It’s Cookie Central at our house this week. We started with the fussy ones: Frosted Sugar and Shortbread Cookie Sticks – to get them out of the way. They require frosting and sprinkles so take more time than others. Twelve more kinds to go. I even got YA onboard today!
When do you start your holiday baking (if you indulge)?
Trail Baboon 
i enjoy holiday baking time and you have served as inspiration to load up on sugar butter and flour
i will try a gf baking session this year and see if i can find something that works
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tim, try the book Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich. It’s chock full of recipes using rice flour, oat flour, teff flour, sorghum flour, etc. meaning they are all gluten-free and many are whole grain. Medrich is a well-regarded dessert maker and cookbook author, so I would hope that when she says these recipes taste good, that she is right. (I have not tried any of the recipes, but they look tasty to me). You can get the book from the library.
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Gluten-free seems, in my view, to be easier to achieve with things like cookies that do not contain yeast. The hardest things to make gluten-free are yeast breads, because the yeast really craves gluten. Try a nut flour.
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that’s a good observation about the yeast.
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My baking is going to consist mostly of a meatball recipe in great quantity (anyone know temp/timing for BAKING the meatballs?). Then I’ll freeze most of them, and be ready for the gaggle of potlucks coming up in December. (see last year’s post: https://trailbaboon.com/2016/12/15/pot-luck-heaven/ ) The sauce has a Cranberry Fig Compote and things like hoisin and soy sauces added… brought it for Thanksgiving and got rave reviews.
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My Christmas baking may or may not start a week or two before Christmas. It depends on my energy level and the willingness of someone in my household to do the stocking up of ingredients (doctor’s orders for me to not lift more than 10 pounds for ten more weeks, which precludes grocery shopping). My holiday treats include Chocolate Truffle Cookies, Nutmeg Logs, and Coffee Walnut Toffee, and I will probably do a ginger cookie and one other cookie, too – haven’t decided yet, we’ll see how far I get.
BiR, your meatballs sound delicious. I would try baking them somewhere from 350 to 400; timing depends on size, but check them after 20 minutes.
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I got my Amish Friendship bread starter out of the fridge. First baking should be tomorrow.
I was going to wait until I finished the English class, but heck…that paper is practically writing itself!
6 classes left, but really, just 1 “classroom” class; the rest are 1:1 time as we fine tune the final paper. So I figured I could work bread in there.
Hey, soybeans finally went out yesterday and they started corn today!
I have NEVER had beans out there this long. The deer have been eating well. It’s even late for corn but that’s not as critical.
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
I stopped baking for Christmas years ago because my sweet tooth is incorrigible and I have no self-discipline about sweets. Now I bake only for an occasion in which I can take the finished product somewhere that makes it permanently unavailable.
My favorites: Peanut Blossom Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, a sugar cookie recipe from my sister.
Sigh.
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This is probably a good year for me to cut back on baking, too. Oldest daughter works on Christmas day and several days around that time so they won’t be coming for Christmas. Usually about 5 minutes after they arrive daughter + husband are down in the basement looking for the tins or buckets of cookies or snooping in the frig looking for the toffee. Without them here to eat, I’m the one that will eat the most of the treats and I would be better off abstaining since I have no self-control.
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Yup. Dangerous.
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Who am I kidding. I’m not going to cut back.
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I will bring goodies with us to Brookings for Christmas, and also send a care package to my mother in law in Colorado. Daughter will get one, too. I always make Stollen, and this year I have a good recipe for Bremen Klaben, which is a northern German version of Stollen with mainly raisins and candied orange peel. I also plan to make Potica. I will take photos and post about it when they are made. I need to order some glaceed fruit . There will be several kinds of cookies.
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Oh, I forgot the Julekag
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OT. Blevins is this Sunday. Blevins page is up to date.
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Already? I think this warm weather has made me think it can’t be almost December.
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Eldest niece was pestering me at Thanksgiving about teaching how to make krumkake – it is a favorite of hers. May have to make two batches – one with her (and perhaps her sister) and one with Daughter and her best friend (who like to roll krumkake, even if they don’t eat nearly as much as the niece). Usually don’t make those until about a week before Christmas. Julekage is made days before Christmas – I like it as fresh as possible…and given that Christmas Eve is on a Sunday, I may be baking bread on 12/23…baking it as early as 12/16 seems too early and it needs a good chunk of the day to rise.
Other baking will vary depending on time, demands made by Daughter (last year this meant giant piles of peanut butter blossoms were baked…a cookie I love and try not to make as I eat them by the handful if they are available), and whim.
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I will bake some spritz a day or two before Christmas. That’s my only must-have. I’ll see what else I feel like baking. Something with candied fruit is always nice.
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I will probably make kringla right AFTER Christmas, so as to have some left when sister and her family come to visit on the 27th. I might also “branch out” and do a cardamom ring cookies, or something kind of short-bready with a lot of butter.
I used to have a Cardamom Wreath bread tradition for Christmas morning, but one packet of yeast makes two loaves, and with just the two of us… If I get inspired, I could give one as a gift to someone, I suppose.
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I usually buy yeast at the co-op, where you can get a teaspoon and a half from the bulk bin if that’s what your recipe needs. No waste. Do you have a co-op with bulk bins?
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Of course – why did I never think of that?
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