Five Amish Holiday Favorites: Holiday Molasses Cookies, No-Bake Amish White Christmas Pie, Caramel Peanut Butter Rolls, Cinnamon Hard Candy, and Amish Cinnamon Pudding

By Kevin Williams

The Amish generally don't deck the halls with boughs of holly, but they do often cram the kitchen with tastes of jolly around this time of year. Food is one area where many Amish do celebrate the season, whether that be through fudges, cakes,  cookies, or pies.  Here is a round-up of five holiday favorites if you want to add a taste of Amish to your holiday menu!  A couple of quick hints to make the five recipes below more "user friendly."  If you see a recipe you like, I recommend highlighting it, copying it and pasting it into a word document and then printing it out.  If you try to print out this page, you'll get a bunch of ads with it also and you'll use up all your toner. So just copy and paste.  And on the cinnamon hard candy recipe, one ingredient is for cinnamon oil.  That one is tough to find, but I have seen it in Amish bulk food stores.  These five recipes to come me from far and wide.  The molasses cookie recipe here has been very popular and comes to me from an Amish family in Tennessee.  "White Christmas" pie is popular among the Amish and was featured in one of Amish author, Wanda Brunstetter's, books.

Amish Holiday Molasses Cookies

AMISH HOLIDAY MOLASSES COOKIES

¾ cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
½ cup molasses
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Cream together shortening and brown sugar.Stir in egg and molasses and mix well.Fold in dry ingredients and stir.
Cover and chill till firm (1-2 hours).Preheat oven to 350°.Roll dough into small balls and roll in white sugar.Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.Bake at 350° for 9-10 minutes.Leave on sheet one minute until set.

NO-BAKE WHITE CHRISTMAS PIE

½ cup sugar

¼ cup flour

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

½ teaspoon salt.

1 ¾ cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

¾ teaspoon almond extracts

1 cup coconut

3 egg whites,

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup sugar

½ cup whipping cream

Mix in saucepan sugar,  flour,  unflavored gelatin and salt.  Gradually stir in  milk.  Cook over medium heat till boiling.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from stove and let cool.   Add vanilla and almond extract and coconut when cool.

While the above mixture is cooling, beat 3 egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar till stiff peaks form.  Set aside.

Also during the cooling period, beat whipping cream till it is stiff.   Set aside.

Transfer the cooled mixture into a very large bowl.    Carefully add the beaten egg whites and the whipped cream.  Fold together.

Spoon the folded, fluffy pudding base-egg white-whipped cream mixture into a baked pie crust.  Sprinkle with coconut and chill for several hours and serve!

CARAMEL PEANUT BUTTER ROLLS

2 cups brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
½ tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup butter
Cook everything together to 240 on candy thermometer, stirring all the time. Remove from heat and pour into 8" x 8" x 2" greased pan. Let sit till very cold. Cut in 11/2" x 11/2" strips and form logs.

CINNAMON HARD CANDY

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

½ cup light corn syrup

¼ to ½ teaspoon cinnamon oil

½ teaspoon red food coloring

In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar, water and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Uncover and cook over medium-high heat, without stirring, until a candy thermometer reads 310° (hard-crack stage). Remove from the heat; stir in oil and food coloring, keeping face away from the mixture as the odor with be very strong.

Immediately pour onto a greased baking sheet. Quickly spread into a 13-in. x 9-in. rectangle. Using a sharp knife, score into 1-in. squares. Re-cut rectangle along scored lines until candy is cut into squares. Let stand at room temperature until dry. Separate into squares, using a knife if necessary. Yield: 1 pound.

AMISH CINNAMON PUDDING

1½ cups brown sugar
1½ cups cold water
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1-⅔ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Combine first three ingredients and bring to a boil. Mix rest of ingredients and put in pan and pour first mixture on top. sprinkle nuts on top and bake at 350° F. for 45 minutes. Cool. Top with whipped topping