More Cookies

Here's another group making what I think was my favorite cookie of the bunch, a shortbread with nuts and jam.  It shows up on the platter at 6 o'clock, the bars without chocolate.  Yum!  But, wow, did they have a lot of dough to spread out.  And several whole jars of jam.  I think that one might have been the most work.  It was worth it, though.

Here's a couple shots of the Florentines being made.  You can barely see it in the top pic at the very right edge, how tiny the cookies start out when being put on the pan to bake.  Now look how much they spread out compared to the bottom pic where she's putting the chocolate drizzle on top.  I'm glad I got to see that, so when I try making these, I won't think, oh, that's not enough dough.  And I saw the caterer showing them how to do the drizzle, too: you really don't do it slowly.  You kind on zing your arm back and forth across the pan over and over and over to get those lovely stripes.

Here's the ladies working with the Palmier cookies, the ones that look kind of pretzels.  Don't they look serious?  Hey, cookies are serious business. 

Here's my partner, S., chowing down on the snack table they had set out for us.  Quite a spread!  No veggie sandwiches, alas.  But great hummus and cheese.  And fresh pineapple.

 Behind S. you can see another group working, with the only male member of the class.  Aw! I was surprised there weren't more men, and that John didn't want to take this class, since he's really the major cook in our family. 

Not a great picture of me.  But a nice one of the class teacher.  And look how much bling she's wearing! Here I thought she'd have no jewelry or nails, like me, because she was cooking.  Nope, she had long painted nails and bangly bracelets on, and somehow none of that got in the way. I don't know how some people pull that off, but she did. 

And that's the end of the cookie class.  It was two hours of mess and fun and divine smells and yummy cookies.  Thanks, Betty Crocker.  Oh, and we got to take home a cookbook, Good Housekeeping The Great Christmas Cookie Swap Cookbook: 60 Large-Batch Recipes to Bake and Share.  My complaint about it is rather spoiled of me: I want a picture for every recipe so I know how it's supposed to look. Wah.