Hitting the Sweet Tooth Hard - or - Making Some Memories with the Kiddos

One thing I like to do is make cookies for Christmas.  However I hit a couple of glitches along the way.  One is my counter space in the kitchen is limited.  There just isn't enough room.  Next is the wonky oven.  Ever since the spring on the door sprang, the door does not have a tight seal and the heat escapes easily which results in uneven browning and longer cooking times which then results in less than desirable end products.  Another is there just isn't enough room...different than limited counter space.  The dining room table, the sunroom, the top of the washer and dryer....

One year we attempted to hold a Family Cookie Baking Marathon with three or four Kitchen Aid mixers going and lots of counter space plus two tables and all of us baking and sharing at once.  It was fun, but no one has suggested doing it again!   Oven space was an issue since we had cookie sheets in the holding area most of the afternoon and evening.

The opportunity presented itself for a cookie baking experience when we stayed with Landon, Tessa, and Owen while Blaine and Hilary spent yesterday in Indianapolis - Straight No Chaser tickets from Jan and Don, time to do some shopping, a nice dinner out to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary.  Perfect time for us to make some cookies.

I selected three recipes:  Cowboy Cookies (with oatmeal and chocolate chips), Grandma's Peanut Butter cookies (passed through the generations), and Molasses Cookies (prize winners).  Hilary had also picked up a box of pre-cut sugar cookies from Gordons for us to bake and decorate.  We loaded up a couple of boxes with ingredients from home, made a stop at Walmart to pick up a few items we didn't have, and the plan was made.

By some miracle the kids agreed to make cookies one at a time.  I never thought Landon could make a batch, then Tessa, without fussing from one or the other (mainly Tessa).   But they didn't fuss at all.

Landon selected Cowboy Cookies for his recipe.  He stood on the stool to help with measuring oatmeal, peeling off the wrapper from the stick of Crisco, pouring in the eggs, and adding the flour to the creamed mixture.




 
 He also used his special cookie spoon to place identical mounds of dough on the cookie sheets. He did ALL of the scooping. I showed him how to run the flat edge of the scoop against the side of the bowl to make the size of the balls a little more uniform and to give them a flatter edge to place on the sheet.  He was quite pleased with himself, and I was happy with his progress as a cook.  It was a much more pleasurable experience than the last time we baked together.

Great-Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookie recipe was Tessa's choice.  I explained to her that she was the 6th generation to make these cookies.  I don't think she understood that, but maybe one day she will realize how important that cookie recipe is to our family of bakers.  Her skills are not quite as polished as Landon's - she is just 5, but she has improved over the last time we baked in our kitchen.  She was able to put the butter and the stick of Crisco in the bowl (and had to wash her hand after because they were greasy) and she poured in the eggs (with my help) and she stirred the flour with the other dry ingredients (without too much residue over the edge of the bowl).



 
Her best skill, though, was dipping the fork in the flour and smashing the cookie on the top.  All of the cookies have nice criss-crosses on them, thanks to Tessa.
 
 My only problem with those cookies was that the dough seemed to be too greasy.  I am not sure why since the recipe has always been the same and we followed it exactly. The only thing I can think of i a change in the quality of the Crisco sticks or I used the wrong type of margarine and not real butter (which I have never used anyway). Still good cookies though.

Next recipe was the Molasses Cookies that I made on my own.  These, in my opinion, were the best of the three.  The dough was a little sticky, so I am glad my rings were still off, but they baked perfectly and the taste is just divine! The best cookies.....

Finally we baked some of the cut outs and decorated them.  They needed 24 cookies for their cookie plates that they are going to deliver to their neighbors.  We baked and frosted that many and about 10 more.  I found some green icing in a tub, maybe the kind that goes on a Funfetti cake. We used it AND the sprinkles for some of the cookies along with a tub of vanilla.  Landon used a cheese ball knife and Tessa had a child's spoon that she turned over to use the back to spread the glob of frosting I put on her cookies.  They added some sprinkles and left others simply frosted.  I smoothed out a few of Tessa's since her icing looked like it was spread by a 5-year-old (which it was).







All in all it was a good afternoon.  The best two things were these:  Landon told me he really liked baking cookies with me and thanked me for being there with him.  Tessa 's favorite line was "Can I help?  Can I help?  Can I help?"  And of course the third best thing was the two taste testers who made their way into the kitchen to check on us during the process.

 

Yes, we hit the sweet tooth hard yesterday, but more importantly, we made some great memories for both the grandparents and the grandchildren.