Christmas and Cookies. As soon as December hits, both are on my mind. For years I’ve spent the month baking – pulling out recipes, faded and stained from decades of use, passed down from my grandma and my mom – immersing myself in traditions and memories.
But this year I decided to try something a little different – to break out and experiment with a few new recipes as well, to shake things up a bit. What started out as a simple plan, quickly ballooned as a new idea crept in…sparked by the informal tradition that every teacher is familiar with as that December calendar goes up on the wall.
The countdown to winter vacation.
So I took on a challenge: twenty-one cookies in twenty-one days – one for each day in December leading up to our school’s winter break. A different flavor profile each day. Some new recipes, some tried and true recipes.
And here they are, all twenty-one cookies from my December Cookie Countdown.
Day One – Ginger
This was an easy choice to begin with – gingersnaps have always been a Christmas staple and a harbinger of the holidays. Packed with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and dark molasses, these Mom’s Gingersnaps from Sally’s Baking Addiction were the perfect start to the season. This particular recipe is from Sally’s first cookbook and isn’t available online, but she has several other gingersnap recipes on her blog, and I can vouch for the fact that her cookies are always top notch.
Day Two – Eggnog
I love, love, love eggnog, and these Eggnog Snickerdoodles are a fun twist on the traditional snickerdoodle. Two of my favorite combinations in one, with subtle notes of rum, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar. Yum!
Day Three – Peppermint
When the cold weather hits, I start craving all things peppermint, and a peppermint mocha is at the top of the list. These Chocomint Blossoms remind me of that drink – a rich dark chocolate base with a candy cane kiss. So good!
Day Four – White Chocolate
I love the combination of salty macadamia nuts, tart cranberries, and rich white chocolate chips in these White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies from Trisha Yearwood. Really easy to make and packed with flavor!
Day Five – Salted Caramel
Caramel is always one of my favorite treats, but add a little salt, such as in these Salted Caramel Thumbprints, and you have a whole new taste experience. A buttery shortbread base with a thick homemade caramel topped off with a sprinkling of flaked sea salt – oh, yeah.
Day Six – Macadamia Nuts
Macadamia nuts may not seem like a traditional “holiday” choice, but after snacking on them incessantly on our trip to Maui last Christmas, I’m hooked. These White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies (also from the Sally’s Baking Addiction Cookbook) are fabulous – a rich brown sugar base that contrasts perfectly with the roasted macadamia nuts and vanilla-infused white chocolate chips. A little bit of Mele Kalikimaka on a grey Pacific Northwest day.
Day Seven – Brown Butter
I raved about my love of pecan pie in the November edition of Taste Bytes, and these bars are equally tasty. The browned butter in the crust takes these Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars to a whole new level.
Day Eight – Pumpkin
My aunt used to make the most amazing pumpkin bars for our annual Christmas family gathering, and these Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting remind of those bars. A soft cake-like cookie packed with pumpkin and cinnamon notes, and a creamy browned butter frosting with a smattering of ginger sprinkles – delicious!
Day Nine – Crème de Menthe
My parents used to make crème de menthe cocktails during the holiday season. They’d serve them in ornate crystal liqueur glasses, the height of “luxury” in my young opinion, and I still remember the bright green bottle that sat in their liquor cabinet, brought out just for those special occasions. This Mint Chocolate Bar recipe, a throwback to those days, features a chocolate brownie base (so good!) with a crème de menthe buttercream layer, and a rich chocolate ganache with crushed candy canes on top (tip – don’t top with the candy canes until ready to serve – they melt). A little bit of work and a little messy, but seriously one of the best brownie recipes I’ve ever tried. This one goes in my keeper file.
Day Ten – Peanut Butter
It’s always fun to discover a new twist on a classic, and replacing the traditional chocolate kisses with peanut butter cups in these Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, was a genius idea (thank you, Sally). Peanut butter and chocolate bliss!
Day Eleven – Lemon
If there’s one cookie that is forever linked with Christmas and memories of baking with my mom, it’s these Lemon Bars. A tender shortbread crust paired with tart lemon curd and a dusting of powdered sugar – these bars absolutely melt in your mouth.
I don’t know where my mom found the recipe, but here it is…carefully written out in her neat script – complete with the finger smudges, splashes of vanilla, and lemon stains – a poignant reminder of past holidays and the mother that we miss so dearly.
Day Twelve – Dark Chocolate
In truth, I’ve never been a huge fan of chocolate crinkles, but after trying out this recipe, I’ve been converted. I love how the dark chocolate in these Chocolate Crinkles balances perfectly with the sweetness of the powdered sugar, and the inclusion of chocolate chips is a welcome surprise, as well as an extra bit of chocolatey goodness.
