Tuesday, December 29, 2009

And now, the actual 2009 baking list...



I thought I would take a minute to share what I actually baked for the Christmas season, and a little bit about each recipe. Quite a few of these items are still in my freezer awaiting a family Christmas party this weekend.

Cookies:

Pepparkakor -- Crisp spicy cut-out cookies. I made them in the shape of hearts and Christmas trees and sprinkled the tops with red sugar. Still have some of this dough left to bake, in fact.

Whipped Shortbread*-- round little molded cookies, perfectly white with tops dipped in sparkly red or green sugar. Easy to make and a great favorite. These are the cookies in the photo above.

Eggnog Logs* -- nutmeg-flavored cookies shaped like little logs. Frosted with an eggnog-flavored frosting with "bark" markings made by fork tines, and then sprinkled with nutmeg.

Sacher Torte Cookies* -- round chocolate cookies filled with raspberry or apricot jam and then the tops drizzled with melted chocolate.

Peppermint Tree Spritz -- pressed chocolate cookies in a Christmas tree shape, sandwiched together with green-tinted, mint-flavored confection coating and then half of each cookie dipped in the same. I only made these for old time's sake, but I probably won't be making them again. They turned out to be a LOT of work, much more than I bargained for. Delicious, though.

Almond Raspberry Thumbprints -- almond-flavored thumbprint cookies filled with raspberry jam and drizzled with almond-flavored icing. These are pretty and delicious and are fast becoming a must-make cookie. Would be good with apricot jam, too, but the raspberry is so pretty! (From Cook & Tell, my favorite recipe newsletter.)

Dipped Cherry Cookies -- round molded cookies filled with chopped cherries and white chocolate. Each cookie is dipped halfway in melted white chocolate and then in red or sparkly white sugar. From Country Woman magazine. This was my first time trying this recipe, but it won't be the last! Pretty and delicious.

Double Drizzle Pecan Cookies -- a molded brown sugar cookie topped with pecans and drizzled with penuche and chocolate. Easy, yummy and impressive with the two drizzles. From Country Woman magazine and fast becoming a must-make.

Hazelnut Shortbread -- super easy shortbread with toasted hazelnuts added. Made in a square pan and cut into tiny squares. Recipe (from Cook & Tell) suggested a confectioners sugar frosting drizzle. I had some of the penuche glaze left from the above recipe, so used that. Excellent choice!

Chocolate Mint Crisps -- easy chocolate molded cookies with a melted Andes mint swirled on top of each one. Delicious and easy -- the dough is made in a saucepan! Fast becoming a must-make cookie. From a special Country Woman Christmas magazine.

Fruity Lime and Raspberry Spritz -- used this recipe to test out a borrowed cookie press. These easy and colorful spritz cookies are made with fruit-flavored gelatin. Nice flavor! Recipe found on the internet. Nice fast way to make a whole bunch of festive-looking cookies.


Candies:


Heavenly Delight* -- our family's favorite layered chocolate and peanut butter fudge. Made 2 batches of this and may need to make another when family visits in January.

Four-Chip Fudge -- made with butterscotch, peanut butter, milk chocolate, and semisweet chocolate baking chips. No real cooking, as it's made with sweetened condensed milk; just heating and melting the chips, basically. Easy, yummy and makes a huge batch. From Taste of Home.

Chocolate Mint Candies -- I've been wanting to try these for awhile, but won't bother with them again. The photo (in a Country Woman Christmas magazine) showed lovely squares of milk chocolate candy with minty white chocolate sandwiched between. Mine turned out more like bark, or even shards. Not worth the price of the confection coating and chocolate chips used to make them.

I had also intended to make some little mini-loaves of bread and fruitcake for gifts. The first batch I tried failed so miserably that I scrapped the entire notion.

So there is my Christmas baking report! We'll have a houseful of family for several weeks in mid-January, so no doubt I will be doing plenty more baking.

* Recipes marked with a * are "must-makes" for the Christmas season.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds incredibly yummy! I'm glad to hear that you have family gatherings to look forward to in the coming cold days of January!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Mary Ann! Did you ever get to try the Sacher Torte cookies? (They are good all year round!)

    Yes, it's exciting... Joanna and her hubby and children will be here for 3 weeks in mid-January! That should make the month speed by.

    Hope you had a blessed Christmas and that 2010 will be a great year for you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful cookies! I can say that 'cause I've tasted some of them. My favorite were those chocolate with the fruit and chocolate tops... not sure which ones they were but they were really yummy! 'bout the only cookies I have made in a couple years are the chocolate no-bake which my daughter asks for each Christmas.

    You are a baker of many yummy things!!!

    Mrs. D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Mrs. D,

    I am so glad you've enjoyed the cookies. (Sometimes I wonder if people get tired of seeing them appear at the weekly potlucks!) Cookies are probably my favorite things to bake, and everyone in my family has their own favorites, especially at Christmas time.

    The ones you mentioned are the Sacher Torte cookies. They are very, very easy to make, and seem to be the favorites of a lot of people. I make those other times of year other than Christmas, too. They are nice for teas, showers, ladies' luncheons, etc. and also for Valentine's Day. Thanks for the sweet words!

    Love,
    Mrs.T

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting my Christmas kitchen! I love company here in my kitchen all year round, so please leave a comment so I'll know you visited. I will answer any questions and comments here on the blog, so be sure and check "notify me" to see replies. God bless your day!