Holiday baking support group

[KungFuPanda]

54 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

have you ever made Nanaimo Bars?  they're really not that hard.   Even Nanaimo can't agree on an 'official' recipe.   1dd bought several from different bakeries in Victoria (down Island from Nanaimo) for us to try so we could decide which we liked best.

What is custard powder? I've never used this and don't know where to find it.

53 minutes ago, IfIOnly said:

We're doing mostly all new recipes. Always do chewy ginger snaps. Baking and freezing ahead is a great idea.

This cranberry orange shortbread cookie is the recipe I'm most looking forward to trying.

Oh man, I have all of the ingredients for this in the house.  I might have to put these on the list.  We're shortbread fanatics.  We replaced our sugar cookie cutouts with shortbread years ago. 

[gardenmom5]

20 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

What is custard powder? I've never used this and don't know where to find it.

 

basically it's instant vanilla pudding mix.

[PeterPan]

9 hours ago, Amoret said:

hey are in the upper right corner of the picture below

What are the cookies just below them? (little squares) 

 

[ScoutTN]

Making pumpkin bread for teacher gifts tonight. Dd might make some this afternoon for a study break. 

[Bambam]

My youngest is the baker in our family. I just assist.
We made pretzels yesterday. These are addictive and I appreciate the fact they aren't sweet - https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/hot-buttered-soft-pretzels-recipe

Next up will be raspberry shortbread thumbprint cookies - freeze well and are pretty.

Then onto savory kolaches (really they are called Klobasniky) - bacon/egg/cheese, maybe some brisket/cheese too. We make a bunch of these, share with friends, and freeze several. 

Hopefully we will do orange cranberry cookies too. I hope my dd has the recipe she used last year! 

[PeterPan]

23 minutes ago, Bambam said:

Next up will be raspberry shortbread thumbprint cookies - freeze well and are pretty.

Ooo, I think I'll make those next! Ds would enjoy rolling and mashing them. Any highly preferred recipe? LandOLakes and Sally's Baking Addiction have almost identical recipes except the latter adds vanilla and uses more flour.

Edited December 14, 2020 by PeterPan

[catz]

I am struggling between wanting to bake ALL the things and everything else to do around here (which is a fraction of what it normally is but it still feels overwhelming) and not wanting to eat ALL the things.  I will eat some but I definitely feel better with less sugar and homemade goodies are so tempting!  We will gift some off plus teens definitely will eat their share.   

We are for sure making peanut butter blossoms, frosted cut out sugar cookies, chocolate crinkles, and snickerdoodles.  I may also make shortbread.  Which is kind of a boring non-exotic mix of goodies IMO, but I'm making stuff I know the teens will for sure love.  Like I'm the only one around here that likes nuts in baked goods.  I love doing caramel or fudge, but maybe I'll save candy making for Valentine's Day  I want to make a yule log for Christmas too.   Oh at some point I also want to make a homemade cinnamon roll christmas tree too.  

Some of the options here are making me drool!  

[Acorn]

We have occasionally bought gingerbread house kits, but we didn't eat them. Dd doesn't like the food waste, and has been requesting edible gingerbread houses. So since we don't have much else to do, we made two batches of dough, two batches of buttercream frosting, and two batches of royal icing. The entire kitchen and dining room are sticky messes. There is frosting on the walls and food coloring on cupboards. I was nervous about the structural integrity of the houses, so I exactly followed traditional recipes even though we don't usually eat butter.  I was assuming that if I let the kids eat the houses we wouldn't need to also make gingerbread cut out cookies with our vegan recipe.  You guessed it, dd says she likes our recipe better, so we are going to make our regular gingerbread cut out cookies soon. 

 

This is a blog that uses the same recipe we do.  I have also substituted a packaged gluten-free flour mix, and had good results.

https://kitchengrrrls.blogspot.com/2012/12/vegan-gingerbread-cookies.html

 

[Bambam]

42 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Ooo, I think I'll make those next! Ds would enjoy rolling and mashing them. Any highly preferred recipe? LandOLakes and Sally's Baking Addiction have almost identical recipes except the latter adds vanilla and uses more flour.

My dd (the baker) is very fond of Sally's recipes! 

[Danae]

I promised DH I'd make macarons and I am not feeling it.  I've separated the eggs and the whites are resting on the kitchen counter and I just can not get in the baking mood.

[Emba]

11 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

have you ever made Nanaimo Bars?  they're really not that hard.   Even Nanaimo can't agree on an 'official' recipe.   1dd bought several from different bakeries in Victoria (down Island from Nanaimo) for us to try so we could decide which we liked best.

