We’re coming up to Christmas and that means Christmas cookies! I like all kinds of cookies, and the holidays is a great time for Christmas cookie exchanges. Some of my favorite cookies to make are Checkerboard, kolacky, sugar cookies and ginger bread, though molasses and chocolate chip cookies are up there too.
Of course, this is the time of year where my mother and I are swapping who has access to the kitchen since she’s no slouch when it comes to baking as well. Truthfully, she has me beat when it comes to Christmas cookie plans, usually showing up in the kitchen with a dozen different cookie ideas and the determination to spend all day baking to get them done. We’re going to be a little more contained with our cookie plans this year due to multiple different engagements, so we’re only making a half dozen type of cookies or so.
While there have been years where we just spent a whole day making cookie doughs and then baking them, our holiday plans had us splitting the process into two parts. First we made most of the doughs, storing them in Ziploc bags and placing the doughs in the freezer with baking instructions written on them in sharpie. After two weeks of chaos we finally got to the best part: thawing the doughs and getting them baked.
So far we’ve baked up the fan favorites of sugar cookies (not pictured here), chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and checkerboard cookies. We tried our hand at some pre-prepared cookie mixes and made a pumpkin spice cookie and a caramel apple cookie, which are okay-ish. And to round out our options we also made a banana cookie recipe from the card catalogue my grandparents left for my family.
We’ve still got two cookies left to bake: my mom is making a raspberry cream cheese bar and Viennese Whirls for the first time, but we should be otherwise done. Not that we’re finished with baking, per se. I’ve still got plans for deserts after new years, but we can give our poor oven a little bit of a break.
