It’s time to start my holiday baking. Or, as it’s known at my house, Cookiepalooza. This year, I’m scaling back* and only making five different types: gingersnaps, hot cocoa, pecan tassies, pizzelles, and shortbread. But I have to make dozens of each to give out to friends and neighbors. The gingersnaps and shortbread dough can be made in advance and frozen to be baked closer to Christmas. And pizzelles can be stored for months. I’ll also make six batches of fudge. My daughter makes the love knots. But I have to keep after her to make sure I get them in time to add to my cookie plates. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it.
I know we have some excellent home bakers on DeadSplinter. What are you making this year? Share your tips, tricks, and favorite recipes.
* I say this every year and always end up making more, lol.
I love all things muppet. Would bake for Cookie Monster 🙂
I make Buckeyes every year. They are a huge pain in the ass. I think folks would riot if I stopped. I usually only make those and maybe some cut outs. I host a cookie exchange so that everyone gets lots of different kinds. It’s really fun!
I love Buckeyes but they are a lot of work. Your friends are lucky to have you making them.
I am the main cook in the house but my wife & daughter do 90% of all cookies, pies, and cakes. The problem is they like to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and always burn them. I hate pumpkin cookies and even more so burnt ones!
I love pumpkin pie but am not fond of pumpkin cookies. And I never could see chocolate and pumpkin as a flavor combination.
We have bakeries here that make pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins and breads. They are amazingly good.
Really? Hmm. I may have to try it.
Honestly it depends on how it’s done. Mrs Butcher used to make a pumpkin cheesecake with a layer of chocolate cookie crumbs on the bottom (just above the graham cracker crust) it it was sublime. I took one bit and proposed to her on the spot.
I’ve always used gingersnaps for my pumpkin cheesecake crust. I never thought to use chocolate.
It would probably work with the chocolate crust, but it’s a graham cracker crust with just a thin layer of chocolate crumbs on top before she pours the filling into the pan. It’s a subtle approach, so the chocolate isn’t very noticeable but still lends a nice aspect to the overall flavor.
We don’t do a ton of baking — my stepmother goes hog wild on cookies and we always end up with more than my waistband can bear — but I made homemade peppermint bark a few years ago for a homemade gift exchange, and it was so good that now I make a few batches come early December and snack away all month.
I should note her cookies include: snowballs, two types of fudge, windowpane cookies (loved them as a kid!), PB blossoms, wreath cookies, a coconut and raspberry one (not even sure what the name is on those haha) and usually one or two curveballs thrown in late.
Bark is the one thing I’ve never made. But my neighbor always gives me hers and I love it. It’s full of pretzels and M & Ms, even potato chips. 😋
Oooh, chips are interesting! I usually make two versions — one classic and then one sweet and salty (typically I just use some pretzels and a smidge of kosher salt but now you’ve got my mind going with those chips…)
They’re the thick rippled kind so they stay in big pieces when broken up and don’t crumble apart.
I can’t bake until Dec 20th.
Mainly because my annual doctor appointment is that day and I’ll do a blood draw for cholesterol etc and I need to eat better until then so I don’t get shamed for bad numbers.
My annual is always in October so I get it out of the way before Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas 🙂
Yeah your strategy is much more intelligent than mine.
Dumb luck, honestly, just happened to fall there when I switched doctors a few years back and now I keep it landing there every year!
That still leaves a few days to get it done.
Today, I got shamed for not flossing every day on top of water picking…even though my teeth and gums are perfectly healthy. If I had lied and said I do floss everyday, I’m sure the dental hygienist wouldn’t have noticed a discrepancy. She knows I’m a mom of three kids under 5. She knows I do the best I can which is to brush twice a day, water pick every other day, and I dropped flossing because I get 10min to myself in the morning if I’m lucky. She’s lucky I managed to shower before my appointment today. I know she’s just doing her job but read the room. Telling me I need to take better care of myself is like sending me thoughts and prayers. GTFO with that. Oh and she was 10min late for my appointment and I was 10min early. Just think, I could have been flossing during that free time 🙃
I encourage baking.
Do you haul baked to Chicago for the holiday? Or back home after.
I used to be very into baking. But then when I moved in w my dad and step-mom it was very much “her” kitchen and “her” stuff so I felt weird using anything and got out of practice. My apartment had an electric stove that I never got the hang of the cook temps. Now I have my own place but the kitchen is a skinny galley kitchen with microscopic workspace and I don’t go into the office anymore so I would be baking for myself.
Small kitchens are tough to bake cookies in unless it’s a single batch of something simple like chocolate chip.
I may have to make these sauerkraut cookies
https://www.wpr.org/how-make-methunky-beloved-czech-sauerkraut-cookie
Thinking it was a cookie it sounded terrible. But after reading the article I think it would be really good!
not gonna bake anything me….this time of year…. pepernoten are everywhere
like seriously….any shop or office is going to have a few bowls of the things knocking about….for people to graze in passing
and those are the relatively healthy option….near the end of december oliebollen are everywhere
they are the destroyer of waist sizes…..
Yeah but they sound delicious!
oh they are….especially when still warm…..thats the problem
With the shift to mostly working from home, I haven’t done my usual baking jag in four years. But, a couple of years ago, a neighbor had some of my PB/Chocolate bars and decided we needed to do a baking party, which was a lot of fun. This year I’ll be showing her and others how to make baklava. Plus, there’s a Christmas party for which Mrs. Butcher volunteered me to make another batch of baklava. Then there’s the neighbor with whom I’m going to trade a baklava recipe for this unbelievable Brazilian chocolate dessert. So, by the end of the month, I will have made so much baklava that I probably won’t want to make another batch until next year.
I buy pistachio baklava from a Palestinian bakery in town. I’m sure this year they’ll really appreciate the support.
Oooohh is it brigadeiro?
They just call it baklava. Maybe for us Americans.
I avoid baking. But I did make FYCE Rumball recipe last week. The batch is sitting in my freezer waiting for December.
I think I’m going to do a rum cake this year.