Cookie Baking Weekend Extravaganza!

Cooking Baking Weekend Extravaganza!

(photos from 2008-2011)

Every year (for the past 4 years or so), my sisters, nieces and mother get together for a big Christmas cookie baking weekend! We bake literally hundreds of cookies of about 20 different kinds. It is crazy and oh so much fun. Imagine the smell of fresh-baked cookies wafting through the house from 8am till 11pm for three straight days. Cookie tins steadily filling, carols and Christmas movies constantly being belted out, lots of laughter and hopefully snow ("It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow"). Below are two of my all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipes.

Chocolate Crinkles
4 squares of Baker's unsweetened chocolate melted
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar (for rolling)
Mix first 8 ingredients. Chill overnight. Drop dough balls in powdered sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper). Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Pecan Meltaways/Wedding Cakes
1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 pecans, chopped fine

Mix all. Refrigerate till chilled. Form 1" balls. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Mix warm balls in powdered sugar. Cool. Roll in powdered sugar again. These literally melt in your mouth. Oh. My. Sweetness.