Holiday Goodies

For me, the holiday season officially begins when I go to the Cotillion or Fezziwig's Ball.  I was told by my vet last week that they mark the beginning of the holiday season when I show up with my guinea pig card and a tin full of toffee and cookies.  I've done Ginger Star cookies for many years.  This year I decided to try something new, partially because I couldn't face rolling and cutting nearly 100 little star cookies.  Besides, I had a couple of new recipes I was dying to try, and the family is no longer doing a cookie swap. <sadness>  I usually try out new cookie recipes to trade with my aunts.

I stuck with my almond buttercrunch, because I knew there would be general unhappiness if I stopped gifting that.  Last year I had dipped some of them in milk chocolate, which turned out to be a hit.  So I prepared batches of both milk and dark chocolate dipped toffee.  I tried out two new cookie recipes, because I couldn't choose between them.  Both were delicious!  I have already had requests for the recipes.  The first recipe was Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies.  I found it in a recent King Arthur Flour catalog.  I didn't have the nifty pearl sugar, but the cookies were wonderful anyway.

I renamed the other cookie recipe to Buckeye Cookies, since it's shorter and more descriptive than the original name of Magic in the Middle Cookies.  I found that recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything blog.  I ran out of Skippy peanut butter when making the first batch, so I used my good chunky peanut butter (the kind you have to stir) for the centers.  I found this made a more solid center to work with (but both kinds taste delicious!).  I also ended up making the cookies half-sized, which yielded five dozen cookies.  The smaller size made them better for sharing.

I've already made a second batch of the Buckeyes - Rob became desolate when he discovered that most of the cookies were to be given away.  Next year, I need to make bigger batches.  Or add in a third kind of cookie.  Oh, the possibilities!