Homemade Cookie Gifts - Freeze Ahead

A friend's mom was super duper disappointed to find out recently that it was her daughter-in-law, not her son, who'd been selecting, buying and sending all her thoughtful gifts over the last decade. I certainly wasn't surprised because the same deal holds in my household. Adam and I made this deal early on that I would take on all the gift giving, cards and social niceties while Adam tackled most of the cooking. It was a clear example of comparative advantage and the benefits of trade because we have both been delighted with the arrangement. While we never announced the division of labor to Adam's parents, I think they caught on since they're pretty smart. Adam jokingly confessed to his parents that "he had nothing to do" with their gifts to which they graciously responded, "yeah we figured, it's ok."

Within the scope of my gift giving responsibilities is making sure we have stuff to bring for social occasions. To prepare for a weekend of fun social events, I baked up a bunch of home baked cookies. I made some extra packs of cookies which I'll freeze in freezer bags so I'll be ready for whatever comes from housewarming parties to impromptu birthday lunches. This week's selections include:

• Apricot Jam Coconut Thumbprint Cookies
• Shortbread Cookies
• Ginger Molasses Cookies
• and Sprinkledoodles

All these cookies freezer super well. They usually thaw out in about an hour so I just grab them out of the freezer the morning of or the night before. To joyfully efficient holiday celebrations! I'm ready!!!

Flour Bakery Cookie Quartet

Top Row: Oatmeal Raisin

2nd Row: Chocolate Chip

3rd Row: Ginger Molasses

Bottom Row: Snickerdoodles

Last week was school vacation week so Vineyard Community Offerings associated with our church was hosting kid events all week. I volunteered to bake six dozen cookies for their movie night and bake sale. I cracked open my Flour Bakery Cookbook to try some new recipes. Flour Bakery is an awesome local bakery with four locations. Everything there is super delicious and it's always a treat. I love that it's not fancy food, it's just normal food made with extreme care so you leave thinking, "that was the best pesto mozzarella tomato sandwich I've EVER had...how do they do that?"

I've made a couple of things from their cookbook including an impressive pineapple upside down cake, but I've never baked their cookie recipes because they recommend letting the dough rest at least 3-4 hours. I've never had the foresight to plan ahead nor the patience to deal with 3-4 hours on a school night. Since I had time last week, I made four different cookie doughs and actually let it rest for 4 hours before baking. It wasn't a controlled experiment so I can't tell you if it made a difference, but all the cookies were delicious. I shared them with a friend's kid who's "four and three quarters" and she gave me the thumbs up on both the Ginger Molasses and the Chocolate Chip. 

Their Chocolate Chip recipe is publicly available on their website so you can check it out there if you want to try it yourself. I highly recommend the original cookbook and Joanne Chang is publishing a "Flour, too" second cookbook this summer. Can't wait!!!

As a bonus, here's another baking equipment tip. Lots of recipes call for mixing the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, etc) in a mixing bowl before you add it to the wet ingredients (butter, eggs, etc). I used to mix it in a traditional normal mixing bowl and then I'd carefully spoon the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Or, sometimes, I'd try to carefully dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient mixing bowl. As hard as I tried to be careful and neat, it was always a little awkward and I'd create a flour-y mess. 

Now I use my flexible silicone mixing bowl to mix my dry ingredients. I can just squeeze the bowl to create a funnel or spout that neatly adds dry ingredients to the wet ingredient bowl. I only have to wash one bowl, I don't create a mess and it's super easy. I also use this bowl to pour hot liquids like hot caramel sauce into smaller jars so I don't burn myself or make a giant sticky mess trying to "spoon" hot sauce from a saucepan into a small jar. 

Flexible silicone mixing bowl filled with dry ingredients

Pinch the bowl and add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Look Mom...No Mess!

Mothers Iced Oatmeal Cookies

These crisp iced oatmeal cookies are one of my favorite childhood treats. I remember plasticmom would pack me three cookies everyday for me to share with my two best kindergarten buddies. We'd hang out at the playground firetruck after class and enjoy our treats.

Mothers cookies are not available in Boston so every time I'm in California, I get a pack for old times sake. About two years I couldn't find the cookies, but I kept checking so I was super psyched to find them over Thanksgiving.

Turns out, Mothers closed in 2008 which was why I couldn't find them for a few years. Kelloggs bought the brand and brought them back. Mystery solved! The iced oatmeal are my favorite, but the iced animal crackers with sprinkles are also good. They are really sweet so be warned. I also found them on Amazon which makes me love Amazon even more.

P.S. Adam's now a fan. He said, "where did you get these cookies, they're SOOO good."