3rd Day of Sock Yarn

On the Third Day of Sock Yarn, Simply Sock Yarn gave to me....

a special edition colorway of Fleece Artist Merino!

To enter this contest, simply answer below before 6am tomorrow. To see the rules of the contest, click here.

Do you have a favorite cookie or cake recipe that is part of your holiday celebration?  If so, tell us about it in the comments below, and if leave a link to the recipe if you have one.  I don'tk now that I have one yet, so I'd love to learn of your faves.

James turned 2 1/2 this weekend, and it seems like this "event" has brought with it a host of big-boy activities.  He talks in full sentences now, and even though much of them are gibberish (at least to my ears) I'm stunned that he does this.  He also makes up words to songs, like part of the Nutcracker Suite, which he is constantly singing this week.

This weekend we made sugar cookies for the first time together, and he helped in each step and I was surprised that the process kept his attention the entire time.  He helped roll out the dough, chose the cookie cutters that he was going to use, decorated them with royal icing and sprinkles, and then ate one... ok, more than one!  Before I had a son, I would imagine scenarios of what it would be like when I had kids and we did certain things together.  It was almost surreal making cookies with James and realizing that it was exactly as wonderful as I had envisioned.

  
 
 

Comments

[Cynthia Landers]

Happy 2 1/2 James! My favorite cookie was whatever my mom was making. Even though I have the recipes they never turn out quite as good as she made. Mom's just have a secret ingredient they throw into everything to make it better. In 15 years James will be sure no one can make a better sugar cookie than you do!!

Cyndy

[Susie]

We love to make shaped iced cookies with lots of sprinkles since even the littlest fingers can join in.

[Peggy]

Spritz cookies will always be my favorite- they are a classic that even beat out all of the chocolate recipes.

[Jen]

i like most every cookie, but one of my favorite are chocolate covered english toffee bars.

[Leslie]

I love them all! Cut-out sugar cookies, nut horns, Italian anise cookies, chocolate chip, peanut butter with hershey kisses....the list goes on and on (and so do the pounds!!)

[Adriana]

Every year we make stollen. I know... not a cookie or cake (it's bread), but in our home it's not Christmas if there's no toasted stollen for breakfast.

[Nancy]

My favorite cookie receipe is on that my Mother cut from the newpaper in the 1950's. It is called Polka Dot Meringues. There are made from egg whites, sugar, chocolate chips and cornflakes. When my daughter was little she loved to put the top chocolate chip on to decorate them. She and her husband both love these cookies and they are coming this weekend to help me make them.

[Pamela]

My favorite recipe is raspberry cheesecake.

[Diane]

WITHOUT A DOUBT - the cookie I remember from when I was small enough to only see the cookie jar on tip toe on Nana's counter top - Nana's Molasses Raisin cookies.

MOLASSES COOKIES
1/2 Cup shortening
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 C molasses
1/4 cup coffee, milk OR water
2 C flour
1/2 Tsp. salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger or cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda1/2 cup floured raisins

Cream shortening & sugar, beat in egg, add molasses and milk, mix in dry ingredients, place by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet, bake 10 min. @ 375 degrees. They smell awesome while baking are a soft cookie and yummy at any age but always make me feel like that little girl on tip toe again.

PS -JAMES GETS CUTER IN EACH NEW PICTURE YOU HAVE BEEN POSTING - THESE ARE PRICELESS WITH THE COOKIE BAKING!

[tami]

no recipe, but my favorite has always been my mom's candy cane cookies. The dough is almond flavored and made into red and white. then the cookies are twisted together like candy canes and baked. When they're still a little warm, you sprinkle crushed candy canes all over the top of them.
Quite a production to make, but they were our favorites as kids.

[babyface]

It's not really anything special. It's just
plain old Apple Pie. When my son met his
wife she had a seven year old boy and I asked him what his very favorite thing was
to eat and he said "apple pie". Ever since
then we have apple pie every Christmas. He
is 26 years old and still remembers.

[Susan]

I loved my mother's Mexican Wedding cookies, which she'd make every year. I think it was all of the powdered sugar that made them so fun to eat!

[Gayle]

When my kids were little they loved "Haystack" cookies. I always made them for the kids during the Holidays. I guess you could say that it became a tradition and now that they are all young adults they still expect to have them at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas.

The recipe can be found on the back of the Nestle's Butterscotch Morsels bag.

[Debby]

As a child, I remember loving my grandmother's iced sugar cookies. She made them in santa shapes, stars, and other Christmas shapes. They were the best.

