The Mega X-Mas Cookie Marathon

Or "How I Spent the Winter TV Doldrums..."

It's taken two weeks to recap my holiday baking because I'm still recovering from all of it! I had an overly ambitious idea this fall to send boxes of cookies to friends around the country as well as to my dear grandmother who did the same for me in college. So technically, it's all her fault.

Because of the overwhelming scope, I made a plan. I made a list of recipients and whittled it down to a manageable number - 16. I found perfect plastic containers at the local grocery store which were thriftier than buying new tins. I measured the tubs to determine the boxes I would need for shipping and ordered them from USPS.com in what I thought was plenty of time. More on that later, on to the baking.

I broke the baking into 2 segments - shipments & out of town deliveries vs. local deliveries. I knew I had to get my shipments out by a specific date so they would arrive well before Christmas. I chose three types of cookies (down from 6, plus fudge and/or candied pecans, like I said, I was very ambitious at the start) - Gingersnaps, the classic Iced Sugar Cookie, and everyone's favorite Chocolate Chip. All Grandma's recipes, all time-tested and taste bud approved. To fill the first 10 tubs for shipment, I made double batches of the gingersnaps and chocolate chips and a single batch of the sugars because that makes a ton of cookies. After filling the tubs, I realized I probably could have added one more variety but I just didn't have time. I baked the cookies over the course of a week, as well as a batch of pumpkin bread to fulfill a Secret Santa obligation.

At the very latest, I wanted to send the boxes out 2 weeks before Christmas itself, to ensure delivery. This is where the postal service failed me. The boxes I ordered were free, and the website said they would be delivered within 7-10 business days of the order. I even got an email notification when they were shipped but the notice offered nothing as a means of tracking my shipment. I received that notice a week before I wanted to send them out, so I thought I was well on my way to making this work. As the baking week progressed, the boxes didn't come. I took a partial day from work to start a long holiday weekend and the boxes hadn't arrived. So I loaded all of the tubs in the trunk and headed home for a weekend with the family. I ended up taking the tubs to the UPS store and paying 3x what I would have paid at the post office. By that point, I was so upset I didn't care - I felt like I was protesting the post office. Ultimately, I shipped 8 boxes since one was delivered en route to my parents to my college roommate and the other went to my brother & his wife.

The next round of baking was much less hectic as I didn't have a set deadline. I wanted to deliver over the weekend before Christmas, so I just needed to get things finished by the weekend. I think I did actual do a batch of cookies on Saturday morning, and delivered that evening. Having learned the capacity of the tubs, I decided to include 4 varieties of cookies and I changed things up a bit since they didn't need to be sturdy enough to handle shipping - Gingersnaps, Iced Sugar, Pressed Sugar (they crumble if you look at them funny, but boy, are they yummy!), and Martha's Grammy's Chocolate. The yields of the various batches worked well enough that each tub had a few more than a dozen of each type with a little room to spare. That iced sugar recipe turns out so many cookies - I tried to use similar sized cutters to keep baking even - that I had quite a few of those left. So I brought 2 tubs to work and the remainder went to friends.

Not wanting to waste those left over cookies, I made good on a promise and delivered those as well as a Christmas Eve batch of chocolate chip cookies to my favorite fire station. Those were very well received. It wasn't until the end of my visit with them that I saw the pile of goodies they had in the kitchen. If that shift didn't eat them all, I'm sure the next shift didn't mind the leftovers!

I tried to summarize the amounts of butter, flour and sugar that I used during this after the fact but I can't process that right now. I'll try to do better next year and keep a tally as I go. Best estimates were around 4 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of flour and 12 pounds of sugar, but that's just a guess.

Now I'm considering shipping cookies to soldiers overseas. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Splenda

Another friend at work (different department than me) asked for cookies for her birthday. As usual, I was more than happy to accommodate her. She did ask that I make the cookies with Splenda to make the cookies marginally healthier so she could share them with her pre-Diabetic father. Not a problem - I have some of the "for baking" blends at home.

