Courier Cookbook: New Year's Treats

The theme for the week is New Year's celebrations. So we asked our readers for white cookie recipes and festive new year's cocktail recipes. As usual, they did not disappoint. We received recipes for Russian Tea Cakes, Italian Christmas cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, and German Lebkuchen. Who knew how many New Year's cocktails there are? Here are our top picks:

Russian Tea Cakes

Ingredients

1-½ cups butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

½ cup chopped pecans

3-¾ cups flour

Directions

• Mix all ingredients in a mixer.

• Roll in balls. Refrigerate.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

• Let cool. Then roll in powdered sugar.

Italian Cookies

Ingredients

6 eggs beaten

1 C. sugar

1 C. vegetable oil

3 tsp. baking powder

4+ C. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. almond extract

½ C nuts (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

• Mix each in order listed. The amount of flour will depend on the size of the eggs.

• The batter should be moist and tacky but you should be able to roll the cookies without too much stickiness to the hand.

• Put a little oil on your hands before rolling the cookies.

• Roll dough into walnut-sized balls. Place onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper about 2 inches apart.

• Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.

• Cool and ice with vanilla cream icing.

Vanilla Cream Icing

4 T. melted butter

2 C powdered sugar

• Mix together until there are no lumps and is at a good spreading consistency.

New Year's Gin Fizz

1 egg white

2 parts gin

½ part lemon juice

½ part simple syrup

½ part heavy cream

• Shake together in a martini shaker.

• Pour into glass and top with club soda and straw.

•Garnish with lemon wedge on the rim of the glass.

•Ice optional.

Next week, the theme is favorite winter casseroles. Send in your recipes to [email protected].