Christmas Cookie Challenge - General Discussion

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, ShelleySue said:

About last night's episode -- Is it just me or is Eddie getting pickier? He just gets on my nerves with his attack on the tiniest details. I know that he is now billed as a "chef" but is he a baker? Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but did he start out as football player turned host turned chef turned judge or was he a chef before he became a host?

According to Eddie's wiki page, he started as a football player, but apparently always liked to cook. After his football career was over, he owned a food truck, then started competing on cooking shows (MasterChef and Food Network Star, which he won). He then hosted other food competition shows, with the early focus on BBQ.

He became the host of Christmas Cookie Challenge probably based on personality, but didn't do any judging at first; Ree and bakers like Jason Smith, Dan Langan, and Gesine Prado were the judges. When they cut back on the other judges (probably because of Covid initially), Eddie got to be a judge as well. And that seems to have stuck, because now he's also judging cakes on Halloween Wars.

Shorter answer: he has cooking chops, but wasn't initially billed as having any great baking knowledge. It seems to be based on availability more than anything, which also probably explains why the likes of Aarti and Maneet keep showing up as judges on baking competitions now.

Edited December 5, 2022 by tracyscott76
Broke up a paragraph

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

According to Eddie's wiki page, he started as a football player, but apparently always liked to cook. After his football career was over, he owned a food truck, then started competing on cooking shows (MasterChef and Food Network Star, which he won). He then hosted other food competition shows, with the early focus on BBQ.

He became the host of Christmas Cookie Challenge probably based on personality, but didn't do any judging at first; Ree and bakers like Jason Smith, Dan Langan, and Gesine Prado were the judges. When they cut back on the other judges (probably because of Covid initially), Eddie got to be a judge as well. And that seems to have stuck, because now he's also judging cakes on Halloween Wars.

Shorter answer: he has cooking chops, but wasn't initially billed as having any great baking knowledge. It seems to be based on availability more than anything, which also probably explains why the likes of Aarti and Maneet keep showing up as judges on baking competitions now.

Plus, I noticed he loves just about every baked good they give him! 

[ShelleySue]

3 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Plus, I noticed he loves just about every baked good they give him! 

He judges differently on Cookie Challenge than he does on Big Bake. On Cookie Challenge last night he wanted a dog (I think it was a dog, it might have been another animal) to have more color to show more expression. It was as if he was trying to find one teeny tiny flaw to call out. On Big Bake he would have been dancing around and acting like he had never had a better bite in his mouth.

[libgirl2]

9 minutes ago, ShelleySue said:

He judges differently on Cookie Challenge than he does on Big Bake. On Cookie Challenge last night he wanted a dog (I think it was a dog, it might have been another animal) to have more color to show more expression. It was as if he was trying to find one teeny tiny flaw to call out. On Big Bake he would have been dancing around and acting like he had never had a better bite in his mouth.

I think Big Bake is much lighter hearted. 

[CheshireCat]

I agree about Eddie. Of course, it may be the editing and his criticism could be more balanced but the way it's edited does not look very favorable.

I don't mind critiquing the tiniest details if it's warranted and if it's constructive. With Eddie it does not feel warranted and often times, his tiny-detail critique makes me want the baker to ask back: have you tried baking and icing this cookie in 2 hours?

I'm really not sure what color he wanted added to that dog-tangled-in-the-Christmas-Tree-lights cookie. Or the "personality" he wanted added to the cookie with the birds who brought the presents. Uh?

The only one where the criticism was warranted was the lone male competitor. His cookies were a hot mess. The baker who messed up the royal icing (what exactly was the problem with the first batch?) had a great Mrs Clause cookie, the other one could have been better but we've seen worse cookies.
I'm often under the impression that Eddie critiques what he sees while they bake and not end result.

I was baking myself while watching, so who won? The grandma angel or all-white one?
I thought they all looked pretty and I loved the story behind the grandma-angel.

[MerBearHou]

11 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

I was baking myself while watching, so who won? The grandma angel or all-white one?
I thought they all looked pretty and I loved the story behind the grandma-angel.

Happy to report the grandma angel won!

The all-white one was pretty but really just two dimensional / two cookies stuck back to back.

Edited December 5, 2022 by MerBearHou

[libgirl2]

2 minutes ago, MerBearHou said:

The grandma angel won!

