Cookies are a sometime food

I don’t like cookies very much. Eating them is fine and dandy. But making them is a whole other thing.

First there’s too much handling of the product. Often times it’s very sticky and the dough seems to get everywhere. And if it involves rolling and cutting out shapes — fuggaguddaboutit. Too much effin’ work. I guess that’s why I prefer cakes and brownies if given a choice to bake something. Mix, bake and pour. Donesies.

But come every December, I try to break out of my fear of making cookies and attempt to make some. The spouse is the opposite of me. He loooves cookies. He loves that they’re portable and not as messy when eating. Can you guess by that statement who does most all of the cooking at home?

So being newly married and all, I felt it was my duty to do something fancy. Something like Martha Stewart’s Cookies cookbook instead of the usual spritz cookies we do every year.

I love Martha Stewart’s cookbooks. The graphics are always pleasant and the recipes seem concise. Apparently despite the directions, I still had problems.

Case number one: surprise cookies

I was attracted to these cookies because it involved no hand-to-raw-cookie-dough touching. Just drop them on the cookie sheet, press marshmallows half way though the baking process and top with frosting. Easy enough, right?

The problem came with the directions of making the frosting. Whisking the milk and vanilla into melted butter did not produce fluffy frosting (instead, it was runny). I salvaged the mixture by placing it into the refrigerator until slightly cool and used an electric mixer to whip air into it to create the frosting.

Despite the problems, the cookies were just like mini cakes and included all my favorite ingredients: chocolate, marshmallows and frosting.

Case number two: mini black and white cookies.

Ever since the Seinfeld episode where Jerry waxes over black and white cookies, I’ve been hooked to these little gems. What more if I could make them and eat them in the comfort of my own home?

This was a step beyond my comfort zone: it included rolling the dough into small balls. Actual contact with the food!

The recipe stated that it makes 4 dozen cookies. Even measuring each ball from a tablespoon, I still only came out with less than two dozen cookies. Along with the discrepancies with how many cookies are produced from the recipe and that the cookies, once baked were not flat, I again had a problem with the topping. This time the black and white icing.

Individually frosting half of the cookies with the white icing, followed by a chocolate half is so tedious. Anyone that can do two dozen cookies in a neat line has my full respect. Even more so if they frosted four dozen cookies the recipe alleges.

I gave up after frosting three cookies and proceeded to pour the frosting on the cookies, straight line be damned. As long as each cookie had a little bit of black and white icing it was fine with me. They were still pretty tasty even if it did look like a blind man decorated them.

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Speaking of cookies, my friend JustJenn sent over the last of her wedding presents to us. It was six months of baked goods and the last being a gingerbread Batman!

It has been a delicious few months and I always looked forward to find something tasty in the mail from her regardless of what happened in transit. In addition, she has the patience of a saint whether it’s decorating cookies or cupcakes!

Read about all the treats here on her blog.