Once Upon a Cookie...

I've got the bug. The Christmas cookie bug.

Actually, I take that back. I have the anything-flavored-peppermint bug.

I forced my sweetheart to go to the store and fetch me Peppermint Mocha Coffee-Mate (since we all know Peppermint Mochas are the most amazing, most-worth-$4 coffee beverage on the face of the earth but I'm still unwilling to pay Starbucks $4 for them) for my coffee every morning. I'm in love with peppermint. Last year I made Cooking Light's peppermint-cheesecake brownies for a party - what a hit!

This year I started with a classic molasses cookie - a recipe I gleaned from a college roommate. It was delicious and they look gorgeous. Hint: get the awesome cracked sugar topping by dipping the 1-inch dough balls in halfway in water first and then coating with granulated sugar. Bake with the sugarside up.



They're moist, chewy and absolutely one of the most addictive cookies ever.

I was just on my way to make some horseshoe-shaped cookies spiked with my favorite spice (hint - it starts with a Card- and ends with an -amom)that I know are amazing when my sweetheart said, "will you please make some cookies that I like?"

Sure, my sweetheart, I said. After he engaged in a few minutes of deliberating (which looked mostly like doing the potty dance), he blurted "white chocolate macadamia."

Okay. So, I've had this bag of white chocolate chips in the freezer since last Christmas (don't tell!) and I was dying to use them anyway. I didn't have any macadamia nuts, but I did have a half-bag of blanched, halved almonds from an Arabic grocery. Perfect.

They came out lovely. Not quite as flat and chewy as I'd hoped, but hey, they're chock-full-of-nuts. :) I iced half of them with my go-to candy cane icing. Aren't they pretty!?



I'm still waiting on a less humid day to make those chocolate-dipped-almond-meringues. But it's 78-degrees and about 80% humid, so I'll have to keep waiting. Hopefully the dry chill arrives before Santa does.