Holiday Baking

I was quite pleased with my holiday baking this year. (And the four pounds of butter I used.) I made a lot of delicious treats and there's nothing I love better than sharing them with all our friends each year. But I think that next year, I'll pick only 2 or 3 items to make and give everyone a lot more of each item. Most people only got 1-3 of each cookie and I definitely preferred some over others. Plus, I think some of my baking suffered because I made so many different types of cookies. Better to focus on a few and make them really awesome next time.

For starters, I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies with toffee and oatmeal. I covered a few of them with leftover chocolate from the Oreo truffles.
Then came angel thumbprint cookies. My mom and I used to make these every year for Christmas. I hadn't made these in awhile, so I decided to give them another go. (And filled them with my homemade strawberry and peach jam.) Sadly, I wasn't as impressed with these as I used to be. Probably because they didn't have any chocolate in them....

I also made Oreo truffles which are seriously one of the easiest things in the world to make. They look all fancy and nice and they certainly don't taste like Oreos but they are delicious. All you have to do take one package of Oreo cookies (minus a few cookies), crumbify them in a food processor (yes, I totally made that word up) and mix with one package of softened cream cheese. You roll them in balls and then cover with some melted chocolate.

So awesome. And of course, I had to made sugar cookies. It's the one thing I just have to make every Christmas. And every Christmas, I contemplate not making them because they are rather time consuming and I like other cookies better. But every year after making them, I eat like 12 and remember why I love sugar cookies so much. This is a great recipe which I got by way of my friend Kara, who in turn stole them from our friend Tessa. I love how recipes get passed and exchanged among friends. And now, every time I make these sugar cookies, I think of Tessa and the time we baked a peach and blueberry pie together in her tiny kitchen in San Francisco and I start to miss her and all my old friends so much that I have to eat 10 more cookies to stop feeling so depressed.

I also made two types of fudge. I made hazelnut chocolate fudge from a recipe my sister sent me but I really wasn't that impressed with it. So I made a second batch (the kind I normally make) from the recipe on the back of the marshmellow fluff jar. Last, I made a new type of cookie: 1785 Inn's Ten Layer Cookies. They were divine. But it's a good thing I only made one pan because they are heart-attack-inducing. Graham cracker crust. Dark chocolate chips. Milk chocolate chips. Butterscotch chips. Toffee chips. Coconut. Sweet and condensed milk. Yup. They'll kill ya. But oh, they were good.

Here's the plates all assembled. I hope that my friends here in Korea that received them enjoyed them. I love to bake and I love sharing all my favorite holiday goodies with my dear friends. It's my way to say thank you for their friendship. I've done it every year since I was a little girl helping my mom with her Christmas plates and it's something I hope to continue to do with my kids. Because Christmas is just not Christmas without Christmas cookies.

If anyone would like any of the recipes I didn't post, let me know and I'll share them. And if you've got some good recipes you love, please share! I'm always on the look-out for new cookie recipes.