingredients.
2. Add
canned pumpkin.
3. Add dry
ingredients alternately with coffee
4. Bake at
375 degrees for 1 hour for loaves or bundt cake, 25 minutes for muffins, or
until they test done in the center.
5. Cool 10
minutes before removing from pan.
6. Cool
completely before frosting with Harvest Moon Frosting (below).
HARVEST MOON FROSTING
3 egg whites
1½ cups brown
sugar
6 tablespoons
water
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
Combine all
ingredients except vanilla in a double boiler. Cook 7 minutes, beating the
whole time with an electric mixer, over the boiling water. The frosting will stand in peaks when done. Add
vanilla. Beat until thick enough to
spread.
Find out more
about Carolyn Brown at her website.
PAULA QUINN’S CHRISTAS
COOKIES
My dad used to
live across the street from us. Every year, when my
kids were little, he would
dress up like Santa, climb out his window
on the second floor, and hang
Christmas lights on his fire escape. My
kids would watch from our window with
wonder in their eyes, unaware
that it was grandpa. He would turn and wave to
them, sending them into
little fits of breathlessness. Later, we would visit
grandma and
grandpa’s for homemade cookies (left there for them by Santa).
The
house was always fully decked out with every Christmas
decoration
imaginable with Alvin and the Chipmunks on repeat while the
kids
hunted down little “pre-Christmas” gifts he’d hide for them. I
loved
witnessing the magic of Christmas and love through their eyes. Now
grown,
my kids will sometimes still look out the window at his fire
escape and smile,
remembering a grandpa who loved them beyond measure.
GRANDPA’S CHRISTMAS COOKIES (A favored Italian recipe)
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons
vanilla
3½ cups flour
4 teaspoons
baking powder
1. Sift
dry ingredients.
2. Cream
butter and sugar, beat in eggs; add
vanilla and dry ingredients.
3. Knead
and add flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to hands.
4. Pinch
off dough, roll in your hands to form a log and then twirl into
shape.
5. Place
on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.
ICING
2 cups sifted
confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons
vanilla extract
6 teaspoons
water
Combine all
ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Stir
until creamy. Dip cookies into icing and sprinkle with trim. Place on wire rack
with wax paper on counter to collect the dripping icing and sprinkles.
Find out more
about Paula Quinn at her website.
DEBBIE MASON TREE
TRIMMING PARTY
One of my
family’s favorite holiday traditions is our tree trimming party. We’ve held one
every year for the past thirty years. Though I don’t know if it qualifies as a party seeing as it’s just the immediate
family. But we do make a thing of it with our favorite carols playing in the
background, fire on (mostly for ambience), hot chocolate served in festive
mugs, lots of holiday treats, and a special ornament for each of the kids and
grandkids to open before the tree decorating gets under way.
But I think the
most fun for all of us isn’t decorating the tree, it’s unpacking the ornaments.
I’ve always tried to buy an ornament that’s uniquely suited to each of the
kids, whether it was a sport they were into that year or a movie, book, or
hobby they loved, so unwrapping each one brings back a lot of special memories.
Here’s a peek at just some of the collection. I don’t think it will be long
before we have to break from tradition and let the kids take some of the
ornaments home to decorate their own trees. Either that or we’ll have to put up
another tree.
And this one in
my office doesn’t count. Every year, my family gifts me with an
ornament too. This year they gave me these three adorable ornaments to
celebrate the release of the first book in the new Harmony Harbor series,
MISTLETOE COTTAGE, and the short story, CHRISTMAS WITH AN ANGEL.
Find out more
about Debbie Mason at her website.
HOPE RAMSAY’S
GINGERBREAD COOKIES
Every year for
the last quarter-century, or possibly longer, I have set aside the Saturday
closest to Christmas to bake gingerbread cookies with my children, and now,
with my grandchildren. These are the
only cookies I make at Christmas time, and the activity is more about family fun
than turning out a perfect cookie. Usually
I do most of the rolling, cutting, and baking.
And the rest of the family does the decorating.
The magic is in
the royal icing. The white icing is a
snap to make, and it can be divided up into small bowls and colored with food
dye, creating pots of colored cookie paint.
I give each child (or adult) a watercolor paint brush and let them paint
the icing onto the cookies. The kids
have a blast, and the cookies always come out looking wonderfully
homemade.
To me, cookie
baking embodies everything I love about Christmas: kids, family, baking, and
yummy desserts.
GINGERBREAD COOKIE DOUGH
Makes about 6 Dozen
4 cups
all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1 egg at room temperature
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1 egg at room temperature
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1. Whisk
together the dry ingredients – flour cocoa, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, backing
soda, and salt.
2. Using
an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and
fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and
beat thoroughly.
3. On low
speed, add the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.
4. Cut the
dough into thirds, pat into disks, wrap in plastic and chill until firm – 2
hours or overnight.
5. Preheat
the oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly
floured surface, roll out the dough about 1/16 inch thick and cut cookies with
cookie cutters. Transfer the cookies to
an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for
about 10 minutes, until the edges of the cookie turn brown.
6. Let
cool on sheets and then transfer to a wire rack. Decorate with royal icing.
ROYAL ICING
2 egg whites, at
room temperature
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup water
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup water
Using a mixer,
place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat at high speed until fluffy,
thick & shiny (about 10 minutes.)
Divide the icing into smaller bowls and color it using food
coloring.
Find out more
about Hope Ramsay at her website.
OLIVIA MILES SNOWFLAKE
COOKIES
In my newest release, CHRISTMAS COMES TO MAIN STREET, my heroine owns a
cookie bakery. As this story takes place over the holidays, I thought hard
about a signature cookie she might make, and eventually I settled on charming
snowflake cookies. Of course these are not just any old cut out cookie, though.
No, Kara makes them by the dozen, sure to keep each one in the batch distinct
in shape and decoration, because no two snowflakes are ever the same, after
all! And it’s these snowflake cookies that she delivers every day to the inn in
Briar Creek…where a Christmas visitor falls in love with more than just her
cookies. I hope you all enjoy these snowflake cookies as much as Nate does! J
KARA’S SNOWFLAKE COOKIES (sugar cookie cut-out and royal icing recipes courtesy of Martha Stewart)
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
2.
Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer
fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.
Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic.
Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
3.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in upper and
lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft
enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic
wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies.
Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet
to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from
freezer and transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with nonstick baking mats.
Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.
4.
Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating
halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets
on wire racks.
ROYAL ICING
2 large egg whites, or more to thin icing
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar, or more to thicken icing
Juice of 1 lemon
3 drops glycerin
Beat the
whites until stiff but not dry. Add sugar, lemon juice and glycerin (if using);
beat for 1 minute more. If icing is too thick, add more egg whites; if it is
too thin, add more sugar. The icing may be stored in an airtight container in
the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Decorate each as you wish!
Find out more
about Olivia Miles at her website.
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