What did you bake today ? OK if not from scratch

[LoveDaisy]

Earlier in the last few weeks I made and froze ricotta cookie dough. Giving half to elder sister and will bake my 3 dz Christmas month. Put a list together of ingredients still needed for holiday cookie making: anise extract, buttermilk and a fresh tin of cream of tartar. Most of the cookies will be for giveaway.

I would love to hear what cookies you plan to make. I am working on my cookie list this weekend and I’m always looking for something new to try.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I would love to hear what cookies you plan to make. I am working on my cookie list this weekend and I’m always looking for something new to try.

Don’t you love the ”Notes” app? Making lists are so much easier!

2023 Holiday Cookies

Cardamom & Orange-Epicurious

Ricotta - NYT

Pferfferneuse https://www.ifyougiveablondeakitchen.com

Linzer tart? Research

 

[tasha99]

I baked a bunch of calzones for my uncle for a Veteran's Day lunch at his assisted living. I asked him what he wanted to do yesterday, and he said he hadn't had calzone in ages and would like some. Turned out, barely anyplace local has them, plus the few that do are really expensive, so I made them.

 

[NYCgrrl]

@LoveDaisy correction: the recipe for the German spice drops is actually here:
https://www.ifyougiveablondeakitchen.com/pfeffernusse-cookies/

 

[LoveDaisy]

Thank you @NYCgrrl ! You have some really interesting options I had not considered. Cardamom and orange sounds delicious as do the Pferfferneus. I am excited to try something new.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Thank you @NYCgrrl ! You have some really interesting options I had not considered. Cardamom and orange sounds delicious as do the Pferfferneus. I am excited to try something new.

Backatchoo! The cardamom and orange are a perennial holiday treat on this end and are lower in sweetness than many other cookies (type of shortbread) while the spice drops were a fav for my children when they were young. I made the ricotta cookies simply because I had leftover fresh ricotta on hand and the Linzers are often dreamt of yet never made, lol. I’ve cut far back on my assortment of cookies this year so possibly the Linzer tarts will happen this year.
P.S. note the lack of chocolate as a sure sign no kids around to insist .

What are you making/planning this year?

 

[gmi3804]

Happy to! You can scale up or down depending on the size of the bottle of spirits you can find. Typically in the US there are .750 and 1.5L bottles. I used a .75L bottle, so multiplied amounts by .75.

LIMONCELLO

9 ORGANIC lemons, peeled, yellow parts only
1L grain alcohol (34oz)
1.5L water, spring/filtered, preferably (51oz)
700g white sugar (25oz)

Combine lemon peels and alcohol in airtight GLASS container and steep for 25 days
Bring water and sugar to boil, turn off heat, and whisk to make sure sugar is melted. Set aside to cool completely.
Strain peels out of alcohol and combine alcohol to sugar water, stir to combine.
Bottle, and store limoncello in the refrigerator or freezer. It won't freeze because of all of the alcohol.

Enjoy!

This is the recipe I use. There's a video:

 

[nw6675]

Every few months I post my beautiful cookies. Um. Today. I went by memory and halved the recipe. Lol

 

[LoveDaisy]

@NYCgrrl I get requests from the adults so you’ll see a chocolate one on my list

Chocolate chip
Gooey chocolate butter cookies
Snickerdoodle
Whipped shortbread
Thumbprints
Peanut butter blossoms
Peanut butter cups
Peppermint meltaways

I give boxes of cookies to friends and bring platters to holiday parties.

 

[happybaker]

I give boxes of cookies to friends and bring platters to holiday parties.

View attachment 809708

Can I ask where you get those boxes? I've been using treat bags for cookies and then putting them in gift bags, but I like those boxes.

 

[LoveDaisy]

Can I ask where you get those boxes? I've been using treat bags for cookies and then putting them in gift bags, but I like those boxes.

I found those boxes at Michael’s last year. I really liked them because they were plastic and kept the cookies fresh. I have ordered cardboard boxes from Amazon in the past. I am hoping Michael’s will have something similar this year.

