Cookie Day 2018

It’s a Sassafras holiday tradition for me to bake cookies for my students.  The cookies are a treat to thank them for the ways they make my work days happy and one of the nicest traditions of my holiday season.

I’m always bemused by the degree to which the students are charmed by homemade cookies, which seem like your standard mama achievement to me but are greeted as a special treat by my students.  This year, my 7th graders enjoyed iced cut-out sugar cookies, chocolate crinkles, Tollhouse bars, molasses spice cookies, and old-fashioned sugar cookies.

That’s happy!

Cookie Day

Baking cookies for my students is one of the holiday traditions I most enjoy.  I bake in advance of the annual day and freeze the fresh-baked cookies until I have have enough to supply all of the students in my classes with a treat.  This year, the whole of the 7th grade received homemade treats.  Frosted sugar cookies are the most labor intensive of the the lot; they are also the most popular cookie I make.  This year, the students ate acres of Christmas trees,

In addition to the frosted sugar cookies, there were chocolate peppermint cookies, molasses spice cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and Tollhouse bars.  I share the treats with my students along with a sincere thank you to them for making my schooldays happy.  

I thank them for learning with me, for making me laugh, and reminding me that our future is in very good hands.  Then I get the pleasure of watching kids eat homemade cookies.  That’s happy!

Cookie Day 2016

Each year for the last 10 years, I’ve baked a truckload of cookies and brought them in for my students, as a gift to thank them for all the ways they make my life rich and full.  Every group gets a tray that look just like the one below.  This a tradition that I enjoy as much as the kids. 

This year, there were iced Christmas cookies, chocolate chip, molasses spice, oatmeal butterscotch, brownies, and sugar cookies.  That’s happy!

Cookie Day

Each December, I make cookies for my students as my way of saying thank you for the ways in which they enrich my life.  It’s rather a feat of planning that gets 150 allergen-free cookies into the hands of grateful kids who, modern though they are, all relish the charm of a home-baked treat.

Every day that those students and I are together is an opportunity for me to share my love of the study of history with them.  Baking cookies is another way to share something else that I love with my 7th graders, boys and girls on the line between childhood and adolescence.  They are both ready to embrace big ideas and yet still prepared to laugh like little kids.  They make my days bright and this time of year get cookies as a thank you.  That’s happy!

Cookie Day

One of my weekly reads is "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and their Sandwich Monday report.  Last week, Sandwich Monday led me in the direction of a story on latkes and holiday cooking traditions by writer Rob Eshman.   When he wrote, "If you want your grandchildren to remember you fondly, learn a good cookie recipe," I was in earnest agreement with the sentiment.

I don't have any grandchildren and with any luck Baby-Think-It-Over has ensured that I remain some years away from that set of problems.  But I do love a good cookie recipe and the power of a nice batch of cookies is not lost on me.  Each year, as December approaches I get started baking up a collection of cookies to be shared with my students.  Cookie Day is my annual holiday treat for my classes; my way of thanking them for the enjoyment I receive from working with them.  As the name suggests, it features a whole lot of cookie goodness.

I make enough cookies for each student to eat three and I like to have a bunch of choices on hand.  This year, that meant that I needed about 15 dozen cookies.  JT and T were drafted to help out and we made sugar cookies, molasses cookies, Tollhouse bars, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, almond biscotti, cream cheese pecan shortbread, and peppermint chocolate chip cookies.   My cookie sack was plenty full.

Each class got its own plate of cookies a tasty thank you for making my days so bright.  That's happy.

Conquistador of Cookies

Assured that I really meant it when I announced that I would be baking 30 dozen cookies for my students, T dubbed me the Conquistador of Cookies.   I like it and shall henceforth demand that everyone call me by that name.

Baking cookies for my classes has been an annual holiday tradition for me.  This year, with 85 students in my orbit, it's a rather complicated culinary affair.  The rule of thumb is that I provide 3 cookies for each student.  I like to make a variety of treats to satisfy all palates.

