Ingredients

1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained and finely chopped
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cold butter
12 ounces white chocolate baking squares with cocoa butter, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 drops red food coloring (optional)
2 teaspoons shortening
White nonpareils and/or red edible glitter (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spread cherries on paper towels to drain well.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in drained cherries and 4 ounces (2/3 cup) of the chopped chocolate. Stir in almond extract and, if desired, food coloring. Knead mixture until it forms a smooth ball.

3. Shape dough into 3/4-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar, flatten balls to 1-1/2-inch rounds.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until centers are set. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

5. In a small saucepan, combine remaining 8 ounces white chocolate and the shortening. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Dip half of each cookie into chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. If desired, roll dipped edge in nonpareils and/or edible glitter. Place cookies on waxed paper until chocolate is set. Makes about 60.

6. To Store: Layer cookies between waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

In Thursday’s post, I talked about how not to go overboard with buying cookbooks. I was doing well to live up to my promise until I took my son to Barnes&Noble Saturday night to find an unrelated book. Being the typical boy, he was not happy to tag along with Mom at the bookstore. That was, until we came upon the cookbook aisle.

His little face lit up when I started talking about baking cookies for the holidays. I had him look through the cookbooks as I read through the books I’d picked from another section of the store. His first choice was the Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Cookies. He sat and looked through that book for a good ten minutes, which is highly unusual for him.

After he finished, I checked out the book myself. It’s spiral bound, which makes it very easy to lay it flat on the counter or fold it to the recipe we’re using. I found some useful tips in the beginning of the book, such as the difference between using butter or margarine when making cookies. More are included throughout the book.

The recipes are simple and easy to follow, which makes this a great cookbook for kids and beginning cooks. This book contains 475 recipes for cookies, bars, and brownies, plus a metric conversion table and two indexes.

The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of recipes for Halloween treats.