What are you having FUN making this holiday season?

Bread!

It started with pretzel rolls and home made tortillas...I no longer buy tortillas and the pretzel rolls have turned out to be a HUGE hit. I serve them with 3 types of mustard for dipping. Someone just asked me how much for a dozen. I didn't think she was serious so I quoted what I think is an outrageous price and she didn't bat an eye, ordered a dozen for next week . (FYI, perfectly OK under my state's CFL )

Turns out the pretzel rolls were fairly forgiving. I did make a good focaccia but my other attempts didn't go so well. I took a class and now I've added a yummy white milk bread, cinnamon raisin bread and brioche to my repertoire.  

Other fun stuff...lemon meringues with Christmassy stripes and I think I'm going to try some butterscotch candies tomorrow. Candy can be really hard at my high altitude, though.

Christmas cookies. This year, I've selected 8 recipients. I got slightly smaller containers than last year. I'll be giving them shortbreads, oatmeal cookies, my own "Innsbruck Dream Bars" (there's a thread on them, I think), and maybe, time and space permitting, some cashew butter cookies (I ended up buying an empty spice bottle for under a buck at BB&B, and stamping the impression of the shaker-top, to differentiate them from peanut butter cookies).

Speaking of which, after doing a brake job on my car as it was starting to drizzle (NOT something I did for fun; I did it because I could hear the rotors beginning to gall, and I came about a hairsbreadth away from having to at least have them turned, and maybe having to buy new ones), I baked the main double-batch of shortbreads (NOT 2-layer "wood type cookies"; just the usual "integral sign"), and the very first experimental single-batch of cashew butter cookies. Not bad, although the cooking time in my mother's old peanut butter cookie recipe was about 3 minutes too long, and so I got a lot of scorched ones in the first sheet.

Cake pops.  Made some pink and purple princess ones for the bake sale at my daughter's recital and some Christmas ones for my nieces and nephew.

Elcee I started making sourdough bread six months ago.  Possibly one of my less sane ideas as it is sooo tasty we do not want to eat bought bread anymore.  You need to be patient but it is well worth  the effort and I am using the same starter I made back then.  I t gets sourer and more tasty every week.

I love all sweet things which are not good for the waistline and every Christmas I make lollies and nougat of some description.  This year I made almond, cranberry and glace fruit nougat and peanut butter fudge.  YUM!  I don't think they will last until Christmas day!

Quote:

Originally Posted by cazza1 

Elcee I started making sourdough bread six months ago.  Possibly one of my less sane ideas as it is sooo tasty we do not want to eat bought bread anymore.  You need to be patient but it is well worth  the effort and I am using the same starter I made back then.  I t gets sourer and more tasty every week.

 

Ooooh, sourdough. Just added to my list to try!

Chocolate Christmas Tree Centerpieces and New Year's Eve Chocolate Bling Shoes.

 Finally, a picture of what I made for fun:

My 2012 Christmas cookies:
Clockwise from top left:

Innsbruck Dream Bar: chopped cashews and macadamia nuts with almond flakes and rolled oats in a caramel custard, over a brown sugar shortbread crust. A re-imagining of the old Betty Crocker "Vienna Dream Bars" mix.

Cashew butter cookie: based on my mother's peanut butter cookie recipe. Instead of the "fork crosshatch" imprint that's traditional for peanut butter cookies, these are imprinted with a spice jar shaker-top. New for this year.

Shortbread: from my mother's famous recipe.

Oatmeal cookie: from the 1969 Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Background: one of eight half-gallon buckets I filled with this year's cookies. It holds a dozen each of the shortbreads, oatmeal cookies, and Innsbruck Dream Bars, and half a dozen of the cashew butter cookies.

Gingerbread cookies! I loooove gingerbread. Especially soft, spicy cookies.  Ooh, and fudge. And now I have an amazing kitchenaid mixer, I am going to make tons of bread this weekend!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hbquikcomjamesl 

 Finally, a picture of what I made for fun:

 

 

My 2012 Christmas cookies:
Clockwise from top left:

Innsbruck Dream Bar: chopped cashews and macadamia nuts with almond flakes and rolled oats in a caramel custard, over a brown sugar shortbread crust. A re-imagining of the old Betty Crocker "Vienna Dream Bars" mix.

Cashew butter cookie: based on my mother's peanut butter cookie recipe. Instead of the "fork crosshatch" imprint that's traditional for peanut butter cookies, these are imprinted with a spice jar shaker-top. New for this year.

Shortbread: from my mother's famous recipe.

Oatmeal cookie: from the 1969 Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Background: one of eight half-gallon buckets I filled with this year's cookies. It holds a dozen each of the shortbreads, oatmeal cookies, and Innsbruck Dream Bars, and half a dozen of the cashew butter cookies.

I love the spice jar shaker top imprint--too cool. That opens a world of possibilities.

And I love that you dated the'1969 Betty Crocker' cookie dealio--just some trivia--I think I have one of the first  Betty Crocker cookbooks in the line 1950/1951--it is literally in tatters.

This year I made somewhere in the neighborhood of about 800 cookies: peanut butter (two different receipes), ginger, oatmeal raisin, oatmeal chocolate chip, Mexican Festival, honey cookies, and good old fashion chocolate chip... I made Elvis Cupcakes, Spice cupcakes, Rootbeer Cupcakes, rum buns, snowflake rolls for Christmas Eve dinner, a Red Velvet Cheesecake for Christmas Eve dessert and cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning... now I am on to plan New Years Day Dinner... I have gotten so far as the black-eyed peas...

Hmm. Approximately 800.  Wow.

Double-batch of shortbreads worked out to about 120-130.

2 batches of oatmeal worked out to about 65-69 per batch, so call it 130

2 batches of cashew butter at 45-48 each, call it 95

3 9x13 batches of Innsbruck Dream Bars at 36 per pan, 108

So I only made it to around 450-odd cookies.

You almost doubled my total, and more than doubled my variety.

Did you end up with a terminal case of dishpan hands, too?

I made dark chocolate thumbprints, rosemary ice box cookies, crispy peppermint bark and crack cookies (an altered version of the momofuku milk bar's chocolate chip marshmallow cornflake cookies). My mom made butterballs, lemon ice box cookies and gingersnaps, and we traded with each other.