The Soul of Our Food: Christmas Cookies

Growing up the process of making Christmas cookies was, in my mind, more important than decorating the Christmas tree. We would start making our cookies at least two weeks before the Holiday. On Saturday morning, the smell of toasted nuts, vanilla and butter permeated the entire apartment. Resisting the urge to eat every single cookie was difficult. Mom would allow one sample of each cookie before December 25. When all baking was complete, she would store them in large Tupperware containers and place them on the highest shelf in our walk-in pantry. Rarely did the line up of sweets change. Almost all the recipes came from the backs of jars, cans, box tops or the pages Women’s Day, Good Housekeeping or Family Circle. Many of my siblings still use these recipes, like Toll House Chocolate Chips, Land-o-Lakes Butter Spritz cookies and Pecan Ball cut from the pages of Good Housekeeping.

This year I was determined to make cookies that could never find their way on to our Holiday line–up of cookies. All of my recipes came from well-regarded cookbooks, websites and magazines. It is my hope that you have your holiday cookies completed by now but if you are someone who performs well in the eleventh hour or just waits until the last minute, these are the sources of my cookies.