Shirley V Photography: Christmas Baking 2017

Oh The Christmas Baking again this year! Lots of work, but so much fun.

I inherited the Christmas cookie baking disease from my mom. She always baked lots and lots of cookies for Christmas.

I think I used about 10 lbs of butter this year, lots of flour, sugar and for sure lots of Vanilla. Here's some photos from this year. Should have taken more, but I was too busy baking, bagging and getting packages ready to mail and share.

I make a total mess when mixing. I've do all the mixing of the batter in one day so only one cleanup of the mess. The dough is put in bowls and into refrigerator until the next day. They have to sit out for a little while before I'm able to roll into balls and bake. I do bake the Spritz cookies the same day, cause the batter has to be just right to squeeze out of the cookie press. Of course every baker needs a nice glass of Chardonnay ready and waiting...

7-Up Bundt Mini Cakes
I did buy 2 new pans this year at Walmart so I now have 6 pans. I made 2x the recipe.

Sugar Cookies
These are the best sugar cookies. Just roll into a ball, roll in sugar, flatten with a glass bottom and sprinkle with colored sprinkles. NOTE: took me years to figure out to get an empty sprinkle bottle and put green and red sprinkles in it and mix. That way you get red and green sprinkles all at once. DUH!

Reece’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies
These were not very chewy. Wonderful flavor, but they were a little too crispy. It's not easy to see if they are a little browned edges when the cookie is chocolate!

Russian Teacakes
Everyone's favorite.

Chex Mix
My favorite. I think I did about 6x the recipe this year. Used three boxes of Corn Chex and 3 boxes of Wheat Chex and all the rest of the stuff. I also used a huge container of peanuts from Sam's Club.