Cookies Galore: No excuse not to bake

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BY BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star

This time of year you’ll likely find state Sen. DiAnna Schimek and her husband, Herb, doing their annual spritzing.

No, they’re not securing their coiffures but are hard at work in the kitchen, making their favorite Christmas cookies.

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Senator DiAnna Schimek and her husband, Herb, make Spritz cookies in their home on a December afternoon. Cookie-making is a family tradition for the Schimeks. (JILL PEITZMEIER/Lincoln Journal Star)

Senator DiAnna Schimek and her husband, Herb, make Spritz cookies in their home on a December afternoon. Cookie-making is a family tradition for the Schimeks. (JILL PEITZMEIER/Lincoln Journal Star)

They’re almond-flavored spritz,   melt-in-your mouth baked goodies made with a cookie press. 

“My bridge club has a cookie exchange every year, and I always take them,” the senator said. They’re a a big hit, because of their pretty shapes and colors and buttery flavor.

Two secrets to perfect spritz are using real butter rather than margarine and almond extract rather than artificial almond flavoring, she said. Another key is not having the dough too sticky, so they come out of the press in well-formed shapes.

Herb Schimek likes to use the cookie press, which consists of a metal cylinder and plunger, with several interchangeable grids with patterns, such as Christmas trees, wreaths and stars. It takes practice to get them to come out right, and after making them for several years, he’s an expert.

The Schimeks are among several local notables who shared their favorite Christmas cookie recipes with the Journal Star.

John Chapo, director of the Lincoln Children’s Zoo, does all the baking in his family and had a lot of good cookie recipes. “My wife says she married me for the cookies,” he joked.

He spends about three solid days baking cookies at Christmastime, creating dozens and dozens of different varieties that the Chapos mail to friends and relatives and give as holiday gifts.

He shared his recipes for jam jams — delicate sugar rounds with raspberry jam filling, oatmeal-fudge-almond bars and cream cheese cookies.

Susan Gourley, superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools, had trouble picking a favorite. “As I often say, I never met a cookie I didn’t like,” she said. After some deliberation, her final choice is Peanut Butter Blossoms, a rich confection topped by a chocolate kiss.

She described them as “nothing fancy (but) a great family cookie-making recipe. There’s something for everybody (including the littlest hands) to do, from unwrapping the Hershey’s kisses, to mixing the dough, to rolling the little balls — and my favorite — placing the chocolate kisses into the warm cookies.”

Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler didn’t share a recipe but confided that his favorite is gingerbread.

Gov. Dave Heineman identified his favorite cookie as chocolate chip. When pressed to pick a Christmas cookie, he still said chocolate chip. For this article, the governor’s staff passed along the official chocolate chip cookie recipe from the governor’s mansion.

Lincoln Fire Chief Niles Ford, who recently moved here from Georgia, also provided a chocolate chip cookie recipe. His uses milk chocolate and pecans, which are a staple of Southern kitchens.

Dave Landis, former state senator who now heads Lincoln’s Urban Development Department, waxed nostaligic about a Christmas cookie from his childhood.

“My aunt — well, I called her my aunt but actually she was some kind of a cousin — used to make chocolate cookies shaped like a wreath,” he said. “She made them in some kind of a special mold, they were milk chocolate and melted in your mouth. They didn’t have any frosting because they didn’t need any. By far, it’s my favorite cookie.”

Unfortunately, he can’t get them any  more because no one has the recipe or that wreath-shaped mold.  “She probably didn’t have a (written) recipe,” he said.

Terry Uland, new president of the Downtown Lincoln Association, didn’t share a recipe but noted that his favorite was spritz, which his wife, Sue, makes using a traditional family recipe and her grandmother’s cookie press.

Local jazz singer Annette Murrell, also known as Dr Diva, passed along her recipe for pumpkin cookies. They’re moist and chewy and make great holiday gifts, she said. The recipe calls for cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and nuts, but “you can pretty much add or delete whatever extras you want,” for example, adding raisins, using chocolate or cream  cheese frosting instead of a glaze, or substituting molasses for the brown sugar.

Cathy Blythe, co-host of KFOR’s morning radio show and host of “Problems and Solutions,” who has compiled a number of cookbooks of recipes submitted by listeners, shared her recipe for colorful Christmas gumdrop cookies.

We’ll leave the last word to Dr. Joann Schaefer, the state’s chief medical officer with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, who shared a recipe for her favorite cookie-cutter sugar cookies, plus this healthful comment:

“Like all foods, cookies should be enjoyed in moderation.  Match what you eat with exercise.  Avoid the 7-pound average weight gain over the holidays by exercising, even if it’s just a 10-minute walk.”

Cookie-press Spritz

1 cup butter

½ cup sugar

2¼ cups flour (you might add up to 1/8 cup more)

½ teaspoon salt

 1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Cream butter and eggs. Blend in the remaining ingredients. Add extra flour if dough is too soft. Fill cooke press with ¼ of the dough and form desired shapes on cookie sheet. Bake 6-9 minutes until set but not brown. (You may add food coloring to batter and sprinkle with colored sugars before baking, if desired). Makes 5 dozen cookies.

