Bakefest 2006

After last year's Bake-a-palooza, I realized I wanted to give even more cookie bags out atwork,stretching beyond my department and into different departments I deal with (like managing ed). This year, I made gingersnaps, rugelach (apricot and chocolate varieties), chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate-hazelnut cookies. I baked the gingersnaps and half of the chocolate-hazelnuts on Saturday (12/16) and the rest of the menu on Sunday (12/17). I didn't expect to bake the chocolate-hazelnuts twice, but Josh didn't give me the required number for his work gifts until after I finished my cookie ingredient math. If I hadn't gone back to make more chocolate-hazelnut cookies on Sunday, I wouldn't have stayed up until 1 a.m. packaging all of the gifts.


I baked almost 500 cookies last weekend. I made 47 cookie bags, 35 for me and 12 for Josh. I thought it was going to be a chaotic mess in my kitchen, but it was surprisingly organized. Things worked pretty well, thanks to my Christmas gift from Jennie and Julie, seen left. They got me the Williams-Sonoma set of three melamine mixing bowls. They are adorable and so very practical, with some rubber on the bottom, keeping them from sliding while in use. Thanks so much, Jennie and Julie!! I also had a system for putting cookies in the oven. You'd think that it would be better to have two trays going at once, but I found that the best way for me was to do one tray at a time. Using that method, I would have one tray in the oven, one cooling, and one being prepped with dough for the next batch. It made the whole experience much smoother.

In retrospect, I don't think I would've made the rugelach. It's a difficult cookie, especially when you're trying to make 12 dozen of them. I got a lot of compliments on them, which makes the effort worthwhile, and a bunch of people asked for the recipe too. It's fairly easy to make the dough; it's just a little complex to put the cookies together. Despite the availability of a decent rugelach recipe, I wonder why so many of the rugelach I eat are dry and bland.

Our department holiday party was on Tuesday, and I was really tired from baking so much over the weekend, so I said I wouldn't bring anything this year. I figured everything would be okay because I'd just given out so many cookie bags, but then a managing editor from an imprint I don't even work on was upset (jokingly, I'm sure) to find out that I hadn't provided cookies for her department.

Sigh. It appears I will be making 40 cookie bags for work next year.