Cookie Monster!
This weekend my mom came over to help me bake up some goodies to gift to Junior’s daycare teachers and our housekeeper (without whom I would be so, so sad).
We made peppermint bark using a recipe featured over at BonBon Rose Girls, “magic bars” from a cookbook (I will post this recipe at some point but doubt I’ll get to it this week), gingerbread cookies, and sugar cookies.
As with most things I make, not everything turned out as planned.
The peppermint bark came out perfectly, and is a delicious sugar rush.
The “magic bars” are a gooey delight of graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, semi-sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut flakes, and chopped hazelnuts.
The gingerbread…. Ugh. I followed the recipe precisely, but the dough was a sticky, unmanageable mess. I won’t even bother sharing it because the result was clearly not what I wanted.
I attempted to use my new cookie cutters.
As you can see, the dough totally stuck to my floured counter top. Note that this happened after I chilled the dough for even longer than the recipe suggested, and finally stuck it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Although not recommended in the recipe, the only way I could roll it out was to keep it between two sheets of wax paper. What a mess! Since there were loads of tasty ingredients in the dough, Mom and I decided to make some simple drop cookies instead and top them with a light dusting of powdered sugar.
The next day I aimed to user my cookie cutters for sugar cookies. Lacking time or inclination to make the dough from scratch, I sent the Mr. to the store for some pre-made Pillsbury dough. Fortunately I read the instructions and realized that this dough could not be rolled. Undeterred, I sliced the dough and used mini cookie cutters to get my desired shapes. This didn’t work well, and I wound up with a lot of amputee gingerbread people. Once cooked, they puffed up so much that the original shape was totally lost.
After all that, I still wound up with some pretty tasty cookie boxes.
Pretty to look at, too. I found this kit by Martha Stewart at Joann for 70% off!
Please excuse my terrible photos. I’ve asked Santa for PhotoShop Elements for Christmas.
I have such fond memories of baking Christmas cookies with my mom and grandma, and am looking forward to next year when Junior can participate.
Have a very merry Christmas!
Those boxes are adorable! I bet everyone will be thrilled with them, even if they didn’t turn out just as you wanted. Now I’m craving sweets!
Those boxes are so pretty, they look almost vintage.
Is it weird that I want to make peppermint bark now? HAHA!
GREAT idea for holiday gifts! Love your site too!!