— Sen. DiAnna Schimek

Gum drop Cookies

¾ cup white granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 eggs, slightly beaten

3 cups flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt (or less, to taste)

3 cups cut-up spice gumdrops (take out the flavors you don’t like)

Preheat oven to 350 degree. In a large bowl, combine sugars and margarine; cream well. Add vanilla and eggs; mix well. Add flour, baking soda and salt; mix very well. This will be a stiff dough. Mix in gum drops. Bake 9-11 minutes. Start checking at 8 minutes to make sure they are done but still nice and soft.

— Cathy Blythe

Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup old-fashioned Quaker oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or macadamia nuts

1 cup white chocolate, butterscotch or chocolate chips

Glaze:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg,  cloves and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop onto greased cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze over cookies with a fork. 

To make glaze: Combine confectioner’s sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.

— Annette Murrell

Jam Jams

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3¼ to 4 cups flour

raspberry jam (we prefer with seeds)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream brown sugar and butter;  add milk, eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, cream of tartar and baking soda. Mix the “wet” items with the “dry” items. Roll onto flour-covered board. Cut into 2-inch circles.  Bake approximately 10 minutes; do not get them too brown or too crispy. Cool. Spread jam onto cookie and make a sandwich by placing another cookie on top.

— John Chapo

Oatmeal-Fudge Almond Bars

Dough:

2 cups packed brown sugar

¾ cup margarine or butter, softened (I use butter)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2½ cups Bisquick baking mix

3 cups quick-cooking oats

Fudge layer:

1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup sweetened condensed milk (I use the 14½-ounce can)

2 tablespoons butter or margarine (I use butter)

1 cup chopped or sliced almonds

2 teaspoons vanilla

Topping:

1 cup sliced almonds

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 9x13x2-inch cake loaf pan (I grease with butter.) Mix brown sugar, ¾ cup butter, the eggs and vanilla. Stir in baking mix and oats until uniform consistency. Press ½ to 2/3 of the oatmeal mixture with greased (buttered) hands into pan.  Set aside and heat chocolate chips, milk and 2 tablespoons butter in 2-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Spread chocolate mixture over oatmeal layer. Drop remaining oatmeal mixture by tablespoons onto top of fudge layer.  With greased (buttered) hands smooth out mixture and spread remaining cup of almonds over oatmeal layer. Press almonds into dough. Bake until light brown, about 30 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE; COOL COMPLETELY before cutting into desired-sized bars.

— adapted by John Chapo from Betty Crocker’s kitchens

Cream Cheese Cookies

Colored sugar — lots!

1 pound butter, not margarine

8 ounces cream cheese

1¾ cups sugar

4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream butter and cheese; add sugar and mix in the flour. Lay wax paper out on counter. Sprinkle a lot of colored sugar onto the wax paper.  Separate the dough into thirds.  Take one of the thirds and form it into a roll approximately 2.5 inches by 8 inches. Roll in sugar on the wax paper until the roll is completely covered in colored sugar. In a separate sheet of wax paper wrap up the colored roll of dough. Refrigerate overnight in an 8x8-inch pan — this should hold 3 rolls or tubes of the dough. Slice off thin (¼ inch or less — this varies by chefs) slices and place on cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes until LIGHTLY brown on the underside. While hot remove cookies — so they do not stick.  KEEP DOUGH REFRIGERATED WHILE YOU ARE SLICING AS IT GETS SOFT QUICKLY.

— John Chapo

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

1/3 cup margarine or butter

1/3 cup shortening

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg

¾ cup sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash salt

Beat margarine and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add about half of the flour, the egg, sugar, milk, baking powder, vanilla and salt. Beat thoroughly until combined. Beat in remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover; chill for three hours.

On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough at a time, 1/8-inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a 2½-inch cookie cutter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes or till edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Cool cookies on a rack.  You may sprinkle the cookies with colored sugars before baking, or frost and decorate afterwards. Makes 36 to 48.

— Dr. Joann Schaefer’s recipe from a Betty Crocker cookbook

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup peanut butter

¼ cup shortening

¼1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

36 milk chocolate kisses (I like Hershey’s)

Mix sugars, peanut butter, shortening, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet, cool completely.  Makes 2½ to 3 dozen cookies.

— Susan Gourley

Milk Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookie

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups milk chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans or pecan pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars.  Blend in the eggs one at a time and then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, and add. Stir in the salt, flour, milk chocolate chips and pecans. Drop large spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes.

—Niles Ford

The Governor’s Mansion’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter-flavor Crisco

¾ cup white sugar

¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs

2¼ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped nuts

1 (12-ounce) package chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together the shortening and sugars; add eggs and beat well.  Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to cream mixture. Stir in vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.  Shape into 1-inch balls. Flatten with a glass, dipped in white sugar.  Bake at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes. (The cookies will look like they are not done). Let set on cookie sheet until cool enough to handle. Makes 48-50 cookies. Note:  Bake one sheet at a time. 

— staff of Gov. Dave Heineman