Better Late Than Never, Especially When It Comes to Cookies

I finally got around to baking some Christmas cookies this weekend, and while I am nowhere near done, I feel like I've made an effort.

I started with one of the easiest recipes in my repertoire; chewy ginger molasses cookies. These are one of the Man-Cub's favorites, so no holiday season is complete without them.

I also made my cut-sugar cookies, because not making them would be a crime akin to murder in the eyes of my family. They are currently chilling in a cookie tin in the garage, where they will stay until sometime this weekend when we break them out for a decorating party. Queen B will be here Friday, so she will be able to help with the decorating, which makes my heart so happy.

This year, I decided to try out two new cookie recipes, one of which was a keeper, and one of which was not.

The keeper recipe is a spiced cookie that I pressed into wooden cookie molds. They bake up fairly hard and are perfect for dipping into coffee or hot cocoa. Hugh immediately fell in love with them, which is no surprise because he is a fan of gingerbread men, and these are quite similar.

Plus, they are hella cute and weren't terribly labor-intensive.

The non-keeper recipe was for a stamped shortbread cookie, which I was really excited about because I ordered a set of personalized stamps. Unfortunately, the impressions on the cookies didn't stand up to the baking process and the dough was just quite finicky overall. When I realized the process was a bust, I threw the remaining dough into a Nordic Ware shortbread pan and baked it that way; which produced a much better result. 

Now that I'm thinking about it, I may keep the recipe just for that purpose. I will also continue the search for a recipe that works with the stamps.

Anyhoodle, I still have a number of cookies to bake this week, including two (possibly three) kinds of pizzelles, drop-sugar cookies, and either chocolate chop or M&M cookies. I'm also planning to make a batch of fudge.

Mom has been baking for a bit longer than I have this season, so between the two of us we should have all the bases covered, just in time for Christmas.