My DS made some of those for a school project last year. We loved them and now they’re part of my permanent cookie rotation.

[Emba]

10 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

What is custard powder? I've never used this and don't know where to find it.

For the nanimo bars we make, i use vanilla pudding mix. I think it is a Taste of Home recipe that calls for pudding mix instead of custard powder.

[Emba]

1 hour ago, Bambam said:

My youngest is the baker in our family. I just assist.
We made pretzels yesterday. These are addictive and I appreciate the fact they aren't sweet - https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/hot-buttered-soft-pretzels-recipe

Next up will be raspberry shortbread thumbprint cookies - freeze well and are pretty.

Then onto savory kolaches (really they are called Klobasniky) - bacon/egg/cheese, maybe some brisket/cheese too. We make a bunch of these, share with friends, and freeze several. 

Hopefully we will do orange cranberry cookies too. I hope my dd has the recipe she used last year! 

Would you happen to have a link for the kolaches recipe?

[PeterPan]

50 minutes ago, Danae said:

I promised DH I'd make macarons and I am not feeling it.  I've separated the eggs and the whites are resting on the kitchen counter and I just can not get in the baking mood.

That's because they want to turn into a butterscotch meringue pie. 

Edited December 14, 2020 by PeterPan

[PeterPan]

41 minutes ago, Emba said:

Would you happen to have a link for the kolaches recipe?

Total random aside, but when I married into my dh's family I found they make something similar. They're not eastern european, so I'm not sure where they came from. They cook down ground meat, bacon, cheese, and shredded cabbage to fill roll dough you buy in the freezer section.

[HS Mom in NC]

For future reference, in case someone doesn't already know, you can make cookie dough and freeze it for about 3 months. Just take it out of the freezer the night or two before you want to bake cookies (however long it might take them to thaw in your fridge) and bake them on your schedule.  This works with fruit pies too.  Assemble them and freeze them, then bake for an extra 30-40 min. at a higher temp, then turn down the oven to finish them.  You can google instructions for the type of pie. 

It can just be so much easier to shop, assemble in large batches, divide up portions in the freezer, and clean the kitchen during low intensity times of year, and still have homemade baked goods during holidays. This has made a huge difference for us. I get cookie doughs (pepperkakers, sugar, chocolate chip, and pumpkin chocolate chip) and pies (apple) assembled during our fall break (usually the first two weeks of October for many of our school districts in AZ where friends and family attend, so they're available for online gaming with youngest.) Sure, we usually have a portion of it as a reward for our efforts, but most is saved for the future.  I actually thaw and bake the day of or day before Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities. I do the same for the cherry pies I assemble in the summer.  And doing it throughout the year to have cookies as desired makes baking more enjoyable.

[Alicia64]

Okay, you guys, tremendous peer pressure just saying. . .  @Garga's everything, @PeterPan's butterscotch pie and @Amoret's beautiful box of cookies pushed me over the edge. (Splat. That's me on the Grand Canyon's floor.)

So riddled in mom-guilt, I made homemade brownies last night and am doing snickerdoodles today.

And @Garga's thumbprints.

W.

 

[PeterPan]

1 minute ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

freeze it for about 3 months

This is smart! My freezer is so full of DEER and meat and veges and whatnot, little room for dough. How do you label yours and freeze it? Sometimes I freeze half of the dough I make, but I end up with sort of dough UFOs...

[PeterPan]

Just now, Alicia64 said:

butterscotch pie

If you want to cheat on this, Walmart sells pie crusts in the freezer section that are already formed and crimped that aren't half bad! No lard, just palm oil. I usually use the refrigerator kind when I cheat, but that was all they had at Thanksgiving. And shh but I pop them out and place them in a normal glass pie dish and relax and press the dough to fit. 

At that point you're literally just making a pudding and pouring it in, no biggee. Eventually make the meringue and bake it off. 

[HS Mom in NC]

19 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

This is smart! My freezer is so full of DEER and meat and veges and whatnot, little room for dough. How do you label yours and freeze it? Sometimes I freeze half of the dough I make, but I end up with sort of dough UFOs...

