Oh Did I Bake Much For Christmas ...

This past Christmas season I had much time to bake cookies for gift giving and enjoying also. I would pace myself and bake a little here and there. I sent out in the mail some for family to enjoy; also added to Christmas gifts for family members to enjoy also. I did order my chocolates from Waggoner's Chocolates in Canton, Ohio. I purchased them as a Christmas in July special and they delivered them in November as I requested. I found adorable Christmas tree sealable storage bags @ Hobby Lobby and filled them with chocolates to add to Christmas gifts.

For the first time ever in my life I had the time to try and bake potica (nut roll). I found 1 of my mother's recipes for this and it looked so much easier to make then the traditional potica recipes. Come to find out that my sister said the recipe I made was the one our mom made because it was easier and all her friends told her it tasted good. So, of all the recipes to choose from to make potica, I happened to select the one my mother made when she did make it in her later years, imagine that. It really is great tasting and I did add 1 ingredient to the filling which was plumped (soaked in hot water) golden raisins. This particular recipe is named Bohemian Walnut Honey Christmas Bread.

I also made a new cookie recipe Coconut Macaroons. I had this recipe for many years and decided to try it this year. Way back when, Hershey's chocolate had a tri-fold type of recipe card and this was 1 of those recipes. Oh, another favorite I baked was a recipe on the back of a package of Nestles Triple Chocolate baking morsels. I did a search to see if you can make it in a bar form as opposed to individual cookies and made it that way and it turned out good. Will be making cookie bars instead of individual cookies from now on. Also made a family favorite, the oatmeal bars. I used apricot preserves and Amish made cherry pie filling this year. I baked thin mint type of cookies; ricotta cookies; Italian dunker cookies; thumbprint cookies filled with sour cherry and apricot filling; and graham cracker cookies (another mom favorite she used to bake). You place graham crackers on a foil lined cookie sheet then boil brown sugar and butter, then pour over the graham crackers and sprinkle chopped walnuts on top then bake it in the oven. They are quite crunchy as the topping turns that way when baked in the oven. It can be a bit stick to your teeth as you eat it because it tuns sort of like toffee.

Do you think I baked a good variety of cookies. Oh, I also baked a cream cheese type of butter cookie.

I also made the baked croissants. You dip the base into melted butter then dredge in cinnamon sugar. Bake it it the over for about 10 minutes and then glaze with a ticker type of glaze made with butter, vanilla or almond flavoring, powdered sugar and milk.

Here are a few photos of the potica