Christmas Cookies, Part I (+ a PanPrin update)

Because I’m fairly certain that you don’t have quite enough sugar in your system this holiday season, here’s more. Also known as: what I’ve been baking lately, just in case you need inspiration for any last-minute baking (which I really hope you’re doing, because if you haven’t made my favorite flourless, butterless chocolate cookies this season, you must.)

Christmas. Cookies. Let’s get to it.

So my roommate and I held a cookie swap/study break–prettified by lots of paper snowflakes and Michael’s purchases (above)–which was technically just a roomie bakefest since the word “swap” apparently scared off a bunch of people. Here’s what we made:

Chocolate crinkle cookies: These fudgy, flourless, butterless little chocolate bombs were the star of the chocolate show. Unfortunately, the healthy impression they give off is total nonsense since they’re essentially pure chocolate. I followed the recipe as written, except I chilled the dough before rolling the balls. This dough was just too wet to attempt any kind of rolling/dipping action. If there’s one must-make cookie this season, it’s this.

Red Velvet S’mores Blondies: I was going for a red velvet take on a blondie, topped with broiled marshmallows and graham cracker crumbs, but a little too much cocoa powder rendered it cake-like. Delicious, but not quite the right texture. S’mores, I’ll meet you in the new year.

Almond flour sugar cookies: Tip: do not try making these with homemade almond meal. They were an utter, utter fail. The “dough” is currently chilling in my freezer in a little plastic bag. What to do?

Chocolate peanut butter pretzel bites: I’ve been meaning to make these little bundles of deliciousness from one of my fav blogs, Sally’s Baking Addiction, for the longest time. These are incredibly easy and universally enjoyable. A definite winner for the books.

My roommate made:

Chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies: She’s famous for these at work. Miraculously, her secret is taking a stick of butter out of the recipe. Try it! I promise, it works so good it’s not even fair.

Ginger cookies: Soft and irresistibly puffy out of the oven, these crisped up overnight. I loved them both ways. I’m not into deep, dark, spicy ginger, but these were pleasantly spiced and mellowed with molasses.

Funfetti cookies  and puppy chow rounded out her cookie load. But the fun didn’t stop there.

My roommate works at a physical therapy clinic (she’s currently applying for grad school) and one of her coworkers is apparently a fan of my blog 🙂 It was her birthday on the day my roommate left for home, so we collaborated on her coworker’s birthday cake the night before. Her coworker loves chocolate, so we went all out with a crazy-intense, ultra-rich chocolate cake so monstrous, Yammie of Yammie’s Noshery dubbed it the Fudge Mountain Cake.

(It was actually so moist that it crumbled when we took it out of the pan, so we pressed layers of cake pieces, Momofuku-style, into a bowl lined with plastic wrap. We then layered the ganache and more cake on top until we were out of cake, froze the whole thing, then plopped it out after about an hour. We finished frosting the outside, then drizzled little white chocolate trees for decoration, inspired by Chocolate and Carrots.

In other news, I’m practicing my reusable wrapping paper gifts with paper bags. I thought the wording worked out rather appropriately:

Spoiler alert: I already opened my gift from my boyfriend (we swapped before we went to our respective homes in Wisconsin and California for the holidays).

He got me a kitchen scale. SO EXCITED. Does he know me or what? (I got him noise-canceling headphones, a framed instagrammed poster of our relationship (since I got my iphone) and a set of cereal bowls (he’s always running out) with names of places we want to go written on the bottom using the sharpie/oven technique (weirdly, my most popular pin).

Also, I made some quinoa peanut butter chocolate muffins on a whim the other night. They were uber moist and packed with protein. And chocolate. Who feels like some of those after the holiday cookie sugar rush? Yeah, I’ll hold off on that recipe for a bit.

Do you have any last holiday recipes you’re getting ready to bust out for the big day??