1 more to go

Only 1 more to go and I will have made 13 batches of Christmas cookies. I made four more batches just this week. Yes, while working during the day and wrapping presents at night and still getting workouts and other such in.  No, I am not a domestic goddess; my mood probably hasn't been the greatest this week - yes, I brought on this crazy cookie challenge, and yes I did stress myself out - nobody is making me bake 13 kinds of cookies this Christmas - but I have very high expectations for myself and I don't like to let myself down.

Okay, I cheated, I made a batch of cookies that was not from the book. Thinking back, I'm not really sure why I would do that to myself, but these are one of my favorites (that I only discovered last year).
Peanut Butter Blossoms (12-20-11)
You know, it's a peanut butter cookie with a hershey kiss pressed into it. You bake the cookie and then as soon as you take it out you push a hershey kiss into it so the cookie gets all cracked. Nothing better than peanut butter and chocolate.

#18 (12-21-11)
Crinkle-Top chocolate cookies
One of my favorite Christmas cookies that my mom usually made was the crinkles. These chocolate cracked cookies with powdered sugar on top. I found a very similar recipe in my book - except these crinkle cookies have chocolate chips in them as well. My sister in law wanted me to elaborate (I'm not sure on what - the recipe or my reaction to the cookie). This is your basic chocolate dough (mixed in with a little water) with some chocolate chips then rolled in powder sugar. They are soft when you bite into them and are very chocolatey. Is this good enough Cris? I gave them a 4 to start with but reduced it to a 3 when I tried them the next day. I think Mom's are better, but I can't do a side by side comparison because Mom is only making 12 kinds of cookies this year and the Crinkles is not one of them. Maybe my family members can leave comments after they try them this weekend.

#19
Peppermint Snowballs (12-22-11)
So not worth the effort. This ball has a creamy, peppermint red filling inside of it. They sound fantastic. The problem is the dough. It's very crumbly (made out of butter, powdered sugar and lots of flour). Ideally you take a ball of dough, press a well into it, fill it with filling and put a little more dough over it to smooth it out. The dough was not cooperative - again, very crumbly. So I ended up using a lot of dough to make it all stick together. The result is that it is a dense floury cookie with just a bit of filling on the inside.
After the cookie is baked you do roll it in a combination of crushed candy cane and powdered sugar. My cookies do not look like little snowballs though unless you like very bumpy snowballs with edges jagging out.
On the plus side though, I found a great way to crush candy canes - the Magic Bullet! Thank you for that wedding present!
(the cookies only get a 2 from me)

12-22-11
ANOTHER cookie not from the book.
I don't really have a name for these maybe just sugar cookie rolled in coconut with butterscotch and hot fudge goodness, but that doesn't quite roll of the tongue.
I've been making these for a few years. I got the recipe off the internet back in my bachelorette days when I didn't have a Taste of Home 623 cookie recipe book. I searched for Christmas Cookies and found this recipe. As the name implies, it's a sugar cookie rolled in coconut. Bake that and then top it with butterscotch topping and hot fudge on top of that.
Another favorite I will be making every year.

One more cookie tomorrow and then maybe a little break from baking. Tomorrow's recipe:
Chocolate Mint Dreams

I know, right!