Yesterday began the baking extravaganza. Every year my best friend and I spend two full days baking and freezing for Christmas. We make so many cookies that by the end of the two days we never want to see another cookie. It’s so much fun though and our kids look forward to it every year.
As you can imagine it’s quite a mess. At the end of the day the kitchen looks like a bakery exploded so through the years we have come up with some ways to keep the mess under control. The number one thing is to keep a sink full of soapy water at all times. Just toss everything in there and when the cookies are in the oven wash up the dishes you’ve used so far. This really cuts down on the clean up at the end.
One of the reasons we do so much baking is to give it away. Neighbors and co workers get goodie baskets for Christmas, on really lean years, we do family goodie baskets for everyone on our lists instead of buying gifts. Too keep all of this organized first you have to decide who will be getting goodies. Write it down, if you don’t you will forget. Next gather baskets, Ziploc bags, whatever you are going to use to present your goodies. Use a sticky note to put the name of each recipient on the container.
As everything is baked and cooled start dividing it up between your containers. Use plastic wrap to tie types of treats together, six chocolate chip cookies, a few pieces of fudge, tie the little plastic wrap bundles with some Christmas curling ribbon, make a gift tag and your gift is complete.
Also make sure you have plenty of storage containers for all of the goodies that will be staying at your house. I also like to put a little of each dough in a Ziploc bag and freeze then later Hailey and I can have fresh from the over cookies without all the work.
Don’t forget to make a few extra for Santa, he looks forward to it almost as much as the kids.