Cookies and Even More Extra Cookies


Baking is probably one of the fundamental joys in life....or at least for me it is.  The smell of fresh baked cookies brings back countless memories of holiday seasons.  My mom bakes up a storm every year.  You name it, she can bake it.  She would fill popcorn tins (yes, the 5 gallon ones) with chocolate chip cookies.  We're talking dozens of chocolate chip cookies.  Dozens.  And without fail, they never made it past new year's.  You'll have to admit that that is a rather fast consumption rate, saying there were at a minimum 20 dozen cookies baked between the timeframe of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  That would account for 240 cookies consumed in 30 days, an average of 8 cookies a day.  That's A LOT of cookies, albeit in a house of 4 people.

Now as an adult I carry on the baking tradition.  I'd be lying if I said that I made less than 20 dozen cookies just as my mom used to.  Only, there's just me in the house.  And I rarely eat any of my own cookies.  240 cookies is a lot to have in a house for a person that doesn't eat them.  I'd like to say that I bake them for the joy of others, to them enjoy the fruit of my labor; that I didn't eat them because I wouldn't want to deprive someone else of the yumminess that is a fresh baked cookie. 

Honestly?  

It's the cookie dough.  I eat far too much of it while baking that I'm usually not interested in the final result.


Of late I've been attempting to seek out bigger and better baking recipes. Cheesecake, chocolate mousse, red velvet cake (or should I say pink velvet? Always ensure you have enough food coloring to dye a batter the color you want. Or it will end up pink. Very pink.), white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, and so on. 

This holiday season in particular I'm pushing the limits.  I'm scouring the Betty Crocker and Julia Child books looking for a new challenge.  Just wait.  It'll be big.  Just hopefully not pink.