Does it work 7

I don't know if it all the Christmas movies on Hallmark the last couple of weeks or the football games on ESPNU but I am getting in Christmas mode.  No, that doesn't mean the trees are going up any time soon, only because I can't get to them.  But what it does mean is that I have opened Santa's workshop and trying some things to see if I can plan ahead and have a stress free Christmas.  I want to share what I have learned with you so you can have a stress free holiday as well.  So one of my biggest time stealers is my baking.  I love to do my holiday baking and my gingerbread cookies are always requested.  So after the erector show a couple of weeks ago and I mixed and froze cookies I got to thinking about my gingerbread men.  I usually spend 2 days mixing and baking cookies, right after Thanksgiving.  So this week I mixed up half a batch.  You can find my recipe here. Gingerbread men.  

So here is the fruits of my labors.  A perfect gingerbread man.  It didn't spread.  It kept it's shape.  Perfect!

So I mixed up my dough.  Put it in the freezer for an hour or so to chill a little.  Normally I leave it in the fridge overnight before rolling out.

Flour the counter and take a little dough at a time and roll out.

I put the men on parchment lined cookie sheets and put them in the freezer for an hour or so.

I took them out of the freezer.

Put them in a container.  I put wax paper between the layers so they wouldn't stick.

This morning I got out two cookies.  Baked them at 325 for about 9 minutes.

The end result.

This experiment was a success.  So towards the end of October I am going to do my Christmas mixing and freezing. I will have more time then as well.  Not to mention I don't have to bake all the cookies at one time.  I can bake them fresh when I give them away.  We can have fresh baked cookies all through the holidays.  I am already looking for recipes for this Christmas.  I hope this idea will help you have a stress free holiday too.