Yesterday was Cookie Day in my house. Lu only had an hour and a half of school due to parent teacher conferences, so we decided it would be a great day to bake our Christmas Cookies. Each year I participate in a cookie exchange with my girlfriends. We started this about three years ago. I had never heard of it before - it is very suburban. Each participant brings enough cookies for everyone else to take home a dozen. You let everyone know what you are making so that there will be no doubles. In our group, there are eight of us, so we each need to bring 9 dozen cookies. The extra dozen is for a tray we make and donate. Each of us leaves with a tray filled with 8 dozen different Christmas cookies to share with our families and guests over Christmas week. It really is a great tradition - and my family looks forward to it - especially my Dad who looks forward to it the most. I always send him home Christmas day with his own special tray.

9 dozen cookies is really no big deal - it goes quickly. I always make Linzer tarts so I have to make 18 dozen - since it is a two sided cookie. Right now I have 216 cookies sitting in a tupperware waiting to be put together. I also decided to introduce my Girl Scouts to the cookie exchange idea - so I made 6 dozen for that group. Yesterday there were 288 cookies in my house. My husband came home to the smell of cookies and was not too happy that there were none for him to eat! He will get some today.

Linzer Tarts are a lot easier than they look. Some people use a Linzer cookie recipe, I just use a basic sugar cookie recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 sticks unsalted butter (if using salted butter, omit salt above)
3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients, slowly add to butter mixture. Form into a disc, wrap in Saran wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Roll cookie dough out on a floured surface. Use a round cookie cutter to cut cookies. If you want to make them with an open top, use a smaller cookie cutter to make a circle in the middle or you can buy specially designed linzer cookie cutters and cut designs in the top of the cookies like snowflakes and angels- I bought mine online at King Arthur Flour.

Let cookies cool. Use 1 t jelly per cookie - I use seedless raspberry but you can use any flavor and place on the bottom (closed) cookie, add the top (open cookie) and press together. When they are all done, sprinkle with confectioners sugar - they look beautiful and taste delicious! Enjoy.

Happy Cookie Day!