What are you baking these days? December 2015 edition! [OLD]

Question

It's December in a lot of places already, so here we go with the new thread.
This should be a big baking month, with lots of cookies and other seasonal treats...
What are you baking, or have your eye on to make in December?

Answer

I made the Buttertart-recommended easy candied orange peel recipe, in preparation for the GGM cake. The peel is really delicious, but the recipe calls for too much sugar for the tossing - 1 cup, but I used 1/2, which was still too much. 2 Tbsp would have been perfect....and I used large navels oranges!

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Today I baked chocolate muffins from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. I love that these aren't just cupcakes by another name. Deep chocolate flavor, not too sweet, nice crumb. I didn't use muffin liners but I did grease the pan with lard. They released very well.

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Making this for a tree-trimming party at work tomorrow morning:
http://leitesculinaria.com/102074/recipes-sour-cream-coffee-cake-2.html#Ifxj0uXRK9MbVXFe.99

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Christmas baking has officially begun. Last night I made peppermint bark. Tonight I took it out of the freezer and made pretzel toffee chocolate bark..

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Hi buttertart,

Thanks again for starting this thread every month. It's fun and inspiring. I don't know if it counts as baking because I cook them in a cast iron frying pan, but I made this naan from the New York Times. I make it a lot and my husband is always appreciative:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013598-naan-indian-flatbread

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Vanilla bean loaves to bring to tea with a neighbor. Nice, simple. Better on day two. http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2004/09/vanilla_bean_lo.html

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Baking banana bread right now. 
http://leitesculinaria.com/409/recipes-banana-bread.html

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Cardamom Cake, from the November thread, just out of the oven.

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There's going to be a potluck Christmas party at work, and I'm thinking of bringing cranberry upside cake, David Lebovitz has a recipe for it. Unless they get a lot of people to sign up for desserts, then I may make some focaccia instead.

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Tomorrow, I'm going to bake more spicy persimmon bread with the fuyu kaki (persimmons) from my cousin's tree in Mountain View.

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Hi Bakers,

I made this orange/coconut/poppy seed cake today. The flavor is lovely and the texture is tender.

http://www.technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com.br/2015/03/orange-coconut-poppy-seed-cake-and-how.html

I know that coconut is divisive. I love it. Until this thread I didn't know that there were so many people who loathed banana.

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Started on my holiday baking for coworkers today. Alice Medrich's rose tuiles.

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Made some molasses cookies from the current COTM. Delicious and easy! I was worried they'd taste too much like molasses (which I dislike) but they did not. 

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Molasses-Cookies-Recipe

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Limoncello cupcakes, from the winter baking COTM, Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi. Lemon zest in the cupcakes, lemon juice in the syrup for brushing on them and in the frosting, and limoncello (my homemade from Meyer lemons) in all three parts.

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Hi all! I'm looking for another baking book for a friend and noticed that David Lebovitz's Ready For Dessert seems to have a number of positive reviews in EYB. Does anyone here have it? Does it have a lot of photos? TIA for any help you might offer.

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Not baking, but these things contain baking powder, so I thought, "close enough to post".

A sweet braid has long been a Christmas sweet in my family. Unfortunately the recipe got lost (not by me; I plead innocence), but some googling turned up a few. Here's one I made:

http://www.food.com/recipe/south-african-koeksisters-309851

My first reaction on looking at the recipe was that there was too much baking powder, but I followed the recipe anyway. My opinion was proven when they turned out looking like they were on steroids. I also thought there was too little butter. I didn't make the syrup recipe, but instead used syrup left over from candying orange peel. They tasted just as I remembered them. However, I want something daintier-looking (don't want to offend any sensibilities), so I'm going to try another recipe, which is more in my line of thought proportion-wise. If anyone is interested, I'll post the recipe after I make them. 

BTW does anyone (Buttertart?) know where Roxlet is? I don't think I've seen anything posted by her in a long time.

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Not "baking" but made Bourbon Balls. Very yummy.

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I'm making gingerbread for St. Nicholas day today, and baking some foccacia, just because I like foccacia.

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I baked my moms recipe for weckmann today. I've already devoured almost a whole one by myself. They finally came out perfect. My mom lost the instructions and so I've been working on figuring out the baking temp and time the last few years. I baked them at 350 but I don't know how long because I was busy cooking roux for gumbo while they were baking. They came out with a wonderful soft light texture. I did notice that the eyes were sliding off when I took the photo and I didn't have any cherries for the mouth.

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Chocolate Babka bread from Smitten Kitchen (thanks EN!)! Which my dog wickedly stole the first slice!

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Had a week-end of Christmas baking (had Friday off). Got lots done, but also had a few disasters (twice had to abort making recipes due to missing ingredients. The worst was when I was making whipped shortbread and I lost count of how much flour I had put in. Too much, as it turned out).
Succesfully made:
2 batches of peppermint bark (already sent to my uncles in Colorado)
Pretzel toffee bark
7-layer cookies (aka Hello dollies.)
Sugar and spice pecans
English Toffee bars
About to make austrian raspberry shortbread.
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/12/austrian-raspberry-shortbread/
A massive pain to grate the dough, but so worth it.
Also made pumpkin biscuits, largely to use up some frozen pumpkin puree in the freezer (needed the space for those barks to set).
I would estimate that 90% of my caloric intake this week-end was in the form of sugar, butter, or chocolate: I have felt mildly nauseous for several days, but do plan to make actual dinner today!
Remaining to bake this week (besides second batches of all of the above, except the shortbread):
fleur de sel caramels (for my staff's Christmas gifts)
Mocha nanaimo bars (slightly ambitious)
A spanish cookie I ate daily on a recent trip called panallets. I have to make them now that I dropped a bomb on pine nuts. ALso naturally gluten free..

