Social Media Roundup Christmas Goodies 1

Social Media Roundup Christmas Goodies 1: Small Batch 'Pusharatas, Mama's Red Velvet Cake, Pecan Tassies, Magic Cookie Bars, Tiger Butter Bark, Adults only 'Old Timey Rum Balls or Bourbon Balls. Brown Sugar Cocoons, Sugared Nuts and Classic Oven Baked Chex Party Mix.

Social Media Roundup Christmas Goodies

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Let's get to it!

A Mississippi Gulf Coast Christmas tradition! Small Batch 'Pusharatas

A Croatian deep-fried fritter that is fruit and citrus based and well-loved here where I'm from!

'Mama's Red Velvet Cake'

A classic southern cake that usually makes its appearance over the Christmas holidays.

These 'Pecan Tassies' are a southern Christmas favorite for sure!

Little bite sized pecan desserts, made with a cream cheese pastry crust baked with a brown sugar-based pecan filling.

A tender brown sugar and pecan cookie widely known in South Louisiana as cocoons and very popular around the holidays. Pictured here with Pecan Crispies and Sugar and Spice Cookies.

Brown Sugar Cocoons

I'm sure you'll recognize these cookies as they are a holiday favorite, for sure!

These wonderful cookies are known by many names, mostly depending on how they are shaped. Some of the more familiar ones being fingers, ladyfingers, crescents, sand tarts, sand dabs, Mexican wedding cookies, Russian teacakes, Chinese tea cookies, butterfingers, petticoat tails, pecan dreams, snowballs, moon cookies, sandies and Italian wedding cookies, they are well-loved. I'm sure there are many other names they are known by around the world!

A classic sugar cookie with the inclusion of spices, perfect for the holiday cookie tray.

Sugar and Spice Cookies

Certain spices just speak to the holidays don't they?

They make their way into a lot of baked goods during the season and just the aroma can stir up some memories of holidays past - those days we all seem to miss and long for in today's trying times.

Most spiced cookies use molasses though, and the flavor of molasses can be a bit overwhelming. I didn't really want that depth of flavor in these cookies. I was searching for a lighter sugar cookie with just a hint of the flavors of the holiday.

A crisp cookie, made with butter and shortening, brown sugar and pecans.

Pecan Crispies

No time for much chat, Christmas is here and I wanted to sneak in one more recipe! Some of you who scroll past the chatty stuff will probably be happy to hear that! No worries. It's all good.

Y'all already know I'm not super crazy about sweet stuff - oh I enjoy something sweet occasionally, and I do love a good cookie - I mean who doesn't love a handful of freshly baked cookies, right?

Chewy oatmeal cookies, with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips scattered throughout!

Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are my number one favorite cookie.

Although I do enjoy all kinds of cookies from shortbread to tea cakes, to chocolate chip to classic snickerdoodles, oatmeal has always topped the list.

Little bite sized pecan desserts, made with a cream cheese pastry crust baked with a brown sugar based pecan filling.

Southern Pecan Tassies

These little bite-sized treats are popular on the Christmas tray because they are easy to make and, even better, delicious to eat!

Internet bloggers often confuse them as mini pecan tarts or pies, though us southerners know them as pecan tassies. They're similar, of course, to pecan pie, although most pecan pies have a syrup base - most often corn, cane or sorghum are used - but tassies always have a brown sugar based filling.

A classic butter cookie made using a cookie press, lightly glazed and decorated with sprinkles, candied cherry halves and nonpareils.

Classic Butter Spritz Cookies

Simple spritz cookies. You gotta love them for the ease and simplicity!

A basic, if not a little extra buttery, sugar cookie dough, that's easy to work with, and that you stuff into a tube and press a button that squirts out a perfect little cookie. In fact, spritz comes from the German word spritzen, meaning to squirt - oh my. I think spritz sounds so much nicer don't you?!

 

 A classic Christmas cookie for many families, this soft and puffy butter cookie uses anise for flavoring and is finished with a lemony, powdered sugar glaze and colorful nonpareils.

Italian Anise Cookies

These are a classic Christmas cookie all around the country, and yes, even in the Deep South for many! I love them, for one, because they are as easy to make as spritz cookies, but also because they are a slightly different take on the classic butter cookie.

One bite and you wonder, hmmm.... what is that?

A traditional Mississippi Gulf Coast Christmas treat, this is my small batch version of pusharatas - a heavily spiced, drop fritter, made with apple, orange and lemon, raisins and pecans, and deep fried and finished with a dip in a thick powdered sugar glaze.

Small Batch Pusharatas

I love pusharatas. Love. Love. Love. But, because of their history here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the best recipes are mostly huge batches, making hundreds! That is excellent when you are giving them away as gifts, of course, but sometimes you just want enough for your own cookie trays, so this year I wrote a smaller batch recipe.

A wonderful heirloom recipe dating back 100 years, this simple pecan cookie bar is topped with a brown sugar meringue layer, giving them a slightly crisp, cracked topping.

