Okay - I finally have some time to write some more. I made another batch this morning and have bars cooling on the rack (remember, this book has bars too). - I'm up to 17 batches now.
So batch #10 - Chocolate Shortbread - the start of the Christmas cookies (12/2/11)
So my friend Chelsea called to hang out. I invited her over for pancakes for dinner. I decided I should throw in a batch of cookies since I was out. I had to find a recipe that I had all the ingredients for - chocolate shortbread - all it needs is butter, cocoa, powdered sugar and flour. Kind of a weird cookie - very crumbly - I had to press the dough together to make it. My husband and I gave it a 2 at first, but they're strangely addictive. Anyways, Chelsea called later and said she's meeting a date (a 1st date) at a restaurant for a little bit but then she'll be free - so what ended up happening is I went on the date with her along with our other friend Trista. No, I did not invite myself to the date - Chelsea did - that's just how she was. So here Chelsea, Trista and I are at Stanley's ready to meet - some guy (cannot remember his name). Oh, and our friend Theresa was there too because she works there. All I know is I am very happy I do not have to do that dating thing again - and I'm sure I would've scared Mike away if I brought two other girls along on our date. The guy was cool though - we (the group) went out afterwards and such. What does this mean - that the cookies I made were not eaten that night. Oh well, I had something to take to Crafty Women (the name kind of speaks for itself - a group of women that get together and craft once a month - I scrapbook) the following weekend.
#11 Peppermint Brownies (12-6-11)
My work decided to have their holiday potluck on the 7th of December. That seemed rather early to me considering we work until the 23rd. I did not have my stock of cookies piled up to have ready for potlucks - so I needed to make an emergency dessert. Brownies are usually pretty quick - these brownies - from scratch - not so much; especially when I had to take 12 candy canes and crush them. Does anyone have good tips on crushing candy canes - I put them in a bag and used my rolling pin. First I tried rolling it over the candy canes, but ended up using the roller as a hammer. I wonder if my Magic Bullet would be good for grinding up candy canes - I'll have to remember that for next time. Overall, I didn't really like the brownies - dry and crumbly to me. My husband though gave them 5 smiley faces and the teachers at work complemented them - so I guess I won't cross it out of the book.
#12, #13 and #14 (12-10-11) Caramel Heavenlies, Colorful candy bar cookies, Santa Claus Cookies
(Cookies for the church potluck)
Did my big grocery shopping trip - tried to get all the supplies I needed for the 13 different kinds of christmas cookies I'm planning on making. But Rainbow was out of a lot of basic things. They didn't have maple flavoring (not so basic, but still), they were out of butter - how is a grocery store out of butter? I went on a Tuesday - not even a busy day. They were out of sweetened cocoa powder - am considering switching my loyalties to Cub.
Caramel Heavenlies - quick and easy - Just a graham cracker bottom with a bunch of stuff on it - marshmallows, a caramel topping (made with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla), almonds and coconut. This will be a repeat.
At this point I needed to text my husband (who was working on our new kitchen cabinets at my parents house - thank goodness because I've really discovered how much I hate my kitchen with all this baking I've been doing) - anyway, needed to text my husband with a list of supplies: Nestle white chocolate bar, maple flavoring, a reindeer cookie cutter if he could find it, and more mini snickers for the candy bar cookie. I didn't think it was that hard of a list, but he called me five times while he was at the store. When I texted him, I gave him very detailed descriptions of the packaging of these things, brands and the aisle to find it in. For each item he found he describe the packging, the size, the brand - I guess I should be thankful - he wanted to make sure he got it right. Of course, I'm at home trying to bake and the phone kept ringing. Oh, and he couldn't find the Nestle white chocolate but he found Ger-doll-lia (his pronunciation): Ghiradelli : )
Colorful Candy Bar Cookie: sugar cookie dough wrapped around a snickers bar then dipped in red or green sugar - Very Good!
Santa Claus Cookies: A nutter butter cookie dipped in white chocolate on both ends with a little red sugar sprinkled on top for his hat, a white chocolate chipped placed on it for the bauble of the hat and two mini choc chips for eyes and a red hot for his nose. Very high on the cute factor - didn't do much for taste.
#15 (12-11-11) Chocolate Reindeer
So a reindeer cookie cutter is very difficult to find. I looked at Target and that's about it - but if Target doesn't have it, then it's very difficult to find. Actually, I went out to Michaels for the purpose of looking for a cookie cutter, but I got so distracted by the scrapbooking supplies and then thinking about if I should abandon traditional scrapbooking in favor of digital scrapbooking that I completely forgot to look at the cookie cutters. Don't Worry ! Mike found one at Cub! My mom did ask why I couldn't just make chocolate stars or snowman or something else. I guess she hasn't figured out that her daughter is kind of an obsessive perfectionist type A person that likes to follow directions exactly.
Anyways - these are also very cute but very involved. And if you read my last post, you'll know that I don't have the supplies to make sugar cookies (the whole rolling the dough out thing) So I dumped flour on my kitchen table and painstakingly tried to roll this dough out as it continued to get stuck on the table and the roller. Needless to say I have a few reindeer with no legs or missing an antler - I guess I'm not much of a perfectionist when I'm fed up and tired. So if that wasn't enough, then after they cooled I needed to make icing to outline the cookie and place a red hot on for the nose. The icing was rather necessary as the cookie didn't do much (for the taste buds) as just a chocolate sugar cookie. They are very good, but 60 reindeer, 4 torn ziploc bags of icing and a huge mess, not sure if they're worth it - at least until I get better supplies.
12-17-11 #16 and #17
Chocolate Dipped Maple logs
I let Mike pick out some Christmas cookies he specifically wanted - this was one of them. I wasn't looking forward to these - but he has good taste. These are really yummy. Dough made out of butter, shortening, powdered sugar, vanilla and maple flavoring with flour, oatmeal, and salt rolled. Take this and roll it out as a snake and cut them into 2 inch logs. I made all 70 of these on two cookie sheets because they're small and don't spread out. Then take these cooled cookies and dip them in melted choc. chips and milk and then roll it in ground up walnuts. Rather amazing. Oh, and I did use the magic bullet to grind up the walnuts - worked well.
Caramel Cranberry Bars
Another one of Mike's picks. I've never made anything with cranberries, so I'm not sure if I'll like them or not (however there are 8 recipes in this book that uses cranberries so hopefully they're good).
A crust made out of flour, sugars, oats, baking soda and butter. Top the crust with a mixture of cranberries, dates, pecans and sugar. Top that with ice cream caramel topping mixed with flour and top that with more of the crust mixture. This pan of bars is what's cooling on the racks - I think they should be ready to try.
Holiday old lady game night tonight! Plates of cookies are ready and oh yeah, I made "Satisfying Beef Stew today as well" Am I kicking this holidays butt or what! Just five more batches of cookies to go!
-The Cookie lady
P.S I'm working on figuring out how to post pictures on this blog too - because these Christmas cookies are good looking.
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