I haven't used them much as the texture of the doughs tend to be different than when I use sugar and I generally don't like to experiment with people's birthday presents. I searched online for an established, suitable recipe written specifically for Splenda use, rather than adapted for it. I also opted to use SmartBalance's baking blend rather than Crisco. The dough came together well, although I questioned the directions a little. It said to blend the vanilla while creaming the "sugar" and the fats. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway and it did eventually get to a nice creamy consistency. I knew going in that these cookies would be on the soft side since the recipe called for more brown "sugar" than white, although since it was Splenda, I wasn't entirely sure if the brown blend has the same moisture qualities that brown sugar does. The fact that the dough looked more like normal dough made me happy - my previous attempts using Splenda I ended up with dough that would hardly hold together.

As I baked up the cookies, I noticed that they didn't spread that much. I'm not sure which is the cause of this - Splenda or SmartBalance - but I don't really care. The end result was a very cakey cookie with good flavor, even if the recipient called in sick when I brought them in. We saved some for her. :)

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

We had another birthday in the office last week and despite the record breaking high temperatures we've been experiencing here, I offered to turn on my oven for some birthday cookies. I debated the recipe as this coworker had not noted a favorite from Martha's book. And while I love my coworker, she opted for the "whatever you want to bake" option.

So I chose Grammy's Chocolate Cookies from the book. The picture was very appetizing and the recipe didn't call for any odd techniques or outlandish ingredients (who am I kidding, I now keep at least 2 whole vanilla beans in my pantry at all times!). It did call for Dutch Process Cocoa Powder, which I recall seeing on Good Eats - Alton Brown, I love you! - that there is a difference between regular, natural cocoa powder and dutch process. Something with alkalies and chemical reactions. I had regular cocoa powder in the house, 3 kinds, actually. One kind being particularly good - Scharffenberger. Try their bars or chips; you'll thank me later. The 2 others are readily available at the regular supermarket. I made a couple of stops at a few different stores looking for dutch process but couldn't find any. A friend suggested one other store before heading to the specialty shops and I found a dark blend that included dutch process and figured that was better than nothing.

The recipe was straightforward and easy to follow. The dough needed to rest in the refrigerator for an hour before rolling into balls so that gave me a little time to catch up on my TiVo backlog. I rolled the dough, rolled the balls around in white sanding sugar and baked em. I used up every last bit of white sanding sugar that I had.

The dough looked like pretty little rum balls before going in the oven!

These cookies baked up beautifully! They were crisp, but not break-a-tooth-when-you-take-a-bite crisp. They were a little on the dark chocolate side, considering the cocoa powder I used, but still very tasty. They'd go perfect with a nice, cold glass of milk.

Almost like homemade Oreos, but better!

As usual, they went over very well at the office. I should have saved some for my neighbor but I didn't want to share my leftovers. :) This is definitely a recipe that I will repeat.

Post Script: At the store today, the regular store on my way home from work, I found the dutch process cocoa powder in the baking aisle. I almost didn't look, considering the luck I had (I even called Central Market looking for it but got disconnected twice). So now I have some. Friends on Facebook suggesting looking into King Arthur and I think I'll order from there, too. Who knew they did more than flour?!

Post Post Script: I found a book of ice cream and sorbet recipes at Half Priced Books over the weekend. Maybe I'll bust out with ice cream this weekend!

One More Thing

I made oatmeal raisin cookies earlier this week, too. I don't know what I did differently, but this batch looks much prettier than the last one. The batch before this spread really thin; it seemed like the only lumps were the raisins themselves. The texture this time is what you picture when you think of oatmeal raisin cookies. And these are healthy for you because there's wheat germ in there! Yeah, that's the ticket.

I was too lazy to grate the zucchini I have, so I'll make that bread tomorrow. Then, no more baking for a while. The next work birthday isn't until July.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

We had another birthday in the office today so I baked another batch of cookies. Although these were a special request, I have worked through this recipe one time before. It calls for the usual fare, but it also includes wheat germ, which adds a little something to the cookies. I had the hardest time finding it at the grocery store - I had no idea where to look for it! First, I assumed it would be in the bulk food section. Some of our local stores have fantastic bulk foods and I can only purchase the amount that I need if it is something that I don't use that often. But they also have choices for different types of salt and flour but I haven't branched out into that yet. The stores closest to me did not have it the bulk area and the clerks were useless. I called another store and asked and they were able to direct me to which side of the aisle to find it. I felt rather silly once I found it because I realized that the closer stores also carried; I just didn't know where to look. In case you're wondering, it's in the cereal aisle, usually near the end and on an upper shelf.

