On Monday of last week, we sent Meri off to take some finals and then Maddy and I got to work on our cookie baking spree. Actually we had to wait until she was done having coffee with an old friend and I ran some errands... But RIGHT at the stroke of 10:35am, we got down to business! We pulled out my heavy duty mixer and tied on some aprons!
We made SO many cookies on Monday and Tuesday, it's not even funny... TONS of molasses cookies, which aren't pictured here at all. The ones above are basically a basic sugar cookie (with 1.5 cups of butter in it... :) ) and then crushed Jolly Ranchers baked in the middle. Word of advice... Unless you like crunchy jolly ranchers interfering with your cookie experience, don't try this. The JR's get stuck in your teeth and cookie mushes apart around it. Otherwise they were very good!
We made some just circle ones too and loaded all of them with frosting.
Another word of advice... Don't hide the cookies in tins above your kitchen cabinet. I think it gets too warm there and some of the Jolly Rancher centers melted onto the foil... :\
We also made chocolate meringue hearts with mini chocolate chips inside! YUM!!! Don't burn them. It's hard to tell which ones are burnt and the burnt ones aren't as delish as the good ones!
THEN we made Christmas mice. LOTS! I still need to ship some off but not sure if they'll make the journey to Colorado. I might just whip up some more mice tonight... They were so cute and a lot of fun to put together! Another tip... Buy the licorice whips NOT the usual licorice sticks. Because if you get the sticks, then you have to cut them into whips. Not as realistic without the licorice whips... But still cute!
These are the basic peanut butter cookies, baked with the mini choc chips for eyes, a mini M&M for the nose and two peanuts for the ears. THEN before they cool too much, you gently put the tail in.
We also made a ton of fudge, various types. We only put those in the bags we were handing the people directly, so there is a lot left over. I'm not complaining...
I'm sure I will when I step on a scale, but that ain't happening for a while.
When Meri came home after lunch, we sicced her on doing the orange/cloves project.
It got as far as this photo and then sat for several days before we got back to it. By that time it was too gushy to stick a fork, much less a clove into. So I pitched it. As Robb would say, We'll "wreck another perfectly good orange" again next year.
The cookies were made into gift bags for various folks and either shipped off or given out on Christmas Eve.
What kind of Christmas goodies do YOU make?
2 comments:
I think I would let the Jolly Rancher kind go next year. ;) You're a baking pro!
Pound cake cookies, peanut butter blossoms, sugar cookies, tea balls. That was the extent of baking cookies this year. I usually make chocolate crinkles and some shortbread ones. Considering I can't eat them at all, I think I did pretty well. Pecan pie and carrot cake were the other goodies. Ethan ate the last of the cake this morning. So thankful!!
I love oranges/cloves. Haven't done that in forever!
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