I buy regular stick on labels from the home office section. I don't usually bother taking the old ones off if they're still stuck on after coming out of the dishwasher, I just add a new one.  I use rectangular tupperware containers because they stack most efficiently in my freezer. Sometimes I pull off the pile of labels that has stacked up, but usually just adding another on top does the job.  Sometimes I use different color inks when writing on the labels for an additional level of clarity (I do a lot of bulk cooking and freezing in individual servings since husband has always worked from home and I need to have lunch for all of us) but life is less hectic for me now. I did purple pen for meats, blue pen for rice based dishes, black pen for bean based dishes, red pen for veg based dishes, green pen for desserts, orange for already baked muffins as quick breakfasts, etc. I try to keep everything with the same color label in the same part of the freezer, but it doesn't always work. 

[KungFuPanda]

1 hour ago, Danae said:

I promised DH I'd make macarons and I am not feeling it.  I've separated the eggs and the whites are resting on the kitchen counter and I just can not get in the baking mood.

Pretend you misunderstood him and make macaroons instead. It’ll be so much easier. 

[Alicia64]

48 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

If you want to cheat on this, Walmart sells pie crusts in the freezer section that are already formed and crimped that aren't half bad! No lard, just palm oil. I usually use the refrigerator kind when I cheat, but that was all they had at Thanksgiving. And shh but I pop them out and place them in a normal glass pie dish and relax and press the dough to fit. 

At that point you're literally just making a pudding and pouring it in, no biggee. Eventually make the meringue and bake it off. 

Love this! Thank you!!

 

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

I buy regular stick on labels from the home office section. I don't usually bother taking the old ones off if they're still stuck on after coming out of the dishwasher, I just add a new one.  I use rectangular tupperware containers because they stack most efficiently in my freezer. Sometimes I pull off the pile of labels that has stacked up, but usually just adding another on top does the job.  Sometimes I use different color inks when writing on the labels for an additional level of clarity (I do a lot of bulk cooking and freezing in individual servings since husband has always worked from home and I need to have lunch for all of us) but life is less hectic for me now. I did purple pen for meats, blue pen for rice based dishes, black pen for bean based dishes, red pen for veg based dishes, green pen for desserts, orange for already baked muffins as quick breakfasts, etc. I try to keep everything with the same color label in the same part of the freezer, but it doesn't always work. 

Whoa, you're rocking my world here. So you're using tupperware type containers instead of plastic bags? And you don't like wrap it in plastic wrap first? And it doesn't get freezer burnt?

Love the color system!

[HS Mom in NC]

31 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Whoa, you're rocking my world here. So you're using tupperware type containers instead of plastic bags? And you don't like wrap it in plastic wrap first? And it doesn't get freezer burnt?

Pies don't work for the tupperware containers I have, but now that you mention it,I might look into getting some for that purpose. My pies are heavily wrapped in many layers of foil, written on with a permanent marker,  and stacked in a corner of the freezer.  They do need a single layer of foil while baking from frozen for the first hour or so, over a layer of foil around the crust that stays on until the very end.  So that's more work in some ways, but I'd rather do that extra work on assembly day than assembling and cooking the pie on the day we eat it.  Pros and cons, right?

But everything else is plastic tupperware containers and we've had no issues with freezer burn. My freezer is set to just get things frozen, not be as cold as possible. Another pro and con consideration is the fact that if a frozen tupperware container happens to fall on the floor it will shatter or at least crack.  Plastic does that. It's what I can afford and it's easily replaceable.

I do have a few heavy reusable freezer bags if I have to thaw something in a bowl of water quickly.  I'll put salmon chunks that were stacked on each other in a rectangular tupperware container in the reusable plastic bag in a bowl of water and check on it frequently.  They start out in a big massive chunk, but as they thaw I can pull them apart so they can continue to thaw quickly.  Sometimes thawing meats in the microwave get a little cooked in places while other places are uncooked.

Plastic bags of veg are stored very differently in my kitchen freezer.  I hate how they pile up and conform to whatever shape is under them if they're on a tall shelf, so I did the freezer hack where I bought a box of heavy duty clips from the office supply section, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C94YCR5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1and I clip the short end of the the veggie bags on  the wires of the freezer shelves like hanging laundry on a line with clothespins.  It sounds compulsive and sometimes you have to get a little of the veggies in the bag in the clip so it doesn't slip out of the clip, but I use so many bagged veggies that cramming them into piles on the tall shelves is a slippery mess. They will stack neatly like books on the shorter shelves without clips. Clipped hanging bags of veg resemble books on a shelf and they're 2-3 deep from back to front, but instead of standing, they're hanging. Of course, there are pros and cons to this.  They don't come tumbling out and they fill space very efficiently, but you have to clip them into place and unclip them if you want to move them. So I have veggie shelves and shelves with frozen fruits for smoothies. Also, you can't really put anything other than a bag of frozen veg or a tupperware container with something light, like my yeast, on top of the clips.  That's fine, I have 2 freezers, so I'm not hurting for space. 