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I haven't baked bread in years--nay, decades. But when this recipe hit my inbox this morning, I decided it was time to dig out those old baguette tins and get kneading. Something went wrong; the dough didn't rise anywhere near as much as it should have. I know the yeast was good (made rolls for Thanksgiving). Maybe the water wasn't warm enough. Maybe the room, and I was just being impatient. The bread was too dense, but the crust was terrific. And it was still a lot better than some baguettes I've bought, so at least I was encouraged if not exactly thrilled.

https://food52.com/recipes/27433-dan-leader-s-4-hour-baguette#comments

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Made pistachio shortbread au pif last night to take to Turkish friends today -- 1 c flour, 1/2 c pistachios, 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp salt whirled together in the FP to grind the pistachios, then 4 oz butter added and worked until a dough formed; patted into an 8x8 in pan and the top studded with whole pistachios; baked 25 mins at 350. Cut while still warm. They were pronounced excellent. I was too full of Turkish breakfast to try them.

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Had our annual cookie exchange party yesterday and made some cardamom palmiers which didn't come out well at all (my puff pastry didn't puff- I think I had let it sit in the fridge too long) so I made Swedish chocolate butter sliced cookies from Fika. Didn't have pearl sugar, so I decorated with silver sanding sugar, which WAS awfully pretty. These are super easy to make, and while not spectacular, are good basic cookies and would be great served with coffee or tea.

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I've long been roasting hazelnuts to get rid of the skin, but most of the time it's an exercise in frustration as the skins do not let go easily. I had a particularly bad batch on the weekend, so I did some googling for a solution.

I came across a video of Alice Medrich with Julia Child, boiling the nuts briefly in water with baking powder, so I did the same. The skins slipped off lickety-split. Problem is that the nuts were no longer crunchy - okay in a cake, but not for decoration.

So I bought another batch (from a different store) and just roasted them, thinking I would just use the few for decoration that shed their skins easily. Surprise! Most gave their skins the slip very easily.

So, I was wondering: is there a special type of hazelnut I should be looking for? Any ideas?

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Alice Medrich's lemon tart and passion fruit cupcakes with coconut frosting from Williams-Sonoma. I doubled the passion fruit curd so that I can eat it with bread for the next couple of weeks.

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I have interrupted my runs of croissants to explore levains (sourdough to most folk) and ciabatta (and levain ciabatta).

for December I will return to making croissants, which will be easier in the colder weather. Also, I couldn't resist buying Crosse & Blackwell mincemeat when I saw it over thanksgiving; a mincemeat pie is in the wings. I will add some maraschino cherries and small apple cubes to the prepared mincemeat, as my mother did.
Finally, yesterday my wife was paging through the seductive Vermont Country Store catalog and asked me if I could make a fruitcake for her. Unlike the tragic commercial fruitcakes and the proliferation of inadequate and misguided fruitcake recipes (dating back from the present through the last 150 years), the fruitcake recipe in James Beard's "American Cookery" (Little, Brown) is spot-on with rich, buttery goodness. It has a pound cake base. I am sure it can be found on line. Right now, after this, I will search the net for the best quality candied citron, cherries and pineapple. Since I live in the southwest, pecans are no problem.

Addendum: Help! All my sources of great candied fruit are out of business or changed stock (ie, King Arthur only has 'mix' or orange or lemon, no cherries, no solo citron). Making my own is no good; candied fruit makers start with better fruit than is available in the crapshoot called grocery store, even WF.

GB

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I was traveling for a couple of weeks, and am behind on holiday baking. We've got family staying with us this year, including 4 kids. So I'm planning crowd pleasers, rather than traditional Christmas cookies. My SIL is severely allergic to nuts, so that rules out some of my favorites. But I did discover that Trader Joe's chocolate chips are nut free! 

I just finished a batch of brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough and put it in the fridge to hang out for a couple of days.

Other items in the pipeline...

These "better than crack brownies" for the office: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/08/better-than-crack-brownies/ 
Dulce de leche bars
Chocolate coconut cookies
Chocolate cupcakes with candy cane frosting
nothingwrong's yeasted coffee cake
Ice cream (not baking, but part of the Christmas dessert roster!)

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January 2016 COTM Nomination thread is posted here: http://www.chowhound.com/post/cotm-january-2016-nominations-1029326

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Ina's Pear Apple & Cranberry Crisp - I'd highly recommend this. As mr bc said, with the cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest make this smells very "Christmassy" as it bakes. 

http://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=376&S=0

I'll be making another one for a brunch buffet over the holidays.

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This is not really baking, but it's dessert - freezer cookies called chocolate salami. (When I was a child, my mom used to call them cookies that you bake in the freezer, which used to astonish me). They are amazingly delicious and are always gone within hours of making them.

Cookies - arrowroot and/or ladyfingers - 400 grams
Butter - I use salted 150 grams
Sugar - 1 cup 
Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp
Cream or milk - 5 Tbsp
Walnuts or pecans - 1 cup roughly chopped

Blitz most of the cookies in a food processor to a chunky powder. Crumble the rest by hand into larger pieces (you can use a potato masher in a bowl, or a rolling pin). Add chopped nuts. Heat up cream with sugar to almost a boil. Add cocoa powder. Remove from heat, and add butter. Dump into cookie crumb bowl and mix. 

On a large piece of plastic wrap, form a salami shaped log from the thick cookie mixture. Wrap kind of like sushi into a tight log. Wrap the saran wrap log with tinfoil and freeze for at least two hours. When frozen, slice into thin salami slices and consume quickly.

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I baked a beautiful apple pie today for my husband to take to his father tomorrow for his birthday. My father-in-law loves a good pie and this should make him very happy.

I am completely sold on the vodka pie crust. I've made it three times now and finally feel like I can make a good pie crust. It doesn't get easier than this.

