Christmas Cookies, The Process *picture heavy*

I started baking my cookies at 1:30pm. Originally, I had planned to start sometime in the morning. However, I spent my morning waiting to hear if I was going to get my paycheck a day early. As it turned out, I did NOT get it early. Figures.
So, I had to make due with what little money I had in my pocket to go out to the grocery store and buy all the ingredients needed for my Christmas Cookie bake-a-thon. Ha. It was honestly a mini-marathon getting those done, especially doing it alone.

I started off making Fairy Food. What you see here is the beginning stage. That would be light corn syrup, a tiny bit of vinegar, and sugar.

Slowly coming to a boil over medium heat, stirring it constantly.

Finally came to a steady boil, that yellow and white thing is a candy thermometer. At precisely 302 degrees, you must remove it from the heat.

Finally at the correct temperature. Ready to move on to the next step. (Note the brownish color.)

Immediately after removing the pot from the burner, you add a small amount of baking soda. By doing so, you cause the solution to foam up. It makes the aerated consistency in the Fairy Food. =]

Pour the foamy substance into a greased pan, and this is what you get. =] I used a disposable tin, because I didn’t know how much it would end up sticking.
It was surprisingly fun making the Fairy Food. I had heard that it is extremely hard to make, but if you pay attention to the temperature at all times, you’ll figure it out. I’m sure I’ll be making some more next week. It isn’t quite finished, yet. I still have to melt chocolate and dip the pieces into it.

Then, I began making cookies…

I started off making chocolate chips cookies, by request of Johnny.

All lined up on the cookie sheet and ready to go in the oven!

In the oven. =]

They turned out flatter than I had imagined they would. I followed the recipe wrong (and the butter wasn’t overly melted, it was softened at room temperature.) However, they are absolutely delicious!

Here they are in their variety of sizes on the very handy cookie cooling racks.

Immediately after finishing the Chocolate Chip Cookies, I started making Snickerdoodles.

This is the cinnamon sugar that the dough balls were rolled into.

Dough balls on the cookie sheets and ready to be baked!

Then, I started making Ginger Snaps. Here’s the mixing process.

The dough balls. These, too, were rolled in cinnamon sugar.

Here’s the Snickerdoodles right out of the oven and on the cooling rack.

The Snickerdoodles and Ginger Snaps look very similar. But, here they are side-by-side. Snickerdoodles are the lighter ones, Ginger Snaps are at the bottom of the picture.

I was so proud of myself; I stayed on top of cleaning throughout the whole process. That was seriously the fullest the sink got through the entire thing.

I did manage to injure myself. I wouldn’t be Sam if I didn’t find a way to hurt myself. I always manage to do that. Anyway, here’s a burn on my arm immediately after it happened. I accidentally bumped my arm into a hot cookie sheet. Whoops.

I also burned myself next to my fingernail. I ran my finger against the heat source in the oven. Whoops! You can hardly see it in this picture, but it’s the small red circle next to my fingernail.  (The stuff under my fingernails is NOT dirt, it’s brown sugar and other baking ingredients. haha. I had to use my hands to mix up the Ginger Snap dough.)

Then, I started making Peanut Butter Cup cookies. There’s not much dough left here, but that’s because I forgot to take a picture while I was mixing it up.

The peanut butter cups. Nom nom.

This is the cookies in a muffin tin, the peanut butter cups were pressed into the center of the cookies immediately upon coming out of the oven. Then, they sat and cooled for a while before I popped them out and set them on the cooling rack. It actually took quite a while before the chocolate in the peanut butter cups solidified again. It got kinda melty. =]

Then, I finished up my baking adventure with making some Sugar Cookies. =]

Ready to go in the oven.

Right out of the oven and cooling.

While the rest of the cookies were baking and/or cooling, I made some homemade frosting.

Then, when they cooled, I frosted and decorated them with sprinkles!

Here they are all decorated and pretty-like! =D Definit

ely the most exciting part.

Here’s a picture of all the cookies, containers, bagged cookies, and everything. This was just before I decorated the sugar cookies.

This is what the burn on my arm looks like now. It looks bad, but it doesn’t hurt at all. I am definitely not looking forward to the itching phase. UGH.

This would be Johnny’s container of Christmas cookies. Yes, I’m lame.

Well, that’s how I spent my day off of work. Needless to say, I’m exhausted. My feet are killing me.
I baked cookies from 1:30 until 8:30. Yes, it took me 7 hours. I’m just that awesome.

I’m going to sleep well tonight.