Annual Cookie Baking Day

Note:  This will be my last post until after Christmas.  My boys arrive home tomorrow and I can’t wait.  I’m going to enjoy my time with my whole family home under one roof!  Wishing you a wonderful and joyful Christmas!  See you back here next week.  I”ll have some fun recipes perfect for New Year’s Eve celebrations!

Yesterday was our annual holiday cookie baking day.

Cali, Tessa and I were joined by neighbors Debbie and Hannah and Lizzy of Your Cup of Cake is home from school for the holidays.

We baked and cooked our little hearts out.  Went through a ton of butter, sugar, flour and eggs and made quite a mess of the kitchen.

I got up early and mixed up some of the cookie doughs that needed to refrigerate for awhile.

The night before I had made up a batch of white chocolate popcorn, white chocolate cinnamon pretzels and some caramels.  I learned a lesson though.  My old, family heirloom candy thermometer had broken so I bought a new one.  Don’t buy a cheap candy thermometer!  They don’t work.  And your caramels don’t work either when you use it.  But we did find a use for that caramel that didn’t set up – Lizzy piped it into some amazing Chocolate Turtle Pecan Muffins she made.

We made a batch of lemon drops, snowballs and chocolate crinkles.

I think my favorite cookie of the day was one that Lizzy made – eggnog cookies.  The eggnog flavor was just right and the eggnog glaze and cinnamon sprinkled on top were the perfect addition.  If you like eggnog you are going to love these.  Hop on over to Lizzy’s blog for the recipe.

We also made some candy.  Debbie made this amazing peppermint fudge.  It was so good.  I was going to wait to share the recipe with you next Christmas but I’m not sure I can wait – want it now or later??  There was a batch of chocolate butterscotch fudge too.

The girls all pitched in so we got a lot done.  They did have their silly moments though.

But all in all it was a lot of fun and a lot of sugar!

I remade my batch of caramel with the new candy thermometer I went out and bought at 8 a.m. at Target before we started baking and they turned out perfect.  That’s another recipe  I’m going to have to share soon.  Look at what I made with some of the caramel – Millionaries.  Rice Krispies covered in caramel and topped with chocolate!

I also made a batch of fondant and combined it with some caramel balls and crushed pecans for Boston Creams.  Hmm… think you need that recipe too!

It was a fun and productive day.  A quick trip to Cash and Carry for some containers to package it all up in and we were good to go.  Now to get it all delivered to neighbors and friends!

Here are the happy but tired bakers!