The all-white one was pretty but really just two dimensional / two cookies stuck back to back.

I thought the grandma angel was stunning. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

I'm really not sure what color he wanted added to that dog-tangled-in-the-Christmas-Tree-lights cookie. Or the "personality" he wanted added to the cookie with the birds who brought the presents. Uh?

In the case of the dog, he wanted something to make the mouth stand out more from the rest of the face. Nitpicky, but ok, whatever.

His comments on the bluebird cookie were silly, though. It was a simple, charming design and he wanted more stuff on it to "fill in the blank space". It's birds in a tree, Eddie! There's gonna be sky! Every square inch doesn't have to be covered in doodads.

[CheshireCat]

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

In the case of the dog, he wanted something to make the mouth stand out more from the rest of the face. Nitpicky, but ok, whatever.

Maybe nitpicky but I find this also constructive. It's something specific that you thought could have improved the presentation and for a baker who sells cookies, you're also a potential customer (even if you don't live in the area). So, it's feedback someone can work with.

"More color" for a cookie that features a dog which is largely brown and a tree which is largely green is not. What is someone supposed to do with that kind of feedback?

1 hour ago, tracyscott76 said:

His comments on the bluebird cookie were silly, though. It was a simple, charming design and he wanted more stuff on it to "fill in the blank space". It's birds in a tree, Eddie! There's gonna be sky! Every square inch doesn't have to be covered in doodads.

Maybe they could have piped dots and sprinkled them with sugar to represent snowflakes but they had how much time?

This was one of the comments where I thought, uh, Eddie, give them more time and they will add more to the cookie.

1 hour ago, MerBearHou said:

The all-white one was pretty but really just two dimensional / two cookies stuck back to back.

I thought it was three-dimensional as well but maybe only the skirt/dress was? I remember the second one was two-dimensional, although, it was decorated from the front and back and I didn't understand why Eddie said that it wasn't really 360°. Did he mean because you didn't have a 90° side-view?

[Tippi]

I like Eddie.  He has great enthusiasm, and very good chemistry with Ree.  He's also nice and funny when checking in with the contestants while they are preparing the cookies.  I just have a hard time buying him as a cookie judge.  I'm another one who'd rather see him as a host, and let the show bring on Gesine or some other baking expert as a judge.

I still enjoy the show, though.  I love to see what the bakers come up with.  I thought the angels were beautiful.

[MerBearHou]

1 hour ago, Tippi said:

I like Eddie.  He has great enthusiasm, and very good chemistry with Ree.  He's also nice and funny when checking in with the contestants while they are preparing the cookies.  I just have a hard time buying him as a cookie judge.  I'm another one who'd rather see him as a host, and let the show bring on Gesine or some other baking expert as a judge.

I still enjoy the show, though.  I love to see what the bakers come up with.  I thought the angels were beautiful.

I still enjoy the show too.  The Halloween and Christmas baking shows are just part of the festive viewing that I find comforting.  Despite Ree’s voice — it’s really starting to get to me.  I do strongly prefer the format when they had the additional guest judges in past years.  I don’t mind Eddie as a judge though.  I just find him to be delightful.

Edited December 6, 2022 by MerBearHou

[libgirl2]

12 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I still enjoy the show too.  The Halloween and Christmas baking shows are just part of the festive viewing that I find comforting.  Despite Ree’s voice — it’s really starting to get to me.  I do strongly prefer the format when they had the additional guest judges in past years.  I don’t mind Eddie as a judge though.  I just find him to be delightful.

I like Eddie too. And I agree, all these holiday baking shows are comforting and fun to watch. 

[Dibs]

I agree about Eddie being nitpicky.  Hello, the bluebirds' sky contained beautiful snowflakes!  Yes, they were the same color as the sky, but they were there filling the sky.  As for the brown dog, I think he was trying to say it just wasn't very well executed.  Agree the guy "hugging the earth" was a hot mess from beginning to end.  Is it a coincidence that the contestant with the history of anxiety disorder crashed and burned?  Seems odd she would mess up royal icing!  "Single female" seemed to be auditioning for something, if only a date.  I know Ree loves stories behind cookies, but I don't.  We don't care about your love life or family history.  Just give us Christmas cookies we can ALL relate to!  Was Grandma Angel even edible; wasn't that part of the requirement?  They usually rail against fondant!