 

[mmouse37]

I tried a new sugar cookie recipe today from a new cookbook I just got. I had seen a video of the recipe and it just made sense to me. I have had a hard time with rolling out dough for cut out cookies but this recipe was great. No chilling involved and the cookies kept their shape. Next time I will make an icing for them but this was just a test run. The least frustrated I have been in rolling out dough

 

[mmouse37]

I tried a new sugar cookie recipe today from a cookbook I just bought. I have always hated rolling dough for cookie cutters as it had to be chilled, then warmed a bit so you could roll it out and then then it would get too soft and would stick, the cookies wouldn't hold their shape, etc. I hated it. I had tried several different recipes over the years and they all left me frustrated. Well, I have to say today I was pleasantly surprised. I saw a video of the recipe before I bought the cookbook and the recipe just made sense as it was being described. The author is Dan Langan and I follow him on Instagram. The dough rolled out so beautifully and the cookies kept their shape, did not stick to the rolling pin or the counter. He uses powdered sugar instead of flour to dust the surface of the counter. He also uses dry milk powder and just egg yolks and not the whole egg which helps to stabilize the dough. The taste was great too. Next time I will make an icing for them but today was just a test run so I just used sugar sprinkles.

 

[mmouse37]

Thursday night I had the grandkids sleep over so yesterday morning (after the Mickey waffle and bacon breakfast they requested) we were going to make a project I saw online. I was so excited to make this with them. It looked so easy and was adorable. So I prepped all the things we needed like Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, pretzel sticks, small pretzels, red M&M's, chocolate disks, chocolate for melting to use as glue and candy googly eyes. In my head I imagined a marshmallow field with all the reindeer the kids made standing around in it. Thought it would make a cute centerpiece if it turned out OK. Well, online vs. reality is a real eye opener lol. At least we had fun making them.

Online



Reality…..



The chocolate frosting on the Swiss rolls kept flaking off and as soon as you stuck a pretzel stick in the cake would fall apart. It was a disaster lol.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I made a crinkle cake today. If youve never tried one, they’re phyllo dough that’s folded accordion style and a custard is poured over and baked. It’s then finished off with simple syrup. It turns into this delicious thing, sort of reminiscent of a Cronut but way better. They’re sooo good.

 

[WorldWacky]

DH said he wished we had a sweet treat tonight so I just made some brownies. Had JUST enough cocoa powder. We just have to wait for them to cool a bit more.

 

[WorldWacky]

Thursday night I had the grandkids sleep over so yesterday morning (after the Mickey waffle and bacon breakfast they requested) we were going to make a project I saw online. I was so excited to make this with them. It looked so easy and was adorable. So I prepped all the things we needed like Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, pretzel sticks, small pretzels, red M&M's, chocolate disks, chocolate for melting to use as glue and candy googly eyes. In my head I imagined a marshmallow field with all the reindeer the kids made standing around in it. Thought it would make a cute centerpiece if it turned out OK. Well, online vs. reality is a real eye opener lol. At least we had fun making them.

Online

View attachment 809737

Reality…..

View attachment 809739

The chocolate frosting on the Swiss rolls kept flaking off and as soon as you stuck a pretzel stick in the cake would fall apart. It was a disaster lol.

They’re still very cute! And what a nice thing to do with the grandkids.

 

[LoveDaisy]

@mmouse37 i think they took turned out adorable. The grandkids did a great job!

 

[mmouse37]

@mmouse37 i think they took turned out adorable. The grandkids did a great job!

We were laughing the whole time so hopefully they will remember the fun we had!

 

[ronandannette]

I made my first company supper for a large crowd yesterday - first since moving to this new house, I mean. Unfortunately it's still a construction-chaos zone here so I had to transport the meal to a friend's house; she graciously hosted the 10 guest get-together for me. The actual baking was a black forest trifle and "disappearing" apple cake (a new recipe for me). Lovely results and having a huge mess to clean up in the kitchen later this morning sure makes it feel like home!