Anna Olson Makes 3 Types of Holiday Cookies! | Baking Wisdom

All recipes in the description below! Follow along and fill your holiday cookie tin with delectable chewy brownie cookies, walnut snowball cookies, and almond streusel jam squares. Get that glass of milk ready!

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00:00 Intro

00:55 Chewy Brownie Cookies

These cookies have the lovely crackled satin surface, and intense chocolate flavour, of a well-made pan of chocolate brownies.

• Information •

Makes 24 cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes, plus chilling
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days.

• Ingredients •

8 oz (240g) dark baking/couverture chocolate, chopped
¼ cup (60 g) unsalted butter, diced
2 large eggs
½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
½ cup (100 g) packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup (75 g) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (30 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine salt
½ cup (85 g) chocolate chips (white, milk or semisweet)

• Directions •

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and line 2 baking trays with parchment.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a small metal bowl placed over a pot of simmering water, stirring gently until smooth. Set aside (but the chocolate can be used still warm).

3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla by hand for a minute, until paler in colour. Whisk in melted chocolate.

4. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine. Stir in chocolate chips. The batter will be fluid, but if you let it rest for a minute or two, it will thicken on its own. Scoop the cookies onto the trays, leaving 2 inches between them.

5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookies appear crackled on the surface. Remove from the oven and cool on trays or cooling racks for 10 minutes.

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06:53 Walnut Snowball Cookies

Sometimes called Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies, these tender, buttery shortbread cookies are shaped in balls and rolled in icing sugar, ensuring a sugary snowstorm with every bite.

• Information •

Makes 48 cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes, plus chilling
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 weeks.

• Ingredients •

1⅔ cups (170 g) untoasted walnut halves
1⅔ cups (250 g) all-purpose flour, divided
½ cup (65 g) icing sugar, plus extra
½ tsp fine salt
1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

• Directions •

1. Pulse walnuts with flour in a food processor or mini chopper until finely ground.

2. Add icing sugar and salt and pulse again. Add butter and vanilla, and pulse at first to start combining ingredients, then turn to high speed until the dough makes a ball.

3. Portion the cookies. Knead the dough into a ball on a work surface and flatten slightly. Cut into quarters, then divide each into 12 little pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and place on a plate or tray. Chill for at least an hour before baking.

4. Preheat oven to 325°F and line 2 large baking trays with parchment. Arrange chilled cookies on trays, leaving an inch between them.

5. Bake for 20 minutes, until just a hint of browning on the bottom of the cookies. Let cool on baking trays or wire rack.

8. After completely cooled, roll cookies generously in icing sugar, using a wide shallow bowl.

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12:16 Almond Streusel Jam Squares

These delicious jam squares use streusel as a sturdy base and as a crumbly topping!

• Information •

Makes one 8-inch square pan (16 to 25 squares)
Prep Time: 15 minutes, plus chilling
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Squares will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a week.

• Ingredients •

1 ½ cups (180 g) ground almonds
1 cup (150 g) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (140 g) packed light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
10 Tbsp (150 g) unsalted butter, cool and cut into pieces
1 ½ cups (375 mL) of any fruit jam
Icing sugar

• Directions •

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease and line an 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with parchment so that the paper comes up the sides.

2. Mix streusel ingredients. Combine ground almonds, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. If mixing by hand, use a pastry cutter to work in the butter until a fine crumble, or mix on low speed. Add rum or other spirit and continue to mix until the streusel begins to bind and hold in larger clumps.

3. Assemble the square. Spoon two-thirds of the almond streusel into the pan and press into the corners and the base. Spread jam over the base to cover evenly. Crumble remaining streusel overtop, covering jam completely.

4. Bake for about 45 minutes, until streusel is a light golden brown.

5. Cool the square in the pan on a rack completely, then chill for at least 2 hours before dusting with icing sugar and slicing the pan into 16 (4-inch) or 25 (5-inch) squares.

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16:40 Final preparations
20:07 Let’s see the results!

#AnnaOlson #BakingWisdom

This episode of baking wisdom is brought to you by LG Canada and we’ll hear more from them later in the episode welcome to baking wisdom this series is based on my newest cookbook of the very same name where I share my Decades of baking experience with you and of course tons

Of recipes all to make you the best baker you can be and now it’s time to gear up for the holidays I love holiday baking and on this episode we’re getting into holiday baking I am so excited I love baking for the holiday and my gift to you is not to make one

Recipe in this episode but three three recipes ideal for your holiday cookie tin I am making a chewy chocolate brownie cookie a walnut snowball cookie and then the third is a square my almond streusel squares and they all have a great make aead component so you can get

Into your holiday baking right now and that’s what I’m going to do let’s start with those chewy brownie cookies the first thing I need to do just like making brownies is melt some butter and chocolate together so this is cature baking chocolate that goes into the bowl and

I’ve got some unsalted butter at this point it doesn’t matter what temperature the butter is and I’m putting this over direct heat which means I want to melt the butter and chocolate together at a very low temperature while stirring if you’re unsure about melting chocolate over