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Three kinds of ginger cookies for a company party. My favorite is Tutu's Super Crispy Sugar Cookies. I use parchment paper instead of buttering the pan and in addition to the Rice Krispies I add ½ cup finely minced candied ginger. 

Rec here are Saveur's Molasses cookies, easy, chewy. Also tried Saveur's Gingersnaps. Instead of 8-10 minutes mine took 15-16. Very under sweetened. Crispy. Took forever since they are only teaspoon sized.

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Photos of trio of ginger cookies:

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Cranberry bliss bars for a potluck at work today (a knock off of the Starbucks treats). Very good..

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After baking the brown butter chocolate chip cookies and the dulce de leche bars, I had to stop because my freezer crapped out. 2 weeks before Christmas. All of my bake and freeze plans have gone out the window. 

At least I get to clean out my freezer. :P'

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My mom's (actually her second cousin-by-marriage's) light fruitcake today. Fruit is prepped, make batter this evening, let sit overnight, bake tomorrow.
Will also make my MIL's dark (spiced, brown sugar) one this week.
All but a mini loaf pan of each is spoken for and will be distributed.

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Made salted caramels last night, for the first time. They turned out really well.. will go to my staff alone with jars of strawberry jam. Also had my first burn of the season (not from the caramel... from touching the element!!! ). Used one hand to hold the candy thermometer while the other hand was plunged in a mug of cold water! Just a blister today...

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Does anyone have a tiramisu recipe they'd recommend? My partner and I will be making it for Christmas dinner at my in-laws. I've done a lot of research on my EYB collection and reading random food magazine articles. I'm finding a lack of consensus.

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The browned butter and vanilla bean weekend cake from Baking Chez Moi was today's breakfast and after-dinner dessert.

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Coupla batches of Jacques Torres's Chocolate Chip Cookies to take to a Hannukah party this afternoon.

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No one at the bananas from last week so I just put a banana bread in the oven. 

I use a Mollie Katzen recipe that I first found in Parenting magazine almost 20 years ago. I then found the recipe in a compilation of Parenting magazine recipes put out by Disney. It's actually a great children's/family cookbook though I use it only for this one recipe now.

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I decided to make a shokupan recipe that uses the Tangzhong method. Only time will tell if it'll keep better than the other recipes I've tried on my bread machine. If so I'll be using it a lot more often.

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I made the Speculoos cake from Food52, https://food52.com/blog/13689-cookie-butter-better-than-nutella-acceptable-for-breakfast#comments and when I tested it with a toothpick about 10 min. before it was done, it sadly fell. Sunk like a popped baloon.

I was bringing it to a party, and with no time to make another, I glazed it with chocolate ganache, added a handful of toasted almonds, and served it anyway. People seemed to like it regardless. I thought the flavor was too baking-soda-y.

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I made rugelach to take to a neighbor's house last night - it was well-received. It's always nice to find a situation where it can be pulled out of the oven and served right away - it doesn't keep well!

The kid came over and forced me to participate in cookie baking today - I haven't been in the mood, due to the whole grief thing - but it was a lot of fun and we finished a lot of biscotti and some chocolate-pecan thumbprints.

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I'm going to bake two very large gingerbread girl cookies (about 14 inches each.) My first grandchildren are twin girls, recently two years old. I want to take pictures of them in their holiday fluff with the cookies in hand.

Also, the usual baklava, Dutch tile cookies, brandy balls, shortbread, and gingerbread stars. Holiday Christmas cake.

(The Dutch tiles are from an old, old recipe card collection from the 70's - when I was a wee bride.)

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- Homemade Apple pie with sponge pudding topping rather than a crust, with homemade tasty, hot custard running down each slice *Yum*

-Orange cake made with orange zest and orange juice-also really tasty to have that fresh orange taste with custard.

-Warm date syrup with pancakes.

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For a last-night-of-Hanukkah dinner, I made Dorie Greenspan's Custardy Apple Squares, which are easy (even slicing the apples super thin by hand) and delicious. Basically just enough batter to hold all the apples together, flavored (in my case) with a shot of Myers's rum. Recommended. 

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/12/custardy-apple-squares-from-baking-chez-moi-dorie-greenspan.html

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Had a busy baking Sunday listening to Christmas music. Made a pan of shortbread to share as gifts. I have to hide it so it does not all get eaten before I can pack it up. I make it every year and it is only 4 ingredients: butter, powdered sugar, salt and flour. Made 3 batches of rugelach dough and froze it so it is ready to bake for a work potluck on Friday and some for us next weekend. Also made a pan of cinnamon rolls - my recipe includes potato flakes (or flour) in the dough, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon filling and a cream cheese icing. It is a recipe I have made and perfected over the years and my family loves them. Not bad to have leftovers for breakfast today warmed for a few seconds in the micro at work. Lastly, I made a tamale pie on hubby's request - kind of retro:

http://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/recipes/297029/tamale-pie

It was a hit was easy to make - loved using my large cast iron skillet. Wish I had more time to play in the kitchen but with full time demanding work, weekends are usually it. 

Nadia

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I made this Poached Pear and Frangipane tart from the Martha Stewart web site the other day as a test run for Christmas Day. I brought it to an informal dinner party the other evening at it got raves; it was quite tasty. It's a pretty simple recipe if made in steps. I poached the pears almost a week ahead of time. I also made the pate brisee tart crust well ahead of time and froze the two rounds. I used one for this tart and will use one for the Christmas-Day tart. 

The best compliment was an e-mail the next day in which the hostess said she was having the last piece for breakfast!

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I saved this cranberry-orange cake recipe a long time ago and have been eyeing it wistfully for weeks. Finally made it this weekend but I thought it sounded like a huge cake so I cut the recipe in half and baked in a loaf pan. That was a mistake because now it is almost all gone and I want more! Thank you to whoever posted this originally! Loved the tart pop of the cranberries and the orange flavor in the cheesecake ripple. 

