Thursday, December 15, 2011

Open season for baking!

It's that time of year again. The time of year when my beloved red KitchenAid is frequently spotted on the kitchen counter.
Sprinkles, nonpareils, and chips perch on my refrigerator.

And I have a freezer that would make Paula Deen proud.It's open season for baking.

One of the reasons why I love Christmas is that it is perfectly acceptable to bake or make ridiculous batches of cookies and candy and pass them out in the name of peace and goodwill. Calories for everyone! I used to frequently pass out batches of baked goods to folks in my neighborhood when I moved in, but then I learned most were diabetics. Major bummer.
Since my Bree Van de Kamp days are over, I focus my inner Martha on the holiday season. I used to bake an assortment of breads and coat everything from nuts to Nutter Butters in chocolate. Now, I focus on creating cookie boxes that might resemble boxes of chocolate. A box of yummy variety where you never quite know what you are going to get. I started planning my Cookie Assault in October and started baking and freezing the day afterHalloween. I mailed out eight boxes to people living in four states, gave out eight boxes to neighbors and friends, and handed out six boxes to coworkers. Plus, we have a tray of our own.

So far, I think the perfect Christmas cookie box must have 1) Cutout cookies w/icing 2) chocolate 3) a traditional, homemade cookie 4) something with nuts 5) Something with a holiday flavor, like peppermint, gingerbread, cranberry, or pumpkin.

This year, I went with a Christmas Tree motif for my cut-outs. I have it on good authority that this recipe came from someone who worked in the Dayton's bakery and yearsago, brought home (or stole?) the famous Sugar Bears recipe. Who knows? It's a wonderful recipe. I found a fabulous icing recipe that makes an icing like play-doh so you can shape it with your hands. I put sprinkles on one tree, peppermint flavored icing on another, and made the other one like a Charlie Brown Tree.

Then, I strayed from the popular Kellerwoman favorite, Andes Mint Cookies, for a Double Chocolate Cookie w/M & Ms recipe that I ripped out of a magazine. It had a complex flavor, but perhaps it was a miss...the Andes Mint Cookies have been missed and mentioned.

This year I made Hillary Clinton's Chocolate Chip Cookies, published in a Little Rock Junior League cookbook when Hillary was still Hillary Rodham. (At the time I was so excited about my Hillary cookies, I tried Bill's enchilada recipe which was also in the cookbook. Ick.) So, I used Hillary's for the favorite cookie.

For the nuts, I begged my coworker to teach me how to make her family's peanut brittle. She says the recipe goes back more than three generations and I can understand why. Previously I have failed miserably at making candy, but this year after my tutorial I made three more batches AND got brave enough to make a batch of English Toffee. All worked very well and all were accomplished during the kids nap time.

For the holiday flavor, I experimented with a cookie to make a Cranberry-Walnut-Orange Sandwich cookie. It's a cut-out with orange zest and orange juice in the dough, a cranberry-walnut mixture inside topped with an orange icing. It's good, but it requires a lot of steps.
I also added a favorite shortbread Corduroy Cookies that require dipping in chocolate and nonpareils. They are delicious, but so delicate that I'm afraid most will be BOA--broken on arrival. (Even though I froze them ahead of time for more successful shipping).
This totals more than 430 cookies or about 36 dozen.

And it means I'm taking January off.

But I've already found a caramel cookie called "Arkansas Travellers" that looks appealing...



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