Direct heat what you can do is place it in a metal bowl over a pot of gently boiling water and just stir gently until it’s melted either way just want to melt the butter and chocolate together oh we should preheat the oven because as soon as this cookie batter is

Done it goes into the oven you want to preheat your oven to 375 my chocolate is melted so I’ve just set it off the heat to cool a little bit you can work with the chocolate still warm you don’t have to cool it to room temperature but while it sits for a minute let’s get the base for these chewy brownie cookies ready I’ve got two

Whole eggs And in goes a 50/50 mix of granulated sugar and light brown sugar I’ll add my Vanilla and then just by hand you don’t need to pull out the beers for this I do like to whip up the brown sugar the white sugar and the eggs a little bit this gives the brownie cookies a bit of structure so they don’t flatten out too

Much so I just whisk by hand for a minute until I see it Go a slightly lighter color using room temperature eggs makes this happen a lot faster because the sugar will dissolve all right I can see that just after a minute the batter is arated a

Little bit it’s actually grown in volume and it’s a little bit paler but you don’t have to look for any specific visual marker give it a minute you know you’re good now I can add my melted chocolate and Butter trying and keep things tidy and just gently whisk in that melted chocolate This recipe is so easy we’re already at the point where we sift in our dry ingredients just a little bit of flour cocoa powder a little bit of baking powder and some fine Salt And then gently whisk this in the method for this recipe really is like making brownies except of course we’re going to bake them as cookies once everything is smooth and evenly combined it’s time for your addins just like when you’re making brownies you could add Walnut pieces or peacan

Pieces I’m going full chocolate so I’m adding some white chocolate chips fold those in and this is a key point with this recipe when you first combine everything you will find that the batter is really quite fluid but as the cocoa powder absorbs the liquid and

As the chocolate in there begins to cool and set a little bit you will find that this batter thicken up so if you find it difficult to scoop if you find it’s this fluid honestly just walk away 2 minutes later it will thicken up so I’m going to do just That I had just enough time to collect my other ingredients for the next cookie recipe and in that time just 2 minutes that batter has definitely thickened up it will still be soft you don’t need to set it but now it’s easier to scoop recipe makes two dozen cookies of course

If you want to make daintier ones for the cookie exchange you can just use a smaller scoop a little bit of holiday baking wisdom if you want to scoop and Portion these cookies ahead of time but bake them later what you can do scoop them chill them and then pull them up and

Pack them in a resealable container that way you can freeze them thaw them to room temp temperature and they’re ready to bake whenever you’re ready to Bake these really take no time to bake 8 to 10 minutes so make sure you set that Timer I love that my Walnut snowball recipe is a quick one to whip up and this is a perfect recipe for the freezer the first thing I need to do is grind my walnuts into the flour if I preg grind the walnuts they may be too oily and not blend into the

Cookie dough well so I’ve got my full measure of flour and untoasted walnut pieces in they go I’ll give this a quick pulse there the walnuts are nicely ground into the flour so I can add my other dry ingredients my little bit of salt and icing sugar and it’s amazing how when

You make shortbread cookies they don’t call for a lot of sugar it really is a short dough it’s about the butter richness this a quick buzz and now it’s time to add all that butter I think a shortbread cookie is a key addition a Cornerstone of a holiday

Cookie tin I will add just a splash of vanilla that is the only liquid to add to a shortbread cookie dough and what qualifies a shortbread is no egg and no baking powder or other leaver I’ll pulse this until the dough comes together and now that I can see that my top and

Bottom in texture match a little more now I can turn it on and let it form a ball as it mixes and there it is Walnut snowball dough and I still have 3 minutes on the timer before it’s time to check those chewy brownie cookies to get cookie dough out You can scoop this dough if you wish it makes four dozen little snowball cookies but I find it actually easier to just use a bench scraper or you can use a knife on a cutting board and divide your dough into four equal pieces like so

That one is not so equal there then you shape each piece of dough Loosely into a roll you can flower your hands if you need to and then this because I’ve got four and the recipe makes four a dozen I divide each into 12 so into half into quars and then each of

These are easier to cut more proportionately into three and it works very very quickly and if you’re doing this you probably are noticing how soft the dough is so it makes it easy to shape into a ball but we’re going to have to chill this dough if I were to bake these Walnut

Snowballs unchilled because of the soft butter even without any egg or baking powder they would flatten out a little bit and we want to keep their snowball shape as much as possible if you were making this cookie dough recipe ahead of time once you’ve chilled these you could easily freeze

Them pack them up and then once again Tha them just a little bit not to room temperature before you bake them let’s check on those chewy brownie cookies oh they are no wonder they look good cuz I could smell them they’ve got that lovely crackle to

The top of them just like a chocolate brownie oh the chewy brownie cookies are too fragile to handle while they’re hot so you want to let them cool on the tray completely I’m going to pop these snowball cookies into the fridge for 2 hours to chill the chewy brownie cookies

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Convection range to your kitchen now it’s time for the third holiday cookie tin Edition and this time it’s a square not a cookie I’m making my almond Jam strel squares and it starts by actually making a strel topping so I’ve got my ground almonds along with flour and brown sugar

