I baked this weekend. (BOY, did I bake!) Besides the Mexican wedding balls, which are College Student’s favorites, and the easy candy cane/almond bark/pretzel things that I like, I also baked and decorated 160 cut-out cookies. I didn’t mean to bake/decorate 160 cut-out cookies. There are only four people in my family; there will only be five of us here at Christmas. Believe me, I don’t need 160 cut-out cookies. This was exactly why I turned my neighbor down (again) when she invited me to participate in her annual cookie exchange — you need to make and receive ten dozen cookies! And they have to be “special” cookies, too…(i.e. FANCY, time-consuming cookies…cookies you don’t normally make any other time besides Christmas) I don’t want to make ten dozen cookies for a cookie exchange, nor do I want ten dozen cookies in my house (because I also have to make the cut-out cookies, the Mexican wedding cakes, and the peanut butter with the Hershey’s kiss cookies…and that’s too much baking. And eating. Even for me.).
So, how did I end up with 160 cut-out cookies? Well…since I do only make these once a year (though there’s no reason I couldn’t make them more often), I couldn’t remember whether I normally double the recipe or not. In the end, I figured I have two teenage boys, plus my brother is a single guy who begs for homemade cookies to take home with him every Christmas…I can’t really go wrong with doubling the recipe. Cookies freeze well.
I soon discovered I don’t normally double this recipe. My dough started oozing out the sides of my mixer. And I have a huge Kitchen Aid mixer…I’ve NEVER made too much of anything for this mixer to handle.
So now I have 160 cookies. Well, that’s not true…I think I’m down to about 145 or so. I told my friend down the street that maybe I should reconsider that cookie exchange thing. But she informed me that cut-out cookies are on the list of cookies you can’t bring. They’re not “special” enough. (I feel bad for the neighbor who tries to organize this cookie exchange…she’s having a hard time getting people to come. But maybe if we only had to make/receive 5 dozen (or even three dozen), and she did away with the rules about “special” cookies, maybe she’d have better luck?)
Anyway…I’ll give some to my mail carrier, who often has to drag my review books to the door because they don’t fit in my mail box. I’ll bring some to the nursing home when I go visit my dad. I’ll get rid of these cookies…eventually.
