ELICIOUS DELIGHTS

Wearing an apron and a red and white Santa hat, Cathy Tenkhoff directed the women who had gathered at Centenary United Methodist Church to counters and cookie sheets so they could begin baking.

The women, part of the Rebekah Circle at the church, gathered Monday night to bake nearly 60 dozen cookies that will later be delivered to homebound members of the Cape Girardeau congregation.

With more parties and less time during the holidays to spend in the kitchen, many people are relying on cookie swaps at the office and baking parties with friends to satisfy their holiday cravings for candy and cookies. The women at Centenary have been meeting for at least six years to bake their holiday goodies.

All the women bring their own dough in plastic ice cream containers covered with lids or in mixing bowls wrapped in plastic wrap. They bake Snickerdoodles, sugar cookies tinted with red or green sugar, oatmeal butterscotch cookies, gingersnaps, orange pecan shortbread and hazelnut pinwheels in two industrial-size ovens. A few even bring purchased cookie dough for quick slice-and-bake cookies.

Trying new things

Martha Zlokovich usually tries a new cookie recipe for the baking party. This year, she brought dough for hazelnut pinwheels, a recipe she collected from a magazine. "I wanted to try something different," she said.

Last year she made a recipe for gingerbread cookies that had been dipped in chocolate at their rims, but that had too many steps to repeat this year.

Leta Wagoner usually makes gingersnap cookies from a family recipe. "I thought this one would one that the older generation would like," she said. "It's a recipe I always make for this occasion because they are easy and the smell good when they bake."

Wagoner doesn't bake as much as she used to because her children are away at college, but there are a few cookies, like decorated sugar cookies cut into holiday shapes, that "you just have to have," she said.

The smells of fresh-baked cookies wafted through the kitchen as the scent of melting chocolate mixed with the hint of orange flavors in Margaret Lentz's orange pecan shortbread cookies.

Lentz bakes gingerbread houses for decorating, fudge, rum raisin balls, orange pecan shortbread cookies, divinity and pralines each year.

The gingerbread houses are among her favorite holiday baking experiences. She's been baking the houses for about 10 years and has a foolproof gingerbread recipe, she said.

"It's like sheet rock when you're done," she said. "Anybody can to this."

The houses aren't edible but the candy and decorations are. "It's one of my favorite things."

She and Cindy Ford have been known to work into the wee hours when baking and decorating gingerbread houses, she said. It takes about three days to build the houses -- one day making the dough and rolling it out, another to bake it and the final day to do the decorating.

The houses can last several years if stored in a cool, dry place, Lentz said.

Milk and cookies

Tenkhoff does plenty of baking during the holiday but nothing as elaborate as a gingerbread house. One of her favorite parties is to host an event where the only food served is cookies and milk.

Tenkhoff usually devotes one day to baking and preparing for holiday entertaining. She makes several batches of cookie dough and sweet bread recipes and freezes the dough so it's handy when she needs it.

There is one cookie she only makes during the Christmas season, however. Dubbed "the Martha Stewart cookies" by her friends and family, the cookies are delicious but too labor intensive to make for any routine occasion.

"I've already had people asking 'Are you making your Martha Stewart cookies?'" she said.

"It's become a joke because I always make them but I only make them once a year because they are so labor intensive," she said.

There are always friends and neighbors to share the cookies with.

And, there are some benefits to sharing cookies. "If I eat a cookie that was your recipe, it doesn't have any calories because they were yours to start with," Tenkhoff said. And broken cookies don't have any calories, she added.

TIPS FOR A HAPPY HOLIDAY KITCHEN

Storing and freezing baked goods:

* Most cookies can be baked and then frozen for later use. Baked cookies shouldn't be refrigerated, as a general rule, but can be frozen for six to 12 months.

* Most homemade cookies can be stored for two or three weeks in an airtight container.

* Cookies that have strong flavors shouldn't be mixed together in the same tin.

* Thaw baked goods in freezer wrapping on a wire rack to prevent moisture or condensation on their surface.

* To freeze cookies and baked goods, it is best to use wraps and bags designed specifically for that purpose. Heavy duty aluminum foil can be used if protected from tears.

* Candies should be wrapped individually in plastic freezer wrap before storing in a rigid container, and thawed before unwrapping.

* The foods should be properly wrapped and protected from crushing. The freezer should be kept at 0 F.

Baking holiday cookies:

* Be sure to follow the recipe accurately to have consistent quality in every batch of cookies.

* Avoid using too much flour when rolling out cookies or the cookies will turn out dry. If dough has to be shaped by hand or rolled, wet your hands slightly to prevent it from sticking to your fingers. Also wet the spatula slightly to prevent the dough from sticking.

* Cookie sheets should always be cool before dough is placed on them.

* Oven racks should be in the center of an oven to make sure that cookies heat evenly. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes before putting cookies in to bake.

* A cookie sheet should have at least 1 inch of space on all sides to allow the oven heat to circulate. If two sheets are baking at the same tine, stagger them so that air flow is better.

* Shiny, light colored pans provide lightly-browned cookies. Dark pans cause the cookies to brown more.

* Remove cookies with a metal spatula. Cool completely before removing.