Growing up, Christmas cookies were a very big part of the holidays. In the midst of the general chaos that accompanied Christmas preparation in a house with seven children, my mother and sisters spent countless hours making cookies. There were sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter balls, fudge bars, snickerdoodles, pumpkin cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, and peppermint twists. And that's only some of the types of cookies that they'd make. It seemed like the baking never stopped: make the dough; assemble the cookies; place them on a cookie sheet; pop them in the oven; let them cool; stick them in a box; repeat. It seemed to go on and on without stop.
In the midst of all this, a package would arrive from my dad's mom. It was a box of her cookies. She made all the traditional Italian cookies (pizzelles, biscotti, and others whose names I don't even know). I remember how different they seemed from the cookies my mom and sisters would make. I also remember how good they were.
Anyway, we had a lot of cookies. The way my mom stored them was interesting. Cookies went into gift boxes, the type that would hold a new shirt or sweater. Then, the boxes went out to the entry room that led from the garage to our house. That room wasn't insulated so it stayed pretty cold. My mom must have learned that trick from her mom. It kept the cookies fresh and tasting like they'd just come out of the oven.
For me, it's just not Christmas without a cookie tray loaded up with all different kinds of cookies. The cookie tray needs to sit out all day during the holiday season. When it starts to empty, you're supposed to quickly reload it and start nibbling again. That's Christmas, right?
When Kim and I got married, I realized that the importance we Bucci's had placed on Christmas cookies wasn't shared equally by all. Kim's been a good sport, though. Each year, we take out the Bucci Family Christmas Cookie Recipe Book (yes, there really is one) and make a couple batches of our favorites.
Today was the day we did the bulk of the work. While Kim was busy making sugar cookies, chocolate and peanut butter cookies, and chocolate crinkles, I chipped in by making Spritz cookies (another old favorite of mine).
As usually happens when I try to cook, it was an adventure. I failed to follow the recipe correctly and neglected to cream the butter and sugar together before dumping all the other ingredients in the bowl. That caused the dough to be too thick to push through the Spritz machine. What do do? Kim suggested that I roll the dough into small logs and slice it into cookies. That worked out just fine. While slicing the cookie dough, I practiced my impressions of Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, and Paula Deen. In case you're wondering, I'm pretty sure I'm the best at Ina Garten.
After getting a compliment from Kim on my impressions, I turned to decorating. After a false start when I put cinnamon sugar (yuck) onto a cookie or two, I got through that part pretty easily. Then, it was time to put the cookies into the oven. The first two trays came out fine. But, I'm impatient. Rather than waiting for one of the trays to cool, I grabbed another one out of the cupboard. Who knew that a dark cookie tray would cook faster than a light cookie tray? Sure enough, the third tray burned. So, I made a quick snack out of the worst of the lot.
All in all, it was a good day. We've got a full tray of cookies sitting in front of me on the kitchen island. We've got gift boxes full of reinforcements sitting out in our garage. Now we just need someone to come over and help us eat our way through them.
This is where the magic happens.
