Cookies! (And Other Baking)

I get a little more elaborate with Christmas cookies every year. For the first few years of our marriage, I would only make a few, because Carl doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, and if I made a bunch, I would eat them all (or send them into Carl's office). Plus, back then I was still nervous about baking anything besides biscuits or bread (weird, right? Cookies scared me, but bread was so easy).

I eventually started doing a few more batches to take with us when we would visit family, and then when we had kids I started doing a few more, and then last year I went NUTS. I made so, so many cookies, muffins, and sweetbreads. By the time I was done, I didn't want to see my kitchen for a month.

I want to cut back this year, but argh, how to choose which ones to keep and what to cut from the list?

Grandma's honey cookies for frosting are on there every year, that's a given. Molasses cookies are also a yearly tradition, especially if I manage to set some aside to give to my dad (he LOVES them). The girls and I love peanut butter blossoms, but Carl hates peanut butter with a passion, so those are iffy. The chocolate cappuccino crinkles, though? He would cry if I didn't make those.

My big thing this year is trying to incorporate something in my baking from each of our ethnic heritages. Cardamom braided bread (Sweden) is head of the list. I've been making that for several years now, even before I found out it was a Christmas tradition in Carl's family growing up! I made Russian tea cakes last year and everyone loved them, so that takes care of his Lithuanian side.

We all enjoy shortbread, which makes our English heritage easy to cover. I might cheat a little and make maple shortbread this year, though. Mmm ...

That left French (mais oui!) and Dutch. One of my friends suggested a buche de Noel, which I promptly googled and decided was perfect (partially because the other option was macarons, which TERRIFY me), and I wavered between boterkoek (Dutch butter cake) and kerstkransjes (Christmas cookie wreaths) for ages before I finally decided to try the kerstkransjes. I'm so excited to start building some ethnic-food-related traditions with the wee ones!

Come to think of it, I don't seem to have simplified my baking list at all. Oh well. Christmas comes but once a year!

Last year's cookie decorating fest - I think they were all sneaking bites of dough in this shot.

The proud cookie makers and the finished product!