fairydawn

I am a cookieholic! I will be cutting back my cookie baking this year. I find that I end up eating most of them and my middle section is getting a bit fluffier. However, I can't pass up good homemade cookies so will probably do peanut blossoms, sugar cookies, and a few other favorites just not my normal 15-20 varieties.

toverly

I used to love making many types of cookies. Some new, some old recipes. Now that there are only 3 of us, I just make star shaped sugar cookies with crystal sprinkles on top.

Darcyshannon

I am keeping it simple. I will probably make cutout cookies because I liked decorating them. My mom is coming and she likes fudge so I will make that. With three of us, I don’t want to make too much. If I have time I will deliver goodies to a few friends.

judy363905

Saturday was our big baking day. This some of the results

peaceandjoy

My baking has evolved over the years. When we were newly married, I made many kinds and made trays and containers to give as gifts, especially for elderly neighbors and relatives who no longer baked. As those folks passed away and our own children grew up and moved away, I baked less and less. With only 2 of us, having those around is just trouble, especially for me - homemade cookies are one of my favorite things any time of day.

This year, we are at our vacation home. I don't have a rolling pin or cookie cutters. The last day he was in the hospital, DH was served a "regular" breakfast tray after normal breakfast time - so it wasn't lactose free. It had an orange cranberry muffin that smelled wonderful, but as not made w/ lactose free milk, he could not have it. So I made some a few days ago. They were okay, but did not smell as good as the ones at the hospital, lol. The recipe I used had orange peel and orange juice in it, but it seemed to fade away. Someone in another group says she uses the oils normally used for candy in her cookies as the flavor is stronger and stays more stable than extracts; I'm wondering if that might work?

I did make chocolate chip biscotti a couple of days ago. Not the super hard, worrying about my teeth kind. Excellent with coffee!

I'm enjoying seeing what traditions others have, and have had to look up some of them. Boston Rocks? A sugar cookie with raisins, it looks like? DH would like those, he's a raisin lover. Homesteaders? Not many recipes for those, but they very from square sugar cookies to a drop cookie with coconut. So interesting. I also looked at some Peppernut (pfeffernusse) cookies and was interested to see that many call for anise and almost half of them do not use pepper, which I thought was where the name came from!

As someone else said - why make favorite cookies only at Christmas? I'm thinking I might make cut outs at Valentine's day...

bearisgray

Wow! Some of you go all-out!

Feather3

Boston Rocks have always been our "to go to cookie" for Christmas. It ain't Christmas without them. The recipe first showed up in 1881. It's had a few changes over the years, as many recipes do. My Grandmother was born in 1892 & this is the Boston Rocks recipe she said her mother, my GGM, always used:

Boston Rocks

1 Cup butter, room temp
2 Cups light brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 1/2 Cups raisins
1 1/2 Cups currants
1 Cup walnuts, chopped
3 1/4 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup hot water.

Cream butter, add in brown sugar, mix well. Add in raisins, currants & nuts. Mix well. Add in dry ingredients, except for baking soda, mix well. Dissolve baking soda in hot water & add slowly. Mix well. Cover & refrigerate over night. Drop by heaping spoonfuls on a greased/floured baking sheet. Note they will spread. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. If using air-bake pans bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes. Remove from oven & let set on pans for 2 minutes before removing. I place a dish towel down with wax paper on top to place the cookies on to cool. This is how my Grandmother always did it. They stay soft. Note you need a stand mixer to make these. How many you get depends on how big or small you make them. I average 60.

After they are cool to room temp I place them in air tight plastic containers with wax paper between layers. Otherwise they will stick together.

If you've never used currants you will find them usually next to the raisins. Raisins come in red boxes or packages, currants are usually in orange boxes or packages. Currants are a lot smaller than raisins.

I just mixed up a batch today & will bake them tomorrow.

Iceblossom

I had a lot of fun yesterday helping one of my friends bake. Between not having a working full size oven and a husband who went Keto as well as being low carb myself, I don't bake much any more but I used to do a lot...

We did both bakes on a batch of biscotti dough she had made the night before. While they were in the first bake, we mixed up a batch of Lebkuchen (honey cookies) dough and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. We also made a batch of Pfeffernusse dough, but it needed to sit longer than I was there.

When the biscotti were done and before I left we formed and decorated and baked the Lebkuchen -- they looked so festive. My friend blanched almonds herself (boil and rub in a towel to take off the skins), there was a half candied cherry in the middle and almonds like petals around the cherry.

In-between batches we did some general cleaning and organizing and picked out the tablecloths and what dishes and serving things she would need. Just before I left with things cleaned up and multiple dozens of cookies, the son of a friend of ours (who now lives cross-country in assisted care near her daughter) came by with a poinsettia for his auntie/my friend. It looked so nice on the tablecloth.

She thinks with everything we did yesterday today she can bake some "holiday breads". More power to her! I'm going to take it easy and do some sewing at home.

Onebyone

I don't bake many cookies. The bakery has great tasting cookies we like so it's easy to pick up a dozen of assorted cookies. I bake biscotti, pound cake, and coffee cake. I baked a lot of coffee cakes that fit in the metal Christmas tins . My girls took them to their work for employee gifts and they were a hit.

broomstix

I just made popcorn balls ( no snow this Christmas, but with theses we have snow balls)
and no bake chocolate cookies.
all these ideas sound good, I like the idea of making cookies all year.