Holiday Baking

Oh my! Christmas is less than two weeks away and I'm starting to get stressed! So much still to do and so little time left! Shopping for the perfect gifts for family and friends is almost done so that is a huge relief. The outside lights and most of the inside decorations are up and causing a bit of an electrical outage at times. We like to decorate our home a lot like Clark Griswold does in our favorite holiday movie "Christmas Vacation." In my spare time (now that's a joke!) I've been trying to decide on my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus. Hopefully I'll have that figured out soon so I can get the grocery shopping completed before the market gets too crazy with holiday shoppers. Most of all I need to decide on the cookies and candies we will be baking this year. Our annual Christmas cookie baking / candy making day is this Saturday so I need to make some decisions quickly! Mixing, baking, cookie decorating will begin in the early morning hours and continue all day and into the evening. And of course, I'll be wearing my "Official Cookie Taster" apron from Zoey's Attic Personalized Gifts. 

It's a given that we'll start with the traditional chocolate chip cookies. I still use the  Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for this family favorite. It's the very same recipe my mom used when I was a little girl so many, many moons ago! Love these chocolate chip cookies anytime of the year and especially when just out of the oven and still warm. Next up will be the sugar cookie cut outs in festive holiday designs. I prefer a buttery cookie like the sugar cookie recipe from Land O' Lakes. While the sugar cookies are cooling (before we can decorate them) we will likely make the powdered sugar snowballs, also called Russian Tea Cakes. I have used Betty Crocker's recipe for as long as I can remember. The cookies are always so tasty and everyone loves them. It's a simple recipe and the cookies are absolutely divine! They also look very festive with the other cookies and candies on a decorative holiday serving tray. After rolling the warm cookies twice in powdered sugar and the snowballs are placed on a rack to cool, it's now time to frost and decorate the sugar cookie cut outs. The sugar cookie shapes always include snowmen (and snowladies too!), candy canes, wreaths, Christmas trees and Christmas stockings. The kiddos love decorating these cookies and I love watching them! They are so excited and of course always sneak a few cookie bites when I'm not looking. One of my personal favorites is the Coconut Macaroon. The little ones don't like coconut, but I have assured them that some day they will. I loathed these cookies when I was younger and my mom told me I would one day like and even crave them. Guess what? She was right! So to this day I make a small batch of Macaroons because it just wouldn't be Christmas without them. Tasteofhome.com has a very simple recipe and they hardly take any time at all to make and bake. Next we move on to the fudge! Yes, I admit I am a long time chocoholic!  The foolproof chocolate fudge recipe seen on the Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk can is so simple and the fudge is always perfect!

Finally, after a long day in the kitchen it's time to make the  Chocolate Peppermint Bark and Taste of Home has a very easy recipe. In years past I have used a double boiler to melt the chocolate, but now I've gotten used to melting it in the microwave oven. Wow, talk about easy and much less time consuming! The finished product is the most delicious chocolate peppermint bark ever! It really does melt in your mouth!