Holiday Cheer

[mmerriam]

Since there is nothing else I can do about the wiring situation today, I'm going to cheer myself up by committing Holiday Baking!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sugar Cookies cut in squirrel and lobster shapes. mrissa, markgritter, and timprov know why.
Chocolate Fudge
Fudge Brownies
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
Key Lime Bars
Cheese Balls
Cherry Pie (but that will be baked Christmas Day, actually).

ETA: 11:35am: Chocolate Chip Cookies are cooling. Fudge is about to go into the fridge to set. Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars in oven. Next up: Brownies and Key Lime Bars.

ETA II: High Noon (Calling Tex Ritter. Will Mr. Ritter please come to the microphone) CCPB Bars out and cooling. Brownies and Key Lime bars in oven. First round of dishes done. Resting before Sugar Cookies and Cheese Balls.

ETA III: 12:41pm: Sugar Cookies in Oven. Brownies and Key Lime bars cooling.

I should point out that I'm not really making all that much. Both sets of bars are made in an 8X8 pan. The Brownies and Fudge in a 12x9. 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies and a dozen sugar cookies. 1 softball-size cheese ball. The pie will be a standard 9 inches. It's enough for us and to contribute to a couple of smallish Christmas parties. I want to enjoy baked goods, but I don't necessarily want to gain 10 pounds.

ETA IV: 12:53pm: Sugar Cookie Fail! How do you screw-up sugar cookies? Why did they expand so much! They are not cute shapes at all, but large sugary blobs.

ETA V: 1:25pm: Cheese Ball success! It made two, one softball and one baseball. Everything else is cooling for at least another 30 minutes. I am done until then.

ETA VI: 4:37pm: Brownie win! Key Lime Bars, well, they are not perfect, but they'll work. I may, sadly, have Fudge Fail. It should have set by now and has not. I'll leave it in the fridge overnight and see what happens.

Comments

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

Yummy!

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Yup!

[joelarnold.livejournal.com]

Yum!!!

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

[tiny-wings.livejournal.com]

lobster...?

[careswen.livejournal.com]

It has something to do with this. And this. And possibly this.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

You know, I checked to make sure the tiny lobsters were still corralled in my cabinet. They are. The mermaid is a great jailer, I guess.

[ericreynolds.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Chocolate.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I have lots of chocolate now!

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think gaining 10 pounds would be a small price to pay to partake in all that baked goodness.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

There is a lot of baked goodness! The house smells so good I could just eat it, except then I'd be homeless...

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

When sugar cookies turn into blobs make up or buy decorative frosting, and draw on them. I have the equipment to make fancy squiggles. If you don't, you can buy one time use stuff in the baking aisle.

This has happened to me. I pretended they were supposed to be like that and made them look like Xmas tree ornaments.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, I had already bought frosting for them!

[pameladean]

You are mighty!

lsanderson just recently posted an article asserting that when sugar cookies fail, it's the fault of the butter. This may just mean it got too warm. If it was cold, or the cookies have no butter, I'm at a loss. When in doubt, I tend to blame the rising agent, personally.

P.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

It looks like I might have Fudge Fail as well. It may be the butter.

[greykev.livejournal.com]

Re: Fudge fail

My best advice is to add a cake mix and bake it. I've tried other things, but a rich fudgy cupcake is always a win.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

If it doesn't set up by morning, I'll give that a try.

[carbonel]

I don't really see how unset fudge is a problem. I mean, you can always eat it with a spoon, or heat it up and spoon it over ice cream.