[Jolene]

My Grandma makes "Cherry Balls" every year... Basically they are maraschino cherries wrapped in a coating of Icing sugar mixed with cream cheese and some tasty extras and then rolled in toasted coconut... mmmmm

They are sooo sweet they make your teeth hurt! but in a good way!

[susan]

My Mother in Laws Christmas pudding is the best we've ever tasted. One of these years the pudding making will have to be passed to me.

Just hope I can do the recipe justice.

[Cindy W.]

Reading all the comments and it seems that a lot have the same memories and taste. Have to add applesauce cake. Handed down from Nana.

[Abby]

Pfeffernüsse, aka pepper nuts, which are actually Dutch in origin, but have been co-opted by the Danes and other Europeans. Great with coffee!

[Lynn]

I LOVE these pics!!! As far as traditions, I'm trying to start a few of my own. My family isn't much into cooking or baking (makes a mess you know, blech) so usually they just hit the bakery before they come (now) to my house. Instead I'll share with you a recipe that my kids and I love to make together. In fact they are getting to a point of being able to do it themselves. Check out NickJr. Blues Clues does a banana bread that is VERY good and VERY easy. DEFINITELY something you can do with James.

[Tracey]

At our house it is 7 layer bars made with sweetened condensed milk. that are filled with fat and calories and we only eat them at holiday time.

[sprite]

Awww!!! Making cookies with my mom or my grandmother are some of my favorite memories from childhood, and I hope they are for James, too.

Speaking of family baking, my mom and I make spritz cookies every Thanksgiving weekend. They are time consuming and fiddly and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

[Sue H]

This time of year is when (if) I make Lizzies - a fruit-cake type cookie my father used to make. It has raisins soaked in booze(guess that's why I like this one!), peacans and candied cherries held together by a thin batter. Not sure where he got the recipe but I try and carry on the tradition. Since there is so much in the bowl I have to have my husband stir it so everything gets covered in batter.

[Carole]

That's adorable. I'll admit that making cookies with Hannah wasn't something I enjoyed. I think I'm too anal about my kitchen being neat to really let go and enjoy this sort of thing.
My favorite cookies are called Polish Tea Cakes. They are basically a thumb print cookie but a bit more delicate. I posted the recipe on my blog a while back.
http://caroleknits.net/2005/12/22/cookies-and-stuff/

[Betty]

I like pinwheels but my husband is starting a tradition of making gingerbread cookies with out granddaughter and that will likely become my new favorite tradition.

Cute pictures!

[Yvonne]

I dont have a favorite cookie or cake recipe for the holiday. I am not one to cook. As a kid I do remember Mom and even when I was real young my Step Grandfather baking stuff in the kitchen. There are years that Mom does make baklava but that is not every year. That stuff is so good.

[Petunia]

Oatmeal cookies, made differently. The dough was rolled into "logs," wrapped in aluminum foil and chilled thoroughly,then sliced very thin to bake. Made a crisp, rather than chewy cookie!

[Karen]

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Raspberry-Cheesecake-2/Detail.aspx

This is our favorite Christmas Eve dessert. It's great way to use frozen raspberries from our garden.

I love the color of today's yarn-very soothing.

[Joyce]

I don't have a favorite cake or cookie that I have to MAKE every year....however, I love to EAT just about any Christmas cookie....my sister in law makes the best sugar cookies!

[Debbie B]

The tradition of Christmas and food in my family is on Christmas morning I make a huge breakfast, with either waffles or pancakes and all the fixings. I love the pictures of the cookie making with James. He is getting at the age where Christmas becomes such a special time.

[Veronica]

I know I'm in a minority here, but I love homemade fruitcake. Spicy cake with lots of great dried fruits and nuts and orange peel all soaked in rum. (And yes, I even love those awful artificial green candied cherries!) Of course you can't eat much of it, so I am looking forward to a package containing a tiny fruitcake just for me from my mom!

[Abby]

Holidays are all All ALL about the molasses cookies around my parent's place. My grandmother still makes enough for everyone's family, we frost them and then EAT THEM! They were so much fun to decorate as a kid.

[Tina]

Two staples I am ordered to make during the holidays are Refrigerator Rolls and Red Velvet Cake. The cake and icing recipe came from Waldorf Astoria, and it is by far the best RVC recipe I've ever had. The icing on it's own is too die for.

