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I really enjoy making fudge. I would like to know how to make it the old-fashioned way. I use 'marshmallow fluff'. It's still good and everyone loves when I make it. I usually gain 10 lbs. by the time Christmas is here.
The wife likes making peanut butter cookies with M&M's on them.
I haven't started this year either, but I usually make:
thumbprint cookies
pecan tassies
all manner of chip cookies (chocoloate chip, white choco/macademia nut, etc...)
Oatmeal raisin cookies
fudge
and whatever Katie or DH asks me to.
oatmeal, raisin, nut cookies
florentines
lemon butter cookies
rice pudding
jewish coffee cake (I don't know why it's called jewish, but my grandmother said it's because
it has sour cream in the recipe)
NY style Cheesecake or Pumpkin Cheesecake
I'm not much of a baker either, except for this time of year when it's cool enough to bake with the windows and doors open and appetites are a little heftier for munching between meals, than when it's too hot and humid out.
And I only bake the simplest of recipes - no cookie cutters or spinkle dodads and such. I don't have the patience for that anymore.
wow.. everything sounds good! I'm a horrible baker so I can learn by making those suggestion!
If you aren't an experienced baker, try making cake balls (bakerella.com) or oreo truffles (you can google that). Sometimes dipping these amazing goodies in chocolate can be difficult, but everything else is super easy.
My favorite holiday tradition is to bake lebkuchen, German honey cookies. I cut them into shapes (Christmas trees, stars, etc.) that I lightly brush with a powdered sugar and water glaze, then sprinkle with red and green sugar. Then I store the lebkuchen in an air tight container for two or three weeks. They gradually soften, and the flavor mellows.
When I was first married my mother-in-law, Frieda, used to mail tins of homemade lebkuchen and other Christmas cookies to us every year. The lebkuchen were always my favorites. When Frieda became too old and feeble to do this any more, I asked her for her recipes. Every year I would bake cookies from her recipes and send them back to her. (She would say that my lebkuchen were good, "but they're not quite like mine.")
Frieda is gone now, but baking lebkuchen at Christmastime still brings back happy memories for my husband and me.
Last edited by Bayarea4; 11-08-2010 at 12:04 AM..
Reason: grammar
I only make a few special things - recipes that are the best of the ones I've tried. Over the years, I've narrowed my Christmas goodies to making these four things - as you can tell - I love chocolate but each of these things tastes distinctly different:
This is the best fudge recipe of any I have tried:
Fudge
½ cup butter (1 stick)
1 can (14.5 oz.) evaporated milk
4 ½ cups sugar
½ pound marshmallows
2 oz. Unsweetened chocolate
12 oz. package semi sweet chips
12 oz. sweet German chocolate (3 boxes)
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups chopped nuts (I use 1 cup usually)
Directions:
• In a large heavy pot mix butter, sugar and milk.
• Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
• Bring to a boil and cover. Let cook for 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat add marshmallows and stir until melted
• Add chocolate one at a time stirring until melted.
• Add vanilla and nuts and pour into a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish that has been lined with foil. (spray foil with Pam).
• Cover and Chill in refrigerator overnight.
• Turn fudge on to a cutting board, remove foil and cut into small pieces.
• Can be frozen in an airtight container
These are simply glorious shortbread cookies I've ever tried - but you have to use the Kerrygold butter (I get it at Costco). I use coarse sugar to roll the cookie rolls in.
SLICE AND BAKE SHORTBREAD COOKIES
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 package (8 ounces or 1 cup) salted Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg white
1/3 cup granulated sugar or coarse sugar crystals for rolling the cookie log
Pecan halves or walnut halves (optional)
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl and set aside. In large bowl beat butter and sugar until lightened in color and fluffy, using an electric mixer on medium speed, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour mixture, mixing on low speed just until flour is incorporated and soft, smooth dough forms. Divide dough into 2 pieces; form each into a log about 7 ½ inches long and 1 ½ inches in diameter. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate about 1 hour until cold and firm, or overnight. Or freeze, wrapped securely, for up to 1 month. (Defrost in the refrigerator before slicing and baking.)
Position rack in middle of oven. Heat oven to 325° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In small bowl, use fork to beat egg white until foamy, about 30 seconds. Use pastry brush to brush each log with egg white. Sprinkle the 1/3 cup sugar on strip of wax paper then roll each log back and forth in sugar to coat lightly. Use large sharp knife to cut each log into ¼-inch-thick rounds. Place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Press nut half into each cookie before baking, if desired. Bake one sheet at a time until cookie edges and bottoms are light brown, about 18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature up to 3 days.
Makes 60 cookies.
These are to-die-for delicious - make them a few days before you eat them so the flavors can mellow.
Cream Cheese Brandy Cherry Balls.
=================================
1/2 Cup maraschino cherries, quartered
2 Tablespoons Brandy
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 Cups flaked coconut
. Marinate cherries at least 4 hours or overnight in brandy Melt Chocolate
chips and butterscotch chips and add cream cheese. Stir in cherries,
marshmallows and walnuts and refrigerate until cold enough to roll into
balls. Roll in coconut. Refrigerate - the longer the better. The
flavors intensify.
Ina Gartin's White Chocolate Bark
White Chocolate Bark.
16 pieces.
Ingredients
•1/2 cup walnuts
•16 ounces very good white chocolate, finely chopped
•1/4 cup dried cranberries
•1/4 cup medium-diced apricots
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Using a pencil, draw an 8 by 10-inch rectangle on a piece of parchment paper placed on a sheet pan. Turn the parchment paper over so the pencil mark doesn't get into the chocolate.
Place the walnuts in 1 layer on another sheet pan and bake for 8 minutes. Set aside to cool and then chop roughly into large pieces.
Place 3/4 of the chocolate in a glass bowl and place it in the microwave on high power for 30 seconds. (Don't trust your microwave timer - time it with your watch.) Stir with a rubber spatula. Put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds and stir again. Continue to heat and stir every 30 seconds until the chocolate is just melted. Immediately, add the remaining chocolate and allow it to sit at room temperature, stirring often, until it's completely smooth. (If you need to heat it a little more, place it in the microwave for another 15 seconds at a time.)
Pour the melted chocolate onto the parchment paper and spread it lightly into the drawn rectangle. Sprinkle the top evenly with the cooled walnuts, the cranberries and apricots. Set aside for at least 2 hours until firm, or refrigerate for 20 minutes. Cut the bark in 16 pieces and serve at room temperature.
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