Let the Christmas Baking Season Begin!

My 3-year-old daughter said to me this morning, “I want to bake something.”

Oh, Lord.

She is going to be just like me, isn’t she?

Well, at least we had a good reason to bake today.  Gotta start building up Christmas cookie stock for the yummy gifts we will be giving out for the holiday!

I love baking Christmas cookies, but I have such a hard time deciding what kinds to make.  Since we have a giant bag of chocolate chips I bought at Sam’s Club, I chose to start with that simple recipe.  With a touch of Christmas on top.

The first thing you need to do is sniff the vanilla.  Just to make sure it’s still okay.

If the vanilla is still good, then by all means go ahead and mix up the cookies!  My recipe no doubt came off the back of a chocolate chip bag years ago.  Of course, it has been doubled.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 c. shortening

1 ½ c. granulated sugar

1 ½ c. packed brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. salt

4 ½ c. flour

2 cups chocolate chips, or a little more if you are in serious need of a chocolate fix

     Cream together the shortening and sugars until fluffy.  Then beat in the eggs.  After that, I add the baking soda, vanilla and salt and mix well.  Stir in the flour one cup at a time, then finally add the chocolate chips and stir it all up.  If it doesn’t look like there are enough chocolate chips, add some more.  Just pour ’em in.

     Use a small cookie scoop to form the dough into balls, then dip the balls into Christmas colored sprinkles.  Place dough balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on wire racks.  Enjoy!

Instead of using 2 cups of shortening, on a whim I decided to use half shortening and half butter.  This may be the reason why the cookies are flatter than I like.  The first few actually fell apart when I was taking them off the cookie sheet, so I let the rest cool for several minutes before removing them.

Violet saw me taking pictures of the goods and ran to get her own camera.

I love the platter that we use for Christmas treats.  My mom painted it herself, then glazed it and had it fired.  It is my favorite serving piece at Christmastime.

Of course, it is my only Christmas serving piece…

Last year, we started a new Christmas Eve tradition of us all decorating our own gingerbread house.  I’ve already started searching the internet for decorating ideas and I get excited whenever I see a gingerbread man or dwelling.  There are some really awesome works of gingerbread art out there!  The little painted house on my platter made me smile, thinking of the fun we are all going to have creating our houses on Christmas Eve.

Do any of you have a special Christmas tradition?  I would love to hear about it!  Until then, thanks for stopping by and God bless!

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