Day Thirteen – Milk Chocolate
These Toffee Bars, are a favorite from childhood and specifically requested by my sister each year for our Christmas Day celebration. The brown sugar shortbread base is topped with melted milk chocolate bars (love watching them melt and then spreading the thick chocolate across the warm crust) and chopped almonds – tastes just like my favorite Almond Roca® candy!
Day Fourteen – Coconut
Seven layers of decadence – graham crackers, melted butter, sweetened condensed milk, dark chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, and walnuts. You can’t go wrong with these classic Seven Layer Magic Cookie Bars.
Day Fifteen – Jam
Where are the walnuts in these Thumbprint Cookies? Hidden within the shortbread base – toasted and finely ground before being folded into the dough. I especially enjoyed using a variety of local jams that I picked up at our Seattle farmers markets – apricot and plum from Ayako and Family, strawberry rhubarb from Growing Washington, and tayberry from Johnson Berry Farm. Delicious and always a positive to support our Washington producers.
Day Sixteen – Molasses
This Molasses Crinkles recipe is another new favorite. Soft, chewy, and loaded with molasses, cinnamon, and ginger – each bite tastes like Christmas. And any chance I get to use this cookie plate and cup, a special gift from my mom who loved gingerbread men, is always a special treat!
Day Seventeen – Almonds, Walnuts, and Pecans
As much as I enjoyed the new thumbprint recipe from day fifteen, I also wanted to make a batch of the Thumbprint Cookies that I grew up with – the traditional Betty Crocker recipe that was a staple of every Christmas holiday. I continued playing around with using different flavors of jam, and this time I also varied some of the nut combinations. Lemon curd with almonds, chocolate raspberry jam with walnuts, blackberry jam with pecans. So many choices!
Day Eighteen – Almond Extract
I grew up making these Spritz Cookies with my mom, but I hadn’t made them in years; in fact, I didn’t even own a cookie press (a fact that I remedied in earlier December). It felt like stepping back into my childhood, as I tried out the different discs, experimented with holiday sprinkles (so much fun!), and then thoroughly enjoyed eating far too many – each bite an explosion of butter and almond, and a welcome link to the past.
Day Nineteen – Muscovado Sugar
Earlier this fall, I bought Rebecca Firth’s cookbook, The Cookie Book, and I was intrigued by several recipes that called for muscovado sugar, a partially refined sugar with a strong molasses content. These Brown Butter Muscovado Snickerdoodles are a unique take on a classic, with the muscovado sugar and brown butter adding a rich caramel and toffee flavor. A new find!
Day Twenty – Coffee
You can’t go wrong with coffee and chocolate, and these Kahlua Fudge Bites were one of my top December tastes. A fudgey mocha brownie base (infused with a little Kahlua, or vanilla if you prefer), with a dark chocolate frosting – one of the best brownie recipes I’ve ever tried!
Day Twenty-One – Pistachios
I’ve never made chocolate bark before, but I wanted the “last cookie” to be something unique, and I enjoyed trying this White Chocolate Bark recipe from Ina Garten. I love snacking on pistachios, but this is the first time I’ve actually used them in a recipe, and they complemented the white chocolate, apricots, and cranberries perfectly. A fitting end for December’s cooking adventures!
Shared Experiences
I finished baking in the early hours of December 21st, a little overwhelmed by the scope of the challenge, and yet satisfied to have stuck with it, my freezer full of carefully wrapped bags of cookies – evidence of long hours and late nights in the kitchen.
This morning, on this last day of December, as I emptied out my freezer, pulling out the remaining cookies to make way for some of January’s healthier food, I reflected on this month’s baking.
And I realized something. It really wasn’t about the cookies.
Not at all.
It was about the memories that flooded back as I recreated a treasured family recipe, invoking those days of baking side-by-side with my mom, those memories of Christmas past.
It was about connecting with our local farmers, wandering through the market, sampling their wares, using their products in these recipes.
It was about sharing the cookies with my colleagues – an incredibly talented, supportive, and hard-working group of teachers that give so much every day.
It was about delivering a hand-picked plate of cookies to a close friend, hoping to brighten a dark day.
It was about spending Christmas with my family, snatching cookies throughout the day, engaging in conversation as we caught up, reflecting on the past year, and sharing our hopes for the new one.
It was about the shared experiences – the true gift.
The past, the present, and the future ones to come. The memories, the process, the connections made.
And the cookies – well, they were just an added bonus!
Happy New Year! -Kimberly
that’s quite the argument you got there!