Here are the three winning recipes from the Kids’ Choice category in the 2021 Dallas Morning News Holiday Cookie Contest:
First Place, Kids’ Choice
Peppermint Macarons, by Caitlin Dunn
Ingredients:
Macarons:
1 ¾ cups powdered sugar
1 cup finely ground almond flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
3 large egg whites, room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
Red or green gel food coloring
Ganache filling:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
Garnish:
8 candy canes, crushed
Directions:
Make the ganache filling: In a medium bowl, combine the chocolate chips and heavy cream. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between, until melted and smooth, about 1 minute total. Set aside to cool for at least 1 hour.
Make the macarons: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the powdered sugar, almond flour, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Process on low speed until very finely ground. Sift the almond flour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, beat the egg whites and the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt with an electric hand mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the granulated sugar until fully incorporated. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form (you should be able to turn the bowl upside down without anything falling out).
Add about ⅓ of the sifted almond flour mixture at a time to the beaten egg whites and use a rubber spatula to gently fold until combined. After the last addition of almond flour, add the peppermint extract. Continue to fold slowly until the batter falls into ribbons and you can make a figure 8 while holding the spatula up.
Set a piping bag or zip-top bag fitted with a round tip in a tall drinking glass. Dip a skewer or toothpick in the gel food coloring and paint 2 stripes on opposite sides of the inside of the piping bag. Transfer the macaron batter to the bag.
Pipe 4 small dollops of batter in each corner of a rimmed baking sheet, then lay a piece of parchment paper over it, using the batter to help adhere the parchment to the baking sheet.
Pipe the macarons onto the parchment paper in 2-inch (5-cm) circles, spacing at least 1-inch (2.5-cm) apart.
Tap the baking sheet on a flat surface 5 times to release any air bubbles. If there are any points on the top of the macarons, let sit for 5 minutes after tapping the pan, then, with a slightly moistened finger, lightly pat down the peaks.
Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 30–60 minutes, until dry to the touch.
Preheat the oven to 300 F.
Bake the macarons for 20 minutes, until the feet are well risen and the macarons don’t stick to the parchment paper. Transfer the macarons to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.
Transfer the cooled ganache to a piping bag or zip-top bag fitted with a round tip.
Pipe a dollop of ganache onto a macaron shell. Top with another macaron shell to create a sandwich. Repeat with remaining macarons and ganache.
Roll the edges of the macarons in the crushed candy canes.
If desired, place the macarons in an airtight container for 24 hours to “bloom” before serving, or serve immediately.
SOURCE: Tasty
Second Place, Kids’ Choice
Sweet & Salty Choco Chip Cookies, Garrett Middendorf
Ingredients:
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ teaspoon Mexican Vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt (not table salt)
2 cups plus a small handful of semisweet chocolate chips
Coarse Kosher salt
Directions:
Cream together softened butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and freeze for 12 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 375. Defrost dough and roll into small scoop balls while snacking on the handful of choco chips. Place on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake cookies for 4 ½ minutes, flip flop the cookie sheets for another 4 ½ minutes and then 1 ½ minutes, alternate sheets for an additional 1 ½ minutes. Immediately after pulling cookie sheets out of oven, sprinkle with Kosher salt and remove from sheet and onto counter after 2 minutes. Metal spatula works best.
Third Place, Kids’ Choice
Vanilla 2.0 Christmas Sugar Cookies, Nora Pruit
Ingredients:
1 cup slightly softened unsalted butter (227 grams)
1 cup packed light brown sugar (200 grams)
1/2 cup granulated white sugar (100 grams)
2 large eggs (100 grams)
2 teaspoons vanilla (10 grams)
3/4 teaspoon salt (4 grams)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder (1 gram)
3 1/2 cups (or 4 cups) all-purpose flour (490-560 grams)
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Cream the butter and both sugars together. If you have any brown sugar lumps, you should crush them up or pull them out. They make weird dents in your baked cookies.
Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix thoroughly.
Add the salt and baking powder and mix.
Before you add the flour, let’s have a little chat. Different altitudes need different amounts of flour. Differences in humidity will the change the amount of flour you should add. Is there a storm coming? That changes things. Add only 3 1/2 cups to begin with. Then add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky and pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl. (This happens at about 3 1/2 cups of flour for me...except in the winter time when it happens at 4 cups flour.) That’s when you should stop if you are going to chill the dough overnight, or just wait for another day to bake it. If you are going to roll it out right away, add another half of a cup of flour so it will be thick enough to move from the rolling out surface to your baking sheet.
Bake. If you roll to 1/4-inch thick, bake for about 7 minutes. If you roll to 3/8-inch thick, bake for about 10-12 minutes.
Let cool, then decorate to your liking.
