COOOOOOOKIES!!!

Yup, it's that time of year - the time to cart big platters full of calories, I mean cookies, in to work!

As with each year, I want to make both the popular standbys AND try something new. The Christmas Martha Stewart Living magazine came out with some cool looking goodies. There was a recipe for chocolate ganache-filled chocolate thumbprints that didn't really intrigue me, but then we happened to watch an episode of her show where Paula Abdul came on and made them with Martha. Well, ok, Paula stood there and kinda stumbled around while Martha did most of the making. But that made the cookies look that much more appealing - so I gave them a try. I call them "Paula Abdul's Buttholes" and Brett thinks they should be called "Vicodin Dreams" (or was it "Vicodin Haze"?). Either way - I'm not sure I'd make these again. The chocolate flavor was a bit bitter for me, plus the recipe called for coarse salt in the dough, and it was really noticeable even after the cookies baked - they were a bit "mature" for my taste, while other folks at work said they liked them. Brett scarfed down a bunch too. They do LOOK nice!


And from the Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets book I got earlier this year, I tried two recipes, one of which was these snowballs. They were GREAT, but I wish I would've made them a little smaller. They contain ground pecans, and are rolled in powdered sugar twice shortly after coming out of the oven.


The other recipe I tried from Great Cookies was a new version of snickerdoodles. Reallllly good, but I do wish they were taller/puffier. Oh well - still very tasty. (Peter made the snickerdoodle recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies book - his first time making/eating snickerdoodles actually - and said they came out really puffy. So I might have to see if the recipe makes the difference, or if it was something I did...)


And then of course there's the holiday tradition in our family - chocolate crinkles. MMM! Last year I learned (the hard way) (what other way is there?) NOT to try and fancy these up and use a higher quality chocolate (such as Ghirardelli!) - just stick with the cheaper Baker's chocolates to get the really good taste in these cookies.


Oh, and here's what happens when I'm not telling Brett where all the cookies that I've already baked are stashed. Hm. Grumpy face!


I think I have a pretty good knack for using cookie dough efficiently, and cramming in as many cuts on a single roll-out of the dough before having to wad it up and re-roll, which runs the risk of toughening the cookies.


Why do I always save the decorating of the sugar cookies for last? I make their dough first, then make all these other cookies, THEN have to cut out and decorate these guys after I'm SICK of making cookies. Must rethink this!


However - I can't complain! It was a Christmas miracle - BRETT OFFERED TO HELP with the cookies! I love my Brett!!!


Now he did comment on how I wasn't making the cookie decorating fun - but it was 730 at night, I still had to assembled and bake a chicken alfredo pizza for our dinner (check back later for this!), and we hadn't started the cookie decorating yet! So I whizzed through with the green...


...and moved on to making the pizza, while he worked on the white and red frosting, which was much more meticulous. Seriously - could NOT have done these guys and had our dinner ready without Brett. THANK YOU HONEY!


And once we'd had dinner and let the frosting set on the cookies, Brett helped me assemble trays. He got all the plates and platters, I loaded 'em up, and then he wrapped them afterwards. Here's a tray that one of us would be taking to work the next day (and wow, how greasy does my hair look!?)


So just to recap - and because I didn't list EVERYTHING here that I made - there were snowball cookies...


...and cherry mash bar pieces...


...and chocolate crinkles...


...and sugar cookies...


...and peppermint bark...


...and snickerdoodles...


...and chocolate covered pretzels...


...and more, including three types of fudge that I made (need to remember not to add in some bittersweet chocolate next time - does NOT help the flavor!), and a mixture of non-pareils and other goodies.

Here's what the tray looked like the morning I took it in to work.


Annnnnd here's what it was looking like shortly before lunch. Wow! And we were short-staffed in our dept that day! Thankfully I have friends all over the library who were willing to come eat up the goodies! ;-)


And here's how they show their appreciation! (Thanks Tina!) ;-)