Peppermint Stardust Ice Cream and Champagne Cookies- Best Christmas Recipes You Can Enjoy Year 'Round

The theme of this Hub is gold: gold sparkles, gold snow globes, gold liqueurs, and golden angels at Christmastime. I hope you enjoy the flavors and sparkles of these recipes I have enjoyed developing.

© 2011, Patty Inglish. All rights reserved.

SERVES 6

No extract is used in this recipe; crushed candies substitute.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Cups heavy whipping Cream
• 1 Cup Whole Vitamin D Milk
• 1/3 Cup white Sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch or rice flour for thickening
• 25 to 30 red and green Peppermint hard-candies, crushed coarse.
• A pinch of salt.
• Ice bath in your kitchen sink - lots of ice in about 5 inches of cold water.
• Golden hard-candies crushed fine for stardust. Alternatively, shave dark chocolate over each dish.

INSTRUCTIONS

• Pour all the liquids into a medium-sized pot and and stir.
• Add cornstarch or rice flour and salt and stir well to dissolve.
• Place pot over low heat, add sugar, and stir until dissolved.
• Add one-half of red and green candies (crushed coarse already), stir and heat until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat quickly and put pot down into the ice bath to stop cooking.
• Put pot into refrigerator, covered, for 2 hours to completely chill.
• Remove from refrigerator, strain mixture into an ice cream maker, add the rest of the red and green crushed candies and process until firm. Transfer to the freezer until serving time.
• At Serving: scoop into bowls and dust each serving lightly with fine-crushed golden hard-candies. Servings should sparkle in the light.

The Stardust Martini is one that carefully incorporates the liquor named Goldschlager Schnapps at the end of preparation - a cinnamon liqueur that contains small flakes of edible gold that float through a drink.

This is not a new creation, but actually a drink from long ago that I had not thought of in a while. It is one that is good at holidays and special occasions like birthdays. The Creme de Cacao lends a bit of a chocolate flavor to the concoction and with the cinnamon liqueur added, it reminds me of Mexican Chocolate.

For the Christmas and New Year's Holidays, set your table with SNOW GLOBES to complement that feature of the drink.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 parts Vodka
• 1 part Crème de Cacao
• 1 Bottle of Goldshlager
• Cocktail shaker and cracked ice

METHOD

Pour first two ingredients into a cocktail shaker have full of cracked ice. Shake and strain into a glass. Slowly pour in a small amount of Goldschlager and watch as a snowstorm of golden stars drifts down.

Makes Dozens

Once I made a very good jelly from a bottle of Champagne and wondered if cookies with the sparkling wine would be a good dessert item -- They are! In fact, it turns out that these cookies in several variations are Italian.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 Cup Butter or Vegetable Shortening ["fat"]
• 1 Cup white Sugar
• 1 Cup of your favorite Champagne
• 2 Cups Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 Cup chopped Pecans
• 1/4 Cup Golden Raisins
• Baking Sheet
• Powdered Sugar for dusting or Honey for drizzling.

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 190 C.
• In a medium-sized bowl, combine sugar and fat and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and lightly creamy. Butter will turn a light yellow.
• Pour in Champagne and mix for 60 seconds on "low."
• Into this LUMPY dough, mix the flour and baking powder. Mix until SMOOTH. Add pecans and mix into a ball.
• Take tablespoonfuls of dough and roll them into balls to place into the baking sheet.
• Once on the baking sheet, push cookies flat with a heavy object like the bottom of a coffee cup or drinking glass.
• Bake 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven, let stand for 60 seconds, then remove to a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with honey.

They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

-- New Living Translation, copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.