A day of Christmas baking

Almond Crescents the first cookie made while the other dough chilled.

My grand daughter J is here and yesterday and today we will be baking. Lil man never made it. I'm a bit ticked off there. My son told his wife to bring lil man here and instead she went to the grandmothers....grrrr. But anyway we managed to get dough made for 3 kinds of cookies. Right in the middle of that tho I realized I didn't have any more flour.

I swore I had some in this house but don't know where I put it if I do. So off to the store we went. Came back with the fixins to make lots more and got busy making dough to chill. Meanwhile J put the Nativity on the mantle which she has done every yr. since she was little.

The first dough we made was for Chocolate Crinkles. We love these, they are fudgy and very brownie like. J started being silly (which I love, this kid has a wicked sense of humor) and started calling that lump of dough up there Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo .............from Southpark. Yea I know gross........but kinda funny too. Then every time we opened the refrigerator she made some kind of Poop joke. Robin Williams was in that RV movie and he talked about the Poop Fairy. Shes never forgotten that and whenever she can she brings it up and we just start cracking up again so with that lump in my refrigerator you can just imagine the silliness going on.

BEFORE BAKING-Making balls of dough and rolling in powdered sugar.

AFTER BAKING

So today we are going to make Snickerdoodles. We made a triple batch cuz the recipe said makes 24. I do think we will be here all day making cookies with that tho. It looks like wayyyyyyyy more. But those are her dads favorite cookie so she wants to take some home and wrap them up to give her dad for Christmas. She did that last yr too. If we don't get them done before she goes home today, maybe Ill just send a lump of dough home with her to bake while dad is at work. I found out she was off all last week for Christmas vacation already. Wow. Lil man isn't off till Wed. of this week.

Chocolate Crinkles

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Topping:
1 cup confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

In a stainless steel bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and fluffy. (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract and then stir in the melted chocolate mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to shape into balls (3-4 hours or overnight).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.

Place the confectioners sugar in a shallow bowl. With lightly greased hands, roll a small amount of chilled dough to form a 1 inch (2.54 cm) diameter ball. Place the ball of dough into the confectioners sugar and roll the ball in the sugar until it is completely coated and no chocolate shows through. Gently lift the sugar-covered ball, tapping off excess sugar, and place on prepared baking sheet. Continue forming cookies, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on baking sheets. (If you find the dough getting too soft for rolling into balls, return to the refrigerator and let chill until firm.)

Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or just until the edges are slightly firm but the centers are still soft. (For moist chewy cookies do not over bake. Over baking these cookies will cause them to be dry.) Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Put in airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.