A HARTE APPETITE: CHRISTMAS IS FOR COOKIES: NOTHING CAPTURES HOLIDAY MAGIC LIKE HOMEMADE COOKIES

What signals the start of the Christmas season for you?

Is it when the decorations go up on Broadway and Main Streets? Or the opening of the Optimist Tree Lot? Or, perhaps, the sound of holiday music drifting through the mall? It could be any of these things, but for me it is that first batch of Christmas cookies warm from the oven.

"There is a reason that the word "cookie" follows "Christmas" with such inevitability," Rose Levy Beranbaum tell us in her majestic cookbook on the subject. "Nothing represents the spirit of loving, nurturing, and giving more than a homemade cookie."

Though cookies bring comfort any time of year, they are indispensable to the holidays, at least at our house. In fact, cookies were the reason I got interested in cooking in the first place. It was some 30 years ago when, in an effort to aid my wife who was helping put me through graduate school, I decided to take responsibility for the holiday baking. So I went out and bought a little Better Homes and Gardens cookie cookbook, some cookie sheets, and lots of butter, sugar, and flour and tried my hand at baking cookies. (I still have the cookbook and still use some of the recipes in it.)

Luckily for me, cookies, especially when compared to other baked goods, are easy to make and much less exacting in their preparation. I have been an inveterate cookie baker ever since. Without doubt the most common type of cookbook in my collection is one devoted to recipes for cookies (perhaps my favorite is the one with pictures of vintage cookie jars from the Andy Warhol collection).

I collect recipes for hefty cookies and tiny jewel-like cookies, fancy cookies and plain cookies, no-bake cookies and cookies like biscotti, which have to be baked twice, chocolate chip cookies and cookies without chocolate at all, easy and quick bar cookies and more difficult and time consuming decorated cookies, American cookies, cookies from other lands and the list goes on. I readily admit to having a monstrous appetite for cookies!

But though I bake cookies year round and try to keep the cookie jar full no matter what the season, like most people I bake the most cookies at Christmas. I can't imagine the holiday without them. After all, Christmas and cookies are traditionally connected. According to Patricia Edmonds writing in USA Today, cookies, along with apples and nuts, were among the first ornaments used to decorate the Christmas tree in 16th century Germany. And the ritual of leaving cookies out for Santa, as Alice Demetrius Stock, a food writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells us, is rooted in the ancient custom of setting out food for a gift-bringer during the mid-winter festivals which gave way to what we know today as Christmas.

(I still fondly recall my practice of secretly placing one white whisker cut from a Santa doll on the empty cookie plate on Christmas morning to the wonder of my children, who never seemed to think it anything but a happy coincidence that Santa's preferences in cookies were identical to their father's.)

Cookies themselves, of course, can be traced back even further than the modern Christmas celebration, for, as Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet, pointed out, Christmas, unlike Easter which, of course, established the Church, is a relative latecomer to the Church calendar. It wasn't even recognized until the fourth century and was even outlawed for a time by the Puritans in New England.

The first cookie was actually a small amount of cake batter used to test oven temperature in the days when cakes were baked over a fire. Indeed, the word cookie comes from the Dutch word "koekje" which means little cake. Fortunately, the development of the modern oven was a gradual process, for had ancient ovens been capable of the precise regulation of temperature typical of modern ones, the cookie might never have been invented!

Cookies have caught on around the world and are known as galletas in Spain, keks in Germany, biscotti in Italy, and biscuits in England. Regardless of their origin, Sharon Tyler Herbst in The Food Lover's Companion identifies six basic types:

-- Drop cookies, so named because they are made by dropping spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet

-- Bar cookies which are baked in one piece and then cut into individual servings

-- Molded cookies which are made by shaping dough into various forms

-- Pressed cookies which are made by forcing dough through a cookie press or pastry bag

-- Refrigerator cookies which are made from slices of chilled dough

-- Rolled cookies which are made by rolling the dough out flat like a pie crust and then cutting it into shapes.

However you make them I can't think of a better way to combat the commercialization of Christmas and recapture its magic than by baking cookies. In my experience, there are few gifts more appreciated, regardless of their cost, than a tinful of homemade Christmas cookies. And there are few more elegant or festive ways to end a holiday meal than with an assortment of them.

