I just made cupcakes for democracy (Bake Back Better gives cupcakes to people who donate to various causes promoting democracy—specific candidates, Fair Fight, RideShare2Vote, etc.), but haven't started baking cookies yet. One of my favorites is cut out cookies decorated for Chanukah, but I also like to make psychedelic Spritz cookies as well (food coloring is my friend). I'm excited to try some of your recipes, because cookies are obviously the best and yes, something to have year round!
I was just thinking about making lebkuchen and here you have a recipe! I lived near Nurnberg for 3 years a long time ago. Every Christmas we would go to the lebkuchen factory and buy big tins full. I use those tins to hold knitting needles and stationery now. But I have never tried making my own lebkuchen! Thanks for sharing your grandma’s recipe!
I baked Sand Tarts with my grandkids - age 14 to 22. We used to do it the day after Thanksgiving but because two of them work and two are in college, we moved it to after dinner on Thanksgiving. It's a tradition that I thought they would outgrow, but surprisingly they haven't. The only year we've missed was during Covid in 2020. The recipe is probably over a 100 years old and was given to me by a former coworker who got it from her neighbor. It has taken me years to get it just right but I can now roll them so thin you can see through them. I also have about 15 batches of cookie dough in the freezer ready to bake.
Thank you, this is just what I needed tonight. I can't wait to bake and distribute cookies to my relatives. My absolute favorite is a good sugar cookie and anything with oatmeal in it.
You have brought back a trove of memories centered around a cookie. My French grandmother, who married a Jewish young man in Germany, gave me a cookie recipe she had gotten from her cook. She came from a rich family in Paris, before moving to Germany and marrying, where they lived, in a country taken over by Hitler, and there is a whole story behind their ultimate arrival in the USA.
Back to the cookie, a rich butter cookie, which I have come to call ‘The Memory Cookie.’ I started baking it as part of a Christmas platter of a dozen different cookies for our family’s Christmas feast. I made the Memory Cookies ahead of time, from a simple delicious recipe. Sometimes with little hands to help, I cut out shapes of stars, ornaments, snowmen, bells, and sleighs. All are from old cookie cutters which I still use today. Then, we would have a decorating party. In the beginning, small hands got sticky and licked clean, and if caught, they would eat their own cookie. As the years went by, the decorating group swelled to include friends, then boyfriends and girlfriends, then college roommates and friends, and then fiancés, and well you can understand why I renamed it The Memory Cookie. The icing wasn’t fancy. I simply put some powdered sugar into a tiny bowl, added a few drops of color and a little milk to make a paste and voila, it did the trick. Eating an almond flavored snowman, with an orange flavored scarf, with strawberry flavored buttons and an anise flavored hat, was a test for the taste buds but everyone enjoyed the party, especially me. I always stood ready to replenish the frostings and listen to the chatter, and later the stories of things I never fathomed happening to my sweet and obviously devious children and their friends.
Thank you for lighting the fire under those memories with your grandmother’s Lebkuchen recipe, which I will plan to try this Christmas.
I wish I could show you our Christmas cookie tradition. The day before we bake cookies and decorate the living hell out of ‘em. However, just to show you that we don’t just do cookies at Christmas, all year round we make G’anny’s ginger snaps, which recipe was my grandmother’s but lost until my eight-year-old misread a recipe in a cookbook and accidentally recreated them. Now I’m G’anny and we make them whenever we want.
My first Christmas cookie is always my mil's cutout cookies. They were promptly devoured. Next week I'm planning to make divinity in my shiny new lavender KitchenAid. Haven't made it in a million years.
Thank you so much for your input, adding to the wonderful Universe of YUM.
Only recently, like, less than a year, that I have - after at least a decade of my doctor's continuing advice, to be a good Earthling and look after myself - started to step back and rethink & heed, yes, actually heed, and learn to desist, to say no, to things hanging out in the YUM world.
I pine, hunger, hanker, miss, click fingers, aaw shucks my way through daily life.
Would one call it "stalking chocolate" as I saunter through the aisles, stacked with temptingly displayed shelves of chocolate, just eyeballing, "honest"... I still would like "makes 30 cookies, serves one"... Sorry, Doc!? Please. 🌝🧘🌌
Marissa, our holiday favorite is the peanut butter blossom. My mom used the Betty Crocker version but I've seen different variations over the years. The Hershey Kiss does change (that would be sacrilegious) but do you have a favorite combination of the flour, sugar and peanut butter essentials? I know you're PB + Chocolate fan! Thx
Looking forward to the recipe for sherry bars. A favorite cake I haven't made in years comes from (in my family's case) the California Winemaker's Cookbook. It's a cake made with boxed yellow cake mix, a box of instant vanilla pudding, and a good amount of California sherry. Haven't ever converted it to fully homemade, but it's a happy relic.
