By now, most of those effected by the Blizzard of ‘09 should have found a way to dig themselves out from under the crushing weight of snow they woke to find yesterday. I know that here in Virginia, the use of the word crippled is not to strong to describe the state of the area. Of course, the Commonwealth of Virginia is simply not prepared, 
nor should they necessarily be, for a storm that dumps a blanket of two feet of snow across the entire state. In addition to the woes of the snow removal crews, there is the fact that people down here can’t drive worth a damn to begin with, adding snow to the mix is a sure fire recipe for disaster.
Traffic problems aside, the Blizzard of ‘09 did give me an opportunity to do something I was hoping that I would get a chance to do but wasn’t certain that I would have the time. That is to make Christmas cookies. Ms Cocktail’s mom takes this to the extreme, sometimes making as many as twenty varieties for the Christmas season. I have much more modest goals; just getting one variety made is a serious accomplishment. So when we heard that a big storm was coming, Ms Cocktail and I headed to the store to pick up the necessary ingredients for the cookies and of course, the requisite eggnog for the chefs.
I would truly love to claim this recipe because these are my favorite of all the ones that my mother-in-law makes, but it really comes from a collaboration between Ms Cocktail and her mom. They call them Hungarian cookies, but that’s not exactly correct. The dough is from a Hungarian cookies recipe but the filling is something from their fevered imaginations. Since “Drunken Reflections of a Hungarian Cookie”, while descriptive, doesn’t have quite the ring to it that I’d like, I’ll call these “Mini Cherry Turnovers” for simplicity’s sake. Happy Holidays everyone!
Mini Cherry Turnovers
Cherry Filling
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbs corn starch
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice
20 maraschino cherries, minced
1 1/2 Tbs butter
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a 1 1/2 qt saucepan. Gradually stir in the orange juice. Stir in the cherry syrup, cherries and butter. Cook over high heat until the butter is melted and the mixture thickens and boils, stirring constantly. Lower heat to medium low and continue cooking and stirring for another minute. Remove from heat and let cool.
Dough
2 sticks of butter
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp almond extract
Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Mix together with the flour and almond extract until a solid ball forms.
Turnovers
Work on a lightly floured surface. Break off a piece of the dough and roll out very thin (1/8” thick or less). Cut circles with a 2 1/2 inch round cutter or drinking glass. Place 3/4 tsp of filling in the center of a circle, fold in half and press/seal the edges with a fork. Bake at 375 for 10 to 15 minutes. (Author’s note: We did two batches, one on a regular cookie sheet and one on an airbake cookie sheet. The airbake sheet took the 15 minutes, the standard cookie sheet took 10 minutes. Even though it took longer, the airbake batch came out better IMO.)
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