Sweet Christmas Memories

Food. I love food. Salty food, squishy food, and sweet food especially...I love it all! I suspect this is part of the reason I do not wear a size 2. =/ Food and I have spent many happy holidays together, and this Christmas season will be no exception. In fact, I made my first batch of Christmas cookies before I even turned over the calendar to December this year!

I shared these with an appreciative bunch of friends Nov. 27th!

I love to bake cookies all year, and my family has their favorites (to be sure), but I especially love Christmas cookies. Unlike other bakers, I don't usually spend lots of time on roll-and-cuts that need tons of decorating...I mean, I like sugar cookies as much as the next gal, but at this point in time, I have holiday baking down to an art. Drop cookies are definitely the easiest and quickest, so I stick mostly to the chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal varieties. To save time, I set myself up to mix several batches at once, then I freeze balls of cookie dough, ready to bake. 

I actually made 5 cookie doughs this day, but I ran out
of cookie pans to display them on! Haha!

When it's time to bake, I simply take out the cookie balls, choose a sprinkle option and bake. Much quicker (and less clean up on baking day) than actually making all of the cookies at once! To prove my point, I'll share that I actually watched 3 episodes of Downton Abbey on my Kindle Fire while I mixed up cookie dough a couple weeks ago! On baking day, I did the dishes and some general kitchen tidying while I baked 5 kinds of cookies for that plate you saw above...and virtually NO cleanup at all...holiday baking win!

A couple of the cookies on this plate are clear Christmas favorites of mine, and it's just not really Christmas if I don't make them: Nut Butter Balls (with the powdered sugar) and Holly Bunches (the green ones). These cookies are not only scrumptious, but they dress up any cookie plate (even a store-bought one...shhh!) for the perfect holiday presentation. Check out this link for the super simple recipe for my Holly Bunches, and dress up a cookie plate this Christmas. I promise that I will also share the Nut Butter Ball recipe in the next week or two! Yummm!

What's your favorite Christmas Cookie?