I found these recipes in a book I'm giving to my daughter for Christmas...The Ultimate Short Cut Cookie Book. You may also want to check the web site of the brand of toffee bits you have used to see if they have a recipe. -Grainlady CASHEW BRICKLE COOKIES 1 (16.5-oz.) roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough 1 c. chopped lightly salted, roasted cashews 1/2 c. almond toffee baking bits Preheat oven to 375-degrees F. Spray two cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Cut cookie dough in half. Roll out half of the dough between two sheets of wax paper to form a 10x6-inch rectangle. Remove top sheet of wax paper. Invert dough onto one of the prepared cookie sheets. Remove remaining sheet of wax paper. Sprinkle dough evenly with half of the nuts and half of the toffee bits. Repeat with remaining dough, nuts, and toffee bits on second cookie sheet. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Cool on cookie sheets on a wire rack. Remove cookies to cutting board using two spatulas. Use a sharp knife to cut cooled cookies into irregular shapes. Makes about 42 cookies. ALMOND TOFFEE BARS 1 (16.5-oz.) roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough, well chilled 1 c. semisweet (or milk) chocolate chips 1 c. toffee baking bits 1 c. sliced (or chopped) almonds 1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Spray a 13x9-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with foil. Cut cookie dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices in bottom of the prepared pan. With floured fingers, press dough evenly to form crust. Sprinkle the chocolate chips, toffee bits, and almonds evenly over prepared crust. Drizzle evenly with sweetened condensed milk. Bake 25-28 minutes or until edges are bubbly and center is just lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately run a narrow metal spatula or table knife around edges of pan to loosen. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack; cut into bars. Makes 36 bars.

I have just had 3 funerals to bake for. I can't believe it's time to start cookies for Xmas. I'd much rather make biscotti than cut out cookies, even though I have a huge collection, over 200 I estimate, of cookie cutters. Only about 75 of those are strictly Xmas/Hannakah cutters. Someday I will count them. Of course some day I will really organize my recipes too! The 1st cookies I always make and freeze are the cream wafers. I need at least 15 dozen of them for all the family and friends that demand them. (My mother can;t really do them any more, so I have had to add her and my 2 brother to the list.) That's 360 cookies since they are sandwich cookies. I freeze them without the filling because they take up less space and I can usually force someone else to fill and assemble when it's time to distribute! Once they are done I can think about the other favorites. I rarely freeze the rolled sugar cookies and Swedish gingerbread. I do those with my nieces, again closer to the holiday, when they are in the mood. Then I make a few Stained Glass as well. They are also a pain, but I made them for my oldest grandson years ago, and of course they are his favorite. I freeze Spritz, Applesauce Cookies, a couple types of biscotti,and my favorite, Swedish Almond Cookies if I think I have time And the chocolate shortbread stars for stareos, if I make them. But Dorrie Greenspan's World Peace cookies are lots easier so I've made them the last 2 years. I just freeze the logs and bake as needed. I never freeze the bar cookies; peppermint brownies, oatmeal carmelitas, and peanut butter brownies. Or the fudge, toffee or meringues. I have a new recipe for caramel this year from Alice Medrich's new book. I have yet to find the perfect caramel recipe except the very expensive ones you buy. And last year I made spoon cookies for the 1st time because my friend who made them moved away. They don't really freeze... I would love to make Sarah Bernhardt's Netla. But I can't add another tedious cookie to the list. I made Sherry's Santa's helpers for the 1st funeral reception but they drove me crazy trying to get them small enough for the platters. They are incredible but I have renamed them Walnut Wonderfuls and will make them NOT at Xmas when I can serve large cookies all by them selves! Have you seen Gourmet's favorite cookies. There are a couple I'm very tempted by! Here is a link that might be useful: Favorite cookies 1941 - 2008

I freeze baked cookies all the time. I do use tins, but I would guess the caliber of the tin (tightness of the seal) is a big factor. I buy wax paper in boxes of 500 sheets cut 10"x10 3/4" and use that to line the tin and between layers. Two things that are big issues with freezing cookies - one is that the cookies must be thoroughly cooled. Otherwise they steam in the container. I also agree that types of cookies should not be mixed. The flavors intermingle and if a soft cookie is frozen with a crisp one, pretty soon they're all the same texture. If I've frozen a frosted cookie or one with something like a chocolate ganache top layer, I thaw the whole tin in the fridge. It helps prevent condensation. I also freeze dough. Usually I freeze slice-and-bake doughs, but other cookies can be shaped, frozen on a tray and then bagged up or vacuum-sealed. Carol

Thank you all! My cookies are Swedish, too, colleenoz! All the cookies I make for Christmas are either Swedish or Danish, handed down from my Danish grandmother (who married a Swede). Your recipe is probably just like mine. With equal amounts finely ground nuts and flour, they break apart in your mouth in a flurry of tender texture and flavor. For the first time ever, we had problems with the recipe, which is why they didn’t all get baked. We didn’t know whether to blame the new oven (which was a problem for pretty much everything) or a difference in the dough. I think maybe both. Instead of the normal 20 minutes at 350 to get slightly brown on the bottom, they took 40 minutes plus. Then, they shattered when trying to roll them in powdered sugar. I’m not good at analyzing a problem and knowing how to fix it. We used to buy the pecans pre-ground. The nut store we bought them at went out of business. We bought a 3 lb bag of whole pecans and ground them ourselves in the food processor. Last year went fine. This year the dough seemed too moist. We had a problem even forming the balls, then they shattered as I wrote above. I was in the process of adding more flour to compensate, and doing test bakes, when I decided it was time to pull the plug and stop baking. I think the pecans must have been very fresh, and were too moist. We ground them a couple of days ahead and I should have turned them and let them dry a bit, instead of covering the bowl. I noticed the ground pecans were moist, but I didn’t do anything with the knowledge. The pecan meal I used to buy pre-ground was much drier. Either that or leave out the 3 T of water the recipe calls for.