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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Cookies

What is it about the month of December that just makes cookies taste better? I must admit that I prefer savory foods to sweet, but I very much love Christmas cookies. When I was young, holiday baking and cooking were a big part of our Christmas traditions. There were many recipes we had to make every year:
  • Divinity
  • Caramel fudge (some people call this penuche)
  • Marshmallow fudge
  • Popcorn balls
  • Sugar cookies
  • Lemon drop cookies
Yes, we usually made all of the above every year. Clearly we leaned a bit more to the candy side than the cookie. My mother was the sugar cookie fan and she always made some to take to our annual Christmas celebration at my grandmother's house. We didn't get all Martha Stewart fancy in our decorating. Just two to three colors of powdered sugar icing and we were done.

But, by far the cookie that we loved then and still do today was my grandmother Burnett's lemon drop cookies. It is a very simple recipe, but yummy. And without these cookies it just isn't Christmas!
Lemon Drop Cookie recipe in my mother's handwriting. Note all the "love" splotches...a much used recipe mainstay!

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