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Christmas Baking


HerNameIsBuffy

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I want to do gingerbread cookies.

And I'm going to make caramelized cardamom apple pie.

And sweet potato pie.

And I want to make croissants now.

Y'all making me feel inadequate lol.

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On December 14, 2015 at 0:41 AM, Bethella said:

I'm supposed to start baking tomorrow- our cookie exchange at work is on Tuesday. I'll be making:

  • ting-a-lings (chocolate & butterscotch chips with chow-mien noodles and peanuts)
  • wreath cookies (like rice crispy treats but colored green, made with corn flakes and red candies for berries)
  • shortbread
  • meringue stars
  • spritz
  • taffy

We decided to not make sugar cookies or gingerbread this year because we always have lots leftover. I may through some other kind of cookie in, perhaps a diabetic/calorie friendly one.

Taffy recipe please!

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Okay ladies, I am exhausted!

today:

shortbread cookie bark milk choch

shortbread cookie bark dark choch

dozens of cranberry orange muffins (mini, jumbo, and regular)

pfeffernusse

spritz

coconut snowballs

moon pie type sammich cookies with marshmallow/butter cream filling and peppermint and choch cookies

made dough for kolachkis, ginger cookies, candy cane cookies, and crinkle cookies which are chilling in the fridge now.

tomorrow will do those and several kinds of colorless bark.

will do my homemade turtles tonight - like to do those while the family is out or they eat as fast as I make.  New caramel recipe since my usual is too hard so wish me luck.

the pecan rolls I'll do Christmas Eve so they are all risen and good to pop in the oven Christmas morning.  I never liked them but they were one  of my mom's specialities and the family loves them so I like baking them.

doesnt seem like I've done that much but on my feet in the kitchen all day.

Im trying to figure out the differences in my ovens and I think I've got it.  My top oven is fine - use the time and temp from recipe and I'm pretty good.  Doing thst in the bottom over everything is charcoal.  So I have to set that 25 degrees lower and it usually works out that if I put the stuff in top oven first, then put my cookies on the next sheet by the time that's done I put them in bottom oven and usually done at the same time as top.

i have to figure out if it's a setting I'm doing wrong or something we can fix ourselves.  I don't want to spend a day off week after next dealing with a repair person.

(Oh and I learned that when you leave ALL of the sugar out of a double batch of muffins the end product is horrifying!)

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5 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Taffy recipe please!

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 2/3 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2-1 tsp flavoring (vanilla, almond, orange, lemon extract...)
  • food coloring
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan. Add corn syrup, butter, water and salt. Bring to a boil- while it is boiling DO NOT STIR! Continue boiling until it reaches 270 degrees F. (I'm finding that to be a little too hard for my taste- see below* and may be adjusting that temp lower in the future). Pour out into a buttered cookie sheet or pie tin. Add the flavoring and color. Using a spatula fold the outer edges in so it cools evenly. When you can make a knife mark in the taffy that doesn't disappear it should be cool enough to pull. Butter your hands and pick up the taffy, stretch it out and fold it in half, then keep repeating until the taffy becomes opaque and/or too hard to pull. If it cools off too quickly you can stick it in a 300 degree F oven for 1-2 minutes but be careful because it can keep cooking the sugar past the soft crack stage. When it is done, stretch it into a long thin rope and cut into pieces using a buttered knife or kitchen shears. It can be wrapped individually in waxed paper or just dusted with powdered sugar so they don't stick together.
 
*If you use the 270 degrees, be careful eating it, soften it in your mouth before trying to chew it- one of my coworkers lost a filling.
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On December 13, 2015 at 4:03 PM, Anny Nym said:

A lovely friend from Germany just sent me the cutest cookie cutters as a early Christmas present! Can´t wait to use them tomorrow for the gingerbread, the kids are already all antsy! :) 

So this year I made or going to make :

Lebkuchen/ gingerbread cookies

Coconut bars (done)

Chocolate moussee balls (done)

Linzer Augen (a Cookie speciality from Upper Austria, super easy to make!) (done)

nutmeg log cookies

russian mushroom Cookies (but that´s for New Year´s Eve technically)

A Yule Cake

 

And my little brother just told me yesterday he will give the "fail cake roll" another try this Christmas! :D 

The "fail cake roll" (or the trying of making it) is a old tradition between us Nym siblings: Our maternal grandpa sometimes made a super-delicious "cake roll" (it looked like a very sweet Sushi roll, dunked in coconut flakes and sliced into bits like 1950s confectionery) for us when we were little. He was a expat and it was apparently a recipe of one of his former wives. Now he is gone and no one of us ever found out how to re -create it properly. From time to time one of us will give it a try.... maybe one day we will get it right, until then we call it "fail cake" :pb_lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linzer cookies are my all time absolute favorite. Since I'm lazy I managed to turn them into a thumbprint cookie by making an eggless Linzer dough. I just made some dough.