Original Old Fashioned Mud Hen Bars

You may never have heard of Mud Hen Bars before, or you may have seen them for first time in the last couple of years across the explosion of food blogs, but it's actually one of those recipes that's been around even longer than I have.

Santa Claus Whiskers Cookies - a slice and bake butter cookie, filled with chopped candied cherries and pecans, and rolled in coconut before baking.

Santa Claus Whiskers Cookies

I have the tried and true favorites that I like to make every Christmas, but sometimes I like to add something new to the cookie tray and this was one that I kept running into when browsing my cookbook collection. It's a slice and bake log cookie, so it needs an overnight rest once you roll it up, but it comes together easy enough.

Top Favorite Sweets for Christmas

Top Favorite Sweets for Christmas from Deep South Dish

When the holidays roll around, things can get pretty hurried up and hectic, that's for sure. It's awfully convenient to run by the deli and pick up already made cookies and sweets, or order gourmet treats from across the internet, and I certainly do that too, but there's really nothing that can beat the taste of homemade from scratch treats that come right out of your own kitchen.

Classic Southern pecan pie bars with a touch of cocoa in the crust, a layer of melted chocolate, salted and roasted pecans, and a splash of bourbon in the filling... if you like.

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Most Southerners certainly have a pecan pie recipe in their recipe box, and really, these bars are simply an extension of that pie, made into convenient little bite-sized squares. Add a little chocolate to the mix, and, a splash of bourbon if you dare, and you've got some fantastic pecan pie bars.

Forgotten Cookies are another heritage recipe that has been around for years. Made with egg whites and sugar whipped up into a meringue, and typically chocolate chips and minced pecans folded in, they are always a holiday favorite.

Forgotten Cookies

Traditionally, Forgotten Cookies were the last cookie to go into the oven on cookie night, the oven was then turned off, and the cookies left to dry overnight, which is where they got the name "forgotten." Best served fresh of course, so don't make them too far in advance, but meringue cookies will keep well for a few days, giving you at least a little bit of leeway for advance prep.

Crockpot Candy Peanut Clusters

Crockpot Chocolate Peanut Clusters are a favorite holiday candy made from a mixture of almond bark, baking chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanuts.

Crockpot Candy

Crockpot Candy Clusters are a popular confection at Christmastime everywhere, and usually includes pretty much the same combination of ingredients - some kind of mixture of chocolate, along with almond bark and peanuts.

I wanted to use a combination of honey roasted peanuts along with regular dry roasted peanuts this time, so I decided to pair up the almond bark coating, with a bittersweet baking chocolate, instead of the German chocolate that is often typically used.

 

Old fashioned peanut butter balls are a rich dessert, both in its heritage and its taste. A classic Christmas confection, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar are rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate. If you remember these from your childhood, one bite will take you right back.

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Balls

In the Deep South, we don't typically do buckeyes, the peanut butter and chocolate confection from Ohio, that is partially dipped so that the result is patterned after the nut of the buckeye tree. We do peanut butter balls down here. The concept, of course, is the same, we just completely encase our peanut butter balls in chocolate. Raise your hand if you have memories of these peanut butter balls at Christmastime. I certainly do.

Old Timey Rum Balls or Bourbon Balls

Rum or bourbon balls made with crushed vanilla wafers, powdered sugar, cocoa, ground nuts and bourbon or rum. Balls may be rolled in a variety of coatings including powdered sugar, cocoa mixed with powdered sugar, ground nuts or crushed cookies.

Old Timey Rum Balls

Old timey bourbon or rum balls have been a holiday favorite here in The Deep South for as long as I can remember, and this is the basic recipe, with a few coatings and add-in variations. While I know that cake balls and cookie truffles are all the rage these days, to me these are the original title holder since the 1960s.

Mama's Pecan Finger Cookies, Crescents and Snowball Cookies

A heritage recipe from my Mama's collection, these pecan shortbread finger cookies are known by many names. Mama's recipe is just perfect and it is the one Christmas cookie above all others in my holiday baking!

Pecan Finger Cookies

Pecan finger cookies just speak Christmas to me. My Mama passed away just before Christmas in 1997, but this is the recipe she used to make with her sisters on their big Christmas holiday cookie night. One night while browsing through Mama's old cookbooks, there it was, handwritten in the back of one of them.

Southern Christmas Dinner Menu and Recipe Ideas

A Southern Christmas menu and collection of Christmas recipes, all from DeepSouthDish.com.

In my extended Southern family, Christmas dinner is always a near duplicate of our Thanksgiving dinner with the addition of seafood dishes, but even in the South, recipes for a Christmas menu can range from the familiar turkey and dressing, to large cuts of prime beef and crown roasts, leg of lamb, dishes centered around at least seven fish recipes and even meals centered around BBQ fare or Sunday gravy and lasagna.

Pecan Cocoon Crescents