Cookie insanity

So I had this brilliant idea that I'd take Monday off work... you know, to relax, bake a few Christmas cookies, send out Christmas cards... etc. As I was planning what to make, my list grew... and grew some more. My only requirement for cookies was that they be chewy , so I had a lot of options :) As I mentioned in my last post, I was in the kitchen for approximately 11 hours. It was the most exhausting relaxing day off I've ever had.

Throughout this day, I found myself wishing for a number of things. First and foremost and the one that will never happen - a dishwasher. I have 2 mixing bowls and I washed them both...... oh, 10 times. My hands were so dry by the end of the day that my knuckles bled. Sad. The second was a stand mixer. Especially in any recipe that mentioned mixing anything for longer than 30 seconds. I am weak and cannot hold a hand mixer for more than 1 minute. The third was a cookie scoop. I will certainly be investing in this the next time someone I know is having a Pampered Chef party.

I started off my day with a classic, the Peanut Butter Blossom. I found this basic recipe on Brown Eyed Baker. These were very easy to make and turned out great! I am having a few right now as a matter of fact.

mmmmmm shortening......


As you can see, I had some issues making these a uniform size

The next was another easy recipe, but one that I hadn't made or even eaten before - Peppermint Bark. I found a recipe on use real butter. Hers was so pretty! My only problem with this was that my layers of chocolate kind of separated on some pieces - like the white chocolate layer completely came off the chocolate layer. Weird. Most of the pieces were fine though! This is an easy and very Christmas-y looking treat!

After this point, things kind of became a blur, but I think I then moved on to sugar cookie cutouts - I used this Fabulous Sugar Cookie recipe from Katie's blog. I am normally not a sugar cookie fan but WOW - these ARE fabulous! This makes a ton of dough. I only used about 2/3 of it and the rest is sitting in the fridge for me to bake ..... soon, I guess, or else it won't be good anymore.

Then it was on to another recipe I found on Katie's blog, for Sweet and Spicy Gingerbread cookies. Another winner!! I made most of them cutouts, but with the last bit of dough I rolled it into 6 balls and coated each with sugar and pushed it down with a glass - those were actually my faves because they were the thickest and chewiest.

Lotsa spices in these cookies!


What a cute little teddy bear

By this point I was totally and completely wiped out, but I persisted. Good thing too, because the next cookies, Chocolate Snowcaps, were definitely my favorite of the day! I found this recipe on The Kitchen Sink, it is originally a Martha Stewart recipe. I doubled this one because it didn't make too many, and I am SO glad I did. I did have to refrigerate the dough before I was able to roll it into balls, and this was the one that made me wish for a cookie scoop with a little thing that sweeps the dough out - I had to dig it out of my tablespoon..... very annoying. These are little puffs of heaven - like a brownie but not quite as dense. I will be making these again. These were also Ben's definite favorite. He had a few straight from the freezer today and said they are soft even ice cold.

before baking


and after!

Finally, after that, I was done with the baking. Not completely done though, because I also wanted to make some fudge that I found on Annie's blog. I am so glad I saved this recipe for last because it was super easy. Just heat up some stuff, mix in chocolate chips and pour into a pan. Awesome! I used instant espresso instead of instant coffee and mixed in chopped walnuts. This fudge is so good!

And thus ends my cookie making adventure. I only decorated a select few - I went over to my friend Leigh's house last night to meet her new baby George and wanted to bring some goodies. (oh, and I guess the last hour of being in the kitchen was actually spent making Leigh this chicken spaghetti) My decorating skills are clearly not up to snuff, but oh well. Also, the frosting was from a can. I had to cut corners somewhere! Most of the cookies are in the freezer now, waiting to be decorated when I can someday muster up the energy :)

I brought in a few to work the next day and arranged this tray for my coworkers. Everyone was very pleased that I had taken the day off!

notice that there are no sugar cookies - I decorated exactly the number I knew I wanted to take to Leigh's - perhaps the coworkers can enjoy those next week :)