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This year, I had the idea to give out Christmas cookies to everyone on my holiday list. It was a little ambitious, so I’m happy to say that I got it done.
My list came out to 11 households. For four of those, I gave boxes with a dozen cookies. The rest were treat bags with about eight cookies each.
The plan was to make six kinds of cookies, so that each treat bag would have one of each and each box would have two of each, making for half a dozen and a dozen, respectively. I got a little burnt out after four kinds of cookies, but next year or sooner, I will make that happen. I had the most of chocolate chip and not a lot of peanut butter or polvorones, so everyone got a custom box based on what I thought they would like best.
Below are the recipes. They are all very classic, traditional cookies. I’m very inspired by Cookie Good in Santa Monica, by the way.
- Chocolate Chip Cookies – This is the classic Nestle Tollhouse recipe. I made these as slice and bake cookie dough logs, aka icebox cookies.
- Peanut Butter Cookies – This is a Pillsbury recipe that my brother adapted. It’s in our Carpenter family cookbook. Replace the white sugar with honey. His recipe doesn’t say, but I think it helps to add 1/4 cup flour. I made the dough into balls using a cookie scoop, froze them on a baking sheet, then transferred them to a plastic freezer bag.
- Double-shot Mocha Chunks – I used the same freezing process for this one as the peanut butter cookies.
- Polvorones Mexicanos – I had a little trouble with this one. Next time, I’ll weigh the amounts instead of using the English measuring units. I must not have measured the shortening right or the conversion was off. I had to keep adding shortening. Once I had the dough at the right consistency, I divided it in half. I added pink food coloring to one half and made the other half as cookie dough logs rolled in sprinkles. Also, the recipe doesn’t include salt but I added 1/2 a teaspoon. It said to either add orange zest or vanilla extract but I did both.
Before I sign off here, I need to give a few shouts. My sister Katie made 5 different kinds of cookies: Coffee Toffee, Six Layer Bars, Chocolate M&M Cookies, Funfetti Cookies, and Gooey Chocolate Bars. My sister Mary made two time-consuming cookies: Apricot Horn Cookies (on the blog!) and Walnut Cookies. My mom made Chex Mix after I had brought it up in our family chat. Last but certainly not least, my in-laws and sister-in-law made tamales for the first time to share with the family. I got to try everyone’s except my sister Mary’s, as she lives in the Bay Area. I’m proud of everyone. It means more than ever.
I’m proud of all of us for getting through this year. Sending love to everyone reading this.
Modern Notebook 