Kastil Eavenshade is here to help us celebrate the coming holiday season with a cookie recipe and news of her free read

I love baking. It's something I've done since I was allowed to touch the stove. The go to recipe has always been chocolate chip cookies from the back of the Hershey chocolate chip package. I follow the instructions except I don't wait to add the eggs before the main dry ingredients.

Over the years I've experimented with different recipes looking for different cookie recipes to try. I've even made Lintzer cookies and boy are they time consuming to make! One of my family's must have cookies are Russian Tea Cakes (recipe below). I think if I ever said I wasn't going to make them, I'd get a lynch mob outside of my house. ;)

So, in my latest release from Evernight Publishing—a free read, by the way—I mention baking cookies as a sign of affection. Why not? Homemade warm and gooey cookies are the bomb!

What's your go to homemade goody to wow the family?

BLURB:
After being dumped last year on Christmas Eve, Chris has tried to forget the girl who broke his heart and made him afraid to commit. When that magical time of the year comes around again, a beautiful vixen visits him in his dreams and fulfills his wildest fantasies. Only she turns out to be a flesh and blood elf from the North Pole. No matter how much he tries to distance himself from mysterious Holly, he can’t get her out of his mind. He hatches a plan to keep her from disappearing so he can finally ask her why she torments him body and soul. Is it lust or is it love? Only Holly knows and it’s going to take all of Chris’s resolve to find out before he falls for her charms.
Available at : Evernight Publishing  | All Romance eBook | Bookstrand

Russian Tea Cakes

What you need:

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened (as in leave it out on your counter for at least a couple of days)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups Flour

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (I use walnuts but you can use anything. I stick to savory because the recipe is sweet as it is)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Extra powdered sugar to coat the cookies after baking

Heat oven to 400ºF. Mix the butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl (or in my favorite, the KitchanAid mixer!). Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough holds together.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. For this, I use a small cookie scoop. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet—or a stoneware sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes (really about 15 if you use a stone) until they're just getting light brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool slightly on wire rack. While they're cooling, sprinkle powdered sugar on them. After they're completely cooled, toss them in a bag of powdered sugar and shake gently to thoroughly coat them.