Melissa had a cookie making party. Unlike a cookie swap, we all got together to actually make the cookies. And candy. There were critical failures and smashing successes. And that was before Sharyn pulled out the bourbon for the bourbon balls. So all in all, it could have been much worse.
The bourbon balls Sharyn made supposedly needed to sit for 7 days before eating. Have you met my husband? They didn’t last 3 at our house.
I was boiling down apple cider for salted apple cider caramels, and it got away from me. It only takes an instant to go from thick syrup to a smoking charred mess. Melissa’s slow cooker candy did the same, and when we could smell it it was too late. I have a sugar cookie recipe for my cookie molds, but it states to mix it by hand vs. mixer if you want better detail in the final baked cookie. Granite kitchen counters are great for rolling pie dough but butter stays nice and hard instead of softening, even after 24 hours (and we keep our house cool), so I opted for the mixer to cream the butter and sugar and alas, the cookies had no detail. Anita was smart; she made her cookies at home and could just watch us screw up. If she had critical failures no one would ever know. Jinx and Sharyn did fine, though the bourbon balls Sharyn made supposedly needed to sit for 7 days before eating. Have you met my husband? They didn’t last 3 at our house.
In order to redeem myself I instructed Melissa on how to make rolled and cut sugar cookies, which came out beautifully and were very tasty.
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My favorite cookie recipe is for almond sugar cookies:
Almond Cookies
½ c. softened butter
2 oz. almond paste
½ c. sugar
1 lg. egg, beaten
½ tsp. almond extract
1 ¾ c. flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking powder
Cream almond paste into softened butter, and then cream in the sugar. Stir in the egg and almond extract.
Mix together the flour salt and baking powder and stir them into the almond paste mixture. Chill until firm (dough is sticky).
Roll between two sheets of parchment to ¼ inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut favorite shapes and sprinkle with fancy sugar before baking on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees until edges are brown, 10-12 minutes.
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Even with the critical failures we all agreed we had a great day. So below is a little ode to our crazy afternoon in the kitchen, lifted from the lyrics to The 12 Days of Christmas… You get the idea.
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…
A Partridge in a Pear Tree – hiding from the Three French Cooks, trying not to become dinner
Two Turtles (the chocolate pecan kind)
Three French Cooks saying we need more butter in the cookies
Four Birds Calling for Rum for the Eggnog
Five Golden Brown Sugar Cookies
Six Geese a Laying Eggs for the Eggnog
Seven Swans a Swimming in chocolate fondue in the crock pot
Eight Maids a Milking (Can’t make eggnog without milk)
Nine Ladies Dancing the Macarena after too much eggnog
Ten Lords a Leaping out of the way of the crazy Nine Ladies Dancing
Eleven Pipers with Piping hot coffee for the Nine Ladies Dancing, trying to sober them up
12 Drummers Drumming to the beat of pounding in the heads of the Nine Ladies with hangovers
May all your cookie swaps be as fun as ours, and may your eggnog always have plenty of… nutmeg.
This is a version of the 12 Days that really reflects the fine cook’s point of view! Very well done!
Dear Love,
Thank you for bringing home the bourbon balls. I performed a taste test on one of them and based on my expert analysis, I determined that three days for maturation and settling was optimal for human consumption.