Welcome back to The Self Sufficient Citizen where I talk about homemaking, homesteading, minimalism and self-reliance. Today is the eighth day of Blogmas and I thought I’d bring up a family tradition. Christmas cookies seem to be a common tradition amongst people I know. My family has always made several dozen of many cookies to give them out on platters. There was chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, peanut butter cookies, Italian pizzelles, Russian tea cookies, sugar cookies, fudge and oatmeal. Really there were several more types of cookies, but I can’t remember them all. (Sorry for the post being a day late. I was facing some technical issues)
This year I carried on the tradition like years past since I moved out. I started first with mixing all my batter and refrigerating it. Keeping it simple I made chocolate chip cookies, molasses cookies, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies, and my grandma’s amazing fudge. I doubled everything except the molasses cookies since I didn’t know if Matt or I would like them. He said this was not keeping it simple lol.
On a side note, I would recommend that you make sure that you haven’t written down the recipe already doubled. I did that with the oatmeal cookies and even though I like cookies, having over 80 of one type of cookie was excessive.
And if you do end up quadrupling a batch of cookies, I would recommend a standing Kitchen Aid mixer. This thing was a beast while its bowl was totally full and mixing by hand was not an option. I am not sponsored (Although I would totally love to be). To me this mixer means more than a quality instrument in your kitchen. My mom and dad got this for me when I moved out so I could keep on baking. Starting with my grandma it has been tradition to have one of these great tools in your home. I was just very lucky to not have to buy this and it was my Christmas present. Broke little college students have different priorities than mixers usually. Here is my mixer in matte black.
While I let all the dough chill, I started in on my grandma’s famous fudge recipe. It takes about an hour and a half of constant stirring to prevent burning the chocolate. But what you get out of sore feet is the best thing I have ever eaten. My grandma only made it once a year growing up, so it was something really special. Now that my grandma doesn’t bake much anymore, I have carried on the tradition of cooking the fudge for my family. It turned out perfect this year and I have the best teacher ever to thank for that… My grandma.
All of the cookie recipes I use are from my grandma and mom’s collections. Of course, other than my own chocolate chip cookie recipe. For as long as I can remember I have been helping my mom bake hundreds of cookies starting December. Don’t tell anyone but on the rare occasion my mom would let me stay home from school to have a baking marathon! I loved that as a kid so much even though all that baking was much more work than school at some points.
My favorite part of this tradition is the giving away of the cookies believe it or not. I love seeing people’s reactions to a big platter of homemade cookies. It is a way to say to people that your thinking of them and that you love them. I also love the fact it brought me closer to my family. We would spend hours upon hours in a kitchen together eating, baking and laughing. And an honorable mention to eating cookies since that was a big part of the whole baking thing.
So, what holiday family traditions do you have? Have you kept up with them or let them go? You can leave your answers in the comment box down below. As always please consider subscribing to my newsletter where I send outposts from the blog monthly. I hope you’re having a happy holiday season and I hope to see you next post!
-Hannah