I just made cupcakes for democracy (Bake Back Better gives cupcakes to people who donate to various causes promoting democracy—specific candidates, Fair Fight, RideShare2Vote, etc.), but haven't started baking cookies yet. One of my favorites is cut out cookies decorated for Chanukah, but I also like to make psychedelic Spritz cookies as well (food coloring is my friend). I'm excited to try some of your recipes, because cookies are obviously the best and yes, something to have year round!
It’s most definitely cookie season. This is going to be fun!
I was just thinking about making lebkuchen and here you have a recipe! I lived near Nurnberg for 3 years a long time ago. Every Christmas we would go to the lebkuchen factory and buy big tins full. I use those tins to hold knitting needles and stationery now. But I have never tried making my own lebkuchen! Thanks for sharing your grandma’s recipe!
I baked Sand Tarts with my grandkids - age 14 to 22. We used to do it the day after Thanksgiving but because two of them work and two are in college, we moved it to after dinner on Thanksgiving. It's a tradition that I thought they would outgrow, but surprisingly they haven't. The only year we've missed was during Covid in 2020. The recipe is probably over a 100 years old and was given to me by a former coworker who got it from her neighbor. It has taken me years to get it just right but I can now roll them so thin you can see through them. I also have about 15 batches of cookie dough in the freezer ready to bake.
Thank you, this is just what I needed tonight. I can't wait to bake and distribute cookies to my relatives. My absolute favorite is a good sugar cookie and anything with oatmeal in it.
I am making the lemon now, so exciting! Thank you for sharing, it I needed to do this today . It cheered me up and made me smile. Aloha.
Cookies, and only cookies ✨
You have brought back a trove of memories centered around a cookie. My French grandmother, who married a Jewish young man in Germany, gave me a cookie recipe she had gotten from her cook. She came from a rich family in Paris, before moving to Germany and marrying, where they lived, in a country taken over by Hitler, and there is a whole story behind their ultimate arrival in the USA.
Back to the cookie, a rich butter cookie, which I have come to call ‘The Memory Cookie.’ I started baking it as part of a Christmas platter of a dozen different cookies for our family’s Christmas feast. I made the Memory Cookies ahead of time, from a simple delicious recipe. Sometimes with little hands to help, I cut out shapes of stars, ornaments, snowmen, bells, and sleighs. All are from old cookie cutters which I still use today. Then, we would have a decorating party. In the beginning, small hands got sticky and licked clean, and if caught, they would eat their own cookie. As the years went by, the decorating group swelled to include friends, then boyfriends and girlfriends, then college roommates and friends, and then fiancés, and well you can understand why I renamed it The Memory Cookie. The icing wasn’t fancy. I simply put some powdered sugar into a tiny bowl, added a few drops of color and a little milk to make a paste and voila, it did the trick. Eating an almond flavored snowman, with an orange flavored scarf, with strawberry flavored buttons and an anise flavored hat, was a test for the taste buds but everyone enjoyed the party, especially me. I always stood ready to replenish the frostings and listen to the chatter, and later the stories of things I never fathomed happening to my sweet and obviously devious children and their friends.
Thank you for lighting the fire under those memories with your grandmother’s Lebkuchen recipe, which I will plan to try this Christmas.
Oh Happy Day!
I wish I could show you our Christmas cookie tradition. The day before we bake cookies and decorate the living hell out of ‘em. However, just to show you that we don’t just do cookies at Christmas, all year round we make G’anny’s ginger snaps, which recipe was my grandmother’s but lost until my eight-year-old misread a recipe in a cookbook and accidentally recreated them. Now I’m G’anny and we make them whenever we want.
My first Christmas cookie is always my mil's cutout cookies. They were promptly devoured. Next week I'm planning to make divinity in my shiny new lavender KitchenAid. Haven't made it in a million years.
Dear Marissa 🙏
Thank you so much for your input, adding to the wonderful Universe of YUM.
Only recently, like, less than a year, that I have - after at least a decade of my doctor's continuing advice, to be a good Earthling and look after myself - started to step back and rethink & heed, yes, actually heed, and learn to desist, to say no, to things hanging out in the YUM world.
I pine, hunger, hanker, miss, click fingers, aaw shucks my way through daily life.
Would one call it "stalking chocolate" as I saunter through the aisles, stacked with temptingly displayed shelves of chocolate, just eyeballing, "honest"... I still would like "makes 30 cookies, serves one"... Sorry, Doc!? Please. 🌝🧘🌌
Marissa, our holiday favorite is the peanut butter blossom. My mom used the Betty Crocker version but I've seen different variations over the years. The Hershey Kiss does change (that would be sacrilegious) but do you have a favorite combination of the flour, sugar and peanut butter essentials? I know you're PB + Chocolate fan! Thx
And COOKIES!!!!
Looking forward to the recipe for sherry bars. A favorite cake I haven't made in years comes from (in my family's case) the California Winemaker's Cookbook. It's a cake made with boxed yellow cake mix, a box of instant vanilla pudding, and a good amount of California sherry. Haven't ever converted it to fully homemade, but it's a happy relic.
I’ve started ´baking ‘ with 3 different ice box cookie recipes. They’re in the freezer for baking later 😁😉😊