Holiday Baking

Off to bake more cookies,..then to work,..LATER!!

JerryR - you can go back and edit the post - so that the evidence of any flub will be vaporized.

Funny you mention that,...I had just remembered that I Could do that!!

oooooh - nice edit :wink:

Hi all,

This week is when I start prepping for the holidays. Today I will make enough pastry crust to do my pies (and then some!) for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I will make and chill the doughs today, tommorrow I will roll it out, then place the ready to use dough circles on sheets of parchment. They can be stacked on a baking sheet (as long as there is a parchment sheet between each one) then wrapped in plastic and frozen. This always saves me alot of time as the days come closer.
You can then just take as many dough circles as you need out of the freezer the night before you need them, leave them in the fridge, and in the morning they'll be ready to go. All you have to do is make your filling and bake.
Just a note, I always save my leftover dough scraps in the freezer, nothing easier than a quiche or two for holiday brunches.

Here's a solid pie dough recipe:
Basic Flaky Pie Dough (Pate Brisee)
(recipe makes 2,double crust 9" pies, double recipe for 2 deep dish)

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons salt
1-1/3 cup vegetable shortening, chilled, and cut into small pieces
8 tablespoons unsalted butter,(1 stick) chilled, and cut into small pieces
1 cup ice water, plus more if needed

In a medium bowl, combined the flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-sized pieces of shortening.
Tossing the mixture with a fork, gradually sprinkle in the water, mixing with the fork, until the dough is just moistened and holds together when pinched between your thumb and forefinger. (You may have to add more water, a couple of teaspoons at a time.)
Gather up the dough into 2 flat discs, wrap in parchment or waxed paper, and chill for 2 hours before using..

OK,..pie crusts are all rolled out, stacked and in the freezer!

Today I'll also mix up a few batches of muffin batter, and freeze them in quart containers. They will freeze well, for up to four months. Like the pie dough, I just put the frozen containers into the fridge the night before I need them, and there ready to "scoop and bake" in the morning!

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 Tablespoon grated orange peel
1/4 cup orange juice
sugar or sanding sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine flours, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, buttermilk and zest. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir to almost combine, but do not overmix.
Spoon batter into a well buttered muffin tin about 2/3rd. full. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Brush hot muffins with orange juice and sprinkle with sugar. Leave muffins in tins for 10 minutes before moving to a wire cake rack to cool.


Jordan Marsh, "Big Blues"

8 tbsp (1 stick) soft unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling the tops of the muffins
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk or milk
1 pint blueberries, rinsed, drained and dried off, I usually use frozen

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

Cream the butter with the sugar and salt by hand or with an electric mixer until light. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
Mix the flour and baking powder together well and stir into the batter alternating with the buttermilk.
Crush 1/4 of the berries and stir into the batter; fold in the remaining berries whole.
Spoon the batter into the muffin pan. Sprinkle the tops with some sugar or sanding sugar
Bake muffins about 30 minutes, until well risen and deep golden. Cool the muffins in the pan.


Yum

Tommorrow starts COOKIE HELL!!

Now that Thanksgiving is past, I'm ready to join you in Cookie Hell, Jerry. My mother made a great apple pie but that was about it as far as baking went. Once I grew up, got married and had kids, I decided they had to have homemade cookies for the holidays. There have been years when I've made as many as 16 or 17 different kinds and distributed them to 20 or 30 households. No more. Now we're down to the most loved 7 or 8 types and they only go to family and really good friends (a concession to age, I'm afraid).

Now is the time I start making the dough which I then freeze until the week before Christmas. Makes life much simpler (and keeps my back from totally killin' me).

I have cut back a lot these and only do spritz and short bread cookies. And always fudge. But in the past it was cookie hell but it was a labor of love for my co-workers and my former husband's co-workers and I had a helper that ate as much as she baked. But we had some fun except for the year the thremostat for the oven went out half way through the ginger bread men.

