Christmas Cookies

With Christmas here in 17 days, I haven't even started my holiday baking. Since  I started working in retail one and half years ago, it's almost like your time isn't yours. If I have to  work, I feel like I have to squeeze in as much as I can before I go to work, or things won't get done.

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Yesterday I prepared some gingersnap cookie dough. At this time of the year I like the aroma of gingersnap cookies baking. The spiciness of the cookie is a nice contract to the sweetness of the chocolate chips that I usually make. I use to make a cookie recipe that I found in a Penzeys Spice catalog called Grandma Moog's Gingersnap Cookies. Those cookies were made with vegetable shortening (I used Crisco). Then back in December 2000, in the USA Weekend Magazine section of the Sunday paper, there was a recipe for Lora's Ginger Cookies made with butter. I have been making it ever since. Yesterday I made a double batch. I store my cookies in tin cans and then place them in my storage attic where the air is cold and dry, perfect for cookie storage.

By the way, I bake these cookies using my convection oven setting and a temperature of 350° for 12 minutues. I rotate the trays half way through. Also, I purchased at Costco, a 3 pak of non-stick silicon baking liners for $15 for two large sheets that cover a full cookie sheet and one that covers half a sheet pan. The cookies come out great on the silicon sheets. The cookies have a firm bite to them, they are not a soft, chewy gingersnap nor are they hard and crispy.

To please everyone, I'm going to try to bake Italian sesame cookies that my daughter likes, peanut butter cookies for my husband and son-in-law, biscottis for the family and two of my clients and a recipe for Red Velvet Crackle Sandwich Cookies. The last recipe appears in the December issue of Southern Living Magazine. I should find out what type of cookie my son and his fiance prefer, otherwise, someone might think I favorite one child over another.