But I do love the hosts and show.  It's sweet and fun and nice and uncomplicated.

[CheshireCat]

3 hours ago, Dibs said:

I agree about Eddie being nitpicky.  Hello, the bluebirds' sky contained beautiful snowflakes! 

They did? I didn't catch that but what else could she have done?

3 hours ago, Dibs said:

Yes, they were the same color as the sky, but they were there filling the sky. 

When it snows, the sky and the falling snow often have a similar color. And I think a white sky is prettier than a grey sky would have been (and had she opted for light grey, I'm sure Eddie would have complained about that).

If she had had time, she could have brushed the sky with silver luster dust but how much time do they have for their first bake? 90 minutes?

3 hours ago, Dibs said:

As for the brown dog, I think he was trying to say it just wasn't very well executed. 

I thought he looked cute. And didn't both Eddie and Ree agree that she really nailed the "puppy dog" eyes and the look a dog has when he's done something he wasn't supposed to?

3 hours ago, Dibs said:

Was Grandma Angel even edible; wasn't that part of the requirement?  They usually rail against fondant!

Yeah, they already didn't comment on the fondant in the episode where the bakers had to make costumes for gingerbread men in the first challenge.

[mlp]

When I saw the finished red scooter, I wrote it off as a loser before Ree and Eddie even walked over to it.  I thought it looked unpolished and somewhat clunky.  I was astonished when it won.  I liked the hot air balloon much better.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, mlp said:

When I saw the finished red scooter, I wrote it off as a loser before Ree and Eddie even walked over to it.  I thought it looked unpolished and somewhat clunky.  I was astonished when it won.  I liked the hot air balloon much better.

When I saw the finished red scooter, all I could think of was this 😆: 

I do appreciate the ideas a lot of these bakers come up with, even if the execution doesn't always come off the way they want. A lot of clever concepts here.

[CheshireCat]

Why do the bakers not check their cookies before they take them out of the oven? I always do as my oven is really old and two batches never bake alike and the fewer cookies, the quicker they bake etc. This is a new oven for them, so I'd always check if they're done.

To summarize: Eddie was missing salt to balance out the sesame seeds which, by nature, are not sweet? That made absolutely no sense.
I also always find it such a coincidence that they can always taste when salt is missing. Ree wants vanilla in everything which suggests that she is used to the vanilla taste which you often find in ready-to-bake cookies and cake mixes, so excuse me when I don't believe for a second that she can taste the missing salt in a cookie with sesame seeds and molasses icing. Especially since you're not supposed to taste the salt anyway.

Those sesame seeds cookies looked amazing!

Gerryanne's cookies were so adorable! The dinosaur making a snow angel was a really cute idea.
Eddie looked like he was pushing slightly onto the dinosaur's neck while commenting on the texture. I get that he wanted to feel the texture but maybe do it while the cookie is resting and not look like he wants to see if he can break off the neck so that he can comment on it?

I had to laugh at Eddie commenting on the texture of macarons when the baker who was standing in front of him is a macaron specialist. I don't think that Eddie is qualified to tell him what a macaron should or shouldn't be like. If I had been the contestant, I probably would have asked him if he's serious right now.
If it's not traditional cookie decorating, Ree doesn't like it, does she? Sure, the tree didn't look as much like a tree as it would have if done with stiff royal icing but it was recognizable and it was a macaron. In other words, something a little bit different. I got the same feeling from the baker who did her entire cookies, including the decoration, out of gingerbread.
Don't invite contestants who do it in the non-traditional ways if you're going to tell them they should be more traditional anyway.

I was kind of underwhelmed by the final displays. I liked the sailboat the most but the criticism was fair.

I think the scooter was better than the hot air balloon even if the scooter was a bit messy (too bad the baker didn't get the idea about the scooter having been hit by a few snowballs or she could have dusted the front with a bit of powdered sugar :-) ). But I thought the hot balloon looked somewhat messy as well. And it was 2D whereas the scooter was 3D, so there's that.
 

[mojoween]

Fred the macaron baker should not have been bounced.  I was working and watching at the same time so I wasn’t paying 100% attention to know who I would have replaced him with, but his cookies were cute.

The backwards sailboat was way better than that messy-ass scooter.

