9-in-one Holiday Cookies

This is my FAVORITE holiday cookie recipe. After you are done making the base dough there are instructions to make 8 different cookies and when you end it looks like you made 8 batches of cookies but you didn't! I make these every year now and I don't even bother with other kinds of cookies. Why make a thousand cookies over days and days if I can make one recipe and it LOOKS like I made thousands of cookies over days and days? This coming so soon after my "Easy Pumpkin Pie Recipe" will probably establish me as one of the laziest moms around...but really - I love to find recipes that are easy so my kids can help more and so I can have more time to do more things! And these cookies are so buttery and yummy! They are gourmet. Hint: the hardest part of this recipe is gathering all the ingredients. Make substitutions if you need to - don't stress yourself! And I have a 9th idea...how about taking a bit of the white dough and spliting it in half, adding a bit of peppermint and red food coloring to one half and then twisting those into "candy canes" - see? Now you have NINE cookies! Here it is (I got this from a magazine 12 years ago...not sure what the copyright limit is on magazine articles and I can't find it online so I apologize if I am stepping over any boundaries here...)

8-in-One Cookies

Basic Dough

4 sticks of butter (2 cups)
1 cup of light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 lg. Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Beat all except flour until fluffy
Gradually beat in flour
Take ½ of the dough out to make chocolate dough by adding ¼ cup cocoa and ½ tsp. Vanilla.

Divy the dough into 4 parts each and add the following to them:

CHOCOLATE DOUGH divided into four parts makes:
Chocolate chunk
Hugs and kisses
Chocolate-marshamllow thumb-prints
Chocolate-vanilla spirals

VANILLA DOUGH divided into four parts makes:
Oatmeal/peanut butter cookies
Jam Thumb-prints
Apricot-pecan cookies
Chocolate-vanilla spirals

Oatmeal-peanut butter
1 part Vanilla dough
½ cup oats
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup creamy peanut butter

Jam Thumb Prints
1 portion vanilla dough
32 almond slices
1/3 cup apricot or raspberry jam

Roll Dough into 8 inch log
Slice into 16 pieces
Roll pieces into balls
Thumb-print balls
Put a small dab of jam and an almond in the “print”
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees



Apricot-Pecan
1 portion vanilla dough
¼ tsp. Ground cardamom
8 small dried apricots, diced
¼ cup chopped pecans

Mix cardamom and apricots into the dough
Roll and slice as in the jam prints
Put balls on greased cookie sheet
Bake 12-14 minutes

Chocolate Chunk
1 portion chocolate dough
¼ cup vanilla chips
¼ cup sliced almonds

Mix and bake as in recipes above 10-12 minutes in flattened balls.

Hugs and Kisses
1 portion chocolate dough

Roll as in jam thumb-prints.
Instead of jam put a “hugs and kisses” Hershey’s Kiss (The white and black ones) in the middle before baking 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chocolate Marshamallow Thumb Prints
1 portion chocolate dough
small jar of marshamallow topping or small marshmallows

Roll Dough into 8 inch log
Slice into 16 pieces
Roll pieces into balls
Thumb-print balls
Put a small dab of marshmallow sauce or 2 small marshmallows in the print
Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees


Chocolate-Vanilla Spirals
1 portion vanilla dough
1 portion chocolate dough

Roll out both doughs to approximately the same rectangular size.
Put the rectangles on top of each other and roll as if making cinnamon rolls
Slice into circlesBake on a tray for 10-12 minutes at 350