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/cranberry_cake_with_orange_cheesecake_ripple.php

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Started the holiday cookie baking this weekend. Made Caitlin's Marzipan shortbread, iced with a corn syrup glaze flavored with almond extract and bourbon (the red and green cookies in the picture) and some cherry chews.

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Quick report on these "better than crack brownies":

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/08/better-than-crack-brownies/

These would probably fit well into the "dirty recipes that are crowd pleasers" thread of old. Super easy to throw together using a boxed brownie mix. It's barely 10 minutes of active time. I brought these to the office and they were universally raved about. If anyone remembers the candy bar called "whatchamacallit", these remind me of those. The only real change I made was to roast raw peanuts (it's what I had on hand), chop them, and sprinkle a bunch of Maldon. I don't like biting into whole peanuts in my baked goods.

Not fine baking, but good for offices and Super Bowl parties. :)

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Cookie baking for boxes to mail to family is half done. One cookie failure, so far, unless frosting drizzle rescues it. Has anyone else made the Red Dots recipe (p. 46) from European Cookies cookbook by Krisztina Maksai? Fun technique for decorating, but a dry DRY cookie. Recipe calls for 3/4 C. butter (170 gm, 1 1/2 sticks), 2 C. flour, 2 egg yolks, 1/3 C. honey and 1/2 tsp. vanilla sugar. Edges rolled in decoration sugar before baking, a spoon-end round hole before baking and a dab of red jam (plum for me) in the center after they cool. I was expecting a honey-butter flavored shortbread, but that's not at all what I got.
Others on the plate: Almond bar slices, cranberry orange w/ walnut, Vanishing Oatmeal raisin (a huge family favorite - I'll make 4 batches of these), a gluten-free Almond Nutella Brownie cookie, Earl Grey Tea Cookie, Cinnamon Spiced Pecans.
Tomorrow, to finish the list, I'll bake Chocolate-Covered-Cherry cookies, a lemon spritz-like cookie using my OXO cookie press, and Chai-spice birch logs. And 2 pounds of Cinnamon Spiced Pecans.

Always tough to narrow the selections, since I LOVE to make (and taste) cookies. There are 5 more recipes on the alternates list, which may still get made before New Years.

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This week I made rocky road candy and Martha Washington candies.

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Today I made my third batch of mincemeat tarts of the season, and thought that this time I would make life easy, so instead of buttering the muffin tin, I sprayed it with Wilton's Bake Easy (faster to apply). Of course I sprayed on too much, and thought I was taking off the excess when I wiped them with a paper towel. Big mistake! I had to crowbar them out; I obviously took off too much (or all) spray.

So, what's the best way to take off only the excess? I've not worked much with spray before.

Yesterday I made RLB's GGM cake to give someone as a gift. However, while it was cooling I happened to see a chef's knife next to it, and gave in to temptation...cut myself a healthy wedge. It was incredible eating that warm cake, with the still-melted chocolate in it. That's one you haven't made yet, Buttertart......do it! You can probably use walnuts instead of almonds.

I'm making the GGM cake for dessert Friday for a family dinner, and plan to serve it with leftover glaze made with gianduja, chocolate and cream. If I can get the timing right, the cake will be warm.

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Two new cookies for the holidays,both I'm sure I got from you all!

I love lemon and coconut so this was an easy choice. Very good and very easy. 

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/lemon-coconut-snowballs

Next pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing. And let me warn you now, if you like brown butter, you will be licking the frosting bowl it is sooo good! I baked 1/2 the batter, and wondering if I can use the other half to make a cake. Anyone ever try this before from cookie batter to cake? These are delicious as cookies, only drawback is they can't be stacked so had to pull out the pizza pan.....

http://www.marthastewart.com/318741/pumpkin-cookies-with-brown-butter-icing

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For gifts, ginger cookies, lemon shortbread, and sunflower seed brittle with hot smoked paprika. Chocolate shortbread goes out in the next batch of gifts.

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Just finished a batch of pizzelles for my husband to take to his work pot luck tomorrow. We don't care for anise so they are vanilla flavored.

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OK bakers - as I mentioned upthread, we have an office baking contest tomorrow, and I plan to make this: 
https://food52.com/blog/15167-nigella-lawson-s-genius-no-bake-nutella-cheesecake (How can you go wrong with nutella? amirite?)

Here's the rub - I want to make it either in a rectangular pan to be cut into squares or in mini muffin tins. Either way, I think I'd like it just a tad firmer than the original recipe lets it be. If I sprinkle a little unflavored gelatin into my mixture will that do it? Should I dissolve it in a little cream first and work it in? Any other suggestions? I think adding powdered sugar would make it too sweet, and I'm a bit worried that added butter wouldn't cut it, since it does have to sit out for a short time.

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Lemon Yogurt Cake from Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa at Home".

http://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=333&S=0

RAVES from my family. I had to cook mine a little longer for the middle to be done. I used a dark, non-stick loaf pan and that may be why the edges were too done. That didn't make a bit of difference for my family, though. My Meyer lemons are ripe and looking for new uses. I used one for the zest and juice but didn't cut back on the sugar for the cake, in spite of their sweetness. I did for the glaze, and it wasn't as "white" as the picture.

I will be making this regularly. So good!

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maple spiced pecans just came out of the oven: I didn't have enough pecans for my standard recipe, and I wanted to get rid of them somehow. this recipe only used 2 cups.. we'll see what my testers say.

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"Rich Roll Cookies" from an early edition of Joy of Cooking via the Desert Candy blog:
http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2008/12/rich-roll-cookies.html

Quite a good cut-out cookie. I sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar and they are not very sweet, but are buttery and delicate.

