Tag: 25 Treats of Christmas

25 Treats of Christmas Round Up
Recipe Roundup

25 Treats of Christmas Round Up

LSiehLeave a comment

I’m a little behind on my cookie notes! It has been a busy couple of months and I’m still getting back into the swing of blogging. I thought you might be interested in seeing some more of the recipes though. In case you forgot, these were the cookies I made before the party. I’ll share our party treats in another post. I officially made all 25 treats, but some of them didn’t get photographed. Everyone was quite amazed. I ended up making about 2 batches of cookies every couple of days, sometimes three doughs, if they needed to chill.

These cookies are Chocolate Orange Pecan, Ginger Sugar cookies- hearts, and Norwegian Spice Cookies-snowflakes.

I thought the ginger sugar cookies didn’t have enough ginger. I was very into spices and unusual cookies this year. The Norwegian Spice cookies reminded me of apple pie and were one of the hits at the office. The Chocolate Pecan Orange cookies were also delicious, although I found that the chocolate cookies didn’t hold well and got kind of weird and dry. I would make a smaller batch of the chocolate cookies next time and wouldn’t bother making the ginger cookies. The spice cookies I would make again.

The chocolate cookies were from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookie magazine from 2019. The Ginger Sugar Cookies were from the Food Network December issue from 2016. The Norwegian Spice Cookies were from this website: https://roamingrosie.com/tag/norwegian-spice-cookies/

These Lemon Poppyseed cookies are from the Food Network December 2016 issue too.

The cookies were not super sweet and I accidentally left the poppyseeds out of the dough. As you can see, I just added them to the glaze. They almost started an office war between the Office Manager and another therapist who was trying to steal the tin. 🙂 Oh, and another therapist hip checked me away from my own cookies! It was a shocking, but hilarious display of cookie rage. 🙂 There was one other kind of cookie involved in this particular cookie mob and were also delicious. I found I tended to use the same magazine for a couple of different recipes- this one is also from FN Dec ’16.

Peanut Butter Crinkles with mini chocolate chips. I would make both of these cookies again. They both held well too.

The next one up was hotly contested and may have caused a not very Christmasy disagreement between the Husband and myself. These Cookies and Cream Drops from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine were either the favorite, or very much disliked. I was in the middle, but wouldn’t make them again.

They had frosting made from melting the middles of Oreos. It was weird and I didn’t like that part. They were either supposed to taste under-baked or I accidentally under-baked them. I baked them at the correct temperature for longer than it called for and they still tasted that way. They were also not sweet, which was really weird considering how much sugar there was in the recipe. I think they were supposed to be soft and cakey. The Husband had one bite, spit it out, and loudly declared them to be “an embarrassment to your reputation” and refused to take them into work! According to him, they were inedible. 🙁 However, at least a couple people at my work liked them, so they did mostly get eaten. As you can imagine, I will not be making them again.

Sadly for the Husband’s office, I declined to send many more cookies after that little incident. I was much offended. The Husband has since apologized and I have forgiven him his ridiculous statements… well, mostly…

I also made Malted Milk Brownies, Tahini Blossoms, and Dulce de Leche Thumbprints, all from the BHG magazine. The Thumbprints were too plain for me. They were a recipe that you made a large quantity of basic dough and then added to it. The second batch of them had cinnamon and other spices added to the dough and it still didn’t taste good to me. I won’t be making that dough again.

Lessons learned this year was that I definitely needed to add up amounts of ingredients like butter, flour, and sugar before the start of baking season. I definitely wasn’t prepared for the need for brown sugar this year and had we not had extra flour, I would have run out. The butter stores were good. I ended with about 10 pounds left, so probably used around 12 pounds total, just for the cookies. We did run out of regular chocolate chips, so I had to make a small Costco run to find more in the middle of baking season.

It was helpful to list out the specialty ingredients and know which recipes I was going to make ahead of time. I spread those purchases over a couple of shopping trips too, so that was good.

Getting into a routine of “make this dough to chill, then make this recipe to bake right away” was another good organizational tool. I felt very organized with all my lists in the same spot too. My blog notebook is full of all the lists! I still have about half of the notebook left too, so room for many more. 🙂

I still have a bunch of recipes I want to try, so I’m sure you’ll see more cookies this year. Hopefully not everyone at the office is on diets!

