Sunday Christmas Baking.

Today, I'm making a basic butter cookie dough, and making two different types of cookies with it.

Dry ingredients for the butter cookie dough: 4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

Remember, when measuring dry ingredients, scoop and sweep off excess.

Rest of ingredients: 2 cups sugar 2 large eggs 3 sticks butter 1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter and sugar, beating at medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy.

Add in eggs and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low and add in flour mixture, until just combined.

Form dough into 2 12-inch logs, wrap, and refrigerate if you're not going to use it immediately. However, I'm on a roll today. I'd already baked my snickerdoodles and my sugar cookies, and I'm woefully behind on my baking schedule. I know, because every year I write down my daily baking progress so I can keep track, and then I have the added pressure each year of trying to do more and more while keeping ahead of what I did the previous year. Yes, I'm terribly OC about that.

So, I forge ahead. I buttered two 9 x 13 pans, then lined them with foil, greased the foil, and pressed the dough evenly onto the pan, using plastic wrap to keep the dough from sticking to my fingers. Place the crusts into the fridge to chill until firm, at least 20 minutes.

Bake the crusts in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes and cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes. Now, for the BROWNIE SQUARES.

My mise en place: 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter 10 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar 3 large eggs, lightly beaten 2 teaspoons vanilla 3/4 cup flour 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted, and coarsely chopped

Melt butter, chocolate, AND BROWN SUGAR in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. CRAP. I see no brown sugar in my pan.

But, what I have is melting nicely.

Remove from heat and add in vanilla. Add in the eggs.

Add in the flour. And it's at this point, I'm looking over the recipe. And it just says to next add in the cocoa powder, the salt and the walnuts. And I'm looking at 1 1/2 cups of packed brown sugar, still on my mise en place. What is the matter with me? That's two recipes in two days that I've screwed up by not following directions. This is unlike me. Perhaps it's true what Daughter Hawthorne says. Maybe I am retarded and senile. So, back to the damn brown sugar, that should have been in the pan at the beginning with the melting butter and chocolate. How will Rosie rectify this?

She took the brown sugar, put it in a pan over low heat, and let it melt, very slowly, for a while, then stirred it around.

And she poured the melted brown sugar into the chocolate mixture. I believe this is going to work. When you screw up, figure out a solution and just keep working. Finally, I added in the cocoa powder, salt, and nuts.

I poured the chocolate mixture over top of the baked crust.

I evenly spread out the brownie batter with my new red spatula Sister Hawthorne just gave me this morning.

And here are the BROWNIE SQUARES ready for the oven. Next up, CARAMEL PECAN COOKIES.

My mise en place: 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 cup heavy cream 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Put the sugar in a heavy sauce pan and cook over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt.

Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until the sugar is melted to a deep golden caramel.

Pour in the cream. Caramel will harden and steam vigorously.

Keep cooking over medium low heat, stirring, until the caramel is dissolved.

Action shot!

Remove from heat and add vanilla.

And add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until melted.

Stir in the pecans.

And pour over the cooled crust.

Spread caramel topping evenly over crust.

Here's the caramel/pecan batch on the left (and no, I didn't coarsely chop my nuts) and the brownie batch on the right, ready for the oven.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool for at least 2 hours before cutting. Run a heavy knife under hot water, wipe dry, and cut the brownies and caramel confections into 1-inch squares.