I’m ready for the holiday season and I don’t even care. We’re a third of the way through November and that’s enough. It’s 34º right now, so it’s certainly appropriate.

Time for some holiday cookies! I didn’t even know if they still sold Hershey’s Hugs, but good news. They do. 

Step 1: Gather ingredients: Flour, light brown sugar, Hugz, salt, nutmeg, molasses, egg, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, vanilla, sanding sugar, butter. 

We haven’t started decorating yet, but I definitely plugged in the tree-scented Wallflower.

Step 2: Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. 

I lost my whisk. I only have this tiny one. It’s about 3 inches long by 3/4 inch wide.

Step 3: Beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Step 4: Add molasses, egg, and vanilla.

This looked really gross for a while.

Step 5: Gradually beat in flour mixture until combined.

Step 6: Shape dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

4 hours?! Ain’t nobody got time for that! Ugh. 4 hours was going to be too late, so overnight it is.

Step 7: Get up at the crack of dawn to finish.

Step 8: Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar.

I only had a tiny bit of sanding sugar left, so I mixed it with the regular ol’ granulated kind.

They still looked okay, I guess.

Step 9: Bake, then remove from oven and immediately press a Hug into the center of each cookie.

I had a few that melted. GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN, REJECT!

Looking good so far (mostly)!

Xander!

Don’t touch those!

We’re safe. He got down.

I’m excited to share these. I have a ton and they’re good.

Link to original recipe (McCormick again)

Yields: 60
I got: 72 (only 67 had Hugs. I ran out.)

Start time: 4:25 Monday
End time: 8:35 Tuesday (16 hours, 10 mins)
Martha’s estimated time: 4 hours, 30 mins

What did I learn?

• The cookies melt if the dough isn’t really cold.
• Christmas music sounds great this time of year and I’m not ashamed.

What do I need to learn?

• How do you lose a whisk?

I went on a run yesterday before I baked and it was painfully cold. Gotta do it, though. 6 months until my first half marathon!

Enjoy!