‘Twas the Wednesday before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature dared enter the kitchen
Not even a mouse.
For Momma is baking Christmas cookies galore
To give to as gifts to friends and neighbors
As she has done for years before.
Dad and the kids are the Chief Cookie Test Tasters
They proclaim, Delicious!
Not one is a hater.
With Ma in her apron, she bakes and she bakes
All cookies must be finished for weekend deliveries
Whatever it takes.
###
I stepped away to swap out batches and lost my train of thought. End of poem.
What’s on your baking list this season?
The cashier at the grocery store told me she’s making homemade Almond Roca every night between now and Christmas.
With our cookie plates, I like variety. This year I’m making:
- Sugar cut out cookies (our youngest’s favorite to decorate but not to eat)
- Gingerbread snowflakes
- Palmiers (mini elephant ears)
- Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread (my all-time favorite with chocolate chips and fresh ginger)
- Baklava
- Peppermint Pocky Sticks
- Cinnamon Log Slices
- Apricot Walnut Rugalach (NYC Chelsea Market recipe)
- Coconut Macaroons
- Shaker Lemon Bars
- Peppermint Meringue Cups with Ganache
- Buckeyes (you can take the girl out of Ohio, but you can’t take the Ohio out of the girl)
- Cranberry Pistachio White Chocolate Biscotti
- French Cookie, like a Specaloo, a French spice cookie, with finely chopped walnuts
- Hrustle (her-stuh-la), my husband’s favorite
- Fudge, peppermint and walnut
Totally over-the-top with 16 and that’s how we roll. My mom makes 10-12 different kinds and ships them to us. My kids love getting her box of cookies, because they are so deprived of baked goods on any given day. My mom has been baking the same kind since forever, with a couple variations each year. The French cookie and sugar cut-out cookies our only overlap. We’re German bakers. We can’t help it, baking is in our blood. Baking is what we do at Christmas, or better known as my every week.
I may have to add some Date-Choco Balls and some Ginger Spiced Pecans to my repertoire as a couple of our new friends are vegans. Or, at least, the moms are vegan and their families suffer, I mean, support them. I don’t want anyone to go without a little Christmas sweetness and cheer.
Some of my friends are already done, the overachievers. Not me, not this year, not next year, not any year. I like to deliver our cookies right before the holiday. Late nights and early mornings for me for a few days, then I’m on vacation.
If you’re baking is not done, don your apron, grab a bowl and spoon and get baking!
multi-hyphenated-me 