I have a few minutes to blog while I'm waiting for Connor to write his descriptive sentences. I was able to finish my cookies yesterday. Again, when it was all done I questioned whether or not I would do it again next year. I remember last year when I was done saying that I was not going to do it again.
The first cookies I tackled were the lemon coolers. A single batch makes only 2 1/2 dozen. I doubled the batch so that there would be enough for all the tins. Even with it doubled it only made 3 1/2 dozen. The recipe says to use 2 tbsp of dough per cookie. I did that for the first dozen and a half. I could only fit 6 cookies per sheet and the first 6 that came out all melded together. I was not happy and grumbled a lot. For the rest of the dough I just made them into 1 tbsp drops and was able to fit a dozen on the sheet. If I do these again next year, I will make them smaller. I have done these lemon coolers for a couple of years because they are one of Tim's favorite cookies.
Lemon Coolers
After the lemon coolers came the Almond Crisps. Again, this recipe only made 2 1/2 dozen so I doubled the batch. With the batch doubled it still only made 2 1/2 dozen. I don't think I'll be makng these again. Although Aidan had fun putting the almonds into the dough. Some of the cookies ended up looking like alien heads.
Almond Crisps
By this time it was time for a beer.
Yes, I bought this bear soley because of the snowman on the front. And it was a tasty beer.
After the beer I was left with one type of cookie to make. The chocolate Pixies. These cookies are one of my favorite cookies ever but I guess because it was the last cookie in a long weekend of cookie making this batch bombed. I think I made the balls too big when I put them on the sheet because every single one of them melded together and looked like crap. I was slightly bummed but realized that I had enough cookies to fill the tins and didn't really need them.
Ugly Pixies. They taste great but aren't as pretty as I like them. They are just sitting on the counter now while I figure out what I'm going to do with them. They are either garbage bound or freezer bound.
While the pixies were baking Tim went to deocrating the cutout cookies. The kids helped out a little bit but they were more interesting in eating the frosting than actually frosting the cookies. Aidan loved the way Kirby turned out so at least he was happy about that.
Pretty little trees.
Kirby and some candy canes. These cookies are awesome too. They are soft in the mouth but firm to the touch. And they look so cool. Thanks Tim for painting them. I don't have the patience to do stuff like that but Tim really gets into it.
These are the soft molasses cookies from yesterday that I forgot to post the picture of. They taste way better than they photograph.
The finished product. All bundled up and ready to go. I don't even know how many dozen cookies we baked. I kept track of it when I was baking, but can't find my paper right now. When I do, I'll let you know (really just to let myself know so that I know how much to bake for next year). Yes, I'll probably bake them again next year. There is just something nice about being inside where it's warm and looking out my kitchen window and seeing the brilliant white sparkly snow and smelling the cookies baking. I hope we'll still be here and that I'll be baking for the same people for a third year in a row.
Well, not only has Connor finished his descriptive sentence, he's read his story, written his draft of a descriptive journal entry and is now typing his final draft into word to be sent to his teacher. We have a Science lesson to go and a Math lesson. Back to the books.
