Christmas bar cookies are Washington state's favorite holiday cookie

Of all the elaborate Christmas cookies in the world to savor, we in Washington are apparently obsessed with the most basic: the bar cookie.

Catch up quick: Bar cookies, in case you are unfamiliar, involve spreading your sweet dough of choice in a pan, dumping some stuff on top, and later cutting it all into squares or rectangles.

Driving the news: Google released a map Thursday of uniquely searched Christmas cookies by state.

What they found: From Dec. 3–9, Washington was one of four U.S. states where people Googled "Christmas bar cookies" at a much higher rate than the national average.

• Nationwide, the favorites were gingerbread cookies, Christmas sugar cookies and peanut butter blossoms.

Melissa's thought bubble: I'm disappointed in us. Do bar cookies even count as Christmas cookies? If you aren't rolling out dough, cutting it into little shapes or decorating it with a ridiculous amount of sugar and edible baubles, what's the point?

• Here's a good recipe for gingerbread cookies, one of my personal favorites, as well as snowballs, another tradition in my family. I also like to add checkerboard cookies and frosted sugar cookies to the mix. (Caveat: I haven't actually made all these cookies in one go since before my son was born.)

Clarridge's two cents: As a single, working mother of three, I welcome anything that makes life simpler and more streamlined. There's no need for rolling pins, cookie cutters or careful dough spooning with bar cookies. AND they do better with egg substitutes like flax than most traditional options.

• Try these apricot bars, adding a half-cup or so of chopped California apricots to the batter, in addition to the jam, for a tangier bar.