As soon as it turns November, the craziness starts. I am bombarded with, “When are you going to make your cookies?” Or “Have you started on your cookies yet?”

I have even taken vacation days to make my Christmas cookies. Every year, I make hundreds of them by hand. Hundreds. No exaggeration.

So what is this wonderful cookie? It’s a Ritz cracker/peanut butter sandwich dipped in white chocolate.

I even tell people how to make them so they can enjoy them any time, but that doesn’t work. I always hear: “But mine doesn’t taste like yours. What did I do wrong?” or “Is there something you’re not telling me? Mine doesn’t taste like yours do.”

At that point, I usually reply, “I put love in every cookie.”

I know it sounds like a joke, but, to be honest, it really does take a certain amount of love to make all of those cookies and for them to turn out the way they do.

I never just throw them together and hope they taste okay. It takes hours of work and just the right ingredients.

First, I buy Ritz crackers. Generic will not taste the same. I make a peanut butter sandwich with them by spreading a generous layer of creamy peanut butter between the crackers. I use generic peanut butter from Ingles. I do not know how other generic peanut butters will taste. You can try others to see if they may work.

Then I clean off the edges. Each sandwich has to have a certain appearance.

Next, I melt my chocolate used for dipping. I use a combination of white almond bark and white chocolate. The almond bark can be found at any store that sells baking supplies.
But the white chocolate comes from Sugarbakers on Merchants drive.

You can melt the almond bark and white chocolate in the microwave. Personally, I don’t like to melt them that way. If the dipping mixture becomes too hot, it won’t taste as good and may burn.

A fondue pot will work. I used one until it literally fell apart. Now I put water in my electric skillet and place the almond bark in a glass/porcelain bowl in the water. That way I can take out the bowl if I think the chocolate is too hot.

I like to get my almond bark melted to a point where it is soft before I add the white chocolate. I stir until the mixture is silky smooth. Then I take a table spoon and dip each cookie into it one at a time. Again, each cookie has to have a certain appearance or they get dipped again.

I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but once you do that around 200 or 300 times, it becomes a big deal.

I do it because it makes others happy. My cookies brighten their day and puts a smile on their face. So is all that time and hard work worth it? Oh Yeah!
I’ll tell you something else that makes me happy. I don’t gain any weight from the wonderful aroma when I make them. Praise the Lord!

“I have shewed you all things. How that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35 (KJV)