Who doesn’t love Christmas cookies? Well, me. At least at the beginning of December, anyway.
My church and my kids’ 4-H club like scheduling their Christmas cookie walks right next to each other. I think last year, they might have been the same weekend, but this year, they’re separated by a week. I’m sure this is completely unintentional, but it makes for a very long day of baking. After all, 27 dozen is a heck of a lot of cookies.
Anyway.
I kind of forgot about the church cookie walk this year, so by the time I found the letter about it, it was too late to just give money and let someone else do the baking. The cookie walk is this Saturday and, since today is the only free day I have between now and then, I decided to get those cookies knocked out bright and early.
Cricket decided he wanted to help, and I decided it would be fun to have a little helper. Thumper wanted to watch Dungeons & Dragons instead, so I got him set up in the living room, grabbed my laptop so we could listen to Christmas tunes, and picked out a recipe. The recipe for ice cream cookies in my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook looked simple enough, and I had all the ingredients, so I decided it would be perfect.
Yeah, not so much.
I had to triple the recipe to make the number of cookies I needed, so I carefully measured out the appropriate amounts of butter, sugar, and flour. I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the necessary egg yolks and vanilla. I beat the whole works well, then added the flour. But when I finished mixing it, I had a bowl full of crumbs.
[insert colorfully-worded thoughts here]
I had enough butter and sugar in that mixing bowl to know that tossing it and starting over was not an option, so I did what I do for pie crusts: I sprinkled water over the “dough” a tablespoon at a time until it held together. Eventually, I managed to cobble together three sheets of cookies.
They smelled great in the oven, but they don’t look like much, and I forgot to take their picture till after I’d wrapped them up. Oops.
But since the ice cream cookie called for egg yolks only, I had three egg whites leftover and no idea what to do with them. I didn’t want to toss them, and then I had a brilliant idea: meringue cookies! My aunt used to make them when I was a kid and they were one of my very favorite things. So I called up my sister to see if she had the recipe, then happy-danced around the kitchen when she said she did.
This turned out to be more than I bargained for, though – the recipe says to leave them in the oven overnight, and I wanted them right now.
*sigh*
I summoned my patience and put the boys down for naps after dinner, then settled down to take one myself, and after supper, I started in on the cookies. Bubbles helped me add the sugar to the mixture and all went well, even though I wasn’t sure about leaving them in the oven overnight (the recipe said to preheat to 350°F, then turn the oven off once the cookies were in).
Stop back tomorrow to see how they turned out – I can’t wait to get my hot little hands on those little blobs of deliciousness! What are your favorite cookies?
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Suddenly they all died. The end. 