The Sweetest Day in 2020

Yes, that is correct. It is Cookie Day. Me, my sister Syllie, and our dad got together and made way more cookies than we could ever possibly need. Yes, we are all in the same “bubble”, so this was a safe thing to do. Check out the awesomesauce things we made!

We made some snickerdoodles, which are a great old-timey kind of cookie. Here is a recipe for them. It differs slightly from the recipe we use, but our recipe makes (as Syllie says) “a Grammy amount of cookies”. We also took a really good chocolate chip cookie recipe and modified it. We used white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, and subbed in orange flavoring for half the vanilla. OMGodzilla they are amazing. You should dig out your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and play with it. Let me know what amazing things you invent. Mr. Food It Yourself gave me an early Christmas gift- a cookie cutter. We used it to make what Syllie dubbed Almond Buttscotti, and the photo above explains why. Seriously, check out the website for the cookie cutter manufacturer. (We used their vanilla cookie recipe but substituted almond flavoring.) How amazing are those cutters?

We had to make a batch of good, old fashioned, Scottish shortbread. It is Dad’s very favorite cookie. Just use a pastry blender to combine one and a half cups flour, three-quarters cup butter, and one third cup sugar. Press it into a 9×9 pan and bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes. Now you never need to buy shortbread because you know how easy it is to make. Also, you probably do not even have to leave the house for ingredients. You are welcome.

Of course, there were Moravian Spice Cookies to decorate. I really need to share a trick that I used when rolling them out, which I learned from hours of watching baking videos during the Massachusetts stay-at-home-order. Roll and bake your cookies on parchment paper. I really can not believe I did not think if this before. It worked exactly as expected. Zero cookies stuck to my countertop or my baking sheets. I will do this always from now on.

The video I watched suggested just rolling the dough out, cutting the shapes, removing the scrap, and baking on the same piece of parchment. I could not remove the scrap without moving the cookies so I ended up with one sheet of parchment for rolling, and one sheet for each baking tray.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know we have a house rule when it comes to Moravian Spice Cookies. All gingerbread folk are to be given a name and a back story. Here are the friends we made in 2020. It think we outdid ourselves this year.

2020 has been hard on literally everyone. Pretty please end the year by being kind, understanding, generous, and patient with your fellow humans. We are all navigating a significantly unfamiliar situation. I am grateful and blessed to have time to spend with my loved ones. I hope you are, too. If you are not, know that you are loved and that I am glad you are here. Onward and upward! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ <3<3<3<3