December is no (more) cookies month

In the spirit of "June is no cake month," I have now decided that December will be "no cookies month" until Christmas Eve. By all logic this should have started yesterday, on December 1, but yesterday was our office cookie exchange, which involved prodigious tasting of the cookies, which actually led to my determination that all this must end, now.

So my cookies from the cookie exchange are all nicely packaged up and stored in a big tin, where they will safely remain until December 24. I'll bring them to my parents' house for Christmas Eve dessert.

I thought about finding some kind of a bracelet to commemorate my "one day at a time" approach to shunning cookies, but after a couple of futile stops at Walgreens and Bartell's I decided to go with the honor system. That is, I'll just remind myself "no cookies" whenever a sweet treat presents itself.

This will give me 22 days "cookie-free" by the time Christmas Eve rolls around.

Let me just tell you some of the delicious cookies that were shared at the cookie exchange. Molasses cookies* and Russian teacakes (powdered sugar balls)** from me. Chocolate dipped biscotti from Ann. Spritz from Jennifer. Another kind of molasses cookie from Luke. Homemade almond roca from Tonna (that one was possibly my greatest downfall yesterday). Chocolate chip cookies from Jasmine. Pumpkin bars (more like cake) from Lorraine (those are in the freezer). Jam sandwiches (cookies with jam between them) from Mary. And from the book club cookie party I still have some date pinwheels, another kind of jam sandwiched butter cookie, and a few of my own sandbakkels. Plus my parents have a plate of krumkake that I made with the boyfriend's family after Thanksgiving.

Are you feeling diabetic yet? (I am, a bit!)

Although I sure that despite my virtuous proclamations today, there will be many a cookie tempation in the three weeks to come (yes, Christmas Eve is three weeks from tomorrow). Let me just repeat, NO COOKIES UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE!



*This recipe makes a very soft molasses cookie. So soft, in fact that you really need to add a bit of extra flour to the dough to make it rollable. I also added a bit of finely ground black pepper and a bit of cardamon to spice up the dough even more.

**These are known as Mexican Wedding Cakes in Rose's Christmas Cookies, one of my favorite baking books. Her recipe is a little more complex than the typical version but it is light as air and truly melts in your mouth.