It is a guaranteed bonding experience when three young women, with their combined culinary ignorance, mixing bowls and cookie sheets, flour and sugar, wax paper and rolling pins, come together for the common goal of a holiday baking party.
Today, my friends, Naomi and Heather, and I joined for such an experience. A holiday baking fest, as I like to describe it.
We spent four hours baking, cleaning dishes, melting caramel and chocolate, making meringue for the first time. Four hours! By the time we finished, we had:
--Baked cookies on a sheet we failed to butter because the recipe instructions said null about greasing. You can be sure we used Pam for the next batch.
--Used about eight eggs on a simple meringue frosting that called for only three -- not because we misread the directions but because we(I) didn't have patience and dumped instead of gradually poured the granulated sugar into the meringue. I didn't get a thick frosting; I got a fluid mixture that couldn't properly frost a cookie even if I begged and begged it to. The second try, I'm happy to report, was the charm.
--Spent around an hour preparing zimtsterne cookies (that doesn't include baking time) because I wanted a challenge.
--Burned multiple fingers after melting chocolate and taking a cookie sheet out of the oven.
--Used a shot glass as a cookie cutter. Talk about improvisation!
But we also:
--Produced about 60 chocolate peanut butter krispy balls. Yumm.
--Baked a successful batch of zimtsterne (the cookies were too damn hard to make a double batch this time).
--Prepared enough dough for five dozen fruity oatmeal cookies.
--Made just enough turtle clusters, although there will be no complaints from me if my friend makes more.
--Baked pre-made macadamia nut cookie dough, in case all of the other recipes proved to be disasters.
--Ate enough cookie dough and peanut butter krisp clusters to make our blood sugar levels shoot through the roof. Yes, I think there may be a hole in the roof.
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