We all know that a huge part of Christmas preparation is cookie baking!  I started last weekend by baking snowballs with chocolate chips.  When I was growing up my mom made these every Christmas.  Everybody always loved them.  This batch that I made got mailed away to out-of-state family although I kept a few behind to share here at home, with a promise to make more.

You would think that I have enough cookie recipes to choose from, but I felt like trying something new so this past week I made almond cookies garnished with maraschino cherries and chocolate crinkles.  I found these two recipes online here and here.  I wanted to use cocoa powder for the chocolate crinkles so I mixed 3/4 c. cocoa powder with the dry ingredients and added an extra 3T. of butter instead of the baking chocolate.

Yesterday my daughter put in her share of baking by making shortbread cutout cookies.  Without fail, we make these every year.  One year we even made them on Christmas Eve.  This is a recipe that has been in my mom’s recipe box since the ’70s.  Long ago, I made myself a copy.  They are very delicate and buttery and not too sweet.  The cookies are iced after they are mostly cool which gives some sweetness and a nice sugary shell on top.

I hope all of you have enjoyed or will enjoy a bit of cookie baking too.