I think this weekend marked the beginning of the Christmas season for me. It started with Adam’s holiday party at Blue Ginger on Saturday night, and was followed by a major cookie baking session with Coco and her friend Signe on Sunday. We were baking machines… and I’m not going to lie – Adam and I have been doing some good ol’ holiday indulging with all those sweets around the house. They are just SO good… and hey, tis the season! Oh man, we’re going to be in so much trouble…

We started with this recipe from Eating Well for lemon squares. I know these are traditionally a summer dessert but I got a strong craving for them in the morning and decided to listen. Don’t worry, there are more traditional holiday desserts coming up, but you don’t want to miss this one!

Sweet and tart – we all loved these little guys! Note: we were getting impatient so I cut the first few after just an hour of setting. They were sticky and hard to get out of the pan, although delicious nonetheless. Upon cooking for a longer period, the squares were much easier to produce.

While I was whipping up the lemon squares, Coco and Signe took over the whole grain oatmeal peanut butter Christmas cookies (recipe can be found here). These are basically soft peanut butter cookies with an added chewiness from the oats and a chocolaty burst of the (Christmas colored!) M&Ms (we used dark chocolate M&Ms).

I loved loaded cookies and these were great! Except for the M&Ms, all the other ingredients are wholesome so you can gobble up with a little less guilt (especially if you can keep portion control to reasonable levels… I can’t!)

The last cookie of the night was a traditional sugar cookie. Coco sent me a link to a yummy sounding sugar cookie recipe, but I just couldn’t use 14 tablespoons of butter the recipe called for. Instead I dug out my trusty cooking bible for lighter traditional recipes – The Best Light Recipe cookbook. I had a feeling their sugar cookies would be a hit, and with just 5 tablespoons of butter, I was willing to give it a chance (quite the difference, no?). Our batter made only 15 cookies, instead of 24, but we thought they were the perfect size… and boy, where they delicious! I can’t even imagine a more indulging tasting sugar cookie. They were rich and perfectly chewy.  14 tablespoons of butter?! No thanks, I’d rather have a second cookie!!

These were rolled in sugar before baking. They sparkled. Gorgeous!!

The sugar cookie recipe can be found here.

So fun! An abundance of desserts all around me definitely puts me in the holiday spirit. Back to the gym tomorrow

What’s your favorite cookie recipe? If you bake during the holidays, do you go for the full fat recipe or try the lighter version?