       Are you willing to share your recipe?

my baking list

mexican wedding cakes

linzer thumbprints

buckeyes

new this year cookie dough Buckeyes 

my son is requesting gingerbread men

dome kind of butter or shortbread cookies 

brown sugar fudge if I find the recipe

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Yo... does anyone have a recipe for gingerbread cookies?

Also, is it worth it to make cream cheese icing for gingerbread cookies? I mean, I've realized the normal kind is too sweet for me...but really?

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22 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

 

 

Hy Grimalkin, here is my favorite tradtional Linzer recipe :)  . I am afraid I do not know how to convert into the us-measurement system with using cups, so I just translated:

Linzer dough is a classic 3:2:1 dough (flour-fat-sugar)

200 grams all-purpose flour (we say "glattes Mehl",  fine coarsed flour. extra shifting optional if you want to)
100 grams finely grounded almonds

200 grams Butter, cold

100 grams powdered sugar

1 little pinch of fresh vanilla (or use one 10 grams home made vanilla sugar or a packet of ready-made vanilla sugar, but then maybe substract the 10 grams/ packet from the powdered sugar)

1 Egg (medium)

Just a little bit grounded lemon peel

1 little pinch of salt


 

Also: Marmelade for stacking them together for traditional Linzer Augen. Apricot or red currant is what we use.
Powdered sugar for decorating

 

Mix flour, sugar, salt, lemon peel, vanilla and grounded almonds with cube-sliced cold(!) butter in a wide bowl. Knead it nicely  until you have a crumbly mass. Then make a little "trough" in the middle and add the egg.

Then knead again. (Trick: Put your hands in cold water before, so the dough is easier to work). And I mean it, WORK THAT DOUGH! Until you have a fine formable dough-mass. Then stop, don´t overknead it too much.

Form a log then, wrap it into saran wrap and let it rest for at least one hour in a cool place (not necessarily the fridge, I personally prefer to let Cookie dough rest outside on a cool dry and dark spot). The longer it rests, the better, overnight is not a problem.

Then you could use Cookie cutters or make thumbprint, as you like better :)  I always use the floured kitchen Counter for Cookie cutting.

Preheat oven to 180 Celsius and let them bake for ca. 10 minutes, to a nice light colour. (some ovens need less or more time)

This makes either one patch (baking tray) for traditional Linzer (where you need technically 2 Cookies) or 2 patches of thumbprint/ non-filled cookies

Traditional Linzer: After baking, the "lid Cookies" need to be coated with the powdered suger right after(!) you take them out of the oven! Then warm the Marmelade and coat the cooled off "base Cookies". Stack them together wiht the cooled off "lid cookies" and done.

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@Anny Nym Thank you so much! I have the ingredients to make these tonight! I have converted plenty if recipes so that's no problem! The dough in the recipe I have is difficult to work with and uses hazelnuts and a pinch of cinnamon,that is why I just make the thumbprints. I also would not of thought to put the powdered  sugar on immediately after taking out of the oven. having a traditional recipe straight from the source makes me so happy! Merry Christmas!

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@Lynn18 Those look delicious!  I can only imagine the lovely smells! 

I'm already on my second batch of battenburg. Turns out, the other half now quite likes them even though in years past, he's simply eaten the marzipan and left the cake.  If only he took a liking to something slightly less finicky! 

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I made a persimmon sourdough spice cake that's awesome. Not exactly for Christmas but it's seasonal so I'll go with it. I've made it three times already and it keeps getting eaten before I can take pictures for my blog. 

I also made some honey, lemon and lavender shortbread that I've got to make again for our family get-together on New Year's day, along with a gingerbread pound cake that King Arthur Flour just posted.

I made Nanaimo bars a couple of month's ago for a baking challenges and really liked them, in spite of the almonds (I hate nuts). I've been in Nanaimo twice and had never heard of them before.

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On ‎22‎.‎12‎.‎2015 at 2:12 AM, Grimalkin said:

@Anny Nym Thank you so much! I have the ingredients to make these tonight! I have converted plenty if recipes so that's no problem! The dough in the recipe I have is difficult to work with and uses hazelnuts and a pinch of cinnamon,that is why I just make the thumbprints. I also would not of thought to put the powdered  sugar on immediately after taking out of the oven. having a traditional recipe straight from the source makes me so happy! Merry Christmas!

 

Sorry for the late answer, Pre-Christmas kept me away from posting :D 

 

Please tell me how you liked it, when you try(tried) the Cookie recipe :) A hazelnut one I know too, and one with no nuts or diferent kinds of flour- but you know, original always works the best for me.

