After the rigors of Cookie Day, I still had more cookies to make. For years, I'd wanted to try Benne Wafers. On Cookie Day, I actually made the dough for these cookies, then didn't bake it off til a few days later. I used a recipe from Lauren Chattman's Mom's Big Book of Cookies. I love these cookies. The toasted sesame seeds give them an exotic flavor and nutty crunch; they're so good that I almost don't care when the sesame seeds get stuck in my teeth.
I also made Banana Granola Cookies from Jill Snider's Cookies. These cookies were not too bad, soft and cakey. They're yet another recipe I'll add to the pile I turn to when confronted with overripe bananas.
Then I made a batch of Mexican-wedding-cake-type cookies, with ground walnuts and "holiday" swirled white chips from Nestle. Pretty straightforward. I made these last year, too, and everyone liked them. I have to stop buying goofy "holiday" baking products, though.
Finally, on Christmas Day, I made a batch of Boston Cream Pies, from the Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich Cookie Book (pause for a breath here) by Judy Rosenberg. It's one of two books written by the owner of this Boston-area bakery chain. Loved the idea, but the reality was troublesome. First, the pastry-cream filling set up into a solid, immovable mass. With the quick work of some extra cream and my immersion blender, I managed to save the pastry cream. The yellow cakes for these small sandwich cookies mostly baked up OK. But the chocolate glaze for the tops was a nightmare, far too thin and runny to adhere to the cakes, even when it was cool. I ended up adding enough powdered sugar to make a frosting instead of a glaze. Then, after all the bonus effort, the Boston Cream Pies were good to go. (I'm tempted to roll my eyes at this point.)
