Festive Bar Cookies

December is a time for baking. I am so thankful my mother baked at the holidays when I was a child, and that I learned to bake as I worked alongside her, as baking has been a gratifying experience for me throughout my life. 

I’m a big proponent of baking with children. Although it took me into midlife to be able to articulate this, I realize now that baking teaches valuable life lessons- like patience, and learning to trust the process. And sometimes learning to roll with the punches- as my cake and pastry instructor in culinary school liked to say “decorate to hide mistakes”.

So this month, I’ll be sharing favorite holiday treat recipes of my mother’s with you. 

I started making Festive Bars with my mother when I was about 10 years old. It was a recipe I found in American Girl magazine (even then reading recipes was a favorite pastime of mine), the creation of two young brothers who even early in their lives were aspiring to be chefs. The cookies became a holiday regular in our family. A few years ago my brother and I were reminiscing about it, and I wondered out loud what had happened to the recipe. “It’s still around in one of my old notebooks” my Mom said, so I went searching for it, and here it is, making a command performance. 

I hope you’ll enjoy this, and the other recipes, from my mother’s collection.

Recipe on the next page…