One more thing to cross off the list. Got my Christmas cookies done.
I am not entirely new to baking. I didn’t take it up in March just to pass the time. I’ve been doing a few Christmas cookies for the family for the last few years.
The idea was to try cutting back on extended family gifts, because it was driving us all bonkers trying to shop for everyone. I won’t say the expense wasn’t a factor, but it was mostly the time and effort trying to come up with things. So we decided it would be home made gifts only. My choice was cookies.
I like cookies. They’re not hard to make. And others seem to enjoy cookies, too. Can’t go wrong with cookies. So I started baking cookies and giving them away.
I don’t make a lot of different cookies and I try to mix it up a bit. There are a couple I try to include every year because they seem to be favourites, but I usually try to get something different in there.
This year, the something different turned out to be whipped shortbread. I generally include my mother in this process. She likes to bake, and she likes to tell me what to do, so combining the two seems natural. So I asked if she had a whipped shortbread recipe. She said she didn’t think so. She had never made whipped shortbread.
So I called other family members, looking for a recipe.
Just as an aside, this is one of the bonus joys of holiday baking. Getting in touch with various family members and comparing notes on baking. It usually takes a while, because you also have to catch up, but it’s the holidays.
So I called an aunt. She had a recipe. In fact, it was my mother’s whipped shortbread recipe. It said so, right in her hand written cook book. But my mother never had a whipped shortbread recipe. I called a few other family members. Same result. They all had my mother’s recipe for whipped shortbread… the cookie she still swears she never made and didn’t have a recipe for.
The thing is, that recipe that doesn’t exist makes a darned good cookie. They turned out great. And she was pretty quick to give instructions on how to cook something she’s never made before.
