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Ronnie's raspberry crescents

Time1 hour
YieldsMakes 2 dozen cookies
Ronnie's raspberry crescents
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Many hands help make holiday cookies. That’s true when you’re gathered with family and friends and vats of colored icing. It’s true when you’re running a contest for cookie recipes, when it takes thousands of readers, dozens of cooking school students and five hungry judges to choose the best. And, it turns out, that’s even true if you’re one of the winners.

This year’s Holiday Cookie Bake-Off attracted nearly 200 recipe entries. More than 7,000 votes were cast by readers on our Facebook page. We took the top 50 vote-getters to the folks at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, and students and faculty there baked them all off.

L.A. Times Food Editor Russ Parsons, Deputy Food Editor Betty Hallock and Times Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter spent one Saturday morning tasting every single one along with Lachlan Sands, dean of Le Cordon Bleu, and one of his students, Katherine Berg.

Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen was jammed with happy bakers and their helpers for the photo shoot for today’s cover story. But none of them was happier than Nicole Cleghorn, who flew in for the event from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

Her husband is a staff sergeant stationed there, and she follows the Times Food section online. So when she learned that her white chocolate turtle cookies were chosen among our 10 favorites in this year’s contest, she planned to email us a photograph.

But then her friends came through. One, whose husband travels a lot on business, donated enough airline miles to get her a free ticket. Five others chipped in enough cash for a couple of nights in a hotel. And so Cleghorn was able to join the nine local winners in the Test Kitchen.

She brought a box of intricately decorated cookies she’d made at home and marveled at the turn of events. “That hotel!” she said. “My goodness, it has glass elevators and robes in every room.”

Amazing what great cookies -- and the hands of many friends -- can do.

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Cookies

1

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until well-blended. Slowly beat in the flour until well combined to form a soft dough. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap each disk in wax paper and chill for at least 1 hour, up to overnight.

2

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball to about a 9-inch circle. Cut each circle into 12 wedges. Put a scant half teaspoon of jam on the wide end of each wedge. Roll each wedge from the wide end toward the point to form a crescent. Place each crescent point-side down on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the cookies and cool on a rack.

Glaze and assembly

1

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and lemon juice until smooth to form a glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies.

Adapted from a recipe by Kim Nykanen.