This batch of cookies reinforced the idea of thoroughly checking the ingredient list and making a list before going to the store. While I did have the elusive wheat germ, I forgot to check my supply of raisins! After combining the dry ingredients and getting the butter into the mixing bowl, I realized I didn't have enough raisins. I had to turn off my oven and run to the store. I hate running to the store for just one item - it makes me look like such a scatterbrain and fate will always put me in the slowest line possible if I'm in any sort of a rush. I made sure to buy the large canister of raisins, in case I have any emergencies!

Once everything was in order, the whole batch came together nicely, although my count was a little short of Martha's projection of 5 dozen. I ended up with 4 dozen, which still is a lot of cookies. Mine were also a little thinner and crisper than the picture in the book - I'm blaming the wonky temperatures on my ancient oven. I'm serious, my next major purchase will be a new oven.

As always, the cookies were a big hit. Check 'em out...

I always get a nice little assembly line going. :)

The whole batch.


On the plus side, I learned how to turn off my flash (nevermind that I've had the camera for like 4 years!) since all of my attempts at close ups washed everything out. The texture on these was amazing.

Coming up on One Smart Cookie... Actual baking with Grandma! Yes in a few short weeks I'll be heading north, experiencing real spring (as opposed to our 1 day of it) and working on making those yeast rolls whose recipe she keeps in her head. The last time we made them, just as the dough was ready for the first rise, I noticed that she didn't use any eggs. Her response, a very cute, "Well, not this time!". I'll be taking copious notes. I just had an idea, I might even record it for posterity! And of course, I'll be sharing the whole adventure with you.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Martha's, not Grandma's, just to clarify.

Tomorrow is another birthday at work and the honoree is allergic to chocolate. That forced me to rethink my standard chocolate chip cookie choice. She had not selected anything from the Martha book, so I thought about what I had handy in the house. Vanilla sugar, waiting to be used and some leftover lemons from the lemon sorbet fiasco. And lo, the perfect fit - the old-fashioned sugar cookie.

While I waited for the butter to soften, I zested and juiced a lemon and prepared the rest of the dry ingredients. I sifted the vanilla sugar to make certain that none of the hull made into the mix.

Martha suggests using a 2 inch ice cream scoop, which I don't have. Mine is 2 1/2 inches and I've had some gigantic cookies when I use it. I did my best, leaving the scooper partially not filled. I thought I spaced the cookies well but the first round baked into each other. And since my oven runs hot, I adjusted the temperature and the baking time down a little. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to get it right.

So I cookies on the next few sheets. I really like how the sanding sugar sparkles.


That second batch came out beautifully. I think even Martha would be impressed. The first batch were a little browner than I would like, so I dialed back the baking time by 2 minutes. For once, I even got the exact number of cookies as the recipes says it will make (18, but they are really big)! Only one or two of them are not presentable - those are for taste testing, and some of them look like they could be the photo in the book. I'm really proud of this batch and I'm sure it's a recipe that I'll add to my regular list.

Final picture here

Martha Stewarts's Cookies, AKA "The Cookie Book"

So I received Martha Stewart's Cookies for my birthday last year and decided I wanted to make an effort at branching out and trying new recipes. My coworkers have been kind enough to make selections and act as guinea pigs for my attempts. They really are a brave lot. :) If you enjoy making cookies and want a variety of recipes in one place, you can't go wrong with this book.

So far, I've attempted the following recipes with different levels of success: Chocolate Crackles, Milk-Chocolate Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies, Pumkin Cookies with Brown-butter Icing, Brown-butter Toffee Blondies, Thin and Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies and Mini Black-and-White Cookies. Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures of all of these batches and it's a shame, too - some of them turned out rather awesomely. This is a mistake that I will remedy in the future since there are plenty of recipes in this book and I've just scratched the surface!

p.s. I've had some trouble adding photos tonight so you can follow this link to view the cookies mentioned above