Edited December 12, 2022 by mojoween

[Irlandesa]

Oh I thought the macaron dude's macarons looked sloppy so I knew he was going.

[Rammchick]

On 12/12/2022 at 1:33 AM, CheshireCat said:

I also always find it such a coincidence that they can always taste when salt is missing. Ree wants vanilla in everything which suggests that she is used to the vanilla taste which you often find in ready-to-bake cookies and cake mixes, so excuse me when I don't believe for a second that she can taste the missing salt in a cookie with sesame seeds and molasses icing. Especially since you're not supposed to taste the salt anyway.

I don't think it's that you can actually taste salt, but you know when it's missing.  Salt punches up the sweet flavors and gives them more complexity.  Without it, baked goods can be flat,  bland and one-note.  

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Rammchick said:

On 12/12/2022 at 4:33 AM, CheshireCat said:

I also always find it such a coincidence that they can always taste when salt is missing. Ree wants vanilla in everything which suggests that she is used to the vanilla taste which you often find in ready-to-bake cookies and cake mixes, so excuse me when I don't believe for a second that she can taste the missing salt in a cookie with sesame seeds and molasses icing. Especially since you're not supposed to taste the salt anyway.

I don't think it's that you can actually taste salt, but you know when it's missing.  Salt punches up the sweet flavors and gives them more complexity.  Without it, baked goods can be flat,  bland and one-note.  

Vanilla is often used in a similar way, to enhance the flavor of other ingredients (Claire Saffitz, for example, uses vanilla a lot in her desserts, though she's using a step up from McCormick vanilla extract). So I don't know that the fact that Ree wants vanilla in things is merely a sign that she likes the vanilla taste of pre-made stuff, but rather a sign that she's looking for "depth of flavor", as they like to say on these shows.

[Tippi]

The best thing (for me) about this episode was Eddie in the Santa Hat and Caveman costume.

I always feel for the contestants whose bakes go awry and have to present something with very rushed decorating.

[CheshireCat]

9 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Vanilla is often used in a similar way, to enhance the flavor of other ingredients (Claire Saffitz, for example, uses vanilla a lot in her desserts, though she's using a step up from McCormick vanilla extract). So I don't know that the fact that Ree wants vanilla in things is merely a sign that she likes the vanilla taste of pre-made stuff, but rather a sign that she's looking for "depth of flavor", as they like to say on these shows.

Using vanilla in cookie recipes seems to be an American thing. Basically every cookie recipe that I've seen in my American recipe books calls for vanilla, my German ones don't.
I also have my doubts about the benefit of adding vanilla. It's a very delicate flavor that something like cocoa would easily overpower. (I just had a table spoon of icing where I added vanilla to. I use vanilla powder which is more concentrated than extract but I still needed around 1/4-1/2 teaspoon to make it taste like vanilla). I often use a dash of coffee to enhance chocolate flavor.

I know that the baby food industry likes to add a little something to their food to give it a signature taste that makes people gravitate towards their products later in life as well as they'll encounter this taste over and over again and I'm wondering if the addition of vanilla has something to do with that.

9 hours ago, Rammchick said:

I don't think it's that you can actually taste salt, but you know when it's missing.  Salt punches up the sweet flavors and gives them more complexity.  Without it, baked goods can be flat,  bland and one-note.  

As far as I know, the low dose of salt that you use in baking enhances/supports sweetness. (Salt in a more moderate dose balances sweetness but normally, you don't use that in cookies). It can also take away bitterness, so maybe Eddie was looking for that as sesame seeds trend bitter and there looked to be a lot, I agree with him on that.
But since they're more savory than sweet and, well, trend bitter, they would already provide a certain complexity and balance to the sweetness to the dough anyway.

