RECIPES: Rolled Butter Cookies ... Peanut Butter Blossoms ... Hershey Dream Bars

• Spritz Cookies

Holiday favorite cookies include Spritz Cookies. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT)
• Peanut Butter Blossom

For forty years, Carol Ann Hochbrueckner has hosted a cookie party where guests bake enough cookies to trade with everyone else. Pictured here are Peanut Butter "Blossom" Cookies by Mary Wilcox. (Kirsten Luce/Newsday/MCT)
• The Ultimate Wedding Cookie

The Ultimate Wedding Cookie was one of the winning cookies in the Los Angeles Times Christmas Cookie Contest. (Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

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Rolled Butter Cookies

3 cups flour, sifted

2 level teaspoons cream of tartar

1 level teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter

3 eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and butter — like pie dough — by hand.

In a smaller bowl, beat eggs and then add sugar and vanilla and mix. Combine with dough and mix.

Refrigerate dough overnight (covered with wax paper). In the morning, roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out cookies. Place cookies about ½ to 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 6 minutes or until done.

Let cool, then frost and decorate.

Yield: 10 to 12 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1¾ cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup shortening

½ cup peanut butter

½ cup white sugar

½ cup firmly packed brown

1 unbeaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift flour and add soda and salt. Set aside. Gradually mix shortening and peanut butter together and then cream. Add sugars and cream again. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix well; Round dough by the teaspoon into balls, roll in sugar and place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and top each one with a Hershey’s candy kiss. Press down firmly so cookie cracks around the edges. Return cookies to oven and bake for 2 to 5 minutes longer.

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies.

Hershey Dream Bars

1 cup brown sugar

1 cups shortening (butter or margarine)

1 egg yolk

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 or 7 Hershey milk chocolate bars

Mix sugar and shortening. Add egg yolk, flour and vanilla. Mix well. Press into a 9-by-13-inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees until brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and place Hershey bars on top. Spread the melting chocolate, entirely covering pans contents. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired. Cool and cut into bars.

Yield: About 16 bars.

Chocolate Kisses

1 1-pound package sweet Hershey’s chocolate

3 ounces bitter chocolate

5 cups cornflakes

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup flaked coconut

Melt chocolate in a double-boiler. Add cornflakes, nuts and coconut to chocolate. Mix well. Drop by spoonful on wax paper. Cool.

Yield: About 3 dozen.

Russian Tea Cakes

1 cup butter, softened

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

2¼ cups flour, sifted

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup nuts, chopped

Stir together flour, salt and nuts. Chill dough for 1 to 2 hours. Remove from refrigerator and roll into balls. Bake at 400 degrees until light brown. Remove from oven and roll in sugar. Cool and then roll again in sugar.

Yield: About 3 dozen.

Spritz Cookies

1¼ cups butter

1½ cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups flour

Mix all of ingredients. If it feels a little sticky, add some flour. Place dough in old-fashioned spritz tube. Squeeze out dough on a greased cookie sheet. Then cut dough into “S” or wreath. (You can top wreath with a piece of cinnamon.)

Bake at 350 degrees 8 to 10 minutes.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

Alice’s Favorite Pecan Cookies

¾ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup pecans, cut up

1 cup dates, cut up

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients and form into drop cookies. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 to 12 minutes. Cool cookies. For frosting, mix powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, a pinch of salt and a little hot water mixed. Spread frosting on each cookie and top with a whole pecan, if desired.

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