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In a fit of I-don't-know-what, I made blondies for the first time in thirty-five years. They'll cure my sugar craving, that's for sure. Beyond that... Ew. 

I also have batter chilling for Xanthippe's Lardsnaps. I'm not sure how to link to the recipe, but it's in this thread: http://www.chowhound.com/post/store-lard-347652. I have no idea what the "amazing texture" will be, but I'm hopeful about the flavor - the dough is great.

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Tonight I made these cranberry-white chocolate bars mentioned in the "Pumpkin...what about cranberries?" thread. http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/white-chocolate-cranberry-bars/23e697a2-9738-4fe9-a565-7fc0deb13beb I never can leave a recipe alone, so I swapped in a chopped bar of Lindt white chocolate for the chips and added dried orange cranberries and a couple spoonfuls of Gran Gala orange brandy. In place of the shortening in the drizzle, I used coconut oil. I also tried that technique I saw somewhere recently of whipping the eggs and sugar together until verrrry fluffy. 

Let's see how they go over - I made two 8" squares and will bring one to a party tomorrow and mail one (unglazed) to a friend who just had a hip replacement.

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I made the chocolate chip cookies from the Seven Spoons cookbook. Spectacular! I loved that they used melted butter and mostly brown sugar. They stayed thick and chewy and were a hit all around.

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I just got a copy of the Honey & Co baking book a few days ago, so I decided to make these sweet cheese buns for breakfast today.

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This weekend I made the Ovenly/ Food 52 "genius" vegan chocolate chip cookies. I love that they're vegan and don't require margarine or shortening. I'm not sure I loved the cookies, though. They were very chewy (good) taste strongly of baking powder (perhaps user error) and just aren't as delicious as I expect chocolate chip cookies to be. Maybe better chocolate would help (I don't have access to great quality chocolate chips where I live).

I also made Martha Stewart's molasses cookies. They were also okay. I thought they could use more spice and more chew.

Mediocre baking here...

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I baked cranberry pecan tassies today, a decision made on account of having the dough hanging out in my freezer. Took 30 to an event this afternoon, all of which disappeared, and have dough in a pan in the fridge for another 16, to be filled, baked, and frozen tomorrow, then given away on Christmas day.

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Chocolate cupcakes are baked and in the freezer, waiting for their last minute ermine frosting topped with crushed candy canes. 

nothingswrong's yeasted coffee cake is on its second rise and will join the cupcakes in the freezer. It will be pulled out for Boxing Day breakfast.

Speaking of nothingswrong...has anyone heard from her? I haven't seen her on the boards lately and am concerned.

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My self imposed moratorium on baking (except for a pie at Thanksgiving that came out really well, but I was lazy and did not post about it) was lifted today for my annual tradition of baking Christmas cookies for my super. I came across a photo for cookies on Tastespotting that looked so simple and delicious, and in my mind, they were all melt-in-your-mouth buttery goodness, that I had to try them. Because I can never leave well enough alone, I also decided I'd put a cherry in the center of them to make them more Christmasy. Well, I followed the recipe to the letter (other than that), and I have to say, they were pretty disappointing. There was no salt or vanilla in it and, even though I always bake with salted butter, they ended up pretty tasteless. The texture also was more dry and crumbly than I was expecting. I had already planned to make two batches, so for the second one I added coconut extract, some flaked coconut, and then topped with mini chocolate chips. Those definitely had some more pizzazz, but still not amazing. Oh well! That's what I get for using an untested and un-vouched-for recipe. They are not so disastrous that I'm uncomfortable giving them away and, i think they look sort of pretty, especially in the tin. 

As an aside. I must be the slowest baker EVER. They had seriously like 4 or 5 ingredients and 3 steps, and the whole shebang, from start to clean up took me a little over 3 hours. I could never survive on one of those TV contests, ha!!

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Made Nutella cheesecakes for office baking contest - didn't even place (meaning out of 8 total entries, they weren't in the top 4. Bacon dipped in chocolate won. Do not even know why I bother). They got good reviews, though!

Bourbon balls made this weekend, and last night we had dinner guests and I made poached pears and the Cardamom Cake from Fika - I love this cake - it's leavened entirely with egg whites, but isn't a sponge cake, and it's flavored entirely with whole cardamom seeds, which crunch pleasingly. The recipe is online here: http://blogs.kcrw.com/goodfood/2015/05/recipe-kardemummakaka-cardamom-cake/

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Sweetheart and I just finished baking 4 dozen gingerbread cookies and 3 dozen sugar cookies, both from long-time favorite Betty Crocker recipes circa 1950. Not fancy but tasty. :-)

Tomorrow we decorate, and Thursday we deliver them to friends' homes. I am thinking about making some kolachky cookies too if I have time. :-)

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Am I the last to "discover" the metal flexible, very thin edged OXO turner/spatula? I got one just before my cookie-baking spree last week and it's WONDERFUL for getting cookies off cookie sheets. Looking online, there are reviews dating back to 2000, with the only complaints from folks who tried to use it for heavy lifting. As my husband learned last night, it's really not good for lasagna. Picture of it here http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Flexible-Spatula/dp/B00004OCL8

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I just made the pistachio, rose & strawberry ins from the Honey & Co. Baking Book. That pistachio cream is seriously scrumptious; I'm already planning the next batch of these.

