Have a Blessed Christmas!

I know it’s a busy time of the year and most of us won’t have time to be posting much in the days and weeks ahead. May you have a blessed Christmas with your families!

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Some of our Christmas Favorites

Here are a few of our family’s favorite Christmas recipes.

Pound Cake
I got this recipe from an Asheville NC cookbook my sister gave me called Mountain Elegance. I’m not wild about most pound cakes, but the cream cheese in this one makes it especially good. It would be very good for someone who’s trying to gain weight. The recipe is called Fuller’s Finest Pound Cake. I made a few minor changes to the original recipe. Note, there is no leavening in this cake so it feels pretty heavy. It’s good toasted for breakfast with some extra butter!
3 cups sugar
3 sticks butter, melted (original recipe has 2 sticks margarine, 1 butter)
1 8 oz Philadelphia Cream cheese, soft
8 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (original recipe also has 1 tsp rum flavoring)
3 cups flour

Cream butter and cream cheese together. Add sugar and mix well. Add the vanilla and blend in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour gradually and blend well. Grease and flour two bread pans. Bake at 225-250 degrees for 2 hours.

Fannie May Fudge

A friend shared this fudge recipe with me. It’s supposed to be the original Fannie May Fudge recipe. It’s very easy to make and is wonderful. Many people have asked me for the recipe. I don’t make it every year anymore, but my boys loved to “help” when they were little and would carefully count out all the marshmallows for me. Be careful during the boiling stage because it splashes and can burn you.
4 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
13 oz. milk chocolate chips (I use an 11 1/2 oz bag for both)
13 oz. semi sweet chocolate
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
25 large marshmallows
(3/4-1 cup pecans or walnuts if desired)

Melt butter, add sugar, milk and vanilla. Then boil for two minutes. Remove from heat. Quickly add marshmallows and then baking chocolate. Stir well. Add in the other two bags of chocolate chips. Apply heat if necessary to melt chocolate pieces.
Pour into a greased 9 by 13 glass pan. Cut when slightly hardened.

The following recipe is from Joy of Cooking. I substitute a little more white sugar for some of the brown called for in the original recipe because the full amount of brown sugar turns almost to taffy around the edges and it is harder to put the icing on. Joy of Cooking calls them Pecan or Angel Slices. She says “One fan says her family is sure these are the cakes St. Peter gives little children at the Gates of Heaven to get them over the first pangs of homesickness. Her family has dubbed them Angel Cookies…” We call them “Angel Bars”.

Angel Bars

First you make the pastry layer.
Cream together:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup white sugar
Beat in:
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
Add in:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
Press into a 9 by 12 glass pan, adding more flour if necessary. Bake 10 minutes at 325.

Mix together:
2 beaten eggs
1 1/4 brown sugar (Joy of Cooking has 1 1/2 cups brown and no white)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup flaked coconut (3 0z)
1 cup chopped pecans
2 TBSP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
Mix all ingredients together. Pour over the pastry. Bake at 325-350 for 20-25 mins.
When cool ice with:
2 cups confectioners sugar
enough lemon juice from fresh squeezed lemon(s) to make a spreadable icing. Let icing harden before slicing and serving.