In general, my issue is that you need a very well-trained palette to taste nuances and missing salt would be a nuance, especially in a cookie with sesame seeds. Kind of like when you're a wine sommelier or chocolate sommelier. You receive training to train your palette. As far as I know neither Ree nor Eddie have had any kind of training and that makes it very hard for me to find their critique credible. (Especially since they do watch the bakers). I'm sure there are doughs where it's obvious, a dough with sesame seeds does not strike me as one of them. 🤷‍♀️

[Rammchick]

You know, in general, I have to say that I find this show boring and repetitive on a certain level.  There must be thousands of Christmas cookie recipes out there, most of which don't involve icing a picture on a flat, plain-ish cookie.  Ree and Eddie go on about the taste of these cookies but to me, what they're really eating is sugar in the form of the royal icing, and that's just not very interesting.  When we see pictures of these baker's cookies, they're all beautiful and perfect but don't look like something I'd want to eat.  How about some episodes where the bakers (and sheesh, that name "cookier" annoys me) make their ultimate chocolate chip or thumbprint or anything else besides this?  Especially since these bakers never get enough time to make a cookie the likes of which they make at home or professionally.  This poor Macaron guy who tried to do something different got no real  response for his efforts.  I say enough already!

[dleighg]

1 hour ago, Rammchick said:

You know, in general, I have to say that I find this show boring and repetitive on a certain level.  There must be thousands of Christmas cookie recipes out there, most of which don't involve icing a picture on a flat, plain-ish cookie. 

I couldn't agree more. It just becomes a "painting" exercise. I never find these cookies cravable.

[Texasmom1970]

On 11/26/2022 at 4:43 PM, Jaded said:

The judges on FN's other baking shows know how to make those lines work a lot better for them than Ree does. 

Except for Nancy Fuller. I think I would rather listen to robot Ree. Nancy is constantly yelling it’s not holiday enough. She expects everything to light up and sing holidays songs I think!

[Jaded]

1 hour ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Except for Nancy Fuller. I think I would rather listen to robot Ree. Nancy is constantly yelling it’s not holiday enough. She expects everything to light up and sing holidays songs I think!

That stuff is annoying about Nancy. At least she doesn't seem as drunk on set as she used to.

[Grizzly]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:19 PM, Tippi said:

The best thing (for me) about this episode was Eddie in the Santa Hat and Caveman costume.

I loved that teal shirt on Eddie. 

[CheshireCat]

On 12/14/2022 at 7:53 AM, Rammchick said:

You know, in general, I have to say that I find this show boring and repetitive on a certain level.  There must be thousands of Christmas cookie recipes out there, most of which don't involve icing a picture on a flat, plain-ish cookie. 

I'd argue that even though they're flat, they're not plain. I'd not use as many extracts to flavor the cookies as these bakers use but extracts are a lot more popular in the US than they are in Germany and more readily available.
Still, I thought this season especially, there were quite a lot of different recipes and not just a slightly different version of a sugar cookie. There were a couple where I regretted that the FN doesn't put the recipes online.

On 12/14/2022 at 7:53 AM, Rammchick said:

Ree and Eddie go on about the taste of these cookies but to me, what they're really eating is sugar in the form of the royal icing, and that's just not very interesting.

Generally, you can taste the cookie very well despite the royal icing especially when the cookie is 0.8mm-10mm thick and the icing is just as thick as it needs to be.

I do remember that there was at least one episode where they commented on the icing being too thick.

On 12/14/2022 at 7:53 AM, Rammchick said:

  When we see pictures of these baker's cookies, they're all beautiful and perfect but don't look like something I'd want to eat.

I don't think looking like something someone would want to eat is the sole or maybe even the primary goal of decorated cookies. I guess, it's more cookie art than just cookie.

The decorating part is why I watch. Some bakers make an absolute mess but others do manage to decorate nicely and they also often have cute ideas.
I do wish they had more time. Why can't they add half an hour to each challenge? I'm sure it'll still be challenging enough for the bakers!

On 12/14/2022 at 7:53 AM, Rammchick said:

  How about some episodes where the bakers (and sheesh, that name "cookier" annoys me) make their ultimate chocolate chip or thumbprint or anything else besides this? 

I think in order to do that they'd need to change the format. They would either need to provide the recipe or use cookies that don't allow for a lot of variety/room for interpretation. For example, I don't think a chocolate chip cookie would work because who's to say what the perfect chocolate cookie is? Soft bake? Crispy? Mini-chocolate chips or regular sized? Semi-sweet? Milk? Dark? Brown sugar? White sugar? On the sweeter side or less sweet? With or without leavening agents? Cooled or still warm?
Of course, it's always a matter of taste but in order to be able to judge, the judges need parameters what to judge the cookie by and I don't think a cookie that has so many different options and preferences to it works because what would be the parameter to judge a chocolate chip cookie by?

