Cookies for Christmas

'Chocolava' cookies in our holiday cookie jar

For the past couple of weeks, I've kind of had to force myself into the holiday mood. First I started with decorating the house. That helped. Then I worked on baking some cookies. For whatever reason, I was not inspired to make the cookies we traditionally make in our family, so I decided to try some new ones. I pulled out my favorite cookie cookbook and flipped through it for inspiration. We bought this cookbook from a little gift shop in Banff Springs when we were on our honeymoon. The woman in the bookstore couldn't stop raving about this book - and she knew the author personally because she was from the area. I figured "hey! kind of like local cuisine!" so we bought it. It's easily the best thing I brought back from that trip besides my new husband! It's called "One Smart Cookie" and I have a little blurb about it in my sidebar. It has nothing to do with homesteading or saving money or being green or living sustainably...but everyone needs a good cookie now and again.

So, I start with the cookies pictured above. My mom used to make them and called them chocolate crinkles, but in this book they are called chocolava cookies. They turned out beautiful and absolutely delicious. Super chocolatey without being too sweet. YUM!

Cornmeal Maple Pecan Twists - delicious!

Next I opted for 'Cornmeal Maple Pecan Twists'...but I made 'C's' insead of twists. Again, yum! Very chewy and full of texture and flavor. These were the first ones to be gobbled up of the three varieties I made.

Gingerbread Snowmen - prior to decorating.

Lastly, at the request of my husband, I made gingerbread men. Well...gingerbread snowmen since that was the only cookie cutter I had that even came close. Again, another success. Crunchy and very, very flavorful. These things are wonderful with coffee!

All in all, a success. I think my favorites were the chocolava cookies. I've also made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from this book (called "Everyone's Favorite Cookie") and they are wonderful. Oh, and did I mention that all the cookies in this book are made with less fat than traditional recipes? No? Well, that's because you tend to forget that little fact when the cookies are as good as these are... ;-) And the bonus? I can get away with buying less butter!