I’ve spent every day of the past week baking cookies.

This year’s Christmas dessert was specifically requested and I was very happy to deliver. It provided me with the perfect opportunity to become the Christmas cookie baker I’ve always wanted to be but never got around to actually doing.

Since there are five days in the work week I figured I should make one type of cookie per day. My husband wasn’t too happy about this. He didn’t want to spend the week eating cookies. He’s usually pretty good about saying no to tempting food but thought having the cookies in the house was going to be too much for him (it was).

If you’ve been following me on Instagram or Twitter, you would have seen this list along with a daily picture of the process (little M helping or eating the cookies).

Day 1 – Shortbread Meltaways – http://www.robinhood.ca/Recipes/Cookies/Shortbread/Shortbread-Meltaways

The shortbread was amazing. I kept having to move the pans of the cooling cookies to keep them away from little M. She usually doesn’t care for sweet things but these she loved! I think I ate a few too many. Lucky it makes enough that there are still leftovers to share.

Day 2 – Gingerbread – http://www.chatelaine.com/recipe/desserts/gingerbread-cookies/

The gingerbread was a lot of work. I kept having to put the dough into the fridge because it was too soft to lift the shapes to put on the baking pan. It’s a decent recipe but I guess you’ve got to love gingerbread to put in the effort. Once they cooled they were a little harder than I would have liked but that could be my fault I think I tend to overcook my cookies.

Day 3 – Almond Snowballs – http://www.chatelaine.com/recipe/snack/almond-snowballs/

I can only describe these as meh. Not bad, not great, very neutral. Little M wasn’t into them either. I won’t be making them again. That is all.

Day 4 – Ginger and  Lemon Madeleines – http://www.foodanddrink.ca/lcbo-ear/RecipeController?language=EN&recipeType=1&action=recipe&recipeID=5700

These are delicious. Little fluffy cakes of yum. Little M loves them, big M loves them, I love them. One mistake to share, I had to do the butter twice. Made burnt butter rather than brown butter the first time. Next time I should do a double batch.

Day 5 – Brownie Cookies – http://www.marthastewart.com/336847/brownie-cookies

These are pretty chocolatey. I guess their quality is as good as the quality of the chocolate you use. I was able to find Ghirardelli brand bittersweet chips. My husband complains when I use bakers chocolate. I don’t have an issue with them but because of his complaints I’m always looking for better “quality” brands of baking chocolate.

Little M liked them although I‘m not sure how much she liked them. I thought she would go crazy for them since she usually loves chocolate. Unfortunately, she has a cold (yup just in time for our early family Christmas dinner tomorrow) and I had to trick her into trying some.

I’ll update this post after the weekend once everyone has a chance to try the cookies and little M can try all of them all over again.

Although I had fun making all these cookies I don’t think I’ll do this again once I’m back at work. It was quite a bit of work. It’s one thing to do this while at home during the day. I think it’ll be another baking them after work (after 6pm) every evening for a week.

Have you done any holiday baking? Planning any for next week? What did/will you make? Any baking traditions you keep up with every year?