Eatbeat: Families bake treats for holidays

The weekend arrives with Santa Village opening at Columbia Mail and UND hoops and hockey teams in tournaments at Sioux Falls and Omaha.

Ice rinks here and there are ready and waiting for the big freeze up. And in homes around Grand Forks, there are cookies coming out of the oven.

Cookie canes

When Christmas draws near, Linda Palmiscno is well known for her cookie canes. She uses the following ingredients:

1 cup real butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ teaspoon almond flavoring

1 teaspoon salt

2 ½ cups flour

Mix ingredients in order. Divide dough in half. Color one part with red food coloring. Take small amounts of each dough and roll into thin rope.

Set ropes next to each other, gently roll together and twist to make a candy cane effect. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and turn one end to make a cane shape.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes. Edges will be lightly browned.

Remove to cooling rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar right out of the oven.

. . . That’s the recipe. But Linda notes that she rolls in the white sugar before placing the dough on the cookie sheet. That makes the cookies less fragile.

Molasses cookies

In years when all of the family show up for Christmas, Gloria Sanford makes molasses cookies. She says it’s really simple.

She starts by creaming together 1 cup of shortening (or margarine) with 1 cup of brown sugar.

Next comes:

2 eggs

1 cup mild molasses

1 teaspoon cinnamon

5 ½ cups flour

½ teaspoon each of cloves, nutmeg and ginger

3 teaspoons soda

Then comes one cup of milk made sour with 2 teaspoons of vinegar.

Keep milk mixture on the side and add it alternately to thin the dough and make it more easy to manage.

Place wax paper on counter and sprinkle with flour to prevent dough from sticking. Dough for baking cookies should be about one fourth-inch thick.

Bake at 360 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes.

Reach Marilyn Hagerty at mhagerty@gra.midco.com or by telephone at (701) 772-1055.