[Nancy N]

My favorite cookie recipe is Russian Tea Cakes. I can still picture my mother's Betty Crocker Cookbook. Here is a link to the recipe.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes.aspx/russian-tea-cakes/3af8664b-6c3e-4022-b686-cd961521e59b

[Pamela]

They are not a cookie or cake but the Holidays to me are popovers with strawberry butter!! Yummmmm.... When I was little my aunt used to make us frosted sugar cookies, she still likes to tell the story of how I would ONLY eat the Santas.

[Deanna Johnson]

I don't really have a favorite as all of it is good! But my youngest son doesn't get in the spirit until we have homemade fudge and eggnog! He takes after my Mom with the wicked sweet tooth!

[natalie]

At our house Christmas baking must include Peanut Butter Kiss cookies.. It is a given that they will be made and eaten and enjoyed for the holiday. I cannot believe how much peanut butter and chocolate kisses we go through. My children are teenagers and yet they look forward to the baking and start looking for sale items so that we can stock up for event.. It is a fun time..

[Sue]

I try NOT to make too many goodies, as with kids grown and gone there aren't enough mouths to eat them all. Still, there has to be something! My favorite is mincemeat tarts, and my husband makes rum balls.

[Bertha]

Oh man, those pictures are the sweetest!

I don't have a recipe on hand for my favorite holiday cookie, but it's one my mother makes. It's some kind of butter/sugar cookie type dough, except a little softer. She makes 2 batches, one kept white colored and another that she dyes red. She then takes balls of the dough and rolls them into tubes and braids them together to make candy cane shapes. Then she sprinkles crushed candy canes on top and bakes them. They are SO cute and tasty!

[Astoria]

Yes, we do, sort of. We have a favorite recipe we make every Christmas morning. It's the Orange Bow Knots from The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book (http://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Plaid/dp/0696224038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260890180&sr=8-1) It's a yummy sweet yeast dough, with orange juice and orange rind in it, rolled up into spirals or tied into knots with an orange glaze on top. It accompanies our standard Christmas breakfast of eggs, ham and fruit salad.

My mother makes a wonderful ginger bread that all my kids love, even the baby. So soft and fragrant. But I have no idea what her well-guarded, developed-over-many-years recipe is.

[Jan]

7-layer cookie bars! A layer of graham crackers and butter, then chocolate chips and walnuts, then coconut... then sweetened condensed milk.... hmmm... what layer am I missing???

[Julia P]

My favorite cake recipe is a pound cake with rum sauce. Mmm, delicious!

[Kathy N]

It is not Christmas in our house without Klijner - these are a Danish cookie flavored with cardomum and deep fried! YUM!

[Denise Sheaves]

No real favourites! I like them all! We make typically 20 types, snowballs, chocolate peanut butter balls, cream squares, shortbread, lemon squares, and the list goes on. We wait until our son is finished school for Christmas break and then start baking! Can't wait for Monday, now we have a two year old to get in the middle of things! lol

[Sarah]

I've gotten myself caught into a classic Christmas catch-22 - my mice cookies (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/habsgirl/mug2.jpg) are so popular, that everybody wants them, so I need to make more and more every year. However, making tons and tons of mice are starting to drive me nuts - they're a fairly heavy workload, and it gets kind of boring after a while.

[Linda B]

I don't bake too much anymore, but the biggest Christmas Cookie memory is baking with my Mom, sister and a few cousins. We made rolled out sugar cookies with red plastic cookie cutters, which I now have. Don't know if the best part was the baking, decorating, tasting, or just all the fun. Hmmm, I think it was all of it!!

[Susan]

Coconut Chocolate Chip Tea Cakes and Molasses Cookies. These are so tied to Christmas that I don't think to make them any other time of year.
Sooo... many fond memories of childhood when the five of us each picked a different cookie recipe and make them all - all at the same time.

[Katrina]

Every year for Christmas, I make my brother the Chocolate Malt Sandwich cookies from a Martha Stewart magazine that I got a few years ago. They have many steps and take 2 days, but they are sooo good! I also make sugar cookies with my daughter. She's five this year!

[Dorothy]

Christmas cookie baking was never a big part of our holidays. However, now that I have grandchildren, I plan to make it one. I just retired and for my retirement present my sister got me an apron that says "Cookie Maker", and for each of my two granddaughters, one that says "Cookie Tester".

[Toby]

Surprisingly I can think of other times of year where we have a cake or cookie recipe that's a tradition, but for the Christmas holidays I can't think of one!

I know we made the decorated sugar cookies when I was younger, but I don't recall it when I got older at all.

