To clarify yesterday’s post, I am not anti-cookie. I love cookies and baked goods of most kinds in happy, healthy moderation.
Baking is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. I usually gift my co-workers with a box of baked goods. (But to be fair, I am not their health insurance representative, nor do I give them a lecture with their cookies.) I am a big fan of the edible gift for co-workers, because it’s fun for me to make, it’s inexpensive, and if they don’t want to eat it, it’s something they can share with family and friends without feeling weird about it. Or, if they let the cookies go bad, then they can just throw them out, no harm done.
I’ve struggled for a while with how to best package the baked goods. The festive cookie boxes you can buy in the holiday baking sections of Target, Kroger, or Michael’s are always way too expensive. The little holiday goodie bags you can buy in the same aisle hold way fewer desserts than I want to give.
This year, I hit on using plain brown cardboard boxes (purchased at Michael’s for 89 cents each) which I will line with parchment paper and tie with decorative candy cane ribbony-garlandy stuff ($1.99). I am hoping that I have found, at last, the perfect solution for workplace holiday baked good giving.
Beyond my office, I also take a great deal of pride in providing a delicious plate of baked goods for my family gathering at Christmas. And, you know, it’s always nice to have some cookies around the house so my sister and I can assemble dessert plates at the end of the day.
Baking is a point of pride for me, which means that I usually bake myself into a crazed frenzy, in hopes that people will not only delight in the quality of the cookies, but also marvel at variety and selection.
So far this year, I am planning on baking:
- Wookie Cookies (extra-awesome chocolate chip cookies) with Christmas M&Ms
- Saltine cracker toffee candy
- Macaroons (probably–my sister has put in a request)
But of course, I am still looking for additional possible recipes. Who has suggestions for me? What are your favorite types of Christmas cookies?
Mmm! This is my favorite thing about Christmas–baking cookies!!
I always make Russian Tea Cakes (sometimes I’ll form them into crescents). I also make Thumbprint Cookies, mostly because they are easy and pretty. And Christmas baking wouldn’t be complete without a batch (or ten) of Shortbread Cookies. I’ll probably toss in some new ones, but these are my old stand-bys.
My new tradition is to make Red Velvet Cake Balls. These are so freaking good. Troublesome and time-consuming to make, but oh-so-freaking-good.
Can’t wait to hear what you think about the Candy Cane Biscotti! I’m curious, though, about the “Wookie Cookies”. Is it the recipe on my blog? I name my sister’s cookies Wookie Cookies two years ago! Funny!
http://penniesonaplatter.com/2007/12/07/wookies-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Wookie Cookies are a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that come from the Star Wars cookbook. They’re a lot like regular chocolate chip cookies, except they have both semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips, and they have cinnamon in them. You can see the recipe for them here: http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/text/wookiee-ookies.htm
Making those has long been a holiday tradition in my family!
When I was a kid, we used to make cookies (I guess just normal sugar cookies) and paint them with egg yolk paint:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/decorating-cookies1.htm
That is really cool! I’ve actually never heard of doing that before! It almost makes me want to make sugar cookies, just so I could paint them!
Neat! (Star Wars Wookie Cookies) I’ll have to try those out!