A thumbprint is probably a cookie that would work, as are gingersnaps, snickerdoodles, macarons, macaroons, crinkle top and a bunch of German cookies as they have qualities to them that make them what they are as a cookie. At the end of the day, I don't know how many there truly are and how many are just similar and/or varieties. (I have a recipe for a cinnamon snickerdoodle which I believe is the original, one for a chai-spiced snickerdoodle with cinnamon chips and one for a pecan-cinnamon snickerdoodle. Three recipe that all taste differently but they're still all snickerdoodles). There's also the fact that for some cookies, cooling times need to be heeded or they don't come out right, so that could eliminate some recipes as they don't have "at least" an hour to chill. (Even if the dough wouldn't necessarily need to firm up to be handled, a cooled cookie bakes differently in the oven than a room-temperature one).

I think you would either have to audition bakers for that particular cookie or you would have to make it like the technical challenge in the "Great Bake-Offs" and provide the recipe and have everyone bake the same cookie. The problem is, some cookies absolutely need to chill

I also don't think that you could fill an hour with it but it may be interesting to do as a first challenge. The time is quite short anyway.

[mojoween]

Last night’s second episode was MUCH better than the first.  Feels like in the first the winner was going to be whoever was the least messy.  I mean, they knew she glopped that icing on her cracked ornament seam, and then never mentioned it again.

And does no one know what a comic and punchline are?

The piping in the second episode was much cleaner overall and the quality was higher.  Any of the three of them could have won.

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Last night’s second episode was MUCH better than the first.  Feels like in the first the winner was going to be whoever was the least messy.  I mean, they knew she glopped that icing on her cracked ornament seam, and then never mentioned it again.

And does no one know what a comic and punchline are?

The piping in the second episode was much cleaner overall and the quality was higher.  Any of the three of them could have won.

I actually preferred the first episode, though the final products were overall better in the second. I had no problem with there not being a mention of Patricia covering the cracks because the rest of the ornament was beautiful, with the decoration around the opening, set-in tree, and painted cardinal. Covering the cracks was just her dealing with a setback. I thought Buttercream Booster Jessica's ornament was nice as well, even if she didn't have time to decorate the back. And her comic strip in the first round was great.

I was taken out of the second hour because of the pointless, "spontaneous" bits with Ree calling the one contestant's partner on the phone, and Eddie just happening to have a football stashed on set so he could do a whole bit with the other contestant. I hope she in particular got a time credit for that, since she couldn't exactly work on her cookies while trying to throw a football to Eddie. And of course both contestants were so surprised at these wacky developments!

I get that they're going for a light-hearted tone, and they are usually successful in that...but this was too much for me. Just stick to friendly banter and leave the pre-planned bits for some other show.

[Rammchick]

50 minutes ago, tracyscott76 said:

I was taken out of the second hour because of the pointless, "spontaneous" bits with Ree calling the one contestant's partner on the phone, 

And I thought for sure he was going to win because of this.  Partner redemption and all that.

[ShelleySue]

I have only seen the comic strip episode this week. I thought that it was somewhat unfair because it relied on communicating a story and two of the cookie makers were telling stories that were about their cultures. Patricia's story might have been clearer to someone who knew the reference to the tradition of a fish kept in a bathtub and (I forgot her name) the story about the Thai food might have made more sense to someone more familiar with Thai food. After Ree and Eddie's comments I was very surprised to see Patricia move on to the next round and then actually win. 

I've actually started yelling at the bakers as they decorate, "Don't leave negative space even if you think it makes artistic sense!!!!"

[RealityCheck]

A new season of CHRISTMAS COOKIE CHALLENGE premieres Thursday, November 2nd at 9pm ET/PT with Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson.

[Texasmom1970]

6 hours ago, RealityCheck said:

A new season of CHRISTMAS COOKIE CHALLENGE premieres Thursday, November 2nd at 9pm ET/PT with Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson.

Eddie yea!

[HyeChaps]

Would prefer Eddie hosting with a three judge panel of baking experts

[Salacious Kitty]

37 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

Would prefer Eddie hosting with a three judge panel of baking experts

That's overkill for a one off bake. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

7 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

Would prefer Eddie hosting with a three judge panel of baking experts

That's overkill for a one off bake. 

