How to Bake the PERFECT Christmas Cookie

I’m FINALLY in the Christmas spirit and in the mood to bake a few batches of our favorite cookies.  We don’t bake much the rest of the year, but I always find time to bake cookies with the kids in December.  You probably won’t stumble upon my recipes pinned on Pinterest or on the pages of a magazine, but I make the PERFECT Christmas Cookies!!  Do you want to know my secret?

First, go to the baking aisle of your favorite store and pick up a few packs of morsels that look good to you.  I couldn’t find our favorite mint chocolate chips from last year, but I did find some red & green morsels and a pack of toffee chips.  At least that will make up some good chocolate chip cookies, right!?

Next, think really hard about what other key ingredients may be missing from your kitchen.  I know I needed eggs and I thought I was out of stick butter so I chunked those in our cart.  I can’t possible think of anything else that I’m out of so we head to the checkout.

After dinner is over and you’ve bribed your kids to eat all their food so they can eat cookies; pull out the flour, sugar, vanilla, butter, and whatever else you can think of.  Thankfully, there is a recipe I like on the back of the package of toffee chips and I have all the ingredients I need.  I decided to stray from Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (don’t worry, I’ll make those tomorrow) and make some peanut butter toffee cookies.

You’ll need to pry your kids away from the TV, iPad, or other electronic device for a few minutes so they can pretend to help you bake the cookies.  Really, they just want to steal the beaters when you’re done.

Double check the ingredients on the bag of toffee chips.  Yep, I have all the ingredients I need!!

Step 1: Beat shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in a bowl until well blended.  Except I don’t have any shortening, I only have butter.  I have 4 jars of peanut butter and they are all opened!  I scrape the bottom of 2 of the jars and still need a little more.  I open the 3rd jar to find out that it’s chunky….YUK!!!!  The final jar is the white chocolate peanut butter, do I dare waste the “good stuff” on cookies?  Sure, why not!!  Now blend.

Step 2: Gradually stir in the flour, baking soda and salt into the peanut butter mixture.  While you’re doing this, you realize your kids have left you and are sitting back in front of the TV.  When they notice that you’re adding items to the bowl they start to whine because you didn’t let them help.

Step 3: Pour yourself another glass of wine to deal with all the whining!

Step 4: Add the toffee chips and ask your kids if they want to help stir.  Take some cute pictures to prove that this family bonding time actually happened!

Step 5: Drop heaping teaspoons of cookie batter on the cookie sheets and space them out evenly. Try not to lick your fingers until you’re all done.  Then place the cookie sheets in the oven (which hopefully you remembered to turn on before you started to mix the cookies).  

Step 6: Grab a few fingers of cookie batter before the kids realize the beaters are ready for them! Then be sure they sit nicely at the table while they lick the beaters. Yes, I know that cookie batter has uncooked eggs in it and it’s a health risk and that children have died from cookie batter! It’s a risk I’m willing to take and if we all ate the cookie batter, we’ll all be sick together.

Step 7: Drink more wine as you wait for the first batch of cookies to bake as you realize what a mess your kitchen is.  

Step 8: Let the cookies cool for 2-3 minutes. Invite the whole family back into the kitchen to nibble on a cookie (or two) before you break the bad news that it’s bedtime!

Step 9: As soon as the tears have stopped from bedtime, drink more wine and enjoy another cookie!  

The recipe isn’t really important, any cookie recipe will work.  It doesn’t matter if it’s from your Great, Great Grandma or from the back of the bag of toffee chips.  What really matters is that you’ve busted free from the daily grind, turned off the electronics, and spent some time together as a family. If you don’t want to eat the cookies, bag them up and give them as teacher gifts or give them to your sweet neighbor or best friend.  Just try not to eat them all after the kids are in bed.

Disclosure: Nope, not a sponsored post. Nothing was sent to me for review. Just sharing our evening with you! Hope you’ve enjoyed it and please feel free to share your funny cookie humor with me in the comments.  XOXO!