christmas baking... what do ya make?

okay, i just finished all my tarts... my world famous pecan butter tarts, lemon tarts and mincemeat tarts.

my 'whipped' shortbread turned out amazing :chew:

tomorrow we are making our peanut butter bark and our candy cane bark.

mmm... and that's it for me.

what do you make? are you done yet?

Can I come for dinner?? ! can't bake a thing. When it comes to baked goods there has been times my dogs would run the other way!!:bleh: :sigh2:

I tried out a yummy recipe of white chocolate, pretzels and m&m's. It was wonderful. The kids loved making it too. I've made a couple lemon cakes as well for my husband's work. I just finished making an apple pie. (just had a piece of it too with ice cream of course)

Now I've got to move on to the cookies. I'm going to let the kids help me make some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies, and of course we'll make some sugar cookies (decorated of course) for Santa. ;)

christie, can i get that recipe from you? can you make it with milk chocolate?

Ok


Ya got me;

"my 'whipped' shortbread turned out amazing :chew:"

How do you make whipped shortbread? ( and this better not be filthy :colbert: )


My mothers shortbread ( while tasting like heaven naturally) always comes in handy if the driveway needs repairing and is a good seasonal test as to who needs to visit the dentist more often.


dr del

Whipped Shortbread

These melt in your mouth. The secret is in the beating.

1 c butter
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c icing sugar

combine all ingredients and beat for 10 minutes using an electric mixer. start off slow but get your mixer up to full speed by the end. you should see the mixture change to a whipped, smooth consistency. drop from teaspoon onto cookie sheet.

bake at 350 for appr. 17 min until bottoms are lightly browned.

makes appr 3 doz small cookies.

absolute freakin' heaven!!!!! and my butter tarts... well they are beyond heavenly. everyone loves em... even people who don't like butter tarts :D i was fortunate to have someone feel sorry for my 'nonbakingmama' failings and she gave me this recipe... and i've been doing it right ever since!!!

here's the recipe:

Aleesha’s Butter Tarts

1/3 c. butter
1c. butter
1/2 c. golden corn syrup
1/2 c. demerara sugar
1/2 to 2/3 c pecans = 4 pecans per tart shell.
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 eggs

Melt butter, all ingredients except egg and pecans - mix thoroughly.

Let mixture cool about 30 minutes and add the egg, beaten just sufficiently to combine yolk and white.

Place 4 pecans into each tart shell and then scoop the butter tart mixture into each shell.

Bake 15 minutes in 350 degree oven.

Ta for that - squirrled away for later :)



Sadly I don't have an electric mixer at the moment - my old one burst into flames when I was making my home made chapathi dough. :oops: well it's more end of the cheque filler dough to be honest as it's only flour,salt and water. But slather it in butter and it's luvely. :D

I admit it was a tad stiffer than normal but the motor catching fire was a bit more critisism of my culinary skills than was strictly necessary I feel.:mad:

Still I manged to get it out and fry it up for dinner so it wasn't a total loss.


dr del

hahahahahahaha ahhhh poor derek :(

Before working full time, I made salt water taffy. I made a batch of peppermint using the peppermint sundae topping from McD's (I was an employee at the time) and a batch of vanilla & then twisted them together. Yuuuuuuuuuuuummmmm!!!! :chew: Sugar cookies, peanut brittle, dream fudge, aaaaaaall sorts of goodies. Now I don't have the time, or I'm too tired or broke.


Now all I do is our family bratzeli recipe (if I have the $$ for the ingredients). It's a Swiss tradition that we learned from my grandfather. We make the dough, roll and chill the balls and then press the cookies in an imported bratzeli iron.

They are soooooooooooooooo yummy.....! When my sister and I were little, we were the ones that rolled the dough. And it was always funny b/c Grandma would come in and scold :taz: us for EATING :chew: the dough balls, instead of putting them on the trays for pressing. :D :D Then we got older, and just didn't eat as much of the dough, but waited for the bratzelis. :)

They're eggs, butter, sugar, flour, and then your choice of either almond, lemon, vanilla, cinnamon or any combination. Allison even made two batches; one with maple and the other w/caramel. There's a bunch of other ways to flavor them, but we haven't tried those. Gma loved the lemony ones. My mom preferred more vanilla and cinnamon, and I mix the dough w/greater amounts of everything for a bit more flavor. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm*slurp*

mmmmmm.....I'm soooo hungry LOL Okay here is my list

1. cocoa peppermint pretzels- it's a chocolate shortbread shaped like a pretzel, bake, let cool, dip in chocolate, then dip in crushed candy cane YUM

2. Frosted Walnut Logs- a butter cookie with chopped walnuts , shaped like a log, as soon as they come out of the oven dunk them in a bowl of powdered sugar and let cool

