I’ve said it several times in the course of writing for this blog – I have one heck of a sweet tooth.  In my world, there’s always time for chocolate, there’s no such thing as an unwelcome cake break, and to paraphrase the well-known quote from Field of Dreams, if you bake it, I’ll eat it.  So it should come as no surprise that December is one of my favorite months.  Candy canes?  Yes please!  Fancy decorated cookies with special sprinkles?  You’re too kind!  Gumdrops and gingerbread?  I’ll take ‘em both!  Fruitcake?  Um… well… I’m actually feeling a little full at the moment.  Who am I kidding, I’ll even stoop to fruitcake this time of year!

December has always been a month full of goodies.  My little grandmother used to spend the first few days of the month baking over a dozen different types of cookies to be given to friends and neighbors, the family doctor, the vet, and the mailman, or to be shipped in sizable boxes to friends and family all over the country.  Batches and batches of cookies would march from our oven like confectionary soldiers, covering every horizontal surface in the kitchen and dining room with regimented rows of cooling cookies.  This is no exaggeration – where some people might bake two or three dozen cookies and call it a day, Oma would bake 12 to 15 dozen of each type of cookie.  And we’re not just talking about familiar and much-loved types like chocolate chip, peanut butter, and molasses crinkles, but also coconut datenut balls and cinnamon-dusted sugar cookies.  Oma would bake traditional German cookies like pfeffernusse, lebkuchen, maltuschen (not to be confused with maultaschen), and mandelschnitten, and would then proceed to bake several dozen fruitcakes and loaf after loaf of Stollen.  She was a tiny white-haired powerhouse, a family and neighborhood legend, and I think everyone we knew looked forward to her cookies each December as much as I did.

After I grew up and moved out on my own, I began to think of my grandmother’s tradition as a sort of cookie pentathlon, a challenge not intended for the weak of heart or short of endurance.  I guess I decided I was both, or maybe I just thought I was too busy, but for whatever reason, I never attempted anything remotely close to Oma’s baking Iron Man.  And then, a few years ago, one of my best friends invited me to spend a Sunday making cookies at her mom’s house with her two sisters and their (combined) five small kids.  Her exact words were, “You should come to Cookie Day!”  Um, did you say Cookie Day?  An entire day of cookies??  Can you guess what I said?  Well, it was a yes, but if you must know, my exact response was, “I’ll bring the mimosas!”

And so, for the last four years, my beloved Second Family has invited me to spend a Sunday early in December down on the Cape for Cookie Day.  It’s become such an important part of my December that last year, even though I thought I’d miss it while traveling in Morocco, they pushed Cookie Day back by two weeks so I could partake.  I wasn’t sure if there would be a Cookie Day this year, what with my friend’s recent move to South Carolina, but I guess some traditions are made of firmer stuff.  This year was different – my friend’s absence was definitely felt, the menfolk actually showed up (but didn’t bake), kid #6 is the tallest two-year-old I’ve ever met, and a few of the older kids (and by older, I mean they’re now six- to ten-year olds) actually helped us grownups make some of the cookie varieties.  But it was still one of the most pleasant Sundays I’ve passed in a very long time, and I still brought mimosas.

If you’re curious what cookies I made, there were two recipes I’d been dying to try.  The first was a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie similar to this tasty option from MyBakingAddiction.com, only I substituted applesauce for oil and made half the flour whole wheat flour.  The second was a carrot raisin cookie recipe I’ve had for years but never tried.  I can’t remember where it’s from originally, but it’s similar to this one from Cooks.com, just swap out half the regular flour for whole wheat flour and add raisins.  Both cookies turned out perfectly; I think the true mark of a good cookie is how quickly they disappear, and these two all but evaporated!  Still, I made sure to set aside enough cookies to cover a very festive paper plate, which I then wrapped in plastic wrap and tied with a bow before placing it in our mailbox for our letter carrier to enjoy.  I’m no baking Iron Man, but I think my little grandmother would be proud.  (Kara)

This post concludes the monthly series Me & My Whole Grains, but don’t worry!  I’ll always have something to blog about!