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Lots of baking this past weekend! Friday I made these peanut butter toffee bars just so my husband would have something sweet that he was allowed to eat (as opposed to staring longingly at all of the Christmas treats he is not allowed to eat yet!): http://www.bhg.com/recipe/bars/peanut-butter-and-toffee-bars/ 

Saturday we went to a cookie decorating party and ended up coming home with some of those too so now we have too many treats in the house (again!) I was especially proud of my Yoda cookie :)

Yesterday I went over to my in-laws house and I made snowball cookies and some almond brittle that I think I messed up but is still tasty. My MIL made fudge and some mini apple cakes. I was also supposed to make coffee flavored macarons with a bailey's ganache but I couldn't find espresso powder anywhere and had to order it. Still not here! Better arrive soon because I really want to try these macarons!

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I've made this Japanese Cheesecake recipe before but not in over a year ago and I now have a different stove. This time it took 1 hr 18 min for skewer to come out clean and half way in started developing cracks. I used coconut spray and 8" cheesecake pan. (I have an oven thermometer and it said 350°)

I turned it over so cracks were on bottom and glazed with strawberry jam since I was out of the apricot jam I prefer .. Strawberry was great. I really love the light taste of this dessert. Nice that you make ahead and refrigerate. 

I think Buttertart once posted a similar recipe; hers had zest and vanilla. Does anyone else have a recipe they prefer?

Here's the recipe and photos:


Japanese Cheesecake
By Ma?va on April 25, 2004 94.60%; 63 Reviews
Photo
Photo by iRatatouille

Prep Time: 5 minsTotal Time: 1 hr Servings: 6-8
About This Recipe
"Living in Japan I discovered this nice Japanese Cheesecake. Myself, I think it's really delicious."

Ingredients
7 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup superfine sugar ( caster sugar)
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup cornstarch ( don't use flour)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 1/2 cups boiling water
For the glazing
2 tablespoons jam ( Apricot or Strawberry)
1/2 tablespoon water
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 9-inch cake tin with cooking oil spray.
Beat cream cheese with milk to soften.
Add half of the sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch and lemon juice.
Beat until smooth.
Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until foamy.
Gradually add remaining sugar and cream of tartar, to the egg whites, beating on high speed until soft peaks form, about 8-10 minutes.
Gradually fold beaten egg whites into the cream cheese mixture, stirring gently.
Pour into cake pan and smooth the surface.
Place cake pan into a larger roasting pan and place in lower rack of oven.
Pour enough water into the roasting pan to come half way up the side of the cake pan.
Bake 35-40 minutes, until a pick inserted in the middle of the center comes out clean.
Page 2 of 2Japanese Cheesecake (cont.)
Directions
You can eat like this, or you can put jam on top of it.
Put the jam in a sauce pan with the water on a low heat and warm up until it's melted.
Then spread the glaze on top of the cake.
If the surface becomes too dark while baking cover with a piece of tin foil, but be careful not to open the oven door until it has been in the oven for at least 20 minutes.

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I made a crumbly (but very tasty) Bundt yeast bread with orange zest, cranberries and pecans, to use up the 4 egg yolks left from last week's cookie baking / spiced nut making. Recipe is from Goldies Kitchen Cookbook by culinary mystery writer Diane Mott Davidson. The recipe called for 3 1/2 - 4 cups of flour and I think I stopped too soon at 3 1/2. With 1/4 C. melted butter, 1/4 c. milk and 1/2 C. oil, along with the 4 egg yolks there was plenty of liquid to flour ratio, Dough was very shiny as I set it to rise, and did not rise much the first time, but was a bit better on 2nd rise. I think I'd cut back on the 3/4 C. dried cranberries and 1 C. chopped pecans, too. Kneading those in at the end, before first rise, it was difficult to get them to incorporate with the dough.

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So far, have made my mom's fruitcake (no booze and no spices) and have the fruit ready for my mother-in-law's (port and spices).
Also made whipped shortbread and my husband's favorite cookies, a mash-up of sablés and the browned butter dream cookies from 150 Best American Recipes.
Still deciding what else...
Trying to decide if I want to take anything in to the office this week -- we've gotten so many corporate gifts of sweets it might be better to do it next week when things die down.

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Hi All You Bakers,

I have a couple of girlfriends over for dinner last night as my husband is away visiting his mom. I made this tart. I know it's not sweet, but it's cooked in the oven so I'm calling it baking.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/31/comte-polenta-tart-recipe-ottolenghi

For dessert I made this cake which is a delicious crowd pleaser since dulce de leche really should be a controlled substance.

http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com.br/2013/04/sour-cream-dulce-de-leche-swirl-cake.html

I made these gingerbread caramel peanut bars for my husband to take to his family. The caramel is taken to the point of being a little bit bitter which balances the sweet gingerbread nicely.

http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com/2015/12/gingerbread-and-peanut-caramel-bars.html

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I had some black bananas I needed to use up so I made banana bread using the ATK family baking book recipe. It was ok but I wasn't really impressed with the texture or the lack of banana flavor. I have a recipe I like but for some reason I tend to always want to try something new just in case I like it more.

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I made these slice and bake Pistachio/Dried Cherry/White Chocolate Crisps today for a cookie throw down with my family on Christmas night. There are 5 of us competing. We all drew a secret ingredient out of a hat and I got dried cherries. These cookies are quite tasty. I think I have a real chance of winning!

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Here's the final Christmas Cookie Plate 2015: Marzipan Sugar cookies, Lebkucken, Pistachio White Chocolate Thumbprints, Cherry Chews, Peppermint Meringues, and Bourbon Balls. I was going to make Panforte, too, but I think I"ll make it after Christmas for three kings day.

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It's great to be home for the holidays and yesterday I was excited to have a day in the kitchen to get some baking done. I made Scottish Shortbread, Chocolate Caramel Treasures, Anise Shortbread snowflakes & stars, Lemon Shortbread thumbprints with homemade preserves, Peanut Butter Chocolate Shortbread, mr bc's favourite Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I also made a lemon loaf since it's a traditional Christmas Eve & day snack here. 

Wishing everyone here all the warmth of the season. Happy Holidays!