And some cinnamon they all get combined together in a mixing bowl no need to sift anything go the brown sugar and teaspoon of cinnamon I will be using this pastry blender to work the butter into this strucel so I’m just using that in instead of a spoon here just to combine

Everything I’ve got my butter cut cut into pieces and it’s cool it’s not ice cold but it’s not room temperature either that way it works into the streusel easily but it isn’t easily overworked so first I toss it around in the bowl to coat it with the dry

Ingredients but when you first start using a pastry blender with your butter when you first start cutting the butter in this is inevitable it will stick to the pastry blender as you’re cutting it in you give your hand a little twist and it breaks up the pieces a bit

More and so this strucel never comes together as a dough but when you see it starting to Clump up you don’t see any visible pieces of butter but it starts to form a few clumps of its own then you know it’s ready and here’s another little bit of

Holiday baking wisdom for you this strucel well it’s a strucel so you can pack it in an airtight container or in a jar and store it in the freezer or the fridge and use it as a strel topping if you’re making a banana bread or some

Holiday muffins and you want to add a little character to it just a nice Spoonful on top of your batter before it goes into the oven M great another thing you can do I’m just full of gifts this holiday season is spread this strel on a

Baking tray and bake it for about 20 minutes then because it’s cooked you can crumble it into pieces store it in an airtight container on your counter and layer that with yogurt and fruit and all of a sudden you’ve got a decadent holiday parfait perfect for

Brunch all right that butter seems to be evenly worked in the strucel is a rough crumbly texture if I squeeze it it holds together but it breaks apart easily so I know I’m Ready got my Square baking pan lined with parchment paper and I’m going to pour 2/3 of the strel into the bottom of the pan spread it around and then lightly press it into the bottom of the Pan I’ve got raspberry jam as a filling but of course use your favorite flavor of jam it could be orange marmalade could be apricot you could even dollop different flavors that way one batch of squares offers three or four different flavors just going to spoon this

On I did give the jam a stir just so it’s easier to spread and I’m going to use my offset spatula for this little pallet knife or an offset will work don’t worry when you’re spreading the jam if you find a few strel crumbs kind of come up as

You’re moving the jam around it’s AB absolutely okay it all bakes together in the end but you will see the distinct Jam layer preheat your oven to 325 now the remaining strucel goes on top and this time you don’t want to press it down quite as firmly so spread

It around and just a gentle press to make sure it’s level and this goes into that 325 oven for 45 minutes and in that time hey I can get those Walnut snowball cookies Baked now that my snowball cookies have had a chance to chill they’re easy to handle and I can line them up on my baking tray I Do eight rows of six because the nice thing about the snowball cookies they don’t move or spread a whole lot lot so you can pack a lot more cookies onto a tray when you’re baking shortbread than you can other cookies if you’ve watched my other o yum

Cookie recipes you know when it comes to baking a head for the holidays I like to make all my doughs ahead of time portion them freeze them and then bake them when I want them freshly baked either for gift giving or just enjoying any of the recipes I’m making

Today can be baked and then Frozen and simply thaw to pack up or to eat the snowball cookies take about 20 minutes to bake and so they’ll be out of the oven and cooling before the strucel squares are even Done everything is baked and ready to pack up I have my almond strucel squares and I let them cool and I chill them down before I cut them once you pack them into your cookie tin they can sit at room temperature I just find they’re easier to cut when they’re cold so first

Thing I’ll do pop them right [Applause] out comes the parchment and I do like to give them a little dusting of icing sugar not too too Much por up into squares with strucel squares I don’t find I have to trim off the ends in fact personally I like that end piece where the jam is a bit caramelized from being at the edge of the Pan Oh and look at that you can see that beautiful Jam layer The cinnamony strucel Filling it’s so delicious and a perfect size proportionate with the snowball cookies and then we have the jumbo chewy brownie cookies that off to the side while we finish our snowballs so you can tell

When a snowball cookie is done it won’t color or brown at all on the surface you just lift one gently up and you should see just a hint of light brown on the bottom then they are ready to roll in the icing sugar when it comes to Rolling

Your snowball cookies in icing sugar you want to make sure they are completely cooled if they’re still warm they’ll hold on to the icing sugar and the heat will melt the icing sugar then they just become a little bit sticky as you can see you get a nice

Coating I can do two at a time who am I kidding if I’m baking my snowball cookies ahead to freeze I hold off on the icing sugar roll roll until after I’ve pulled them from the fridge and thawed them completely for that same reason so the icing sugar stays in place

Oh so many cookies and accomplished in such a short amount of time so first I’ll arrange a few on a plate and then get some ready for the cookie tin that’s a lovely plate to put out after dinner and then for gifting pack them up as you wish these are also ideal

For bringing to that holiday cookie exchange nice assortment that I can fit just over a dozen in There now I know you are set for the holidays you’ve got three delectable recipes different flavors different textures you are going to be a hit at the holiday cookie exchange I wish you and yours the best for this holiday season and I will see you again for another episode of baking

Wisdom there’s always time for another Cookie So Soft in the center