Baking Christmas Cookies

My co-workers have not-so-subtly been hinting that it has been too long since I last brought in homemade treats. That hinting combined with the fact it is the Christmas season meant it was time to bake this weekend!! I pulled out my handy-dandy (albeit slowly dying) Kitchen Aid yesterday and decided to whip up some Christmas-themed shortbread cookies.

The night before as I was in bed falling asleep, I wondered if it would work to make two colors of shortbread dough, layer them, roll them into a log, chill the log, and then slice the log and have swirled cookies. (Yes, that is what I think about as I fall asleep ... I think it is a sickness! Maybe should look into a local chapter of Bakers Anonymous ... I wonder if they'd let me bring homemade treats to the meetings!)

As soon as I pulled the mixer out of the cupboard, Conor was running through the kitchen shouting "I want to help! I want to help!!" (That boy is my little baking apprentice through and through!) So, the kids hauled chairs from the table over to my baking station and helped me whip up the dough. (Note to self, don't let them unwrap the butter and put it into the mixer bowl before checking for leftover paper.)

After the dough was done, the kids went back to playing, which worked out nicely for the coloring, layering, rolling aspects of the project. I was rather nervous about the cookies' final appearance; would baking negatively impact the colors? Happily, I learned that it didn't! The cookies are adorably Christmasy.

Conor wore the elf ears as ear plugs ... hey, he thinks it works, so we go with it

Watching the mixer do its thing; the kids know they have to keep their
hands back, so Annika holds the bowl handle while Conor covers his ears... I
guess the elf ears didn't work after all

Ready for baking!
(Note the holes in a few of the cookies ... that's where
I dug out the butter wrapper remnants)

November Daring Bakers Challenge Revealed

Honestly, the November Daring Bakers Challenge couldn't have been more timely or more up my alley if it tried. We were challenged to make cookies. Oh darn! ;)

The holidays are all about baked good (in my humble opinion) and getting the opportunity to try out a new cookie recipe was fantastic. I wound up making piped shortbread cookies and brownie bundles (a recipe I found online).

I used the baked goods as bribery to get people to participate in a food drive I coordinated at work. Our office is comprised of 3 floors and I pitted the various floors against each other ... all for the good of Northwest Harvest. The floor that filled its donation box first won homemade goodies and the 5th floor of our office won.

I was concerned that the piped shortbread cookies wouldn't quite be enough for everyone, so that's where the brownie bundles came into play. The double win to the brownie bundles is they also used up some of our leftover Halloween candies. Unfortunately, I didn't save the URL for the brownie recipe... seems to be a one-time experiment with that exact recipe. (Yes, I am too lazy to go back through our browser history to find it.) To add even more flair to the treats, I dipped half of the piped shortbread cookies in melted chocolate. Note: If you make the shortbread cookies, they are REALLY fragile and dipping them does result in several broken cookies.

The treats were a hit... how do I know? They were completely gone before 10 AM.

Piped Shortbread Cookies
(recipe courtesy of Peta Eats)

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time:8-10 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz) softened butter
1¼ cups (175 gm) (6 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour
½ cup (65 gm) (2- 2/3 oz) confectioners' sugar
¼ cup (45 gm) (1½ oz) cornflour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla essence
Nuts, chocolate chips, maraschino cherries

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 300°F/ 150°C/gas mark 2
2. Combine butter, flours, vanilla and confectioner's sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle beater. Mix on low speed until combined and then change to the whisk beater.
3. Beat for 10 minutes.
4. Pipe into rings.
5. Decorate with maraschino cherry pieces to look like little wreaths or leave plain.
6. Bake in preheated moderate oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned.
7. Cool completely and drizzle with melted chocolate or icing (frosting) if you want to.

Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.