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I made Cranberry Crackle Tart from Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. Just incredible. We already devoured it between the three of us. So much for tonights dessert lol. 

I used my grandmothers pie crust recipe instead of the suggestions from the cookbook. It's basically a par baked pie crust with a few tablespoons or raspberry jam ( I used my homemade) in the bottom and then you make the meringue and fold in the cranberries ( I used frozen ones I needed to use up). It bakes in a low oven and the top crackles but it stays moist in the inside. Just a fabulous balance of flavors and textures.

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Finally got around to making the ermine frosting for the cupcakes. Topped with crushed candy canes, of course.

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I made the tiger cakes from Baking Chez Moi this afternoon. They're essentially almond financiers with plenty of finely chopped bittersweet chocolate folded in. They are rich, delicious little bites with great almond flavor. 

I have packed these up, along with the cranberry pecan tassies and mini brown butter and vanilla bean cakes I baked earlier, for giving tomorrow, and tomorrow I will bake a pear fudge pie to take to a friend's house for dessert.

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Thanks to Herby's recommendation upthread of Flour's banana bread, I decided to make it my last baking project before we finish moving this weekend.

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Breakfast - pineapple upside down muffins. Need a fork and plate, but great with a cup of coffee.

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I made orange butter coffee cake for breakfast this morning. I grew up with this every year for Christmas morning. So incredibly good I maintained the tradition with my own kids. The recipe won the Pillsbury Bake Off in 1964 IIRC. 

I think the recipe must be out of copywrite by now so here it is if anyone is interested

1 packet dry yeast
¼ c. warm water
1 c. sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ c. dairy sour cream
½ c. butter
2 ¾ to 3 c. flour
1 c. coconut (toasted)
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
ORANGE GLAZE:
½ cup sour cream
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoon orange juice
¼ cup butter

1. Soften yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in mixing bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sour cream and 6 tablespoons melted butter (cooled). Gradually add flour to form a stiff dough, beating well. Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled, about 2 hours.
2. Toast coconut
3. Combine 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup coconut and 2 tablespoons orange rind. Knead dough on well-floured surface about 15 times. Roll half of the dough to a 12-inch or more circle. Brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle with half of coconut mixture. Cut into 16 wedges for smaller rolls or 12 wedges for larger rolls. Roll up, starting with wide end. Repeat with the remaining dough.
4. Place rolls point side down in 4 rows in greased 13x9-inch pan. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour. Bake at 350 F until golden: 20 minutes for 32 rolls; 25-30 minutes for 24 rolls. Leave in pan and top with glaze. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup coconut mixture.
5. Orange Glaze
Combine in saucepan 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup dairy sour cream, 1 tablespoons orange juice and 1/4 cup of butter. Boil 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

NOTE: Prepare glaze after rolls are baked.

I always do them as 24 rolls. You basically cut them into triangles like crescent rolls and then roll them up starting on the wide end and tuck the tips under

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I made cinnamon rolls for the first time and we had them for Christmas breakfast. They have a cream cheese glaze. Delicious! The recipe I used is by Molly Wizenberg.

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It's not technically baking, but I did make a tiramisu for Christmas dinner dessert. After much looking around on EYB and elsewhere, I went with this simple recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Tiramisu-351138

Made it about 24 hours in advance. It turned out very good and I'd recommend the recipe. Thanks for those who advised on only dipping the ladyfingers in the coffee mixture.

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I never before realized that cookies have a very short shelf life; I usually inhale cookies that I make, so they don't last long.

I don't normally bake cookies at Christmas, but this year I did as I had to help out a relative who is ill and who can't do any baking. Yesterday I was offered a plate of cookies I baked about two weeks ago, and they were, quite candidly, disgusting. Maybe they were stored incorrectly?

I baked scalloped potatoes as one of the sides for dinner yesterday, and they were amazing. Simple recipe: mandolined potatoes layered with minced garlic and parmesan, the whole thing covered with whipping cream, then baked for an hour covered at 350, followed by 30 min uncovered. Smelled wonderful and tasted great!

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Passed on cookies this year but made several steamed Christmas puddings with butter/rum sauce and a few loaves of Irish Tea Brack in place of my annual fruitcake. So much easier and very tasty.

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Yesterday, I made a pear fudge pie to take to a friend's house for dessert. It was done faster than I anticipated, but still came out really well this time around, with a rich bittersweet chocolate flavor and perfect fudgey texture. We ate it with dollops of unsweetened whipped cream.

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Just whipped up some dinner rolls using the ingredients available without going to the store. They're a little thicker crumbed inside than I'd normally like but pretty good! They'll be a vessel for leftover beef tenderloin tonight. 

Recipe was just a random Google find: 
http://www.centercutcook.com/fast-and-easy-dinner-rolls/

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For Christmas dinner, I made a buche de noel (phew.. what a production, but well worth it I think), and this cranberry gingerbread cake.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017758-sticky-cranberry-gingerbread
Which was fantastic. My brother told me it was the best Christmas dessert I"d ever made.. tasted even better the next day.
Caitlin McGrath: know that you asked about it in another thread.. worth making!!!

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I got a bread proofing box for Christmas, so I'm making buttermilk rye rolls to test out my new toy. Even with this freakishly warm weather, it's still only 66 ( or 18 for you Canadians) degrees in the house, so I think this will be a good tool.

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I have a question for all you expert bakers: I've kept my active dry yeast in a ziplock inside a freezer safe Ball jar, in the freezer. I don't think my stuff has been rising much so maybe I should buy some more. Should I buy Red Star again? Is there a better way to store it in the freezer?

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I baked Bialy's today to go with they turkey noodle soup I made for dinner. The recipe is from Inside a Jewish Bakery. I've made them before but not for awhile. So good.