It is what they used to do, though. Eddie was the only host and not a judge, Ree was a permanent judge, and the other two judges rotated.

[jcbrown]

I can't stand Ree but like Eddie and love the holidays so I'll give it another go this year.

[Salacious Kitty]

Ree is so annoying. Starting with her voice, which sounds like she's been huffing helium. It only gets worse from there. I don't find her criticism constructive. 

Save us Eddie! You're our only hope. 😀

[MerBearHou]

I hate to be so shallow, but wow, Ree looks like she barely put any effort into her appearance tonight — outfit straight off the farm, limp hair, and her makeup is positively ghostly.  And yeah, her voice is the worst of anyone on FN.  I like her personality just fine, and do think she’s pretty sharp and sometimes funny, but that voice is hard to listen to.  I don’t watch her daytime shows because of that, but I like Eddie so much plus the Christmas Cookie aspect so I do tune in here.

[Dibs]

I really enjoyed the challenges for this first episode: puppets and a puppet theatre.  So cute!  But, speaking of voices, why did NONE of the cookie bakers use character voices for their puppets, instead using just their OWN voices for both???  Strange!  Were they never read to as children?  As for Ree, maybe she's suffering from menopausal hair loss (like some of us).  I don't mind her personality, but the voice is like nails on chalkboard.  Eddie with two judges would be better (Ree already has a show, after all), but it's like the network doesn't want to put too much into "just" a cookie challenge.  I love this show, though; it's like a cup of hot chocolate or a bowl of chicken soup in the cold of winter.  Somehow comforting.

EDITED TO ADD: On second thought, Ree is part of the "comfort level."  I like her and Eddie's chemistry and also the lack of high-pressure professional judges.  It's perfect the way it is...

Edited November 3, 2023 by Dibs
clarification

[MerBearHou]

All 3 finalists were so talented tonight — those puppet theaters were impressive!  The first lady eliminated did not have a good night, poor thing.  With her lifelong gingerbread history, that had to be a blow for her.  

Edited November 3, 2023 by MerBearHou

[Grizzly]

Was Jose on this show before? He looked so familiar. I nodded off a bit during the show but did see the final displays. Did they have to make more puppets or were some saved from round 1? I thought they all did a fantastic job on their backgrounds. 

[Dibs]

They used the puppets from the first round.  Clever idea!  Jose beating the drum of his heritage, though, was almost as annoying as the sob story or obsession with their children (he was also obsessed with his nephew).  Lose the gimmicks and just bake, already...

[Maverick]

 Jose was on the one of the gingerbread house challenges. I think the Halloween one but he might have been on the Christmas one (the original one, not the one that's an offshoot of Holiday Baking Championship and hosted by Jesse).   He may have been on this show in an earlier season too but I know he was on one of the House shows because he had a baking partner. 

 This show used to have 5 initial bakers and two were eliminated after the first round (the Halloween version always started with 4).  Did this one go down to 4 this year?  I can't keep track, especially when they're mixing in constant reruns of prior years. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Maverick said:

This show used to have 5 initial bakers and two were eliminated after the first round (the Halloween version always started with 4).  Did this one go down to 4 this year?  I can't keep track, especially when they're mixing in constant reruns of prior years.

Yes, they went from starting with 5 to 4, still with 3 in the final challenge. I see they've also started announcing a winner of the first round who gets an advantage in the final round, which I don't think they were doing before.

[Maverick]

 I wish they would have waited a week to start this.   It was a little jarring to turn on FN and see a Christmas cookie show when I had just been watching Halloween stuff. 

[Dibs]

I agree; it's a bit soon.  But I guess they have enough footage to fill the time!  I, for one, enjoy the reruns, even if I've seen them before (this is the only FN show I watch).

[mlp]

15 hours ago, Maverick said:

Jose was on the one of the gingerbread house challenges.

I remembered him as soon as I saw him.  I think he won that season but I wouldn't swear to it.  He deserved to win last night.  Those curtains he made were sort of fascinating.

I remember the very first cookie show.  It was quite different.  The room they were in was much smaller.  I don't recall who the  judges were right now but they definitely weren't Ree and Eddie.  I do remember that one of the losing contestants was a smug woman who had worked for Martha Stewart and the winner made cookies that didn't exactly meet the challenge but got away with it and I was annoyed.