If you have visitors on Christmas Eve, before you put the kids to bed for santa coming, there is a tradition of handing out sweet treats to your visitors as a sign of good will and neighbourly love and friendship to your fellow men.

Come on, this tradition is common in the USA, but could the Brits take it and give it a try? It's worth it.

Here's a few good recipes for cookies for your Christmas Eve visitors.

Chocolate chip and cinnamon cookies

INGREDIENTS

30 Servings

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tablespoon McCormick® Ground Cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons McCormick® All Natural Pure Vanilla Extract

1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Drop by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

Winter spice stamp cookies

Just wing it for this one

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1bteaspoon vanilla

2cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup coarsely chopped nuts, if desired

Method

Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

2 In large bowl, beat softened butter and sugars with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon about 1 minute or until fluffy, scraping side of bowl occasionally.

3 Beat in egg and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour mixture just until blended (dough will be stiff). Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

4 Onto ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart.

5 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Store covered in airtight container.

Santa's cookie recipes.

(This recipe comes directly from www.foodnetwork.com: this is a santa Claus cookie recipe, directly from Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman.)

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Don't they look delicious? Chocolate and mint candy canes go hand in hand, yummy! Here's the recipe.

https://pin.it/6cyIkZN

Pioneer Woman Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
8 ingredients

Refrigerated
1: Egg, whole

Baking & spices
1/2 cup: Cocoa powder, unsweetened
2 1/2 cups: Flour
1 cup: Powdered (confectioners) sugar
1 tsp: Salt
2 tsp: Vanilla

Dairy
2 sticks: Butter, salted

Other
: 4 ounces, weight (4 squares) white baking chocolate

Method (look at the video below.)

Classic Santa Claus Sugar Cookies

All-Vegetable Shortening

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups Pillsbury BEST™ All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

FOR THE ICING

4 c. Powdered Sugar - sifted

3 T. Corn Syrup

3 T. Milk or water

1/2 t. Almond Extract - can use Vanilla Extract

Food coloring

1/4 c corn syrup and 1/4 c. water mixed together and set aside

INSTRUCTIONS

Beat shortening and sugar in large bowl with mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla until well blended.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Gradually add to shortening mixture on low speed until blended. Divide dough into three pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375ºF. Roll 1 piece of dough at a time on lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut dough with 2 to 3-inch floured cookie cutters. Place 1-inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 5 to 9 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

FOR THE ICING

Sift the powdered sugar into a mixing bowl.

Combine the corn syrup, milk (or water), and flavoring.

Turn the mixer on low until everything is moist - scrape the bowl often.

Turn the mixer to medium and mix until everything is well blended and smooth.

(a little more syrup/water mixture might be needed at this point)

DECORATING TIP: We don't have the white and red stripes touch because they'll eventually bleed into each other as the cookies sit. I love the separated stripes for a fun and clean look!

For a bonus recipe for Santa, if he ain't in the mood for cookies, here's a recipe for Ree drummonds After 8 brownie bites. Gives santa something a little bit different to snack on and freshen his breath in one. Ree Drummond says this recipe is rich, and tasty.

50 whole Andes Mints.

1 stick 1/2 Cup Butter, Softened.

1 cup Sugar.

2 ounces, weight Unsweetened Chocolate.

2 whole Eggs.

3/4 cups All-purpose Flour.

1/4 teaspoon Mint Extract.

1 Tablespoon Butter.

Method:

First make the brownies! Throw 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate into a bowl. (Note that I doubled this yesterday, but the quantities I’m giving you are for one batch. Sometimes I confuse even myself.)

Melt it in the microwave…
 
Stir it around a bit…
 
Then peel the Andes mints…

Add eight of them to the chocolate…
 
And stir them around until they melt, which will happen really quickly.

That may have been the longest run-on sentence I’ve written all week.

And yes, I realize it’s only Monday. But still!

Next up, throw a stick of butter into the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment. Not two sticks! One stick!

Unless you want to double the recipe. Then use two sticks. Also, stand on one leg and recite the Gettysburg Address while you do it. Simon Says!

I have no idea what that meant.

Add a cuppa sugar…

And mix it together until it’s really well combined. Spread some on a piece of bread, fold the bread in half, and enjoy yourself a butter and sugar sandwich.

Don’t really do that sandwich part. That would be excessive and wrong. We’ll wait and do that on Tuesday.

Next, beat in two eggs one at a time.

Then, if it’s totally cooled, slowly drizzle in the unsweetened/Andes mixture, scraping the bowl to get all the goodness in there.

After it’s initially mixed in, scrape the bowl, then add in 1/4 teaspoon of mint extract…

And mix it to combine.

Add 3/4 a cup of flour. Not 1 1/2 cups as shown here.

Once they have baked, transfer on to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. Now, when I filled the muffin pan, I used a scoop that was a little too big and the brownie bites baked over the surface of the pan a bit, which meant they had little wide ridges around the bottom. Ideally, the bites would not have this—they’d be nice and neat and uniform.

But a brownie is a brownie, no matter how misshapen it is.

While the brownies are cooling, throw a bunch (25-30) of Andes mints into a bowl…

With a tablespoon of butter. Microwave this for about 45 seconds, or until the mints are melted.

Chop up an ounce of bittersweet chocolate really finely…

Then throw it into the bowl…

And stir it around till it’s smooth. The bittersweet chocolate gives the melted mints a little bit of structure and keep the whole thing from being way too sweet.

Spoon the chocolate mixture over each brownie bite…

Or dunk the bottom (which is now the top) of the brownie bites straight into the chocolate
 
Either way, you want ’em coated.

Chop up some more mints (you’ll need them finer than this.)

And sprinkle them over the top after the chocolate cools and starts to set (don’t do it right away or the pieces will slide right off.)

Stick the pan in the freezer for ten minutes, just to set the chocolate a bit and make them easy to handle.

Sweet little two-bite wonders! Visually, they’re sort of a cross between a mini-cake and a truffle.

 
 
 I’ve made a version of these before, by the way, using a simple ganache. But these mint ones. Wow. As cute as they are…

They’re a thousand times more delicious. The brownie’s really soft and moist, the mint candy coating is totally yummy, and the pieces of Andes on top are the icing on the cake.

INGREDIENTS

50 whole Andes Mints

1 stick 1/2 Cup Butter, Softened

1 cup Sugar

2 ounces, weight Unsweetened Chocolate

2 whole Eggs

3/4 cups All-purpose Flour

1/4 teaspoon Mint Extract

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 ounce, weight Bittersweet Chocolate, Chopped Fine

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray mini muffin pan generously with baking spray.

Melt unsweetened chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Remove from microwave and stir in 8 Andes mints until all melted. Let cool slightly.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream 1 stick of butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. With the mixer on low, drizzle in the cooled chocolate mixture slowly, mixing until it's combined. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, add mint extract, then mix again.

Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, scoop batter into mini muffin tins. Bake until done, about 13 to 15 minutes. Turn upside down out of pan and allow to cool.

Combine 25 unwrapped Andes mints in a bowl with the tablespoon of butter and chopped bittersweet chocolate. Microwave and stir until melted and smooth.

Dip the brownie bites in the chocolate, concentrating on the top "cone" part. Allow to set for a few minutes. Chop the remaining Andes mints and sprinkle them on the top.

Set in the freezer fminutes if you need them to set right away. Yum