Cookies for Santa

There is no guarantee they will still be there when he arrives

We decided to make some cookies for Santa after all, wish us luck. The lighter cookies, Old Fashioned German rosewater cookies, are one of our favorites and a recipe we’ve had for years. We’re not sure where we originally got it, but recently ran across it on Cooks.com. They claim the recipe dates to 1850.

We made only two changes, we doubled the amount of rosewater and used lemon juice instead of lemon extract. The chocolate crinkle cookies are ones we made earlier this year, but we swapped out the sambuca for Amaretto this time. Merry Christmas Yummy Chunklet and all you other anise haters. (We also ditched the orange zest, but keep it if you like. The recipe is here.)

Old Fashioned German Rosewater Cookies

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp. rose water
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 3 cups flour
• cinnamon sugar for dusting

Cream sugar and butter in a stand mixer. Beat in yolk, lemon juice, rosewater and vanilla. Combine baking soda and sour cream and beat to incorporate. Sift salt and flour; mix with batter. Roll out on floured surface and cut into rounds or desired shapes. The dough is a bit softer than sugar cookies and we can’t use our flat-top cookie cutters so see what works for you. Dust cookies with cinnamon sugar and bake on greased sheets in preheated 375 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cookies galore: If you haven’t already, check out our Christmas Cookie roundup. There’s still plenty of time to make Santa happy.