Christmas Cookies 2017

The boys and I recently spent a day in the kitchen baking. It was so much fun. I took a ton of pictures! And then I erased all the pictures! It was a night I was up late and I should have gone to bed. Instead, I tried to get the photos off my camera and onto my computer and messed up. I spent hours downloading these tools that *could* help you recover the pictures and I had no luck. I finally cried a little and told myself it was a lesson learned. 

I do have one picture I took with my phone.

But the pictures I miss are the ones of Little JCrew holding the doughball that he had turned into a face with googly eyes. And the picture of Pfitzer putting scraps of dough onto the cookie sheet (he had been watching us!) And the ritz crackers we dipped in chocolate and the peanuts we drizzled in chocolate. Lesson learned the hard way.

The cookie recipe I went with this year was new. I actually did two and they were both good. They reminded me of Panera Bread’s cutout cookies that they decorate. Here are the recipes:

Chill Dough Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cups All-Purpose flour
• 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Plan and Prepare

• Make sure the butter and eggs are room temperature.
• Sift together the flour and salt

Make Dough

• Cream butter and sugar in your mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Do not skim on this step or the cookies will be very dense.
• Add eggs one at a time slowly, mixing each well until incorporated.
• Continue mixing on medium for about two more minutes.
• Next add the Vanilla
• Add the flour. Do not over mix once the four is incorporated.
• Bring the dough together and divide into two discs
• Wrap in cling/plastic wrap for at least 1 to 2 hours.

 Roll Cookies

• Once the dough is chilled; roll dough on a prepared surface. (I used wax paper)
• Roll cookies to a minimum 1/4 inch thick using a rolling pin..
• Cut out desired shaped cookies and place them on a cookie sheet one inch apart.
• I prefer to chill the cookies while the oven is preheating. 
• Preheat the oven at 360 F
• Bake cookies for about 8 to 10 minutes depending on thickness of the cookies. 
• When baked let cool on the tray for 7 to 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool further. 

 Storage 

• This cookie recipe can be halved or double without any issues.
• The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days or
• Frozen for up to three months. If frozen thaw in the fridge over night before you roll out. 
• The baked cookies will stay at room temperature for up t 4 weeks but best eaten within a few days.

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No-Chill Dough Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cups All-Purpose flour
• 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
• 4 Tablespoons Full Fat Sour Cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract

Plan and Prepare

• Make sure the butter and eggs are room temperature.

Make Dough

• Cream butter and sugar in your mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
• Add egg yolk and vanilla extract, mixing each well until incorporated.
• Add sour cream and mix again.
• Add the flour, baking powder and salt. 
• Bring the dough together. The batter will start to curdle and look odd. That's perfectly normal.
• When the curdling happens, it's time to start using your hands to form a ball of cookie dough.

 Roll Cookies

• Roll this dough between 2 sheets of wax paper.
• Cut out desired shaped cookies and place them on a cookie sheet one inch apart.
• Preheat the oven at 350 F
• Bake cookies for about 9 minutes depending on thickness of the cookies. 
• When baked let cool on the tray for 7 to 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool further. 

 Extra Touches

• To make Almond sugar cookies, add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp almond extract.
• To make Orange sugar cookies, replace vanilla extract with 2 Tbsp orange extract or orange oil and also add 2 Tbsp orange zest.
• To make sSpiced sugar cookies, add 2 tsp cinnamon powder and 1 tsp nutmeg powder.

One needed chilling, the other did not. What I had done was made the one that needed to be chilled a month ahead of time. Then the day before I wanted to use it, I put it in the fridge to thaw.

During our day of baking, I rolled out wax paper on my countertops. Every inch was covered. Clean up was a breeze. The boys got peanut butter and chocolate everywhere, but there was no mess to clean. And with the cookies, I used a sheet of wax paper between my rolling pin and the dough so there was no flour mess! I will remember this in the future.

