What day of cookie baking are we on?? This is probably one of the silliest things I’ve ever gotten myself into, honestly. I keep many irons in the fire over here, and it has been a challenge to write a blog a day, in addition to working on this house and the commitment to an hour a day writing the book. Also, I have a job interview today at 3:30 in another county.

I come from a long line of half assers, so when I commit to a project like this, it’s very important that I see it through to the end. And let me tell y’all something. It’s an end I’ll be glad to see. My physique is seriously suffering from all the cookie tests. Oh yeah, and the ritual of Christmas movies at night with cookies and milk. Yep. I have been doing that. A lot!!

I had to get up at 6 and put my workout on hold to get this set done. It’s very time consuming. You make your dough, then cut it in half and chill the sheets. Then you roll the log and chill it 2 hours. Then you cover it in the nonpareils and chill it another 2 hours. Then you can slice and bake. Fun, right??

These might be the prettiest of all the cookies so far. I just love the festive feel they lend to the cookie tray.

We should probably get after this recipe. I need to get that workout in before I head to the city for the afternoon. I’ll be baking these when I get home tonight. Hopefully we will be cele-baking!! I can never pass up a play on words!!

What You Need:

.5 c softened butter

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

.25 tsp salt

.5 tsp baking powder

2.75 c flour

5 drops red food coloring

.5 c festive nonpareils

What You Do:

In bowl of stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder.

Gradually add flour to the butter bowl.

Continue mixing until dough is well combined.

Divide the dough in half, leaving half in the mixing bowl.

Add red color to the mixing bowl and blend until desired color is achieved.

Place the untinted dough between 2 long sheets of wax paper.

Roll dough into a 9×16 triangle.

Place in refrigerator to chill.

Repeat process with red dough.

Chill both layers 15-20 minutes.

Place red dough on pastry board or counter and remove the top wax sheet.

Carefully remove top wax sheet from untinted dough and place on top of the red.

Remove top layer of wax paper.

Trim dough into an even rectangle.

Starting at a short end, roll the dough layers into a log. I made a few extra cookies from the trimmings, just because.

Pull up gently on the wax paper to help roll the log up tight.

Now place the wrapped log inside a paper towel roll that has been cut, to hold log in shape. Then roll in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. Like this…

Now you have to chill this 2 hours minimum. I’ll be doing my workout during that time.

The next move is to pour the nonpareils into a large pan or on a cookie sheet, and then unwrap and roll the log in the candies, pressing them into the dough until log is completely covered. This is challenging and it takes a lot of pressing and rolling to get it done. I never said these were easy. It’s definitely an intermediate type project.

Return to wax paper and wrap again. Replace the plastic wrap and then the paper roll.

Chill for an additional 1-2 hours.

Heat oven to 350.

Line baking sheets with parchment.

Remove dough from wrappers and slice the dough at about .25″ thick. I use fishing line, or a cheese slicer for this process. A good sharp knife will do.

Place cookies 2 inches apart on baking sheet. They are going to expand, but not a lot.

I do a tray at a time and return the log to the refrigerator between bakes. It helps them hold form.

Bake cookies 10 minutes.

Allow to cool on sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to cookie racks.

These store in an airtight container up to 10 days.

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