cookies! the final chapter

Today is my oldest son's birthday - ten years ago we were brand new parents, oh so unaware of how our lives were going to change. Today, instead of baking him a birthday cake, I made yet more spritz cookies, an apple strudel for tomorrow's Christmas Eve melee at my sister's, yeast rolls for Christmas dinner (how those are fitting in the freezer is beyond me), and I still have to make a special something for a family member. But don't feel sorry for the kid - last week I made him his favorite peanut butter pie, and on Monday chocolate cupcakes. And today hubby took the big kids to Dairy Queen and my son got the most obscenely huge Blizzard I've ever seen. There's a certain advantage to being born two days before Christmas.

I wanted to share with you the final two cookies in my Twelve Days of Christmas spread. I actually only made eleven kinds, but I'm also giving out homemade cinnamon rolls (tomorrow's project) so I am counting that as number twelve. And I just didn't have it in me to think of another kind of cookie. And there's not an inch of space remaining in the freezer.

These are Spumoni cookies! They're a little bit tricky to make, but as long as you roll each dough out between layers of wax paper and leave them together in the fridge overnight, you'll do great. I love these because they're really pretty but they also taste good. Chocolate, pecan, and cherry all come together so well!

The final thing I made was these mint brownie cups. I wanted something mint, but not just another cookie with mint chips in it, and I've had mixed results making things using candy canes (seems like I can never get them crushed finely enough!) I just dropped a small scoop of my favorite brownie recipe into a miniature baking cup, and sprinkled on Andes mint baking chips. I bought foil baking cups since I don't own a mini muffin pan, and they stood up just fine for baking. After they were done, I added a few more chips to each brownie cup. I think they're cute, and definitely tasty!

Thanks for letting me share my holiday baking tradition with you!