Cookies, Cookies, Cookies x 1,000

As of this afternoon, the baking and assembling of the cookie boxes to benefit the Wednesday Community Meal at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is officially over.

And now more than three thousand cookies later we are tired...but happy with the results and anxious to sell every one of them and raise some money for a great cause. The boxes cost $25.

The secret to being able to complete such a large task was organization and pre-making the dough before the big baking session on Friday. The most tender cookies come from chilled dough so there is no harm in making the dough early and letting it chill for a few days.

Just a few of the cookies we made.

Packed boxes ready to be sold.

We also decided to slice off most of our all- butter cookies instead of rolling the dough and using cutters. The slicing method is much more efficient. You just form a log with the dough and then slice off the cookies before baking.

And, thanks to the advice of Cheryl who is the most organized baking partner in the world, we simplified things by making large batches of doughs and changing them to get different kinds of cookies.

 For example, the vanilla shortbread recipe was used to make three different cookies.

The first way was to coat the edges with egg white and roll it in sugar for a pretty edge.

The second way was to add dried cranberries to the dough.

And, the third way was to decorate the tops of the baked cookies with dark chocolate and crushed candy cane.

This plan was so smart and made our large task manageable.

Here are few snapshots from our busy week:

My sweet niece Maya helped me pack my car for the big baking session at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Just a few more cookies.

Anne cutting Rugelach.

Martha setting out the boxes for packing.

The bottom layer of cookies in the boxes. Clockwise from top left: Russian Teacakes, Cranberry Noels, Magic Cookie Bars, Ginger Crisps, Dark Chocolate Shortbread with White Chocolate, Vanilla Shortbread with Dark Chocolate and Candy Cane, Walnut and Chocolate Logs and Rugelach.

The top layer: Ginger Crisps, Linzer Cookies, Sugar Cookies, Vanilla Shortbread and Cranberry Noels.

Leah tying the decorated gingerbread snowflakes on the boxes.

Boxes that will be sold tomorrow. In the end we made 91 boxes and each one has three dozen cookies!