Last weekend was a blast. We woke up late but it didn’t stop us from being productive the rest of the day. Baking cookies a week before Christmas is an old time favorite tradition of my husband. He calls it “Cookie Baking Marathon.” He got this idea from his grandmother who bakes so many cookies so she can give it away to family, friends, neighbors and especially to strangers during Christmas.
I love traditions. In this modern time, I find it cool for someone to continue doing them. No matter how outdated they maybe like baking cookies to give it away especially to strangers. It’s old-school.. yes, but just the simple act of giving already shows the magic and meaning of Christmas. I’m happy that my husband shared this wonderful tradition with me. We get to do it now together every Christmas… how sweet is that?
Saturday was a perfect day to make cookies. It was the second snowfall of the year. This time was much colder than the first one because of the already frozen or icy ground. It also means it’s dangerous to drive around the city in this beautiful snowy day. So why not cozy up inside the house and whip some eggs.
First on our list to make are shortbread cookies. I didn’t know that our very own Polvoron is a type of shortbread. American shortbread cookies however are baked and less sweet than Polvoron. It is so good that it just melts in your mouth and it is “buttery” in a good way.
The finished product is now shaped as a cookie. If you look closely it has a little sprinkle of sugar. It is so soft like Polvoron and will crumble right away if you’re not careful holding it. It was fun making it and my tummy had an excellent warm up.
(All the “butter” are chilled, softened, armed and ready to go! Lol.)
So my husband decided to just place all the butter at the front of the window. It’s snowing again and you can feel the cold current through the window. It is unimaginably cold outside… so why not just place the butter there. Birds-view!!
We made peanut butter cookies after that. Now, here is my favorite recipe: Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies.
It has the best of everything. All our favorites: chocolate chips, peanut butter and oatmeal in a cookie. Huh, OUTRAGEOUS!
The dark-colored ones are Reese’s Double Peanut Butter Cookies. He copied the recipe from Reese’s wrappers. They are also heavenly good.
That’s how they look before “sunbathing” in the oven. My husband loves to eat the cookie dough so for sure he has been eating the whole time. I also helped by eating the baked ones. ^^
The last batch of cookies we made were the good ol’ or the classic chocolate chips cookies. The plain Jane. Lol.. without the outrageous oatmeal and peanut butter. They will always be my favorite. I am more of a chocolate chips cookies type of girl I must say.
It wasn’t hard making them as long as you get “armed” by having an electric mixer. I was the one who did most of the mixing and my husband was the one who timed their cooking time, scooped them up and placed them in the rack.
This year, he gave it away to his coworkers and they thought that I made all of them or that he must have bought them from a store. Lol. They have no idea my husband is the most cookie loving person in the world. You may have trouble guessing it but cookies are his favorite…
I love baking and being here in the United States gave me that very opportunity. Philippines is a “not so baking friendly” country. Maybe this is not true to others but it is at least for me and the people I know. We Filipinos love to fry and we all know that.
Anyhow, my husband told me how much he enjoyed baking with me. It was our first time to really bake together. I am more of a “lone wolf” in kitchen. I prefer to cook alone because it’s my way to concentrate and to do my own “thing”.
It was his wish to do this cookie baking marathon with me. So I opened my own world (in the kitchen) and shared it with him. It wasn’t so bad after all…
He said that all he really cares is doing it with me more than perfecting the cookies or racing to do a lot of them. He doesn’t care if we made bad cookies as long as we are having fun. So we did but they were perfectly yummy cookies and I am even eating one right now… yuuummm.
Sorry for making you hungry! Don’t mean it.. ^^
We will do this again next year. Oh, left-overs… we will be bringing them to neighbors and the family. We will be spending Christmas with them this weekend. I can’t wait! ^^
-Anna
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