Baking Christmas Cookies

Do you enjoy baking Christmas Cookies at your house? Do you have a special time that you bake them or a special kind you make? This year we’ve made 4 kinds of cookies…so far! (There might be more in the works!) Here’s a peek into our Christmas cookies escapades…

We started out making butter cookies, which were always one of my favorites as a kid. These are a cutout type of cookie.

Everything was going along just fine. The trays were filling up with cookies ready to be decorated before baking.

I started to roll out some more dough when…crack! Oh nooo!

My rolling pin was pretty old. I believe it belonged to my grandmother, so it’s rather sad that it broke. I think I will save it and turn it into the craft of some sort, but now how to roll out the rest of the cookie dough?? This calls for a trip to the store! There were only two rolling pins left in the store, but one was all I needed! And its a big one!

So we were back in business! Once the rest of the cookies were cutout and sprinkles were added, then on to the baking! Mmmm! It smelled so good in here!

Don’t they look delicious? 🙂 Don’t look too closely…some of them might be a little too brown.

I mixed up a second batch of cookie dough and put it in the fridge to chill. Then made the 3rd batch…ohhh…hmmm…I think I forgot the vanilla in the 2nd batch…oops! Back to the “drawing board”! Next I made some Molasses Crinkles cookies. (You can’t tell from this picture but some of them got too brown too. My oven and I are at war with each other!)

Next came the Russian Teacakes. Oh, man, do we love these! I turned my oven down, put the cookies on a higher rack and left them in for less time. Smart, right? Some still got too brown. But rolled in lots of powdered sugar you really can’t tell and they still taste great. 😉

Then it was time to go back to the ones I had to make over because of the forgotten vanilla. This was a new way to do cookies for me, using terra cotta cookie stamps.

The recipe said to bake the cookies and then stamp them right away when you take them out of the oven. I wanted to add some colored sugar on the cookies and wondered if I should add the sugar before or after baking and stamping? So I tried one tray with the sprinkled on sugar before baking and one tray without. I found out that it doesn’t work to have sugar on the cookies before stamping. So forget that idea. The right way is to bake, stamp and then sprinkle. 😉 So here are the Snowflake Cookies.

That’s all the cookies I’ve made so far. I’m thinking about some peanut butter ones…or maybe Peanut Butter and Jam bars. The moral of the story is that if your cookie baking doesn’t go perfectly, don’t sweat it! I had things go wrong and we have some cookies that only my husband and I will be eating, but mostly the cookies turned out tasty! 😉 I’d love to hear about your cookie baking traditions at your house and what kinds you like to make. Happy Eating! 🙂

Snowman Cupcakes

Are you looking for an adorable dessert for Christmas? Do your kids need to take a Christmas treat to school? Here’s a cute snowman that doesn’t take long to make! I found this little packet of candy snowman noses and black balls for eyes and a mouth at our local Walmart store. (Yes, it says for cookie ball decorating, but they work great for snowman cupcakes too!)

Whip up your favorite cake batter, flavor of your choice. I went with homemade chocolate.

Pour the batter into a cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers.

Bake, cool and frost with your favorite white frosting. Add the special candies from the packet and presto! You have snowman cupcakes ready to go!

Aren’t they cute? Plus quick and easy!

The hardest part will be keeping your family from eating them too soon! 😉

Easy Christmas Pudding Tarts

Are you looking for a simple dessert to serve at Christmas time? These are super simple and would be great for a kids’ party!

All you need are some little tart shells – graham cracker or pie crust type – some light colored instant pudding mix, milk and edible decorations.

I found this decorating kit at Walmart, but you can use other things too. Like chocolate chips, mini M&M’s, sprinkles, colored sugar, etc.

Open the tarts so they are ready immediately after you make the pudding.

Following the instructions on the pudding mix box, make the pudding with milk.

Immediately fill the tarts with the pudding. Instant pudding soft sets in about 5 minutes.

Refrigerate the tarts until the pudding is fully set.

Now comes the fun part of decorating each tart! Most of the candy decorations will begin to melt and their colors will run on the pudding, so DON’T decorate the tarts beforehand. Decorating can be done by each person as they get their dessert. 🙂

Sprinkles are pretty just “sprinkled” around.

Red and green sugar looks festive!

Snowman face made from the decorating kit I showed you.

Snowman made with mini M&M’s.

Snowman made with chocolate chips.

And Christmas lights from the decorating kit.

You might also like to use crushed candy cane bits, chocolate shavings or broken cookie pieces.

I hope these will be a hit with your family! Have fun making them AND eating them! 😉

Taste Testing Tuesday With Christmas Cookies

Things are a bit crazy around our house this year with a lot of things going on. So here is a repeat of a special Taste Testing Tuesday from last year. 🙂 And if you are worried about someone stealing your Christmas cookies, I’ve heard that certain elves can be bribed to guard them for you. 😉

It’s time to rev up your taste buds! Yep, it’s Taste Testing Tuesday once again. And I’m betting today’s taste test will be your all time favorite! What are we testing? Christmas Cookies!!! A special thank you goes out to my daughter, Megan, for sharing some pictures with me of some of the Christmas cookies they made at their house this week. 🙂 Here are some suggestions for yummy cookies you can make and test out:

#1.) Peanut Butter Blossoms. Oohh these are soooo yummy! A peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss added on top. Drooooooling…

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#2.) Rice Krispies Treats Christmas Trees. These are made just like the original Rice Krispies Treats recipe on the cereal box plus some green sugar and sprinkles added. Then cut them into triangles and you’re done!

#3.) Molasses Crinkles – This is one of my favorite cookies. I remember making them with my mom when I was a little girl. 🙂

#4.) Sour Cream Cookies – I was looking for the recipe that my Grandma used to make for us and these are similar but not quite the same. The recipe calls for adding a frosting glaze to these while they are still hot but I went with sprinkles instead to cut down on the amount of sugar.

#5.) Cut-Out Butter Cookies – Ok, this has to be my all-time favorite cookie! (Molasses Crinkles are a close 2nd.) This is another recipe I made with my mom when I was little. Well, and even after I got “big”. And then I made them with our kids and now our daughter made this batch with her kids. 🙂

I have to admit that decorated cut-out cookies get my vote for at least LOOKING the best! 😉

#6.) Russian Teacakes – This cookie is one of my hubby’s favorite cookies. They rank pretty high with me too. I make them with finely ground pecans but you can use other nuts instead. They are rolled in powdered sugar which helps to make them especially tasty.

#7.) Peanut Butter Cookies – Another one of our favorites! Ok, yes, there seems to be a pattern developing here, doesn’t there? I have a lot of favorite cookies! Haha! One of my jobs when I was little and helping my mom make these was to make the criss-cross pattern on each cookie. I always thought that was pretty cool. 😉

So what is your favorite Christmas cookie? Do you make Christmas cookies at your house? Maybe you buy some from a store? What is your all-time favorite cookie that you would ask for if you could have any cookie in the world? I hope you have a great Christmas cookie Taste Testing Tuesday at your house! 🙂