Dainty & Delicious- Raspberry Treasures for the Christmas Eve

On the eve of Christmas serve these delicate & delicious raspberry treasures. These will surely be a huge hit when served with hot cup of coffee. These fruit filled cookies look elegant and surely become a favorite of your kids.

Ingredients:

• 1 Egg
• ½ Cup butter (softened)
• 1 Cup Flour
• ½ Cup Raspberry Filling
• 1 Teaspoon water
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 Package cream cheese (preferably softened)

Steps:

1. Take a large mixing bowl, beat cream butter & cream cheese then add vanilla and beat until smooth and fluffy. Combine flour & salt, add it to creamed mixture.
2. Divide dough in half and wrap each portion in plastic wrap. Place it in refrigerator for minimum one hour until it becomes easy to handle.
3. Now roll out dough to 1/8 in. thickness. Using a round 3-in. cookie cutter cut it nicely. Add a scoop of raspberry filling in the center of each. Now bring three edges together over filling, let them slightly overlap then gently pinch edges.
4. Now in a small bowl, beat together eggs & water. And brush over dough.
5. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Then bake it at 375 degree for 10-12 minutes or until they turn golden brown. Let it cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks.
6. Now your delicious raspberry cookies are ready to delight taste buds of your friends & folks.

Note:

We have used raspberry as a filling, you can use any other fruit filling for same.

3 DIY Christmas Gift Ideas

This Christmas shun store-bought gifts; bring out your creative side by trying these super simple & easy DIY Christmas Gift Ideas. Handmade gifts give a personal touch and are a beautiful way to show your warmth and feelings for the person.
Try these DIY Ideas and leave everyone in your recipient’s list happily gifted.

1)Teacup Candles

Material Needed:

• Teacups
• Pans
• Tongs or nippers (to easily grip or lift objects)
• Candle thermometer
• Wicks
• Wick sustainers
• Wooden skewers
• Partly used old candles

Steps:

• Take a small pan and set it over a larger pan filled with simmering water, use it to melt down old candles.
• Insert thermometer to the upper pot and keep the temperature about 185 degrees. Now use tong to remove old wicks.
• Cut out a piece of wicking 2 inches more than cup’s height. Carefully secure one end to a wick sustainer while tie the other end around the wooden skewer.
• Now for coating, dip wicking & sustainer into melted wax.
• Remove & stick sustainer to cup’s bottom.

2)Decorated wooden gift boxes

Steps:

• It is super easy to make these beautiful wooden gift boxes. All you need to do is either get some store bought small gift boxes or use the one you have at home by decorating them.
• Just cover the boxes with fabric, firstly cut the fabric to fit around the box and let it end just below the lid of the box.
• You can spray the fabric with an adhesive and pastes directly onto the box and decoupage with fabric glue preferably ModPodge.
• Let the recipient’s taste be reflected in the fabric you use for decorating gift box. Fill this box with some goodies like handmade Christmas cookie or some surprise and delight the recipient.

3)Photo Bookmark

Supplies Needed:

• Ribbon (I tried with grosgrain ribbon)
• Colored tissue paper
• Photos
• Thread
• Needle
• Scissors
• Ribbon

Steps:

• Cut a piece out of grosgrain ribbon approximately 2 inches wide and 2.5 or maximum 3 inches more than the height of book (in case you are planning to give one with bookmark).
• You can snip a point at each end to prevent it from any kind of fraying. Then sew a stamp size photograph to the ribbon and hand stitch each corner.
• You can present the bookmark with a new book or novel. One added tip would be wrapping the book with colored tissue paper and give it an elegant finishing by covering it with a pretty ribbon bow.