3. Grandmas Peanut Butter Fudge- I put a layer of melted chocolate on top to harden. I love peanut butter cups!

4. Grandmas Chocolate Fudge

5. Grandmas Popcorn Balls

6. Chocolate Chip Cookies

7. Banana Bread

i dont make anything too fancy, sugar cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. but a TON of them, i think i used about 7 roles of sugar, and a big tub of chocolate chip dough (yeah, definatley not a baker, i dont make the dough myself. maybe one day i'll get the hang of it though.lol). got a scar, but my friends enjoyed it. (i'm used to holding things on my hips, and not even thinking, i took a cookie sheet out, one of the really thick ones, and put it on my hip, so im sure this huge burn is going to turn into a scar).
oh well....I'll always remember the first time i baked a TON of cookies! :)

For the Big Dinner, we always have the same things, but it is a family tradition. A smaller sized turkey usually, as we also usually have a smaller ham as a second meat.. mashed potatoes of course, unless someties we have scalloped rarely.. yams that I will not eat.. stuffing (mmmm!) my sister's green-bean/onion casserole too. And enough desserts to choke a Clydesdale.
Followed by a glass of red wine.. I don't normally drink it, but it is one of those family-dinner things. For desserts, we have apple pie, my brother-in-laws signature cheesecake, and anything else that anyone felt like baking! I think I will make cutouts this year.. seems like fun, and I havea few funny cookie cutters :D

Well, I don't do holidays, but baking is something that I most certainally do...all the time.
My *favorite* things to make are cream cheese cookies, log rolls and...well, desserts in general.
My *usual* things to make on a regular basis are bread, rolls, buns, rice bread, tortillias, pitas, naan bread, bread, bread, bread, bagles...did I mention bread? :D

Hey RG, I AM coming to your house for coffee (and to steal your fish tanks) :P

I don't bake cookies or Xmas treats - that's what Gramma's and Aunts are for. =)

But our holiday (read = Thanksgiving and Christmas) dinners are getting a pattern: big roasted turkey, mashed potates, roasted new baby potatoes, American stuffing, British stuffing (they are completely different and neither of us likes the other, so I make both), green bean casserole. I buy the pumpkin pie, hehe...

Mmmmmm

Reading Cassandra's reminded me...

Grandma used to make a delicious marshmallow date roll. And then when we got older and she got arthritic, she's make it, but WE'D beat it....the divinity and the patience candies.

She'd also make some yummy candied popcorn that we'd always snitch.

I wished I knew what recipes she used. :( Now that she's gone, those are the sorts of things I would have like to have passed on to MY daughter.

Ahhhhhhh, but we'll always have bratzelis. :D

Can't go wrong with some chocolate chip cookies or some hershey fudge brownies...

I have my own recipe that you'll go crazy for...hehehe :D

[QUOTE=recycling goddess]okay, i just finished all my tarts... my world famous pecan butter tarts, lemon tarts and mincemeat tarts.

my 'whipped' shortbread turned out amazing :chew:

tomorrow we are making our peanut butter bark and our candy cane bark.

QUOTE]

Can you ship??? lol haha... Sounds good!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shadowspider

Well, I don't do holidays, but baking is something that I most certainally do...all the time.
My *favorite* things to make are cream cheese cookies, log rolls and...well, desserts in general.
My *usual* things to make on a regular basis are bread, rolls, buns, rice bread, tortillias, pitas, naan bread, bread, bread, bread, bagles...did I mention bread? :D

Hey RG, I AM coming to your house for coffee (and to steal your fish tanks) :P

---

only if you bring me some homemade bread!!!

and get your hands off my tanks and my balls girl... i know you waaaaaant them! :carrot:

djslurp1200, actually no i don't LOL my hubby's family all do a cookie exchange every year and i've never participated. i guess the reason is because i don't do my baking until right before yule... so it would never get there in time as they are a province away ;) at least, that's my story and i'm sticking to it LOL

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by recycling goddess

only if you bring me some homemade bread!!!

and get your hands off my tanks and my balls girl... i know you waaaaaant them! :carrot:

djslurp1200, actually no i don't LOL my hubby's family all do a cookie exchange every year and i've never participated. i guess the reason is because i don't do my baking until right before yule... so it would never get there in time as they are a province away ;) at least, that's my story and i'm sticking to it LOL

---

LOL Tell ya what, I'll meet ya at the border. I'll bring bread, you bring coffee, fish tanks and balls. Sounds like a fair trade to me! :carrot:
I want your corns too so....you'd better hide them well! :P

are you still hoping for my organic coffee denise? i think you are going to have to come up here for a visit!!!

Heck yeah girl! I love organic stuff sooo much more than...well...fake food and drinks. :D
I wish we had a vehichle, I'd probably already have been up there a time or two. :D