And if so, what are you making?
Every year for the past several years, I have made The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls and given them out at Christmas time (minus a pan or two for us here at home). But not this year. This year I am changing things up. I haven’t started yet, or even shopped for it yet, but I think I will be making ginger cookies (not gingerbread, just ginger, and if you have a great recipe for them I would be willing to look at it), haystacks with peanut butter and butterscotch chips, and I think some kind of bark, possibly white chocolate with cherries and pistachios.
We will keep a little bit here at home, but most of it will go out as gifts.
I baked for 2.5 days and have nothing to show for it! Dozens of cookies, and they’ve either been eaten, given or mailed.
There’s a thread with Christmas cookie recipes somewhere around here. I made Russian teacakes, iced sugar cookies, chocolate crinkles and cranberry white chocolate thingies.
I like any kind of chocolate with cherries in it. Hmm.
Me too, with the cherries and chocolate.
It just occurred to me that two of the three things I’m making don’t involve any baking. Ha, I must be learning to make things easy for myself!
No. There’s no one to bake for, just the two of us, and we are already so fat from Thanksgiving we need Christmas cookies like a hole in the head…would be fun to do over a long Christmas break, though.
If you need my address, just ask for it! But yeah, I know what you mean about the fat. I have been restricting my calories for 6 months and I kept seeing all these Christmas cookies and cakes and such, and really started resenting not being able to indulge in any of it. So I just decided that I would allow myself a little bit of everything that I really want, and hey, January is a new month. Better to gain a pound or two than to be pissed off about it.
I love to bake and cook for anytime, but especially at the holidays. Unfortunately, this year I thought I would be on a speedy junket to Southern California to help my ailing mom through a brain surgery. Turns out they may be able to fix everything during an angiogram <whew!>, so I’m not going now after all – baking is getting underway rather late as a result!
I’ve made several batches of English toffee for friends, will make these ginger cookies tomorrow:
Triple Ginger Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
¾ teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, reduce to 1/4 tsp)
¾ cup minced crystallized ginger
1 teaspoon pressed fresh ginger juice (use a very clean garlic press)
1 cup light brown sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter (softened or grated)
1 egg
¼ cup unsulfured molasses
Sift first six ingredients and set aside. Place remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl, turn to medium low speed. When ingredients are well combined, add flour mix one cup at a time and only mix until it develops a dough-like consistency. Place dough in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough and form into 1″ balls. These cookies spread, so don’t place them closely together.
Bake 12 minutes. Leave cookies on sheet for three minutes before removing to a cooling rack.
Makes two to three dozen cookies, depending on size. With a 1″ ball, I get 30 cookies.
Before all is said and done, I’ll make Russian teacakes, coconut biscotti and pumpkin cheesecake bars, too. Should give me lots of gifts for holiday parties and friends.
I’ve made these Ginger Burst Cookies several times (without the lemon topping, although that sounds good too). Except for the crystallized ginger, they’re just like the ones I grew up on - fairly soft and rich, and at their best when you burn your mouth grabbing one from the rack before it has time to cool.
Zyada and I will be making lime marmalade tomorrow, then trying her idea for fruitcake marmalade (candied peel, raisins, and nuts, maybe with a bit of rum or brandy), and if there’s time some thumbprint cookies. (Does anybody have a favorite shortbread recipe to use for those?)
My wife is a patissiere so she does the Christmas baking, (while I take care of dinner). Last year was a buche de Noel and this year she said she’s making Stollen.
I have oatmeal cranberry and molasses spice dough in the freezer. They both work well cold. I’ve made a few dozen already as gifts and for home. 3 dozen gone in 2 days between the 2 of us is pretty standard so that’s the max I’ll make unless I’m leaving the house with them immediately
I do enjoy baking. Just remembered that I usually make my cousin a loaf of banana bread at Christmas, so I get to do that this next week. Somehow it multiplies into two loaves…
Since my daughter moved out on her own and my husband and I are trying (not always successfully) to cut down on sweets and such, I don’t do much in the way of holiday baking. My mother, on the other hand, even tho she’s widowed and living alone, always makes thousands of cookies, and the 5 of us sibs, plus several of her friends, will be getting trays piled with several of each variety. Given that, why should I bake?
Yesterday I made shortbread and sugar cookies! I actually made them up the night before and the dough sat in the fridge overnight.
We are also only two, but are expecting a few people on Christmas eve. Also not wanting zillions of cookies, I simply halved all my recipes. And it has worked a charm, makes between 18 - 24 cookies, which is perfect for us.
I may do a ginger cookie as well, but am not a fan of crystallized ginger.
I’ll be baking my pecan pies. I didn’t make any for Thanksgiving. Mrs. Bullitt will be baking her oatmeal cherry bars, and her pumpkin and chocolate silk pies.
Wow those look good, and so easy. I’ll make those too. Thanks Alice!
Family reunion next week. There’ll be a lot of us together. I need to count, to get a handle on things: me and the rest of our 5 adult siblings; our mom; 3 spouses; all of our 11 kids (ages 30yrs to 2mos - so, 8 adult “kiddies”, 1 teenager, 1 child, 1 infant); and then 3 adult in-laws.
So that’s 20 adults, 1 teenager, 1 child, 1 infant. A small army!
Frick. Thanks Alice, I was trying to avoid all baking this year because I eat more than I give away, then I clicked on this link. We have all the ingredients in in our pantry right now and guests are coming. They’re going to want something tasty, right?
Today is my baking day for tomorrow’s caroling party and next week’s office gifts. There will be pecan bars, but I’m not sure what else. Ideas welcome! Ginger cookies? Mandelbrot? Something with chocolate? Something with dried fruit?
Yes, although everyone bellyaches about it. This year I made gingerbread chocolate-chip cookies, a few gingerbread cutouts for my daughter to decorate, and the traditional almond-chocolate and coffee-walnut shortbreads. Oh, and cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Gotta do those.
We’ve been doing it. This year, I’m not doing anything really fancy. I made ginger snaps and multicolored sugar cookies. Pepper Mill has made chocolate chip cookies, Sand Tarts, and imprinted butter cookies (and is making something else today). MilliCal plans to make triple chocolate chip cookies, M&M cookies, and maybe something else.
We also purchased a prefab gingerbread house kit. The gingerbread has approximately the consistency of Styrofoam. And about the same taste. I’ve been trying to rehabilitate it, this far without success.