Cutting out the shapes was easy. The boys caught on fast about placement so that dough was not wasted. Mr. Brigglesworth loved this part. He was very meticulous with getting the shapes out. He didn’t grab the cookie out. Instead, he grabbed the scraps and left the cookies on the wax paper. As he collected the scraps, he was forming a ball. He took his time, and when I looked at the clock, I intervened and tried to speed up the process. We had several cookie sheets going at once. I never put more than one in the oven, but while a sheet full of cookies was waiting, I place it in the fridge.

These cookies held their shape so well. It was perfect!

We made so many shapes. The next part was equally as fun and I made sure to document with pictures to make up for the pictures I erased. 

Little JCrew LOVED putting as many things on ONE cookie as he could. 

Mr. Brigglesworth also liked a lot of things on his cookies.

I was most impressed with his candycane. I gave no help and was doing my own decorating when I looked up and saw the finished product. Well done for a five-year-old!

I really liked this part. I was trying to be creative.

I liked the frosting I got. I got two brands, but both were easy and they dried hard! Score!

When I used white frosting, I put white sprinkles on it to bring out some schnazyness.

I then did the same thing but with gold/white sprinkles to give it a shimmer.

I did the white sprinkles on white icing effect on the candycane and snowmen.

I did green sprinkles on green frosting on other cookies.

 

I didn’t have any solo red sprinkles, so those got a mixture.

A one point, Mr. Brigglesworth said he needed black frosting. I told him we only had green, red and white to choose from. I told him I wanted black for my snowman hat, but his hat would just have to be red.

We had so many cookies to decorate, but it was so much fun. This will definitely be a new tradition we have started. I use to be afraid of making these fancy sugar cookies that look too good to eat. But I conquered that fear and learned it was a silly fear to have. 

Merry Christmas!

Cookies

My tummy hurts! It’s a good hurt. 

Last weekend was full of cookies and sweets.

I made a Pumpkin Roll and I’m still eating it this week.

I love those things.

It was a normal cookie exchange, but I provided some non-cookie things to balance out the sugar.

I never get to hang with the ladies, and it’s hard to find babysitters, so we made it a playdate. The kids had sooo much fun. There were 15 of them!

We even had crafts to make and my boys have them displayed on our windows.

Haven’t figured out where to put our manger scene.

And while we had the chance, the moms got their picture taken.

You can tell the kids that love their momma’s! Except my children are swapped. Little JCrew is a Daddy’s boy. Mr. Brigglesworth was too busy being busy to notice what we were doing. Little JCrew was interested in the camera.

I love getting the kids together. Any excuse I can come up with, I will. Such a great group of kids. Thanks, Ladies!

Honey Oatmeal Bread Recipe

I shared with you that we make our own bread once a week. This recipe makes two loaves. We eat it in the morning with our green smoothies. I am hoping that this recipe is something my boys remember when they are older. (There is nothing like homemade bread!)

Honey Oatmeal Bread

2 c boiling water

1c rolled oats

1/2c honey

2T butter

2t salt

1 (0.25oz) package active dry yeast

1/2c warm water

4c bread flour

(you can spread honey and sprinkle with oats before putting in over, but I don’t.)

* Bring water to a boil. While it’s getting there, put oats, honey, salt, and butter into a big bowl.
* Once water is boiling, pour water over oat mixture and let sit for an hour.



* In a small bowl (I use the 1 cup measure), put the warm water and yeast together. Let sit for 10 minutes.
* Once yeast mixture is creamy, pour into the oat mixture.
* Add 2c of flour to the mix. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2c at a time.
* Place dough on a well-floured surface and knead.



* Place dough back into an oiled bowl and let rise. (I wait an hour.)
* Cut dough in half and place in buttered pans.
* Let dough rise (another hour.)


* Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Trying to save in all ways I can, I buy the honey and yeast in bulk. I have a 4 ounce jar of yeast that I use. I just measure out 2 1/4tsp.

This bread takes grilled cheese sandwiches to a whole new level!



I will say, making bread is difficult. It's all about the timing. When I have messed up, it's because I let the yeast sit too long, or let the dough sit too long while it rising. I have to make sure when I am making this recipe that I don't get distracted while waiting.