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I took the gingerbread cookies and the sugar cookies with me to San Francisco ( about 3 hours away). They survived nicely and were a huge hit. The recipes I used were from the old classic "The Betty Crocker Cooky Book" circa 1960's or 1970's (I think...the book belonged to my MIL and the covers fell off ages ago due to much use). The sugar cookie recipe is called Esther's Sugar Cookies and whoever Esther was, I thank her from my heart for sharing her recipe. These were simple, delicious and almost fool-proof. Now I know why my mother-in-law used that recipe for decades and why it was her go-to recipe for the decorated sugar cookies at her bakery.

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I made a surprisingly delicious Christmas "Friendship/fruitcake bar", from David Lieberman. They are so easy to make and tasted wonderful even three days after baking. 

I read the comments on this recipe and everyone raved. I have never given homemade gifts without trying them first, but this time I did and can happily report they were a hit from everyone I gave them too!

Just wanted to share, sorry the picture isn't that great. I cut them into very thin slices after giving them in brownie squares, felt it needed a smaller portion as they are rich and very dense.

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Well, Christmas baking was mostly a success! I had a few technical and structural problems with a few recipes but everything still came out tasting good. I should probably not try so many new recipes for holidays and gifts :) Luckily my family members don't care about appearances and liked everything I made! 

I had trouble with nothingswrong's coffeecake-- I think because I was making it by hand (not stand mixer) and didn't add enough flour to really enable me to knead it properly. I think I was also too tired from other Christmas prep to pay close enough attention to what I was doing. I know tons of people have made that cake with great success so I blame myself for my less-than-perfect results! It didn't rise much and wasn't too pretty but it still tasted great so I was glad of that.

My coffee & baileys macarons did taste like coffee with baileys so that was great but were not well formed (no "feet", some hollow shells, too large, didn't pipe very pretty) so again-- tasty but not pretty! Will try them again and pay a bit more attention to my technique when mixing them up and I think that will solve the problems. Also--the batter smelled weird! Has anyone encountered a weird smell with macarons before? Didn't smell rotten or anything, just weird. Only found one result on the internet of someone mentioning this...Have eaten several with no ill effects though :)

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Lots of baking over the Christmas holiday. I did another two batches of cookies: one was the marzipan shortbread mentioned in the "favorite Christmas cookie" thread and the other was our traditional sugar cookies, but rather than roll them out, I turned them into slice and bake and added red and green M&Ms. The marzipan shortbread is REALLY good -- I could do with even more almond flavor though and they weren't quite as chewy as I was expecting. The latter is my fault, as I am fairly sure I over-baked them. They never browned or changed shape, and so I kept thinking I had made them too thick and they needed longer in the oven. Considering how much I am enjoying them, I can only imagine they're even better when you take them out after the proper time. 

I also made a NY style crumb cake for Christmas morning breakfast. Recipe here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/new-york-style-crumb-cake-358217 Everyone LOVED this. Basically, it's an absolutely perfect version of this style cake.

Then for a family get together yesterday I made a panettone bread pudding with an amaretto sauce and an apple pie with a cheddar-streusel topping. The bread pudding was a modified Giada recipe. Since I can't leave well enough alone I added marzipan and raisins to the pudding, supplemented my homemade panettone with store bought challah so there were some different textures of bread, and essentially doubled the sauce by making a separate batch of crème anglaise and combining it with the amaretto sauce. Everyone seemed to really like this, but it was not as OH MY GOD DELICIOUS as I had hoped it would be. Didn't stop me from having 2 1/2 servings though -- ha! I love bread pudding. The apple pie was cobbled together from a bunch of different recipes and was an homage to my uncle who recently passed and always ate his apple pie with cheddar cheese. I was very pleased with the crust and texture of the filling (I've worked so hard on my apple pie and I think I've finally gotten pretty good at it), but thought the topping could have done with even more cheddar.

I only have a few pictures -- of the marzipan shortbread and unbaked pie before it went into the oven.

eeee I love baking! I wish I could have weeks like this all the time.

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A professional baker mentioned to me that she adds marzipan and lemon juice to cookies as it makes them more moist.

After baking a batch of biscotti I had some marzipan left over, so I added a bit (c. 1.5 oz) to some pistachio shortbread. I didn't bother with the lemon juice as I thought it was just a flavour enhancer.

I was amazed: it looked like all of the moisture was sucked out of the cookie batter. I just could not get it to come together, so I added an egg yolk. It was still very crumbly, but I formed it into logs (no easy feat) and chilled it. Cutting it into discs was difficult as the discs kept breaking up. The end result was a very hard cookie.

I have to talk to that baker again.

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Baked the cardamom cake from My Bombay Kitchen that many of you praised. it took much longer than specified 30-35 min to bake, 50 min at least. The almonds baked into the cake instead of forming crunchy topping and it tastes too sweet to me. Maybe because I tasted it too soon after baking? It smelled delicious as it baked and I wanted a slice with a cup of tea :)

A friend is coming over for lunch tomorrow and I hope loves it. Will report then.

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Flour's blueberry muffins for brunch.

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Hi All You Bakers,

My oven is not working. There is no gas going to the pilot light. We think it's the thermocouple. The earliest appointment we could get for the Gas Company to repair it is 01-21-16. How am I supposed to go three weeks without baking? I'm having withdrawals.

I made English muffins and naan bread because they both are cooked on the stovetop. Here are the recipes. I like that the English muffin recipe has instructions for free form muffins because who has room for English muffin rings in their kitchen?

http://ruhlman.com/2010/12/english-muffins-recipe/

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013598-naan-indian-flatbread

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I've started the January 2016 topic. Here's the link http://www.chowhound.com/post/baking-days-january-2016-edition-1030277

Your post has been published!

What are you baking these days? December 2015 edition! [OLD]

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