Christmas Cookie Edition Part 1: Almond Your Heart with These Cookies

So I have a confession..... I'm actually a bit of a grinch when it comes to Christmas. I loathe Christmas music and I don't particularly like decorating because it gets taken down after three weeks- which I find depressing.

But I do like Christmas cookies. In fact, I believe in Christmas cookies.

When I was little, my mom used to bake DOZENS of Christmas cookies. I decided to carry on the tradition, so I bring you the series: Christmas Cookies with Kristen ;) And no...no Crock Pot needed. You can expect in the next three weeks: oatmeal raisin, sugar, honey snicker doodles, and tri-color cookies.

How I feel about Christmas 

The beginning 

My awesome cousin Rachael gave me this cookie this morning and I JUST had to bake it for my cookie platters. Seriously...when I bit into this cookies, angels sang. It's the most perfect, soft yet chewy cookie, EVER. And it's almond-y. You can find the recipe here. 

The characters

1.5 cups of white sugar

2/3 cups of butter (unsalted)

2/3 cups of shortening (do not skimp on this)

2 eggs

2 tsp of almond extract (I added another one because...well, I just really like almonds) (and also, do not buy that nasty imitation stuff. It's DISGUSTING. It's CHRISTMAS for Pete's sakes, GAH). 

2 3/4 cups of CAKE flour (DO NOT SKIMP ON THIS. Cake flour is lighter than all-purpose)

1 cup of ALL PURPOSE flour

1 tablespoon corn starch

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Sprinkles or sugar crystals to roll cookies in. You can use anything- chopped almonds would be awesome.

Behold, the ingredients to a heavenly experience. 

The plot

Blend the butter and shortening together in your Kitchen Aid mixer. If you don't have one 1. cry 2. go buy one or 3. use a hand held electric mixer. Once mixed, add your eggs and almond extract. 

In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients. Once mixed, add your flour mixture to your butter mixture. Stir, stir stir. Once blended, chill for a minimum of 30 minutes because the dough is sticky. 

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees and pour your sugar crystals in bowls. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, scoop 1 inch balls and roll in the crystals. Bake for 7-8 minutes, but as the blog states- DO NOT excede 8 minutes. When the cookies come out of the oven, place on a cooling rack and smoosh the cookie down with the back of a spoon.

Seriously, heavenly. Gah. Excuse me, I'm going to go cry tears of joy.

Flour mixture

Just try not to think about all the butter and shortening. 

All mixed together...now let it chill. Seriously.

So. Good. Merry Christmas to ME.

The conclusion

Words cannot even describe the perfection of this cookie. I just hope the batch survives in my house for another two weeks. 

Moral of the story

Ho ho ho