[Susanne]

I love to make shortbread cookies at this time of year. They are simple and yet sooo good. I use 1 cup of butter, 1&3/4 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of icing sugar. Cream butter add sifted flour and icing sugar and whip until fluffy. Drop by teaspoonful on pan and bake at 350ºF for approx 15 min. Watch carefully. You can also roll the dough into 1" balls and flatten or roll the balls in crushed pecans or walnuts.

[Paulette]

Sweet pictures-----it's great you take the time to make such great memories! James sure looks intent on what he's doing!

I love pretty much all Christmas cookies---two of my favorites are Mexican Wedding Cakes and Lemon Bars-mmmmm!

[Ariana]

Black forest cake. Picture, rich chocolate cake dripping with icing, whipped cream, and cherry pie filling... Okay, now I'm hungry!

[Kevin Pollard]

Cookies, bread and all the goodies baking, add to sights and smell of Christmas gone but never forgotten. Add orange rind, cranberries, and nuts to a sugar cookie for a different taste, or instead of icing sprinkle with cimmon sugar. James will long remember these special times.

[Versailles-rose]

Peanut Butter Blossoms http://tinyurl.com/2e9vef , are the family favorite.

I never made them till I married, and got a stepson along with the ring. Dave was 11 when we tied the knot, and I had to find a way to let him know I wanted to be a part of his life. So I called his mother and asked for Dave's favorite cookie recipes. This let Dave know I liked him, and let The Ex know I wouldn't be a pain in the ass where her son was concerned. And yes, we all did live happily ever after!

[Andrea (@shutterbitch)]

Snickerdoodles!

[BunnyQueen]

We always make fudge - which isn't cake or cookies, but is still traditional. The basic recipe is here: http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/never_fail_fudge.html. We typically make several batches and jazz up most of them by using chocolate making flavors(no water) like Kona coffee, raspberry, mint, and so on. We also make a batch with white chocolate chips and crushed Oreo cookies as a stir in and a couple of batches with chocolate chips and chopped up candy bars as stir ins. Yum!!

[Jean]

When I was about 8, I got my first cook book. I think it was called "Betty Crocker's Cookie Book" and the recipe that my mom and I made for it every year was called Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies.

Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour*
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red food coloring
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375. Mix powdered sugar, margarine, shortening, egg, almond extract, and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt. Divide dough into halves. Tint 1 half with food color. For each candy cane, shape 1 tsp of dough of each color into a 4" rope. For smooth even strips, roll back and forth on a lightly floured board. Place 1 red and 1 white strip side by side; press together lightly and twist into barber-pole shape. Complete cookies 1 at a time. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Curve top down to form the handle of the cane. Bake until set and very light brown, about 9 minutes. Mix candy and granulated sugar; immediately sprinkle over cookies as they come out of the oven. Makes about 4 dozen.
*If using self-rising flour, omit the salt.

[Andy]

I have three traditional favorite breads that I make from scratch. I don't do all three every year, but usually do one or two. I make Stollen (German), Pannetone (Italian), and Julekage (Scandinavian).

I also make a Bacardi Rum Cake almost every year. http://baking.about.com/od/bundtcakes/r/bacardirum.htm

[Ann]

New ginger cookie recipe uses Sugar in the Raw (a coarse molasses flavored sugar available at Kroger).
2 c. flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/2 c. butter
1 c. Sugar in the Raw
1 egg
1/4 dark corn syrup
Roll into 1" balls, then roll in more Sugar in the Raw
Bake at 350 for 9 - 11 minutes
I got rave reviews!

[Pat Kelley]

My husband loves meringue cookies, made only once a year for the holidays!

[MonicaPDX]

Dad's family was Czech and Slovak, so we didn't have cookies that often...but did have kolache every year, without fail. I wrote up a humongously long version of the recipe for a newsgroup I used to frequent, rec.food.recipes:
http://groups.google.ws/group/rec.food.recipes/msg/e238fe0d1e732448?

Mom did occasionally make cookies for Christmas, and the ones I loved the most were Russian Tea Cakes. They're simple to make, but look and taste special. (And are the same as the Mexican Wedding Cakes Susan mentioned above. They're popular all over, and have umpteen different names.) I like the Betty Crocker recipe here - http://tinyurl.com/yec5uyj. I used TinyURL because that link is so long! One nice thing about them is kids can help mix the dough and roll them in confectioner's sugar after baking...though it can get messy. *g* Living in Oregon, we always used hazelnuts in them, which are divine.

[ikkinlala]

I have a few kinds of cookies that I make every year, but I think my family's favourite is Crescents. They're a shortbread cookie with pecans and chocolate chips in them.

