One of my family’s favorite holiday traditions is making plates of goodies for our friends and neighbors. We always make cookies, fruit cake, and fudge to include on a plate wrapped in colored cellophane. Then we deliver the goodies on Christmas Eve. In honor of this tradition, I thought I’d share some of these recipes for this week’s Stretch Your Food Dollar.

A report on CNN this week noted that many people are turning to homemade gifts as a way of cutting down on their holiday shopping expenses. The great thing about making homemade gifts in your kitchen is that most of the time, the ingredients are things that you’re likely to already have on hand. Plus, you can get the whole family involved and create your own special memories. Heck, you could even make a cheap date out of decorating cookies and Christmas caroling as you deliver the goodies to your friends. And what’s not to love about a cute date in a Santa hat? The proverbial kiss under the mistletoe is just the icing on the cookie, if you’ll forgive the cheesy pun.

Here’s a recipe for sugar cookies and icing. You can use candy to decorate the cookies, and colored sprinkles are usually less than $1 at the grocery store.

Sugar Cookies
(Makes 3 dozen cookies)

2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 375 °. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour by hand.

2. Divide the dough in half. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes so that the dough is easy to handle.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time until it is 1/8-inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into the desired shapes. Place 1″ apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until the edges are firm and the bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Let the cookies cool completely before attempting to frost them.

Powdered Sugar Icing
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp milk

1. In a small bowl combine the ingredients. Stir in additional milk as needed, 1 tsp at a time, until the icing reaches drizzling consistency.

** Both of these recipes are from the Better Homes and Gardens 75th Anniversary Cook Book. Both of the recipes could easily be veganized. Just use soy butter and a vegan egg substitute, such as agar powder. You can use soy milk or water for the icing.

Chocolate chip cookies and fudge are two more classics that you can include with your holiday baking. Here are some vegan recipes to please your vegan/lactose intolerant friends. Because hey . . . who doesn’t want a little fudge?

Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Makes 3 dozen cookies)

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips (be sure to read the label)
3/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 °. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.

2. In a separate large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar. Add the flax seeds, soy milk, vanilla and almond extract. Mix well.

3. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in batches. When the batter starts to get too stiff to mix with a fork, use your hands until a nice stiff dough forms. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts, and mix with your hands again. Your hands will be covered in chocolate, but worse things have happened.

4. Wash your hands and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1″ balls and flatten into disks about 1 1/2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheers.

5. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vegan Peanut Butter Fudge
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To make fudge (or any candy for that matter), you will need a candy thermometer. I use the same thermometer for candy that I use for temping meat (after it’s been sanitized, of course). These are usually under $10 and available at your grocery store or one of those fancy kitchen gadget places. It’s a kitchen tool that you really ought to purchase so that you know you’re cooking your food to the proper temperature.

The sugar in fudge is cooked to what’s called the “soft ball stage.” This means that the sugar has reached a temperature of 235 °. This is hotter than boiling (212 °), so be careful! I’ve got a nasty scar on my right hand from making candy during culinary school. (I was day dreaming about a hot date the night before and not really paying attention to the molten sugar lava I was drizzling. Let this be a lesson to you. No day dreaming while you’re in the kitchen!)

Now back to that fudge . . . You’re going to want to have all of your ingredients ready to go before you turn on the stove. Because once your sugar reaches the proper temperature, you need to work fast.

1. Lightly oil a 9″ loaf pan and set aside.

2. In a medium sauce pan on high heat, stir together the sugar and soy milk. Keep stirring until this reaches a boil. Stop stirring and allow the temperature to reach 235 °. Remove from the heat. Add the peanut butter and vanilla and stir all the ingredients vigorously until the mixture is smooth.

3. Pour into the loaf pan and refrigerate at least one hour before removing from the loaf pan and cutting the fudge into chunks.

For more vegan fudge and cookie recipes, check out La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer, and Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (which is where I nabbed the recipes for this article). I picked mine up at my favorite used bookstore for under $10 each, but your local library will probably have them.

I titled this article “Christmas Favorites,” but I actually celebrate Solstice. How about you? What holidays do you celebrate, and what are some of your favorite culinary traditions associated with those holidays?

Photo credit: Stock.xchng

And for more tips on baking the perfect holiday cookie, check out this story from NPR.