Now veggie dishes that I cooked, not that come in a bag, are in rectangular tupperware containers, labeled, and neatly stacked in the garage freezer along with meats and muffins and other bulk cooked and leftover dishes. If I buy frozen things that come in a plastic bag, like corn dogs or fish sticks, I put them in a rectangular tupperware container with the directions cut out of the plastic bag, and label and stack them.  Again, this is more effort than just putting in the freezer in the plastic bags they came in, but it saves time when I open the freezer and look for something, which usually involves moving things around. When I've been bulk cooking,storing individual portions, often means they're stacked 2 deep. That's Tetris.  Moving plastic freezer bags around drives me crazy because they slip and slide and don't stack well, often requiring me to restack them a time or two when I just wanted to pull out a batch of pre-made meatballs because I'm pressed for time and or energy.

It's all about what works for your individual situation, and where you prefer to put your time and energy.  There are times I leave foods in the plastic bag they came in in my garage freezer, but usually only when we've nearly gone through everything in that freezer, and there's plenty of space for things to slide around without it getting in my way.

[Emba]

4 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Total random aside, but when I married into my dh's family I found they make something similar. They're not eastern european, so I'm not sure where they came from. They cook down ground meat, bacon, cheese, and shredded cabbage to fill roll dough you buy in the freezer section.

That sounds very similar to something that the Mennonites around here make. It’s pronounced “beer-ocks ” and might be spelled bierocks or bueyrocks, or who knows what. I’ve seen it a couple of ways, at least. There’s no bacon, but there is cheese and cabbage and ground beef, and sometimes sausage. These Mennonites come from Germany with a spell in Russia before coming to the United States a couple of generations back, if I’m not mistaken.

[PeterPan]

21 minutes ago, Emba said:

That sounds very similar to something that the Mennonites around here make. It’s pronounced “beer-ocks ” and might be spelled bierocks or bueyrocks, or who knows what. I’ve seen it a couple of ways, at least. There’s no bacon, but there is cheese and cabbage and ground beef, and sometimes sausage. These Mennonites come from Germany with a spell in Russia before coming to the United States a couple of generations back, if I’m not mistaken.

Oh that's really interesting!! That could explain it. We have TONS of amish and mennonite in our area in say a 1-2 hour circle. That definitely could have been an influence and where it came from. They're actually really good and I sort of assumed the cabbage was as a stretcher, making it smart with a big family. They're sort of our go to when you want to feed people conveniently and have food around to munch.

[TechWife]

I started my baking today. I made one batch of peppermint patty brownies. I have the ingredients for Angel Whispers on hand. I agent made them in a few years because I haven’t wanted to deal with the cookie press, but I’m game this year! I haven’t decided what else to make. We aren’t giving any baking away due to COVID, so everything I bake will be eaten in house. We are going to eat as I go, though. Beware the waistline! Honestly, though, we’ve eaten well this year overall, so I’m not worried about the seasonal goodies. I’m just going to try to enjoy the season. 

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, Thatboyofmine said:

Back in the day (the 80's), cut-out sugar cookies usually had a soft icing, not the hard, smooth, royal icing you see so often now.  Do any of y'all have a recipe for that old soft icing?   I'm not sure if it was regular cake icing or not.   I want to do some cut-outs, but I do not want hard icing.  Help me, please!   

I remember colored buttercream on cookies when I was a kid. Messy, which is why I think it fell out of fashion. But I agree that it was yummier than the royal icing.

[Farrar]

I may have been baking cookies at 1:00 am tonight. 🤷‍♀️

[IfIOnly]

On 12/13/2020 at 8:20 PM, PeterPan said:

Ooo, those sound essential! You have a preferred recipe?

Adding: I made this one tonight. Smells great, so we'll see how it bakes up tomorrow. Yum!

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/big-soft-ginger-cookies/

That's the recipe we use too. It's so good. Yum is right!

On 12/13/2020 at 8:42 PM, KungFuPanda said:

Oh man, I have all of the ingredients for this in the house.  I might have to put these on the list.  We're shortbread fanatics.  We replaced our sugar cookie cutouts with shortbread years ago. 

I totally agree with shortbread over sugar! We always do ginger and a shortbread cookie, usually trying a new shortbread every year. The rest (we do about 7 or so kinds annually) we kind of rotate favorite recipes each year and try a few new ones as well.

