Delicious cookies with an unfortunate name

Eggnog Logs. Weirdly alliterative name. Delicious taste.

These are the cookies I elected to bake for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. These are a dense butter cookie, swathed in rum flavored frosting, and dusted with nutmeg. Three lucky winners, Steff in Austin, Erin in Brooklyn, and Suzy in San Francisco will soon be receiving boxes in the mail with one dozen freshly baked Eggnog Logs.

I vacillated between Eggnog Logs and Norwegian Christmas Rings. Both are sturdy cookies with sugary toppings - holiday cookie staples. But, after extensive customer research, I decided that the Norwegian Christmas Rings, which use hard boiled eggs mashed through a fine sieve (instead of butter) as their creamy base, might be too weird for my new food blogging buddies to taste. So, Eggnog Logs won.

In my earlier, more adventurous cooking days I found the recipe for

Eggnog Logs. Not sure where, or when, but they've been a staple of my holiday baking for nearly 20 years. With that said, here's the recipe:

Eggnog Logs

Cookie

1 c butter - softened

3/4 c

granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp rum flavoring

1 egg

3 c flour

1 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream the butter and sugar.
3. Add egg, vanilla and rum flavoring. Blend well.
4. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. (After flour is added the dough might get crumbly. At this point I knead by hand to get the dough nice and creamy.)
5. Shape dough into "logs" about 1/2" wide and 1" long. (I roll by hand into ropes and then slice into logs).
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until golden brown.

While the cookies cool, prepare the rum frosting.

Rum Frosting

3 tbsp butter - softened

1/2 tsp rum flavoring

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 c confectioner's sugar

2-3 tbsp milk.

Mix butter, rum flavoring, vanilla and 1/2 c of confectioner's sugar together. Gradually add the remaining 1 & 1/2 c of sugar and up to 3 tbsp of milk. Tint the frosting if you choose. (I never choose to - who ever heard of a red log?)

When cookies are cool frost them. Draw the tines of a fork lengthwise through the frosting. Dust with nutmeg.

Merry Christmas and happy eating!

PS: Are you an adventurous baker? Want to try the Norwegian Christmas Rings? Here's the recipe.

Norwegian Christmas Rings

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

1 & 1/4 c confectioner's sugar

1 c. + 1 tbsp butter - softened

vanilla (few drops)

2 & 1/3 c flour

1 egg yolk - beaten

sugar crystals

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Boil (3) eggs 10-12 minutes. Peel in cold water and strain through a fine sieve.
3. Stir in 1 egg yolk and confectioner's sugar.
4. Gradually work in butter and vanilla
5. Knead to make a soft dough.
6. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
7. After chilling, roll dough into 4" pieces approximately 1/4" wide. Brush the ends of each piece with egg yolk and form into rings.
8. Brush tops of rings egg yolk and sprinkle with sugar crystals.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Eat and enjoy!