Christmas cookie time with friends

As previously addressed in this blog, I enjoy cookies. With my bestest friend, Brandan, in town...I thought it was time to make some more cookies. I mean, Brandan was one of the many reasons I started blogging about cooking, so it was only fitting that we cook together. I was reading my friend Erika's blog and she made some Christmas cookies that looked delicious. So, that was the recipe I decided to make.

First up, the recipe called for shortening. Now, I'm a very low-fat cook, so the idea of putting shortening in something was very alarming. I mean, what the heck is shortening anyway? I did a little research, which was a mistake. Because reading that something is "semisolid" fat is a little disconcerting. However, I was willing to try it out. The best part was there were no small packages of shortening at the grocery store, so I ended up with three HUGE sticks of shortening that I'm sure will last until society has flying cars.

As I tried to ignore the freaky nature of shortening, Brandan was telling me a story about how her brown sugar ended up ruined and she found it very odd. She said it solidified into little chunks which refused to soften. I said, "That's so weird! I just used my brown sugar last week and it was fine." However, there we were trying to scrape out the brown sugar from the container. Somehow mine had gotten ruined too. I, of course, blame the altitude. However, there were chunks that refused to break up, so I had to get them out by hand. Oops!

Now, Brandan rocked out mixing lots of things for me. When she saw my Kitchen-Aid though, she got major mixer-envy, admittedly. So, I stepped out of the way, gladly, and let the professional baker take over the slow mixing of the flour mixture into the shortening/sugar mixture. It looked perfect, and Brandan was transfixed by the mixer's power. It wouldn't shock me if she puts that request on her Christmas list soon if not immediately.

After forming the cookies and putting them in the oven for about 20 minutes (freaking high altitude), they turned out really nicely. You're supposed to wait for the cookies to completely cool before putting the Hershey Kisses on them, but I was impatient. We had already set up our assembly line with Kisses unwrapped and waiting. So, a few of the Kisses melted. And, the cookies weren't completely cooled, she the bottom of the cookies kind of billowed out into a cooling-rack-shape.

But, from above, the cookies looked quite lovely. No one could tell they were hilarious underneath. As a cookie, I would give them a 3.5 out of 5. They were good, but I'm not a big crumbly cookie fan. I like my soft, slightly underdone cookies. So, that docked a few points personally. Also, the fact that I had used shortening I think made my mind a bit biased. However, the flavors were all there and the dark chocolate chunks were delicious. So, I'd recommend it if you don't have a problem with semisolid fat.

Brandan said she would provide commentary on the cookie-making process. When she posts something, I'll make sure to link to it in this entry.