Hi bandylu,

YAY,...cookie hell is more fun with company!!!
Yeah, I already made a bunch of cookie doughs and froze them,..more this week,..gotta start on gingerbread houses.
Some of the cookies I make freeze really well after they're baked, so i will do that as well to save some time Christmas week!!

Generally speaking, my cookie hell is a solo experience. When my son was about 2 I tried to let him help. Big mistake. Since then I've done it myself -- and it is a labor of love.

My gingerbread and sugar cookies last a long time in tins so I can bake them early. My chocolate chip must be the last to be baked cause everyone loves them right out of the oven (though my daughter discovered that a few seconds in the microwave restore some of their out-of-the-oven charm).

holiday cooking?
Are we on a particular course, or
do we just hop on in their with any of our
seasonal favorites?

Hi babs,

This thread is for baked goodies,..I can start a savory thread if you'd like!

I made this today, o bake for tommorrows dessert, I'll serve it warmed with some vanilla bean ice cream (also made today)

Gingerbread Pudding

Ingredients:
1/2 loaf gingerbread, diced into small cubes
1 McIntosh apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup currants
2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream
1/2 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise and bean scraped
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the gingerbread into cubes. Place in a generously buttered 8 x 8 x 2-inch pan. Top with the apple and currants. Set aside. Scald the milk, cream, and vanilla bean. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the eggs, yolks, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Hand whip until mixed. Temper the egg mixture with the milk mixture (pour the hot milk mixture a little at a time into the egg mixture while whipping so as not to scramble the egg mixture). Strain through a sieve into your prepared pan.
Press the gingerbread down to ensure complete coverage with the liquid. Let sit for 30 minutes or overnight. Cover the pan with foil. Bake in a water bath for approximately 1-1/2 hours or until done. Remove the foil during the last 20 minutes of baking to brown the top. Baking times may vary with your oven. Cut into squares and serve hot.
Serves: 6 to 9

I do an excellent pie crust, and fillings are never hard . . . do very nice, bread-dough-based cinammon rolls, as well, and, of course bread . . . but i've got no recipes--i just know how to do it . . .

Does anyone have a simple recipe for gingerbread, that they've used and found foolproof, (remember that fools are very resourceful!).

I can look it up on the net myself - but don't have the time or energy at present to try a lot. So - personal recipes, please.

I don't need gingerbread houses (sheesh!), but simple gingerbread. I need it simple because some of the ingredients you mention don't seem to be available in the antipodes. Gingerbread is not common here.

margo


On this site

ALL about gingerbread/Lebkuchen

you'll not only find some nice recipes (there are several links!) but all information about Lebkuchen/gingerbread as weel.


(I really like the "experiences" one can have in Australia!

Australian Gingerbread House

I'm posting here just to help you out, Margo. I am "normal," too.

Jerry, a question. I seem to remember from the dark and distant past reading (Joy of Cooking, perhaps?) that, if you don't have cake flour, you can help all-purpose flour along by adding some cornstarch and then sifting the lot. Maybe 1 Tbsp. to a cup, though that could be misremembered. Have you ever heard of this practice?

Thanks for the chocolate cake recipe. Yum.

Kara, you can do just exactly that. Remember to sift sift sift! And measure your volume AFTER sifting, and very very gently.

But cake flour still works better, if you can find it.

I made such perfect gingersnaps a couple of years ago that everybody thought they were from the store.

For Christmas I like to make just a few varieties of cookies... not too many. I make ginger bread cookies.... which I call Ginger Dogs as I use a Scottie dog cookie cutter, Mexican Wedding Cakes/Swedish Snowballs (the powdered sugar & walnut balls), biscotti with whiskey, and fudge. That's about all I have strength to do!

The Ginger bread cookies are not what you want, I think, Margo. They really are cookies. The recipe comes from the Chicago Tribune, I think.

The Mex.Wedding Cakes & the Biscotti are from Sunset magazine. The Fudge is from the label on the marshmallow creme jar!!!