Belgian Christmas Cookies Food

EMPIRE COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter. Add sugar, creaming well. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 2 inch rounds, and place on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes, or until very lightly browned at edges. Cool thoroughly.
• Spread half of the cookies with jam, and top with remaining cookies.
• Combine confectioners' sugar, almond extract, and enough hot water to make a thin icing. Frost tops of cookies. Top each with a small piece of candied cherry.

BELGIAN IRON COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, salt, and liquor (if desired). Blend in.
• Now it gets to be fun. You have to work in all five pounds of flour little by little by hand. It will work in but it takes a while. You'll wind up with a BIG mixing bowl of dough.
• Refrigerate dough overnight.
• Have plenty of people to help with the cooking. Lightly grease and heat the empty cookie iron over a gas burner. Start with a tablespoon and a half of dough rolled into a little "cigar" shape and vary amount to fit the size of your cookie iron. It takes from one to one and a half minutes to cook each cookie - it's a trial and error process at first till you get a handle on the temperature of the gas burner and the heat retaining capabilities of your iron. A properly cooked cookie will be golden and after cooled, crisp.
• This a family holiday tradition for us and we spend a whole day cooking cookies with lots of testing to make sure they're as good as last year's. The cast iron cookie irons work best, but I have seen people make them with the aluminum pizelle "irons". Ask for a krumkokie (croom cockie) iron at a gourmet cooking shop. We put them in tins and store till next Christmas, eating last year's cookies.

BELGIAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter with extract; add brown sugar gradually, creaming until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together; add in thirds to creamed mixture, mixing until blended after each addition. Turn into a greased 15 x 10 x 1 inch jelly roll pan and spread evenly to edges.
• Sprinkle a mixture of almonds and cinnamon over batter, then sprinkle with a mixture of red and green sugar.
• Bake at 375°F 10 to 12 minutes.
• Cut into bars while still warm. About 5 dozen cookies.
• Canadian Family Cookbook.

BELGIAN WAFFLE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat waffle maker.
• Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
• Cream together on med-low.
• Add vanilla and salt, increase speed to medium.
• Add eggs and mix until smooth.
• Decrease speed to low, add flour and mix well.
• Divide batter into 4 3/4 cup portions.
• Using one portion, drop batter on each corner of the grids.
• Close waffle maker and bake until steam no longer escapes (about 3-5 min).
• Carefully remove waffle from maker and allow to cool.
• Serve plain or with your favorite fruit filling and whipped cream.