There is absolutely nothing like homemade bread. I really hope my kids remember my bread, like my dad remembers my grandma’s pound cake. I will make it for them as long as they want. When they are 40 with their own families, I will make them their bread on their visits.

Starting one memory at a time!

Little JCrew's Second Birthday

Alright... I missed Family Friday, and I have family waiting for pictures from yesterday, so I am posting on a Sunday.

Little JCrew's second birthday was yesterday. All in one day he decided to grow up. He climbed the stairs like a grown up; using the handrail and not crawling. He is using more words to communicate and it is AWESOME!

 Mr. JCrew and I gave him a harmonica. He loved it!

Nana and Boppa sent a gift, too.

It was perfect that his birthday fell on a Saturday. We turned our backyard into a farm and invited all the kids in his age-group.

The morning started off with my sister sending birthday messages from the cows, pigs and sheep on her farm. They were awesome and repeatedly watched for an hour.

The crowd was a good mix of our family, friends and neighbors.

Little JCrew bounced everywhere! He loved having so many friends to play with.

Birthday boy even convinced his friends to pull him around in the wagon.

Little JCrew loves animals. His favorite is a cow. I almost did a milk and cookies theme for his party, but I didn't want just cows since he likes all animals.

I used Paperless Post to send out his invitations. It's like evite.

Front

Back

The back yard was setup with stations.

We had Wagon Rides, Milk Jug Throw,

the OK Corral.

Hay Bale Toss

Cake Walk, Duck Pond, a Barn, and a Cow Pasture.

We drew arrows on the sidewalk to tell people to come straight to the backyard.

We did the cake walk activity first. We played kid tunes and the kids won "cowcakes" as their prizes.

There was a lot of cake. The cupcakes had toppers that had a front and back side to them.

The duck pond was a last minute idea that was a hit. Little JCrew loved it. We couldn't get him to leave.

Other kids loved it as well.

The "Cow Pasture" was a last minute idea that was a surprise hit. I made onesies for the dogs to wear to dress up like cows. I decided to use the "octagon" that I use when I take the boys to watch soccer games and use it to contain the dogs. I knew there were some kids that didn't like, dogs but I didn't want to cage them in the house either.

It ended up having kids in the pasture with the dogs.

It was such a hot day, the kids were sweating! Wish it had been as cool as it was last week.

There were wagon rides and horses to ride on.

Family was inside keeping cool.

The food was inside and directed by a sign.

I had fun coming up with ideas for the food.

The Oreo's were "Tractor Wheels."

The Chex Mix was "Chicken Feed."

Rice Krispie Treats were "Hay Bales."

My favorite was the "Mud." I made little pink pig cookies to stick in chocolate pudding.

There was also some real food besides just sweets. We had a Chick-Fil-A Nugget trey, veggies and fruit.

For the favors, we put together little goody bags for all the toddlers. They were cow print bags with a pinwheel, stickers, a bookmark/ruler and orange mints.

Little JCrew really did have a blast with all the company.

My dad was in the hospital this week. As of noon Saturday, it did not look like he would be discharged in time and he was a grumpy Poppi knowing he'd miss his grandson's party. At around 3:45, Little JCrew started saying, "Poppa" and looking out the window. Puppy and Poppi sound very much alike, so I didn't know which word he was saying. Sure enough, I see my mom and dad coming around the side of the house. Dad was discharged! He was so excited to be here... we all were.

There was so much cuteness in the backyard with all the kiddos.

The mess afterward was so rewarding.

The kids had fun, and that was the whole goal.

If you follow me on Instagram, the whole week I was using the hastag #WilksTurnsTwo. I'd post a daily picture of Little JCrew with that hashtag. I even used the hashtag as part of party decorations.

I was hoping our technology savvy crowd would have status updates or pictures and use the hashtag. Sure enough, they did!

Pretty cool!

At the end of the day, he was all smiles. That's all I had hoped for. Seeing him really enjoy himself.

Happy birthday, my precious boy! You are very loved.