Does anyone else feel like last week was the calm before the holiday storm? The week started off calmly, but by the end of the weekend I was exhausted from starting to get ready for Christmas.
Decorate tree – check!
The highlight of my weekend was my annual bake-a-thon. This was our 18th year of getting together for a day of baking Christmas cookies and catching up. No matter how much we prepare in advance it still takes all day, but we don’t mind.
Never mind that bottle of wine–this was our last batch!
Here’s a glimpse of some of the delicious cookies we made.
Not shown: Lemon Snowflakes, Toffeebar Cookies.
These recipes deserve their own post, but in case you want to do some baking this week, I’ll share the two I make year-after-year, because it wouldn’t be the holiday season without them!
Eggnog Spritz Cookies Recipe
These cookies are made using a cookie press. They turn out best in a cool kitchen (make them first) and you have to use un-greased baking sheets without parchment paper.
Assemble ingredients:
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 2 1/4 cups flour
Preheat Oven to 400F. Mix together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla and beat well at medium speed. Add salt and nutmeg and mix. Gradually add flour and beat at low speed, scraping bowl as needed. (Dough should come together and be relatively firm.)
Fill cookie press with dough, and press out cookies onto cool, clean pans. If shapes do not form correctly, refrigerate dough for about 30-60 minutes and try again.
I like to decorate the cookies before I bake them, using green sugar and cinnamon dots to make my wreaths. Bake for 6-8 minutes until cookies just start to turn golden brown.
Let cool on pan for a few minutes, then use a cookie spatula to transfer to a cookie rack to cool completely.
Molasses Ginger Spice Cookies Recipe
These cookies are rolled in decorating sugar before baking. I’ve tried several types, but so far the big gold sugar crystals turn out best.
Assemble ingredients:
- 1/4 cup + 2 T butter (softened)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 egg
- 2 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mace
- 1-2 jars gold decorating sugar
Preheat oven to 350F. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter, sugar, and egg in a large mixing bowl. Add molasses and mix well. Gradually add dry ingredients, mixing well after each portion. Divide dough into two portions, wrap with plastic wrap, and freeze for 30 minute or refrigerate overnight.
Working with one portion of dough at a time, form dough into 3/4″ or 1″ balls, roll in decorating sugar, and place apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes until tops are crackled and edges are lightly browned.
Let cool on pan for a few minutes, then use a cookie spatula to transfer to a cookie rack to cool completely.
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Cookie baking is such a fun tradition! I need to figure out what I am going to bake and also not eat them all 🙂 Have a great week
I give a lot away, but still eat plenty! 🙂
Those cookies look awesome and what a fun time! I used to do a day of cookie making with my mom in the Fall and then again for Christmas when I lived in Chicago. I miss it, but it’s probably better for my waist line now!
Those molasses ginger spice cookies sound delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe. I used to do a cookie baking day with two of my friends, but they didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did so we quit. 🙁 I’m glad yours is still going strong after so many years!
I am so impressed by your cookies ! I have no patience what so ever to bake. I think it is a wonderful tradition to do that with friends every year. I decorated for Christmas too. It has turned cold here so things are definitely feeling a lot like the holidays !
Doing it with friends makes all the difference!
(((the nonbakerJew holds out her plate)))
Although we do call them Christmas cookies, there are Jews among us. 😉
I love baking this time of year as well! Your cookies look delicious!
I’d love to have a “cookie group” to do a day of power baking with me! I spent several hours last night making spritz cookies…and what a production! I kept forgetting to let the sheets cool ( completely!) between each batch, and had a hard time getting the dough to “release” from the press as a result. I couldn’t get any of the sprinkles to “stick” so that was also a fail (I had thought of sprinkling prior to baking, but didn’t know how that would turn out #nexttime). AND, then they kept breaking as I transferred them to cooling racks (of course, I had to eat the “damaged” cones). But, my baking has commenced!
Oh, yeah, been there and done that. You do have to use sprinkles before baking or use icing to make them stick. 🙂
annual bake-a-thon…sounds like soo much fun and a great way to taste some delicious cookies! The Molasses Ginger Spice….you had me at Ginger!
Splat Point goal-what is that?…congrats!
awww..look at the deer. Isn’t it always so awesome to see animals on a run-I love it?
I think I want to find a cycling studio. I have not been on my bike since September’s Triathlon…sigh….
Splat Points is the OTF term for minutes in your orange heart rate zone. 🙂 I love indoor cycling year-round, but especially when it’s cold and grey outside.
I’ll probably get on the baking kick this weekend. I might have to make those spritz cookies. I haven’t used my cookie press for a few years!
How fun to have such a long-standing cookie group. That is very impressive and a good sign of how much you all enjoy it!
Oh that looks so good! Holiday cookies are my down fall and yes I like to try and bake a few 🙂 What a fun tradition with your friends!
Thanks. I have to stash them in the freezer right away, or else I will demolish them!
What a fun tradition! Those cookies look so yummy.
I am going to try those recipes ASAP!!! I need to start a holiday cookie baking tradition – it’s amazing that you’ve been doing this for 18 years. Super inspirational!
All those cookies!!! YUM!!!
Girl those are some serious cookies! I’m like…chocolate chip from a bag (just add the liquids). I’m still in the calm before the holiday storm I think…by hoice. Haha.
Those cookies look so good! Thanks for sharing some recipes! An Orange Theory just opened near me. I think I’ll check it out once I finish marathon training.
I’m surprised at how much I like Orange Theory – I think it’s the variety and fast pace of the workouts since you are constantly changing things up.
Those cookies look good, although baker I am not. Congrats on the splat points, I know how hard that is.
Love that you’ve been doing that for 18 years! I usually make a short bread cookie every year and a few others. I haven’t even thought about baking yet! We just had two birthdays so I’m behind on Christmas stuff.
December is always such a busy and stressful month. Thank goodness for fitness being such a great stress reliever and break from all of the madness that occurs throughout this month!
Molasses Ginger Spice Cookies are my life. x10 please!
My family bakes cookies every year too! I am the official dough roller and cookie cutter. After that, it is up to my family to decorate them. We do usually cheat by buying rolls of sugar cookie dough. We will do 6/7 so yes a lot of them!
We eat our fair share of dough, plain cookies and decorated ones. We try to eat the rejects!
After they dry we each take some home and also will make up some for work and school even neighbors.
Thanks Coco for linking up with us!
My mom makes a pressed cookie kind of like that too, then a cranberry one, and toffee we always have those 3 on Christmas Eve for dessert.
18 YEARS of cookie baking? That sounds like perfection. I bet you guys have a blast baking all day. Those eggnog cookies seem like something I need in my life. 😉
All of your cookies look delicious! I always make russian teacake cookies every year, they are a family favorite.
Well, you know how I love my cookies! The cookie bake-a-thon sounds fun. I can almost bet the last batch was the best 😉 It’s a tradition to make candy with my kids. Which is good — because I’ll eat less of that than I would cookies. How cool to see the deer in the middle of the city. Thanks for linking, Coco!
The holiday season always makes me so happy–I love how festive and pretty everything gets! I love your tree and those cookies are absolutely adorable! <3!!
Your cookies look like they belong in a magazine! There aren’t many baked goods I make from scratch but I do my make my Christmas cookies from scratch because it’s more fun that way!
I love that you have such a longstanding baking tradition! Holiday cookies are my weakness and as a result, I only bake a couple. I need to try those ginger ones. The caveman is a huge ginger spice fan