Sunday seven, plus one candy

The peppermint striped cookies came out well imho. The luster dust is mixed w peppermint extract, per recipe, so probably packs a nice minty touch.


The required chocolate chip cookies


Chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies


Revisited a mold with a brown sugar cookies. I think a glaze would set off the design, but don’t think I have enough time before shipping for it to dry. What they lack in finish is made up by size. These are big hand sized cookies!


For the first time I’m pretty happy with my unroyal icing cookies. Not great, but not like someone age 4 made them either. Since these are almon flavored icing I just used vodka with the luster dust. Once everyt is dry, I’ll add some details around the color with my felt tip, but it wasn’t quiet dry enough here to use the fine point.


I really like how the anise cookies look. Now as someone who grew up with Italians, I know this is waaay too large. They were never bigger than one bite, but a girl gets tired doncha know. They are also not the traditional sprinkles, but I was sorta going with a white basic theme. Look ma, I didn’t hafta get out the food coloring for anything!


Snickerdoodles, topped with extra cinnamon sugar. I’ve done this every since my friends daughter suggested it when she was about 6. She a 30 something grown up now. Here’s where the penzey’s cinnamon is really worth it.


Cashew macadamia nut crunch (needs to get cold then broken up)

Omgoodness! What a day you had in the kitchen! They all look marvelous!! Bravo!!

So which is gonna come first: booze or a nap??
Well done, Maria!

{fair warning: I mailed out a flat rate box marked fragile & perishable to Los Gatos on Dec 8. It sat in San Jose postal center for 5 days, when all that was left was to deliver it to Los Gatos. Yesterday's status shows it was shipped BACK to Greenville, SC and that's where it's sitting now. Here it is, Dec 19. I expect a bunch of stale cookies to be in MY mailbox in a week.

I know the CA delivery address was correct and the receipt shows the correct zip code...so be warned if your package routes through San Jose.}

marilynfl said:

So which is gonna come first: booze or a nap??
Well done, Maria!

{fair warning: I mailed out a flat rate box marked fragile & perishable to Los Gatos on Dec 8. It sat in San Jose postal center for 5 days, when all that was left was to deliver it to Los Gatos. Yesterday's status shows it was shipped BACK to Greenville, SC and that's where it's sitting now. Here it is, Dec 19. I expect a bunch of stale cookies to be in MY mailbox in a week.

I know the CA delivery address was correct and the receipt shows the correct zip code...so be warned if your package routes through San Jose.}

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Well, I’m in San Jose, so that does not bode well. To bad I couldn’t have picked it up for you, LG is less than 10 mins from me and I’m there often. However, I just got back from fedex. They are my partner in crime for the holidays, though I finally no longer have my corporate discount through work. It lasted almost 10 years after I left the company, so was very good while it lasted.

And I immediately took to my bed, not bothering to take off the compression socks I put on to tackle the day, lol.

New to me trick that got the icing to harden quicker than normal. Put all iced items stacked on trays in the oven, with a wooden spoon cracking the door to keep the light on. It’s been quite cold lately and even with the heat turned up, didn’t think I could ship till tomorrow. Overnight in the oven did the trick. (Earlier I tried turn on over to lowest, turn off, put in for 15 mins, but I forgot and when over 15. So the cut out cookies got a bit of a ripple. The light worked well and didn’t cause any more of that.)

Royal icing using eggs (peppermint cookies) made a big difference in taste for me and will be using from now on. I read meringue power also has cream of tarter to combat grittiness, which I noticed when tasting wet, but not after it dried. I’ve finally cracked the royal icing code! Maybe it’s the taste of cream of tarter in the powder I don’t like? I don’t know. Next time will use liquid egg whites that are pasteurized.

Review of peppermint cookies, good, but not great. I’d likely add peppermint to the icing itself for more flavor, and my normal sugar cookies I add 1/4 t nutmeg to, so the dough I think could add…something to make it more complex in flavor. They were good, but slightly bland to me. More like store bought sugar cookies are. I will make these again. Also, I found that square cutter at a thrift shop about a month ago, so the stars aligned on that. I love the size.

I was quite happy about the disco dust. The glitter is so much prettier in person.

These are gorgeous! And so much work! Now I want to bake.

It’s not too bad now that I follow Mimi’s holiday baking guidelines (in kitchen tips). So, for me, day one or earlier, get all grocery items, day two, make all doughs (starting with lightest to minimize washing ka bowl), day three, bake everything, day four, ice or add any finishes.