Well, my mom was a great cook, but she hated doing it! She worked late so getting dinner on the table was more of a chore than something she enjoyed. Baking however, was her true passion and she spent lots of her free time combing through recipes for cookies, cakes, candies etc, and then tweaking them to her liking. And each holiday season, kicked her baking into high gear. She would literally make 30-40 varieties of cookies and double or triple the recipes. She would bake 1000s of cookies and give them to everyone she knew. She would bring them to work for her students, for holiday parties, mail them to friends across the country, serve them when she hosted parties, donate some to charities, etc. She began Thanksgiving weekend and didn't stop until about 2 days before Christmas Eve. Our house was like a bakery, flour all over the place, incredible smells, the sound of my parents arguing about cleaning all the dishes haha. She just made cookies every night after work, until she went to bed, on weekends, and occasionally would even take a day off from work to make them. Since she made such huge quantities and started so early, she had no choice but to freeze them. Through trial and error she learned how to best freeze them to retain their quality and ended up with two extra freezers just for cookie season.
Well, unfortunately she passed many years ago and for a few years the cookies were a thing of the past. But shortly after my dad asked my wife and I if we would like to purchase the house that I grew up in as he no longer felt like taking care of it on his own. Needless to say, he gave us a great deal. With the house I inherited all of my mom's baking equipment and recipes. Unfortunately, not her love of baking haha. It is too exact, too much planning, too organized. But since tradition is important to me, the year I moved back into the home I grew up in, I decided that I would reinstate the holiday cookie madness. Not nearly to the degree that she did it...but its the thought that counts, right? haha it seems that each year since I have added a few new cookies to lineup but I can see that I am heading in the direction of about 30 varieties this year. I have a bit of an obsessive personality haha And my daughter seems to love baking with me, so that makes it even more fun.
So I figured i'd use this thread to share some of this years cookies. Now I know this is in the recipes only section haha so don't yell at me. If anyone is interested in a particular recipe, don't hesitate to ask.
So here we are. It is December 7th and I have about 20 varieties made since Thanksgiving weekend. Due large in part to my awesome wife who allows me the time to do all this.
So it started with the prep. My mom always taught me to measure all the dry ingredients on one day and label them for quicker baking later.
M&M Chip Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Bars
Snickerdoodles
Sugar Cookies
German Chocolate Cake Cookies
Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Mini Cheesecakes
Raspberry Crumb Bars
Italian Rainbow Cookies
Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Pretzel Bark
Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Fudge
Hahah that's all the pics I could find for now. I'll be back later with more! Thanks for looking!
-Chris
Well, unfortunately she passed many years ago and for a few years the cookies were a thing of the past. But shortly after my dad asked my wife and I if we would like to purchase the house that I grew up in as he no longer felt like taking care of it on his own. Needless to say, he gave us a great deal. With the house I inherited all of my mom's baking equipment and recipes. Unfortunately, not her love of baking haha. It is too exact, too much planning, too organized. But since tradition is important to me, the year I moved back into the home I grew up in, I decided that I would reinstate the holiday cookie madness. Not nearly to the degree that she did it...but its the thought that counts, right? haha it seems that each year since I have added a few new cookies to lineup but I can see that I am heading in the direction of about 30 varieties this year. I have a bit of an obsessive personality haha And my daughter seems to love baking with me, so that makes it even more fun.
So I figured i'd use this thread to share some of this years cookies. Now I know this is in the recipes only section haha so don't yell at me. If anyone is interested in a particular recipe, don't hesitate to ask.
So here we are. It is December 7th and I have about 20 varieties made since Thanksgiving weekend. Due large in part to my awesome wife who allows me the time to do all this.
So it started with the prep. My mom always taught me to measure all the dry ingredients on one day and label them for quicker baking later.
M&M Chip Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Bars
Snickerdoodles
Sugar Cookies
German Chocolate Cake Cookies
Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Mini Cheesecakes
Raspberry Crumb Bars
Italian Rainbow Cookies
Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Pretzel Bark
Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate Fudge
Hahah that's all the pics I could find for now. I'll be back later with more! Thanks for looking!
-Chris
