Cookie Exchange Weekend

I love baking cookies this time of year but hate to do it alone. So, I volunteered to help Paige and Ashley bake some cookies for their cookie exchange this past Sunday.

Ashley decided to go with a good old Italian favorite....biscotti. The dough for this confection is not easy to put together, not to mention shelling pistachios. But we managed to get through the hard stuff. First challenge was having no parchment paper..so that was the first trip to Publix. All was fine and the first batch came out golden brown just like the recipe said and then we cooled for 30 minutes just as the recipe instructed but would that thing allow itself to be cut cleanly.....oh but no. Then there was the "almost fire" when one batch burned on the bottom. Did ya know that parchment paper should not be touching another pan or the side of the oven? I didn't until Saturday night. We finally called it a night @ 11:30 which meant we had to get up early Sunday and finish them up. And by the way the loaves cut smoothly when they are stone cold! Dip in chocolate and add the sprinkles and yum, yum.

Paige picked a really cool recipe for her cookies named "Boot Tracks". What a neat presentation. They look just like boot tracks with snow on them. Second trip to Publix........ for butter this time. Back from the butter run to find out that we need a non-Belgium waffle and Paige has only Belgium variety. So back in the car to go to Ashley's to borrow her waffle iron and back to Paige's. The girl who is supposed to be sitting down and taking it easy then proceeds to put together the batter while I hand her stuff. The batter has to be dropped by rounded teaspoon onto the waffle iron and only 4 could be baked at one time. It takes 1-2 minutes for them to cook which was a good thing because we ended up making 95 cookies. They were scrumptious....all chocolaty with a hint of coffee. Good stuff.

I got to sample the cookies without having a whole bunch of them sitting around to be munching on which is the greatest thing since I have vowed to try to not overdo this holiday season. Saving those calories for the eggnog that I do so love!