[IfIOnly]

3 hours ago, Farrar said:

I may have been baking cookies at 1:00 am tonight. 🤷‍♀️

Whoop! You got your bake on. 🥳

[Laura Corin]

Husband wants chocolate chip pecan cookies.  Any good recipes?  He's American, so American-style is fine.

[Danae]

2 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Husband wants chocolate chip pecan cookies.  Any good recipes?  He's American, so American-style is fine.

The classic:  https://www.verybestbaking.com/toll-house/recipes/original-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies/

 

[marbel]

3 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Husband wants chocolate chip pecan cookies.  Any good recipes?  He's American, so American-style is fine.

This is the only chocolate chip recipe we use anymore:  https://www.ghirardelli.com/chocolate-chip-cookies-rec1016

I like cookies a bit crunchy and not mounded, so when I make them, I pull them out about halfway through baking time and squish them a little with a spatula then put them back to finish. 

[PeterPan]

10 hours ago, Thatboyofmine said:

Back in the day (the 80's), cut-out sugar cookies usually had a soft icing, not the hard, smooth, royal icing you see so often now.  Do any of y'all have a recipe for that old soft icing?

Confectioner's sugar, adding small amount of milk to get consistency. 

[PeterPan]

8 hours ago, IfIOnly said:

On 12/13/2020 at 11:20 PM, PeterPan said:

Ooo, those sound essential! You have a preferred recipe?

Adding: I made this one tonight. Smells great, so we'll see how it bakes up tomorrow. Yum!

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/big-soft-ginger-cookies/

That's the recipe we use too. It's so good. Yum is right!

Apparently it's a little too yum, because we ate half the batch yesterday. 

[catz]

We just use buttercream on cut out cookies.  Almond extract variety.    You can still make it a little thinner and pipe it if you want.  So much yummier than royal icing.  Especially if your cookies are not super sweet.  These taste like my childhood!
 

So I go to start baking chocolate crinkles today and found the teens have discovered the joy of high end imported cocoa when making hot chocolate.  😂 🤨. Guess I’m moving onto snickerdoodles for now!

[*Jessica*]

Usually my mom and MIL make so many cookies that us making many doesn’t make sense.  I try to help my mom make some, because while cookie baking is my least favorite cooking activity it is kind of fun to do it with my mom at Christmas.  (I feel the same way about coloring Easter eggs.)  COVID means none of that fun this year.  My mom is also pretty sad about missing the usual holiday fun and planning to bake a lot less, and MIL isn’t going to mail cookies that she would usually be able to give us in person, so I feel like we can make a few more than normal to make up for missing out.  

Dh and his mom are going to each make sugar cookie dough and FaceTime while cutting out, cooking, and decorating so dd9 can do the usual cookie day with grandma.  

I planned to make fudge and lemon bars, but it looks like dd9 has talked me into making peanut blossoms today.  

So our list will be: 
peanut blossoms 
lemon bars 
fudge   
sugar cookie cutouts

My mom will almost certainly make Yule log cookies and Cucidati (Italian fig cookies).  

 

 

 

[marbel]

We're expecting a big snow storm tomorrow and it's my day off work, so I think we'll do the cutout cookies, and (though this is not baking) a batch or two of toffee, as the humidity will be low and that's helpful for good toffee. I learned that to my dismay when we lived in Oregon. Damp winters /=/ good toffee making at Christmas time!  

[Elfknitter.#]

https://pinchmysalt.com/scandinavian-rosettes-recipe/

I remember my mom tried to make these a couple of times during Christmas seasons without much luck. But they tasted fantastic!

[PeterPan]

13 minutes ago, Elfknitter.# said:

https://pinchmysalt.com/scandinavian-rosettes-recipe/

I remember my mom tried to make these a couple of times during Christmas seasons without much luck. But they tasted fantastic!

Oh wow, those would be amazing!!! Really raising the bar here. 

[IfIOnly]

2 hours ago, Plum said:

These are so good! I have been looking for cookies and treats that would pair well with coffee. Perfect! Sending some off to my dad. 

Yeees! Not too sweet either. 👍

[TechWife]

51 minutes ago, Thatboyofmine said:

I’m going to try to get to mixing my dough for cutouts tonite.  The YouTube video I’m getting the recipe from said you need to refrigerate the dough at least 4 hours.   It would be ok to keep in the fridge overnight, right? 

Yes, I think that will be fine.