[Cyndy C.]

http://www.recipegirl.com/2008/12/11/cinnamon-bun-cookies/

We made these for the first time last year. They are good with or without the glaze.

James is cute!!

[mary]

We just finished making candy cane cookies! When my daughter was about 6 she insisted on making equal numbers of right and left facing ones. Still do.

Some layers in my recipie for layered squares are graham cracker crumbs, raspberry jam, coconuut, ground nuts. and so on. I pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over it all before baking.

My family's favorite cookies are kiefles. Dough made with equal parts of butter and cream cheese, then flour. Roll thin, cut into squares, a dab of filling: apricot, almond, cherry or prune. Fold over two corners of each square over filling, like a blanket around a baby, then bake @375.

Theres never enough of them.

[Holly]

James looks so much like my almost 3 year old Teddy! Who I hope is a chef one day.

When I met my husband, we were in high school and we started dating right around Christmas time (22 years ago). I went to his house after school one day and got to enjoy his mom's chocolate fudge. It was like I had died and gone to heaven. It's the receipe from the marshmellow creme jar and it's not very fancy, but we make it every year at Christmas (and only at Christmas) and it brings back many memories.

[NerdGirl]

We are more of a pie family at the holidays (apple pie, apple custard pie, and pecan pie) but if we do have cookies it has to be chocolate chip cookie bars. We make the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the back of the Nestle bag and then squish it into a thick layer in a 9x13 pan. I'm guessing that we usually make at least a double batch of cookie dough, maybe more. Then you bake it in the oven until it's brown around the edges and a toothpick comes out of the center mostly clean. YUM!!! Way better than a chocolate chip cookie.

[Jennifer D]

My favorite cookies are my aunt and uncle's gingersnaps. I have no idea how they do it, nor do I have the recipe, but they turn out with the perfect combo of snap and chewiness. MMMM!

[Julia]

Chocolate cookies with chocolate chips are always in demand, holiday or not :)

[KathleenC]

When I was a kid my favorite cookies were the butter spritz cookies that my Mom made. (they're the kind you have to squeeze through a shaped cookie shaper thingy...kind of like those playdough shaper thingies). I loved making and eating those! So good!
As an adult, and now since my sister makes the Christmas cookies, my favorite are her pecan balls... pecan filled shortbread balls rolled while warm in plenty of powdered sugar... YUM!

[Tammy]

Hmm, our favorite is making rolled sugar cookies and painting them. The kids have always done something similar to Calvin and Hobbes with his snowmen. It's kind of funny finding a semi destroyed reindeer or something along those lines when you pull out a cookie to eat. This year we are trying several different recipes because my daughter is on a gluten free and soy free diet for the next 6 months. I've had the gingerbread cookies that are gf/sf and they are the best!

[Connie Garry]

My favorite is a recipe for Boston Brown Bread which is mixed together and steamed for hours in cans. I even have my grandmother's cans. I don't make it every year because I want to eat it all, but it is really good.

[Donna Nelson]

We love my mom's receipe for date nut pinwheel cookies from about 1950.I sill make every year.

[Kim]

Our favorite cookie recipe is just a plain butter cookie that we do different things with. We make cookies we frost and decorate; roll the dough around a Hershey's Kiss (or choc. chips) then roll in coconut and bake; or make jam thumbprints. I like this becuase I can make the dough ahead of time, freeze and then bring out to use on "cookie day". We always have the girls' summer babysitters (college girls) come over and help decorate with us. My daughters look forward to this all year long!

[French Connection (Ravelry)]

Rich pound cake, steamed cranberry pudding with caramel cream sauce, tortiere (French Canadian pork pie), and dressing balls (potato based summer savory dressing snowballs!

[Jenn]

I am so looking forward to doing the sugar cookies! I just need to get a good selection of cookie cutters. I was thinking dinosaurs, rockets and trains. Very festive!

[Gabriele]

I love making chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and almonds. When we go to friends homes I make a NY style cheesecake and a mixed fruit coulis to put over the top.

[Kirsten]

I think just the basic sugar cookies with decorations and gingerbread men (also decorated) are faves around here. Mostly the decorating holds the attention since the kids are 5 and 3.

[Brenna]

I always look forward to my mother's Molasses Raisin Cookies. I'm not the biggest raisin fan but these just work. :)

[Mary A]

If you haven't discoverer the King Arthur website, please do. I thought I was a very good baker but started using their flour and recipes and the change was huge, the chocolate chip KAG
and the Vanilla dreams are unbelievable. I keep ball of chocolate chip frozen and use a few grains of sea salt on top before baking and please add their fiori di sicilia in the vanilla dreams.

