I know Christmas is five days away, and I know I said that this year, I would start my baking earlier, get my cards mailed earlier, wrap the presents sooner…but if I did all of that, it just wouldn’t be a typical Table for Five Christmas around here! I wouldn’t want to abandon the Christmas tradition of waiting until the last possible second to get things done, it might disrupt the space/time continuum or something :)

Those of you who responded to my request for a Christmas card exchange, well, um…just think of it as a Holiday card, yeah, that’s it, it’s a Holiday card. And it’s coming, I promise!

I really do plan on doing some baking this weekend, because I promised trays of cookies to my Dad for our traditional Christmas Eve sandwich buffet and present opening extravaganza. And, I want to take some to my Uncle Mike and Aunt Patti’s house on Christmas Day-you remember them, right? He runs a store where he sells antique lighting fixtures that he pulls out of old houses that are scheduled to be torn down, and she’s a hairdresser in Ann Arbor? And they live in an amazing loft apartment above the antique lighting store, and every year they put up a Christmas tree that is about 15 feet high and a good 8 feet around? No? Well, I’ll take lots of photos with my new camera, I promise.

But, COOKIES! Sheesh, I kinda digressed there. I have tips! Tips from the Reynolds people on how to make cookies that don’t stick to your cookie sheets, and don’t mush together when you pack them into tins for delivering to friends and neighbors. The secret? Parchment paper!

I received this really cute cookie tin from Reynolds along with eight sheets of parchment paper AND, the best part, recipe cards! The idea is to use the tin, the cards, and the also-included invitations to host a cookie swap. You know, everyone bakes as many dozen cookies as the number of people attending, and then everyone swaps their cookies for other people’s? I went to one once when I worked at the credit union, but since becoming a SAHM nine years ago, I haven’t been to one since. But I have plenty of people I can bake cookies for, so I can definitely use sheets of parchment paper and recipe cards!

The recipes that came with the cookie tin look really good, too. There’s one for “Minttens”, which are mitten-shaped cookies colored with red or green food coloring paste, sandwiched with melted mint baking chips in the middle. There’s a recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies with semi-sweet chocolate chunks, chopped peanuts, and quick-cooking oats in the batter (yum!), and this recipe which I will share with you. It’s not a “traditional” Christmas cookie, but it sure looks good!

COFFEE TOFFEE COOKIES

Ingredients

Reynolds Parchment Paper
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons instant coffee
2 tablespoons milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 package (8 oz.) toffee bits, divided
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted**(see note at bottom of recipe)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside. On another sheet of parchment paper, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together in a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Dissolve instant coffee in milk. Beat in coffee mixture, eggs, and vanilla until well blended.

Add flour mixture gradually to creamed mixture, beat on low speed just until blended. Reserve 3/4 cup toffee bits; stir remaining toffee bits into dough. Drop by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart on to parchment-lined cookie sheets. Combine almonds and reserved toffee bits, set aside.

Bake 4 minutes (cookies will still be wet on top). Remove from oven; press cookie flat with the back of the measuring spoon. Sprinkle 1/2 heaping tablespoon almond-toffee mixture onto each cookie. Using the back of the measuring spoon again, lightly press topping into dough to form a larger round cookie. The more the topping is pressed into the dough, the larger and chewier the cookies will be.

Continue baking 8 to 9 minutes longer or until cookies are set. Do not over bake. Slide parchment with cookies onto a wire rack to cool.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

**Note: To toast the almonds, place them in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stir constantly until lightly browned.

So there you go! I will be posting more cookie recipes this weekend over on MomCooks, so do keep an eye on your feed readers if you are around this weekend. My traditional Christmas cookies are Mexican Wedding Cakes, Christmas Snickerdoodles, No-Bake Cookies, and then, of course, I make fudge, too. Oh, and tomorrow is Nathan’s ninth birthday, so I’ll have photos of that as well. He’s getting a trip to our local Make-A-Bear store with his best friend, he’s been begging to go for two years now.