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The holiday season is here and that means lots of holiday cookies and sweets!

Simply Impressive Cooking School

Below are two different shortbread cookie recipes sure to bring in the Yuletide spirit.

And learn how to make a holiday sweet that has the best of both worlds -- caramel and chocolate! Called turtles, these sweet treats are a favorite for everyone! See the recipes below.

Fannie Mae Caramels:
Yield: about 110 pieces

4 cups granulated sugar
2 cups light corn syrup
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups walnuts, optional
Dipping chocolate or wax paper cut into rectangles

Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking pan or two 8x8 pans very well.

Tip: this is a good time to use silicone pans, if you have them.

In a heavy 6-quart Dutch oven (or larger), combine sugar, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, milk, whipping cream and butter. Place over medium heat and stir occasionally with wooden spoon or silicone spatula until comes to boil. Clip on candy thermometer. Cook, stirring constantly, until candy reaches 240? or soft ball stage. This mixture will be very hot. Do not get any on your skin.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla extract and nuts, if using. Pour into baking pan or silicone molds without scraping the sides of the pan. Allow to stand overnight.

Cut into 1-inch squares. Wrap in wax paper, dip in chocolate or make turtles.

Turtles:
Yield: Makes 110

4-6 oz. butter
18-20 oz. pecan halves (about 330)
salt to taste
1 recipe caramel
30 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or confectionary coating)
4 tsp. shortening

Use homemade caramel that has set up overnight. Optionally, you can use Kraft caramels, but I do not guarantee that they will be fantastic!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place about 2 ounces of butter in a large baking sheet with sides, and melt it in the oven. Pour in enough pecans to cover the bottom of the pan. Coat the pecans with butter and make sure that they stay in a single layer. Roast the pecans until they begin to toast and you can smell them, stirring once (about 5-10 minutes). Remove the nuts from the oven and lightly salt them. You may need to do this several times.

Meanwhile, remove the caramel from the pan and cut it into 1 inch squares. This is easiest with a pizza cutter, but a knife will work, too.

Melt the chocolate or confectionary coating, if using. If you are going to temper the chocolate, follow the directions provided in this document. Otherwise, melt the chocolate and shortening gently in a microwave or on top of a double boiler. Be careful not to scorch chocolate or get any water in it or it will seize.

Take a piece of caramel and slightly shape it into a circle using your fingers. Using 3 pecans per turtle, arrange the pecans so that they divide the caramel into thirds. Optionally you can place the pecans in the shape of a triangle. The warm pecans help melt the caramel around the nuts. I like the tips of the pecans to hang off the caramel so that they look like feet.

You can either dip the turtles into melted chocolate ‘fondue style’ or my favorite. Spoon chocolate on top of the caramel so that it leaves the tip of the ‘feet’ uncovered. It is your choice, but I think they look richer when the whole thing is not covered with chocolate..

Tip: you might find it easier to make a whole bunch of "naked turtles", then dip them in the melted chocolate. To keep the chocolate warm you can keep it in a double boiler, or quickly reheat in the microwave. Remember, if using tempered chocolate, follow the rules for keeping it tempered.

Take the dipped turtles and place them on wax paper on a cookie sheet. While chocolate should not be refrigerated (or it will bloom), I refrigerate them for a few minutes to harden the chocolate quickly.

Scottish Shortbread Cookies:
Yield: Makes 48 cookies

1/4 cup powdered confectioners sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups butter or 2 1/2 sticks, softened (Do Not Substitute)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Additional powdered sugar for sprinkling on the top of the cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut each stick of butter into 8 to 10 pieces and put into a large bowl. Cutting the butter into pieces will make it easier to mix into the sugar.

Place the granulated sugar and powdered sugar into the bowl with the butter and mix with an electric mixer until the sugar is well mixed in.

Add the flour to the bowl with the butter and sugar. SLOWLY turn on the beater and mix until the flour is mixed into the butter. Do not over mix. Dough will be very crumbly. Using your very clean hands, press the dough together until it holds together. (Optionally, you can place the dough in a zip top plastic bag and press together to form a dough. Knead lightly until dough holds together. Remove from bag.)

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. We will be flattening the cookies with the palm of our hands and also working with a cookie press. (At home, you can flatten each with a cookie press, fork, the bottom of a glass lightly moistened with water or the palm of your hand.)

Bake for about 15 minutes or until very pale golden. Do not overbake.

Remove from cookie sheets, cool completely on wire racks. Sprinkle tops with extra powdered sugar.

Note: Since there are not many ingredients in this cookie, it is very important that you use the best quality ingredients. Butter will give your cookie a very wonderful, rich flavor. Substituting margarine will not taste as good.