Christmas Cookie Throwdown

Success!! For the most part. Here is a very bad iphone picture of the christmas cookie schmorgasboard that I brought to the office. Another shameless ploy to make friends and get a raise!

clockwise from top left: chocolate dipped cranberry/orange shortbread (DELICIOUS. Even I couldn't believe how good these were.), salted pistachio brittle (whoa! what a surprise! notice its almost all gone), chocolate hazelnut crinkles (came out surprisingly well, like little nutella explosions in your mouth), and oatmeal cherry cookies covered in white chocolate.

My main snag was with the oatmeal cherry bombs. In my infinite knowledge, I thought "I know-- to make them chewier, I will just reduce the white sugar by 1/4 cup. totally! I am so smart." I dont know what the batter's problem was ( it was probably upset that I ran out of king arthur flour and used--gasp--key foods brand all purpose), but i knew something was wrong from the beginning. As the cookies would have said, "you lost me at vanilla."

The cookies came out ok, but hardened quickly. And, my carefully tempered white chocolate didnt so much "drizzle" over the cookies, as "plopped." No one will object to a blob of white chocolate, though, I thought. Turns out that by the next morning, the cherry bombs were more like rocks covered in white chocolate. I kept them in the box for symmetry purposes, but made sure to insult them profusely for nearly ruining my cookie spread before closing the box.

Despite my worrying, the cookies were a big hit. Almost everyone asked me "what that awesome green stuff was" (pistachio brittle). One other girl brought cookies, too, and I dont want to imply that my cookies kicked her cookies' ass, but they did.
Highlight of the day: my boss' email that read: "THESE COOKIES ROCK."

More pictures:

undipped shortbread and chocolate crinkles

one very snowy dog.