Holiday Baking!

Only 2 weeks until Christmas and I'm itching to start baking.  I'm not the best cook, but I LOVE to bake. 

3 years ago we were in the middle of a kitchen renovation.  We'd bought my mom's house and we were re-doing most of it.  For some reason I can't remember now we started the kitchen demo in December.  We were on a major time crunch.  I was hosting Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning brunch...we had to be done on time!!  Thankfully I had the foresight to make some Christmas cookie dough ahead of time.  I remember our kitchen was half done and there I was--baking cookies while David and the guy that was helping him were shimming the cabinets after installing them.  We didn't have counter tops yet, our sink wasn't hooked up,  I had to dig my cookie sheets out of storage...but by golly I was going to have homemade cookies for Christmas!  All I needed was the stove to be plugged in and functional and my premade dough! 

Despite all the chaos that year, the baking part was stress free.  So every year since I've tried to get a few batches of cookie dough in the freezer ahead of time, and then a day or two before Christmas I bake them up.  It's wonderful.  I love to give cookies as gifts to teachers, coaches, neighbors, etc.  So I tend to bake a lot of cookies, and it's so nice to just pull them out of the freezer and place on a cookie sheet. 

This year I'm starting today.  I'm going to make Raspberry Pinwheels.  I got the recipe out of a cookie magazine that my mother-in-law had at her house and I LOVE them.  Everyone does.  They're a big hit.

 

Raspberry Pinwheels

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugar

Beat in egg and vanilla

Add flour and baking powder.  Mix well.
*if it's a little dry add some water 1 tsp at a time*

Roll out dough into a 12 inch square

Spread dough with jam and sprinkle with nuts. 

Roll up tightly jelly roll style and wrap in plastic wrap. 

Chill for 2 hours. 

Unwrap dough and slice into 1/4 inch slices. 

Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Makes 3 dozen. 

Other cookies I'm planning on making this years are:

Peanut butter blossoms

Chinese Almond

"snowballs"

spritz cookies

fudge

and, of course, sugar cookies that we decorate together. 

Anderson loves to help me.  His "job" is running the mixer.  I have a big stand mixer and he likes to add the ingredients and then turn it on.  He also is the taster after they're done! 

I love sharing recipes.  What cookies do you make for the holidays?