Each class's cookie platter featured:
    - rocky road fudge
    - peanut butter cookies
    - snickerdoodles
    - peppermint chocolate chip cookies
    - tollhouse bars
    - Molasses spice cookies
    - iced sugar cookies
    - sugar cookies
    - thumbprint cookies

Cookie day is now a two-day event in my classroom; three classes got their treats today.  The remaining classes and my homeroom will be feasting tomorrow.  It makes me happy how pleased they are with this simple, homemade pleasure.  It's yet one more reason to love what I do.

Matchy-Matchy

Today's evidence that I've officially gone round the bend….my Christmas cookies match my Christmas napkins.

Cookie Report

Earlier this week, I posted the list of cookies that I made for the cookie day that I plan for my students.  I promised pictures and recipes later this week.  And I'm just now getting round to that. 

I made some photos while the baking and decorating was happening:

But I completely forgot to make pictures while the students were eating.  So you'll have to trust me that the cookies were well-received.  And here are recipes for some of the faves.....

The recipe for Christmas Cherries came from Pioneer Woman.  I also used her recipe for chocolate almond toffee cookies and sugar cookies. 

Peppermint chocolate chip cookies are a recipe of my own devising.  And they are most yummy.

1 cup butter
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar, plus more for rolling shaped cookies
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 ¾ cups flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips (frozen, if possible)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

At medium speed on the mixer, ream the butter and sugars together until they are well-incorporated.  Add the egg and the extracts and mix for 1 minute more.

Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder and then add slowly to the butter mixture, beating at slow speed.  Once everything is well-mixed together, fold in chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon of dough, roll cookies into a ball and then roll in sugar.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool for a minute or two on the pan and then remove to a wire rack.  The cookies will rise nicely and taste all sorts of yummy.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Santa is reading and he will be expecting these cookies to be at your house on Christmas Eve…….it's time to start baking.

This Week in Cookies

Most weekends, I get out the cookie sheets and make homemade baked goods for the week's lunch box enjoyment.  On occasion, I place some of the fresh-baked goodness in the freezer for the weekends when things are too busy for baking.  In this way, we always have homemade cookies on hand at Sassafras House.This past weekend I made two batches of cookies.  I made JT's favorite, chocolate chip  cookies (some had walnuts because I like them that way) and I also made some molasses spice cookies, using this recipe from Simply Recipes.

The molasses spice recipe calls for big cookies, but I make mine smaller, taking care to dip each ball of dough into white sugar.  This helps to hold the sticky dough together and makes for a tasty cake-like cookie. 

Later this month, I'll be teaching my U.S. History students about the Sugar Act, which occasions an explanation of the popularity of molasses in the American colonies.  Molasses is still available, but in modern life we don't use it nearly as often as it was used 200 years ago.  So that day, the students will get a molasses spice cookie, a taste of the past to spice up their very modern lives.

Starting Off on the Right Foot

From the moment I stepped out of bed last Monday morning, I was behind. This is often the case as the end of the school year draws near, though I have yet to make my peace with this reality. So it was that last week, for the first time all year long, JT did not have any homemade desserts for his lunchbox. I scrambled to make up for my errant mothering. On Monday, I gave him a $2 to buy dessert in the school cafeteria, a treat he very much enjoys. On Tuesday, I talked him into believing that graham crackers were dessert. On Wednesday, I slipped him a piece of chocolate after I read a chapter of Farmer Boy to his class. For Thursday and Friday, I packed fresh strawberries and some chocolate for dipping in his lunchbox. In this way, I managed to stay just a half step ahead of Child Protective Services in the state of New Jersey.

This week, I was determined to start on better footing. Yesterday, I baked peanut butter cookies and triple chocolate brownies for lunchbox desserts.
I will share some of the largesse with my 15 A.P. students who will take their test today. Science has yet to weigh in, but I'm pretty sure that the sight of a homemade cookie on your desk helps to clear up any residual confusion about federalism, selective incorporation, and the role of interest groups and political parties in American politics.

If not, they will at least know how much I care. And for now, that's plenty good enough.

Tuesday Treats

I made cookies last night and this morning I wrapped up some to be surprise treats for a few friends at my school. They are snickerdoodles, which I know to be a favorite of my friend Jaxter.
I'll sneak these pretty packages into mailboxes before school starts this morning. I feel all clever.