[Mikki]

I miss the rosettes and krumkaken. (spelling may be off, I don't have possession of the Scandinavian cookbook yet)

[Bobbi]

There are 2 favourites in our house and Christmas isn't Christmas without my fruit cake and shortbread. Both are recipes passed down from my grandmother.

[Tracey]

my mother always makes shortbread cookies from an old family recipe. i make cranberry biscotti and the recipe is here:

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=4542.0

i replace the cointreau with oj. :)

[Gretchen]

James is adorable! On the cookie front, you can beat a Spritz for the holidays. My mom also makes these wonderful Marzipan squares that we all love.

[marianne]

this cinnamon cookie recipe is one of my favorites. I like to use pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon in the dough for a different flavor.

[marianne]

oh, it looks like my link didn't work. trying again:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Cinnamon-Cookies-48241

[Caroline]

I make a wonderful zucchini bread with lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. I'm a sucker for anything with lots of spices in it. I also add raisins and walnuts. Best of all it gets glazed with lots of brandy that keeps it nice and moist for quite a while. I love the way the house smells after baking this!

[Janelle]

Our favorite is cutout sugar cookies, probably much like the ones you are making! Our family recipe creates an almost cake-like cookies. I love that it's soft, not crunchy, and the cookies do not spread on the pan, which means they maintain their cutout shapes really well. Of course, we ice and sprinkle lavishly. This is our must-have Christmas cookie.

[Beadknitter]

I don't have a traditional holiday recipe yet. I've not been celebrating Christmas very long, even though I'm now 50, because I grew up in a religious cult (which I've left) that did not celebrate. So I've been sort of trying different things each year until I find something I love. I'd do the sugar cookies, but my sister-in-laws are so much better I just get her to make me some each year (heh heh). This year I'm going to try Chocolate Chip Bacon Pecan cookies.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120994007#120996087

I've been told they are to die for. I guess I'll find out after I go grocery shopping later this week.

Btw, thanks for the contest.

[Denver]

My favorite cookies are still jam thumbprints. I think they are just a basic shortbread cookie that you then put a dollop of jam on. I also really like Missouri Cookies. They are a stove top cookie made with chocolate/peanut butter/quick cooking oats. They are delicious!

[Sally]

My families favorite cookies are Chocolate Meltaways and "Aunt Jane's Simple Cookies" (cutout cookies). I have made 2 batches of each so far and the meltaways are gone already! Made another batch this morning! My husband says that he has had enough and won't touch this last batch. We'll see!

[Debbie]

Celebrating Chanukah Latkes are a must...but cookiewise I like to make rugelach when I have the time. They have a cream cheese/butter cookie base and are filled with a cinnamon/sugar/nut mixture. Then they are cut into wedges and rolled like crescent rolls...mmm...maybe I'll go make some now...

[Carolyn]

Christmas isn't Christmas unless we make pizzelles. I'll be doing that at the end of the week!

[Sweeetpeaches]

I am not fond of these myself,a bit too sweet for me, but the hubby, my boys, my dad absolutely love them! hmmmm...maybe it's a guy thing.
http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/content/recipes/recipe-detail.aspx?recipeId=465

[J.T. in missouri]

I tweeked the Toll House Cookie recipe to make pecan-cranberry chocolate chip cookies. Use 1 cup brown sugar instead of 1/2 cup, and decrease reg. sugar to 1/2 cup. Add 3/4 c pecans and 3/4 c dried cranberries along with the chocolate chips. I tell myself the cranberries make it "healthier".

[trek]

The Nestle Toll House cookies - but with Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips instead of the Nestle ones.

[Marti Keefe]

I try to make Stollen each year. It started many years ago. A neighbor would give us some they had made every year when I was a child. My dad loved it. When the neighbor passed away I was already married. That Christmas I decided to carry on the tradition for my dad and for our family also. We love it toasted. I like to go heavy on the almonds and light on the fruit. Yum!

[Evie]

My favorite is a yummy peppermint cookie with pieces of candy cane in it!

[Marylu]

To be quite honest, I don't have one favorite cookie recipe. I just love cookies in general! Sorry not much help!!!

[Ann]

Definitely my mom's Christmas cutouts!

[Jennifer]

Spritz at our house too! I like to try to make a variety, but the spritz are what go the fastest.