Please bear with me as I catch up on blogging again! I’ll bribe you with cute Fancy pictures, if I have to! Here’s one, so you know I’m serious. 😉

With that done, please excuse me while I head to bed. I have to have rest to bake up more cookies! Have a sweet night!

Recipe Roundup

25 Treats Of Christmas Review- Week 1

LSiehLeave a comment

Hello and welcome to this edition of “I’m Scandinavian and can’t stop feeding people.” 😁

I’m sharing the treats with two of the three offices that my center operates, and with the Husband’s office. The third of our offices only has two people working there, so my director beings cookies over when she goes there, as it’s a bit far for me.

The butter count started at 22 lbs and is down to 18-19 lbs. We bought another 25 lb of flour (probably had 30 ish lbs with that bag when I started) and 3 lbs of brown sugar. A lot of my cookies call for brown sugar this year. The Husband and I both eyed the pile of butter doubtfully when we bought the second batch, but it’s holding out so far.

I was much more organized this year while planning my 25 Treats of Christmas list. I have a few lists that include a running master grocery list, which magazine they are from, whether or not I need additional items, and if the dough is chilled or can just be made and baked right away. The Husband is very impressed. I think everyone else just thinks I’m a little crazy.

I’m making 2-3 batches at a time and bringing them in twice a week. It evens out to about a batch a day. People have started making requests! 😁 I tend to make a chilled dough the night before and bake them the morning of. I’m getting into quite a routine. It’s a lot more fun and a lot less stress than in previous years.

But you don’t want to hear the management side of things! On to the cookies!!

These were the first two batches. I brought them in right before Thanksgiving. The stars are Maple Star Sandwich Cookies and the others are Orange Molasses Snickerdoodles. Both are from previous editions of the Food Network Christmas Cookie collections.

I used my friends’ homemade maple syrup for them and they were good, but not maple enough for me. I would use more maple next time. Everyone else enjoyed them though. Even people who weren’t sure about the maple said they were good. I would make them again.

People were intrigued by the snickerdoodles. They reminded me more of gingersnaps than snickerdoodles though and weren’t my favorite. I think they were a touch dry for me.

The next cookie is a vegan and gluten free banana bread cookie. The picture is from the Husband’s work about 2 hours after he put them out. The tin was full when it went in. They are from this website: https://www.simplyjillicious.com/banana-bread-cookies

These have almond flour and no butter. They are naturally sweetened with the bananas and maple syrup. I could probably actually give these to Fancy, although I’d have to check on the almond flour first. They needed a heck of a lot more spices than the recipe called for, but were pretty good.

The second recipe I sent with the Husband was gone even faster. These are Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip cookies. The Husband has requested them again for Epiphany.

These are from the recent Better Homes and Gardens Christmas cookie edition. I have been having issues with my FN subscription, so haven’t received the December edition yet and needed a cookie fix. They are delicious! I will definitely be making these again.

The next three recipes are also from that magazine.

Chocolate Mint Chip. These were a big hit at my offices. I accidentally forgot the baking powder, but they were good regardless. I subbed Nestle peppermint baking truffles for the Andes pieces because it was what I had.

These are Citrus Meltaways. They have lemon and orange peel, lime, and lemon juices.

They are a slice and bake and were delicious. They would be a good summer cookie too. They are a bit delicate, but that just meant I could snack on the broken ones. 🙂 I will make them again.

Sweet and Salty Butterscotch Cookies

Judging by how many came back, these weren’t as big of a hit as some of the others. They also had cashews in them. The picture looked so good, but I did find them a little bland. I probably wouldn’t make them again.

This recipe got rave reviews from everyone and I will probably share the it at some point. It’s from a Food Network magazine.

They are gluten and dairy free Coconut Snowballs. I subbed Country Crock plant based sticks for the butter and it calls for rice flour. I completely forgot the coconut, but even so, they were good.

These will be made for the Epiphany Party too, as they are technically vegan when made dairy free. We don’t have a ton of vegan friends, but it never hurts to have something, just in case.

Which one do you think would be your favorite? Mine were the citrus melt aways and the chocolate mint.

Stay tuned for an overdue Recipe Review coming up this weekend! I hope your day is sweet!