Oh, and the sugaring it immediately after taking them out is done, so the sugar keeps better and mainly so you don´t have to powder them that much after putting them together, so the sugar won´t clog the three little holes you see the marmelade through - my mom told me " You can tell if one is A Linzer-making pro or not by this ;)"

 

Have a Merry Christmas, peaceful Holidays and a great New Year!

 

 

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5 hours ago, Anny Nym said:

 

Sorry for the late answer, Pre-Christmas kept me away from posting :D 

 

Please tell me how you liked it, when you try(tried) the Cookie recipe :) A hazelnut one I know too, and one with no nuts or diferent kinds of flour- but you know, original always works the best for me.

Oh, and the sugaring it immediately after taking them out is done, so the sugar keeps better and mainly so you don´t have to powder them that much after putting them together, so the sugar won´t clog the three little holes you see the marmelade through - my mom told me " You can tell if one is A Linzer-making pro or not by this ;)"

 

Have a Merry Christmas, peaceful Holidays and a great New Year!

 

 

Anny, I made them and that have all been eaten! They were delicious. Used apricot and raspberry preserves. My family devoured them and my seven year old son declared them his favorite, with a request to make them for his birthday.Thank you so much.

 

On December 22, 2015 at 9:37 PM, Lynn18 said:

It's officially Christmas! The pitzels are made!  17 dozen this year. The house smells heavenly!mountain.thumb.jpg.cdf10d19be8ae3f1aa7a2

Awwww, this brings back memories of 'Grandma Mary' a neighborhood lady who watched her grand daughter, her daughter a single mother worked, and all the moms took turns taking her grocery shopping and errand running. She made pitzels. They were so incredibly good.

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Christmas baking (unfortunately some still in progress, LOL!):

*Christmas cookies--sugar cookie recipe from my great-granny.

*Stollen--will have to do a round 2, because the dough didn't rise sufficiently--although the actual pastry was super tasty! I think I didn't knead the dough enough. Apparently more sugary/rich doughs need more kneading, and I'm much more accustomed to making non-sweet breads.

*Buche de Noel--with an eggnog pastry cream filling. This is still in progress b/c I got too overambitious with my activities the past two days, and didn't have as much kitchen help as I anticipated (i.e. the teen daughter peaced out several times to go hang with friends).

I did make the cake for this, and was quite proud, since it's my first time making a jelly-roll type cake. I wasn't happy with the lack of chocolate flavor, even after following the recipe to the letter. I was, however, thrilled that it's light and springy, so score one for me on texture right out of the gate. I'm assuming once it has the pastry cream filing and the rich, chocolately frosting, the relative lack of chocolate flavor in the cake won't matter that much.

Guess it'll be a Buche de Almost New Years!

*Gingerbread men--on the agenda for tomorrow, as well as the last batch of sugar cookies.

Pic of cookies, which are very minimalistically-decorated w/o the fancy frosting we originally planned on, plus fail on reading the instructions for the pretty blue balls that melted right into the cookie as they cooked. The directions say "Not recommended for baking applications." Oh, well.

 

christmas cookies.jpg

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Buche de Noel cake was not all I was hoping it would be. Here's the recipe I used: http://strongertogether.coop/recipes/yule-log-cake/.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how it turned out, considering it was my first-ever Buche de Noel.

The issues that I had with it, though:

**The cake doesn't really taste like a chocolate cake. At first, I was considering this a downside (and the cake itself looked pretty anemic for a chocolate cake). But, with the super-chocolatey frosting, the flavor balance ended up being good. In retrospect, if the cake were more chocolately, it would have been overwhelming.

Which leads me to...

**My pastry cream was too rich-tasting for the cake, and made the entire dessert super rich. Instead of doing the vanilla pastry cream in the recipe, I did an eggnog version with eggnog substituted for the milk and a bit of rum to give it some kick. The heaviness of the pastry cream and the heavier flavor of the eggnog/rum made it super rich.

**The texture of the pastry cream wasn't conducive to staying in the middle of the cake when it was rolled. Even when it was super chilled, it started to get less firm in just the short amount of time it took me to spread it on the cake and roll it, so by the end of that process, pastry cream was running out the sides. :(

What I would change about this would be to fold in whipped cream so the filling would end up being lighter and fluffier. I think this would help both the texture issue (would help the filling to stay put) AND it would cut some of the super richness by having something airier incorporated.

Pictures to come once I get them from the SOs camera.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made Krumkake with my grandmother which is technically not baking, but it is still a cookie that is only made during christmas time, suppose I could get the machine and make it year round. 

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