Sunday, December 12, 2021

A Tradition Or A Rut?

There's only one small package of cookies left in the freezer despite all of the baking that was done for the Holly Bazaar so it was time to get out the mixer and start restocking as we have several tins to fill and deliver before Santa comes to town.

The last two days have been full on baking, but as I looked at my recipes I felt like it was a bit of 'same old same old'. The favourites always go to the top of the list because I usually only make them at Christmas time, but there were others that I was missing from days when we were still able to get together for our Christmas Cookie Bakeoff, so I decided to start with a few of them first, just to so I wasn't feeling like I was in a rut. 

Case in point, these Fruitcake Hermits. It's a recipe from my friend Stephanie that I have never made myself so I decided that this was a good time to try. A little surprisingly, supply chain issues have made finding candied cherries next to impossible, so I just added in a little extra candied peel. The rum drizzle puts them over the top and had the Official Cookie Tester swooning. I was off to a good start.

Next up was another of Stephanie's recipes - Peppermint Chocolate Thumbprints. The chewy chocolate cookie is yummy topped with a hit of white chocolate and peppermint.


There was still one more large Toblerone chocolate bar left in the house from my bazaar baking so I made up two batches of Toblerone Shortbread.








I also made these Cinnamon Pecan Shortbreads. These are a favourite of mine; the crunch of the pecan that is hiding under the chocolate drizzle is seemingly custom made to be enjoyed with a good cup of tea.


Earlier in the week I had made up a batch of Gingerbread for my favourite niece Julia to come and enjoy a little decorating and there were still two bundles of dough chilling in the fridge. Having the dough and Royal Icing made up in advance cut down nicely on prep time and gave me a good batch of gingerbread men, Christmas trees and a few circular cookies as well.


These Thimble Cookies are another favourite from our childhood. A very basic cookie but the hit of raspberry jam is just wonderful.


Two batches of a Buttered Rum sandwich cookies are chilling in the fridge, so I'm planning to get those together today along with Whipped Shortbreads (a special request from my favourite nephew) and a couple pans of Social Tea Squares. There's an outside chance that Tiny Fudge Tartlets might get made up too. 

By the end of the day yesterday the only decision left was whether I was putting light or dark rum in my eggnog 😉.





8 comments:

Kyle said...

Your Christmas baking photos always makes me want a cookie or, more like, cookies. You're an incredible baker. Maybe I should go make something. 😆

Chantal said...

Oh! Marie! Your cookies look so yummy, all of them. I found myself lacking the energy to bake this year. Hopefully, it will come back before December 22nd.
P.S. I would go with dark in the eggnogg. ;^)

Nancy said...

Your cookies look so inviting and delicious, Marie. Wish I had a tin of them here. No baking yet for me, but before Christmas, I hope. Merry Christmas to you!

Kristy said...

Wow! That is a lot of cookie baking! I checked out some new recipes. I wondered what the cornstarch or rice flour does for the shortbread? I have never put that in my shortbread before. The Toblerone ones sound really interesting. Thanks for sharing the recipes! K- lkw2x6-apq@yahoo.com

Julierose said...

Yes after all that baking, you NEEDED some spiked eggnog for sure ;D--
lovely cookie recipes...hugs Julierose

Cynthia@wabi-sabi-quilts said...

These are all such beautiful cookies and I'm sure they taste as good as they look! Each year I try ONE new cookie recipe (or other holiday baked good), and sometimes it becomes a keeper, to add to my usual makes. I recognize the Mary Engelbreit tin! I don't have that one but I have others from the 80's and maybe 90's - I love using them each year.

bettyb said...

Thank you for the delicious cookies! Looking forward to getting back to cookie bake off in 2022.

bettyb said...

ALWAYS go with dark rum for egg nog!