For those of you who were not a little girl in the 80s . . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJhchLeR1X0
(If the link doesn't work type "cookie time troop Beverly hills" into your preferred search engine.)
Watch the video it is hilarious (you definitely need sound)!
Christmas time is prime for baking, especially cookies.
Every year my sister Mary (refer to links on the right) comes to our house to help me make cookies. It is an all day affair.
We make about 7-8 different kinds. Since that is too many to fully blog recipes for I will instead give you a play by play of the cookie day. (You can find any of the recipes online by searching the name of the cookie.)
Mary is very creative and artistic. If you let her run away with herself one cookie can take her up to15 minutes. So i gave her about 20 different cookie cutters and let her go to town on 2 of the savory selections: Almond Rosemary and Smoked Cheddar Cocktail Cookies. Instead of using sprinkles and the usual decorations she used a multitude of spices and dried herbs.
Next we made a big favorite: Jingle Bell Bars.
My Mom got this recipe out of the TV guide in 1986! There was a special Muppet movie on TV, The Christmas Toy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099263/).
During the commercial breaks they played promos for TV guide recipes from Kraft. I was 5 and I love love loved it. (uh oh now you can tell how old I am)
Over the years my sister's and i have watched that old VHS, with the movie and recipes, about 100000000 times.
These bars were one of the commercials and it is always the favorite in my, and my Mom's, Christmas cookie box.
Next we made one of my personal favorites, a simple Thumbprint Cookie.
My parent's neighbor, Maria, used to make these and I was desperate to recreate their buttery goodness. I finally found a satisfactory recipe and make variations every year.
This year we used apricot preserves for the thumbprint filling.
That is 4 so far.
Next up is the Florentines. These are utterly delicious like almond lace.
Beware though they are a little fussy.
Especially when you put them in an oven that was turned OFF! Mary!
(It was actually my fault because she asked me if she should turn the oven off and i said yes . . . but i actually meant the oven timer that was beeping. So silly!)
I didn't like the way they came out and said i was going to remake them. Mary told me I say that every year.
(uh oh no picture! sorry)
The final cookie Mary helped me with was a Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookie.
I was nervous because they were spicy but so far I have gotten a lot of compliments on these.
They are basic chocolate crinkles but instead of powdered sugar they are rolled in cinnamon and Cayenne!
Later in the week I made one final cookie addition, Eggnog Cookies.
Make sure to use a recipe that calls for actual eggnog, not one with just nutmeg in it, as that is lame.
These came out delicious, almost cakeliek. I added a rummed up boozy glaze ontop that I knew my coworkers would enjoy.
(uh oh again no picture! sorry)
So that is it. Here was the final result I had to stuff into the freezer.
I made up little boxes for people at work. I only had enough for 16 people though! Each person got a green box with savory cookies and a red box with sweet cookies. Makes me very popular for a day.
We also did a cookie off similar to the pie off. I brought in the struffoli that my Mom and I make every year.
That will be my next blog. Hopefully I will get to it tomorrow.
Happy cookie-ing!
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