christmas baking, part 1

 Today we finally began this year's Christmas baking! The little guy and I baked 14 dozen cookies (3 varieties) together this morning, and my daughter and I did another 4 dozen of a fourth variety after school. We did the "easy" ones today:  all drop cookies with chips of one form or another.  Some of the more complicated ones will come later this week, but this was a great feeling to get such a great start on the baking marathon.

Christmas cookie baking is a long standing tradition in my family, with many recipes handed down from generation to generation.  My great-grandmother's butter cookie recipe is the stuff of family legend (more about this later this week), and many other cookies are annual "must haves" from my grandmother's generation.  It seems like we always had at least six or eight types of cookies at my house growing up, and it appears that I am, indeed, my mother's daughter as I carry on these traditions. I love it.

As much as I love many of our traditional cookies,  I have also come to love finding new cookie recipes, adding to our repertoire, tweaking the list from year to year.  Some, like the Chocolate-Studded Dream Cookies, from the Nestle' people, have become annual favorites.  We always make them with mint chips of whatever variety we can find.  And we always include the original Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies, because, well, you don't mess with a good thing.  Made with margarine, not butter, for a little extra lightness.  This year we added Betty Crocker's Mint Chocolate Chip cookies, which are fun because they are green! And mint is oh-so-yummy.

The last recipe for today is one that was passed to us from a former co-worker of my husband.  They are Strawberry Chip Cookies, and such an easy recipe: 

•  Combine the following:  1 Strawberry Boxed Cake Mix (Duncan Hines or Pillsbury), 1 egg, 1/4 c. flour, 1/2 c. vegetable oil, 1/4 c. water, and 1 cup white chocolate chips.
• Drop by teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet, and bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. 

I'll leave you with some more photos, and my one favorite cookie baking tip:  Parchment paper lining the cookie sheets.  Miraculous stuff and I don't know how I lived without it. 

The sifter belonged to my grandmother, Mom-mom.

official taste tester

Happy baking! More of our baking adventures, later this week....