Today, being the day after Thanksgiving, I was going to make pfeffernusse cookies. The kitchen was cool, not hot so it was a good time to do it. When I got married I moved halfway across the country. When it came time to make Christmas cookies I didn't have any recipes. Not being like my mom and grandma I couldn't just toss ingredients into a bowl and come up with cookies. I had to go buy a Betty Crocker Cookie Book. I made about every kind of cookie in that book. I wore one out and bought another one. One of my boys rescued the first one. He wanted to know which cookies I had made. I told him to look for the pages with spills. He said that was about all of them. Pfeffernusse is one that I've made year after year after year and it wouldn't be Christmas without them. The rule is that you can make them only between Thanksgiving and Christmas and no other time of the year. All of the boys now make them from the same recipe. So, I got out the book and gathered the ingredients and started mixing them. Just a single batch this year. No need for double or triple recipes with just the two of us now. But when I got all the wet ingredients mixed and took the box of anise extract and opened it and took out the bottle, it was EMPTY. What to do? I covered the bowl and stuck it in the refrigerator. Tomorrow I will go and buy anise extract. It could just be bad luck not to have pfeffernusse cookies after 49 years of making them. Do you have a cookie that makes it Christmas at your house? One that you make year after year after year? dooley
I don't have any that I bake. I dont' have the patience for cookie baking I'm afraid.... but I know those pfeffernusse cookies very well. They're delicious. You are a baker after my own heart, Dooley. I haven't had them for years. Enjoy the baking tomorrow!
Awwwww Mary Ann,Laura's are the best.Dooley you made me sooooooo hungry.All of your cookies are wonderful.I can't find the phone number ya'll gave me Laura.
Good luck with your pfeffernusse. I hope it works out for you. We've got a few cookies we make every year, but not many. I don't like making cookies.
Nice baking is what I wish for you. We also make some cookies every year especially for Christmas, but when I say we I actually mean my sister. I love to eat cookies, but baking them is a long process, weighing the ingredients, creaming the butter and sugar, mixing the cookie dough, rolling the cookie dough, cutting out the cookie shapes, placing it in the bakign trays, etc..... I prefer baking a cake (It is so much quicker.)
I'm not much of a cookie baker either, we like cakes, pies and bars. I do like to make fudge too. My mother and sister are the bakers in the family and they make enough for the whole family this time of year
I love baking, mostly bread, but cookies too! I always make ginger snaps for Christmas, and sugar cookies, and date pinwheels, and gingerbread men, and shortbread, and snickerdoodles, and a few others. We eat a few and give cookie trays to all the folks that have been so nice to us all year long. Neighbors and dear friends get breads and homemade fig jam. 'Tis the season to bake!
I love to bake, and Christmas cookies are so fun! I started the tradition with my kids (now grown) with their cousins. We would get them all together and just make a big mess! We make sugar cookies, and cut them into all the fun shapes. I was always amazed at how good my son was with the rolling pin! Over the years the decorating has evolved (gotten better, not so many blobs of sugar) They are actually edible! Now my 5 yr. old grandson has joined the party. He helps grandma bake Gingerbread Mmmm
I used to spend most of December baking cookies and cinnamon bread. Pecan Sandies, Chocolate Pixies, Sugar cookies, Brown Sugar Cookies by the dozens were our favorites, no icing on the sugar cookies and Cinnamon bread for family and friends, us and christmas morning breakfast. A normal December baking spree would usually involve between 50-100 pounds of flour. But now I just stick with the 10 loaves of cinnamon bread.
Good luck with your cookies, Dooley. If I smell them cooking, you can expect me to come tapping on your kitchen window.
COOKIES Our family likes the choc, chip cookies and sugar cookies. And me and my hubby likes homemade bread pudding, Does any one out there still make bread pudding?With a cream sauce OH YEAH!!!! SOOOOO GOOD!
Mm. I love good bread pudding. I haven't made it for years but I used to make chocolate bread pudding or banana bread pudding. Mm, mm, good. And yes, with sauce!
I used to make all kinds and a lot of cookies at Christmas time. But with two boys and a husband there were not any left at Christmas. Now I just bake sugar anc chocolate chip cookies.
I don't have any real Christmas cookie recipes, I like them all However, I can't imagine Christmas without my grandma's fudge. When she passed away I inherited her candy kettle and big old wooden spoon. She used to make some amazing divinity too but that's just a little too fussy for me I've made peanut butter balls the last year or two and they are always a hit. I found a recipe for maple nut balls that I might try this year. My problem is that I'm my very best customer and neither hubby or I need the calories
Ooh, Deanna, I love peanut butter balls. Haven't had them for years. Maybe I'll make some this year.... That's very wonderful that you have your grandma's candy kettle and spoon. I make bars that I think are "officially" called Magic Bars or 7 Layer Bars but my mom and I used to call them "Healthy Bars" just for a joke. You'll see why!! This is the recipe: Melt a stick of butter in a 9x12 pan. Layer 1 cup graham cracker crumbs for crust. Layer about a cup of each: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, chopped walnuts and shredded coconut. Top the whole thing with a can of sweetened condensed milk drizzled evenly. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the top is just barely starting to brown... Oh my goodness, they are good. Cut them small because they are rich. But be warned, it's impossible to stop at just one.