Virginia Goodwin of Cape Girardeau would agree. Though she produces delicacies year round from her spacious and homey kitchen, she truly outdoes herself during the holidays. Maybe that's because in addition to being a talented cook, Virginia is also passionate about Christmas. (Once many years ago friends gave her a Christmas party in July just so she wouldn't have to wait so long to get into the holiday mood.)

She continues to keep the spirit of the season and the art of cookie making alive by baking countless dozens of delectable cookies for her family and friends this time of year. Some are old favorites without which it just wouldn't be Christmas at the Goodwin house and some are new recipes carefully culled from books and magazines and fearlessly tested by the Goodwin children and grandchildren.

All are made from the heart and constitute the quintessential culinary symbol of the holiday season. Virginia shares several of her favorite recipes in today's column. Try them and I suspect you'll be prompted, as I was, to remark, "Yes, Virginia, there is nothing that says Christmas like cookies."

Chocolate Buttersweets

These cookies are a little more trouble than some, but their decadence is worth it. Virginia advises that she usually doubles the recipe except for the frosting.

Ingredients:

10 tablespoons butter, divided

2 cups powdered sugar, divided

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla, divided

1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, divided

1 (3 oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Cream 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; cream thoroughly. Slowly add 1 to 1 and 1/4 cups flour. Shape dough into balls, place on ungreased cookie sheet, and press a hole in center of each with finger. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until delicately browned on edges. While cookies are baking make filling by blending cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in nuts and coconut. Fill cookies while still warm. Make frosting by cooking chocolate chips, water, and remaining 2 tablespoons butter over low heat until chocolate melts. Remove from heat and add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Let cookies cool before frosting.

Lebkuchen Bars

Traditional Lebkuchen (German for "cooking of life"), one of the world's oldest cookies with origins dating back to 2000 B.C., is a rolled or molded cookie, but this version is a much easier to make bar cookie. (There's nothing plebeian about bar cookies, by the way. After all, brownies are bar cookies and what could be more epicurean than a brownie?) Virginia says these cookies improve with age and keep well.

Ingredients:

1 egg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup molasses

3 cups sifted flour

1 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds

1/2 cup chopped mixed candied fruit

1 egg white

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

dash of salt

Directions:

Beat egg and brown sugar until fluffy. Stir in honey and molasses. Combine flour, spices, and baking soda and mix into egg mixture. Stir in nuts and fruit. Chill several hours. Pat into greased 10x15 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan, and cut into bars. Combine egg white, lemon juice, lemon rind, powdered sugar, and salt and brush on cooled bars.

Maple Nut Drops

Virginia says that these cookies are so loved by the Goodwin family that if they're not part of her annual Christmas cookie assortment she'll hear about it.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup butter, divided

3 eggs

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon maple flavored syrup

1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup dates, cut up

1 cup nuts, chopped

3/4 cup coconut

2 tablespoons cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Directions:

Cream 1 cup butter. Add eggs, 1 cup of the syrup and the flavoring and beat well. (Mixture will look curdled.) Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend into butter/egg mixture. Add boiling water and mix well. Stir in dates, nuts, and coconut and chill at least 1 hour. Drop onto ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 13-16 minutes. Melt remaining 1/4 cup butter and add cream, vanilla, and remaining tablespoon syrup. Blend in powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Frost cookies after they have cooled.

Vanilla Cut-Outs

Decorating cookies is a great family activity for the holidays, but some cookie doughs are hard to handle. Virginia has settled on this recipe over the years because it is easy to work with. You can cut out the cookies in whatever shapes you wish and decorate them as desired.

Ingredients:

4 cups sifted cake flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla

4 teaspoons milk

Directions:

Sift first three items and set aside. Cream butter and slowly add sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla until creamy. Stir in flour mixture and milk. Chill several hours until stiff enough to handle. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes and bake on lightly greased cookie sheets at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly browned on edges. Cool and decorate.

Got a recipe you'd like to share with our readers? Are you looking for a recipe for something in particular? Send your recipes and requests to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.