Christmas Baking

I am not blogging much because daughter MJ is home from college. Daughters AE and KA from Seattle will be here on Saturday!

So I am baking a lot. Last night I made our family favorite "Holiday Sparklers" while MJ and her boy friend CS helped. Somehow I ruined the first two sheets of cookies because I haphazardly set the ovens 100 degrees above the needed temperature--425 instead of 325! That certainly produced crispy brown cookies that ended up in the trash can.

I asked each member of my family to tell me the ONE cookie they liked, so I would bake just the kinds that are favorites. Four out of eight said Holiday Sparklers, but others picked cookies from the best cookie cookbook I have ever found: The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook, which is out of print. My mother gave me my copy, which is well-worn now, in 1990.


I highly recommend this cookbook, as I have never tried a recipe in it that was not good! If you can find a good used copy, grab it!

Tonight I am baking Double Gingersnaps, a recipe submitted by Jody Saville:

1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cloves
4 tsp. ground ginger
Sugar for rolling

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and molasses and blend well.

Mix dry ingredients together. Add half of dry mixture to creamed mixture and blend well. Add remaining half and blend by hand.

Chill dough for several hours. (Though I rarely do--the dough is sticky but manageable.)

At this point, you may bake whatever portion of the dough you desire, and refrigerate or freeze the remainder. (Dough keeps in the refrigerator, well covered, for at least a week. To freeze, wrap dough well in plastic or foil.)

To bake, pull off pieces of dough to make balls the size of a walnut. Roll the balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15-18 minutes. Balls will flatten out and tops will be crackled.

(Recipe may be halved or doubled.) Makes 5-6 dozen cookies.