I have some posts on my latest sewing projects, but today I want to talk about holiday baking. I love holiday baking, even if it does drive my a bit batty trying to get it all done in time to give out to people.
My mom was big on Christmas baking. When I was older, my aunt and I would go to my mom's house for what I dubbed "Cookiefest": a weekend-long marathon of baking, frosting, chocolate-dipping and talking. Her two most-popular items were Chocolate-Dipped Candied Orange Peels and Buche de Noel. I've been making them for the past few years, because they remind me of her and all the great times she gave us all. Recipes for those will come later, don't worry.
Since I have two little ones, elaborate cookies and confections aren't really easy for me. I stick to quick, tasty things, like fudge, caramels and slice-and-bake cookies. To make things even easier, I make dough ahead of time, freeze it, then slice, bake and snarf them down. I usually make 3 types, for variety. This year, it's Lemon Sables, Chocolate Mint Cookies and Oatmeal Crispies with Cranberries.
For the sables, I go with Dorie Greenspan's delicious recipe. I use coarse red and green sugar for the decor and they look so festive in a tin (or a box, or a bag, or on a plate with a cup of tea...).
The Chocolate Mint Cookies are my own variation of her Korova/World Peace cookies. They are quite amazing on their own, but, as I've posted before, the Andes mint chips are my new obsession and I was looking for a way to incorporate them into holiday baking. So, I used the base cookie recipe, omitted most of the salt and used the mint chips instead. The dough sticking to the bowl that I, um, couldn't scrape out, yeah, that's it, was delicious.
The final recipe is the Pioneer Woman's Oatmeal Crispies. I've actually made these a few times, plain and gussied up. This time, I added some cinnamon and nutmeg to the dry ingredients, then dumped in a bunch of cranberries before shaping the logs.
Mmmmm.... is it time for baking yet?
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