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mokey
Permanent Resident
15375 Posts |
 Posted - 11/29/2005 : 3:54:32 PM
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I didn't mean to be snarky or anything. I just can't stand peanut butter and chocolate. My sister in law once gave out tins filled with "cookies" which were basically nothing more than boxed cereals covered in chocolate and peanut butter. Ever since then that combo puts me right off.
Oddly enough I love chocolate covered nuts, but maybe because they are crunchy.
"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King Jr.
www.femiknits.blog-city.com |
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autumns daughter
Chatty Knitter
267 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 4:04:29 PM
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I understand- I am a real peanut butter girl, but can't stand chocolate and peanuts together- I can do walnuts, or any other nut w/ chocolate, but not peanuts! Weird!
cheers,
autumn's daughter
bloggy blog:
http://autumnsdaughter.blogspot.com/ |
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Martheme
Sustaining Member
USA
1565 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 4:26:13 PM
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OH MY!
Everyone has so many baking plans! How do you all find the time? What do you do with all those cookies? Are they what you give as holiday gifts?
We're trying to decide what we are going for gifts this year and have talked about baking/making something.
I suggested we do tea loaf sized bananna and cranberry nut breads with small jars of home-made jelly . . . DH was thinking perhaps his special salad dressing in small glass bottles . . .
I'm not even sure how I would get all that done, but I can't even imagine trying to make the amount of cookies and sweets you all have planned. . . .
Gosh!
Martheme
visit my sites:
http://www.inspirationsyarn.com
http://martheme.blogspot.com/ & the baby blog http://mimmot.blogspot.com |
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Knit kitty
Permanent Resident
USA
1383 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 4:49:44 PM
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Personally I squeeze it into days that aren't full of errands. Most of the stuff I bake has a chill time that I can take advantage of--mix up, stick in fridge, pick up kids from school (or insert other Thing To Do here), come back and bake like mad. Double ovens helps LOADS, as well as professional half sheet pans which hold tons of cookies at once. The gingerbread and sugar cookies will wait until school holidays start since the kids do most of the work on those, and the peanut brittle is a microwave recipe that takes about 15 minutes per batch.
Most of the largesse goes to my parent's house to help with the big holiday Open House they have every year, or to my DH's office to fatten up his coworkers, or to a church potluck. I generally keep a dozen or so of each type for our own consumption.
~Rebecca
"Nothing, why?" |
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klfrazier
Permanent Resident
1745 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 4:54:49 PM
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Turtzels are pretzel squares (we use the butter flavored) with a rolo candy and a pecan on top. Load a rolo on top of the pretzel and melt it in the oven at 350ish for several minutes, and then squish the pecan on it. It looks - and tastes - like you spent hours creating the things, and most people never guess that you've used a prepackaged candy!
For my version of puppy chow I use Crispix cereal because the pieces are much larger than Chex pieces.
Millionaire Shortbread is homemade shortbread with a layer of from - scratch caramal and a layer of melted chocolate (milk, dark and white swirled together). Each layer is about the same thickness. The caramal is the real trick, but it's definitly worth the effort!
Kristin |
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Knit kitty
Permanent Resident
USA
1383 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 5:15:54 PM
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 *DROOL*
~Rebecca
"Nothing, why?" |
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kimkrafty
Permanent Resident
USA
2145 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 9:32:04 PM
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I love baking but rarely have time any more.
I hoping to just make a chocolate swirl pound cake, ginger bread, brownies, and few different kinds of cookies/bars.
My son is old enough to "help" this year so we may make a few of these treats together.
I'm looking forward to baking for Christmas.
I've always wanted to try baking bread from scratch but still haven't tried.
Kimberly, knitting in VA
http://kimberlyskorner.blogspot.com |
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mokey
Permanent Resident
15375 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 9:48:51 PM
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Bread is dead easy. The actual work time is minimal. You just spend a lot of time waiting.
I find cookies are not very time consuming - cream butter and sugar, toss in egg, dry ingredients, then drop on sheet or roll and cut out.
"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King Jr.
www.femiknits.blog-city.com |
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elisantics
Warming Up
USA
78 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2005 : 10:26:05 PM
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mine is pretty simple:
lemon tarts (old family recipe)
iced sugar cookies
brownies
almond crescents
and puppy treats for those who have kids w/ 4 paws.
http://knitting.elisamatic.com |
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rebeccaL
Seriously Hooked
721 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 04:54:56 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Lanea
This year, I'm adding the Danish chocolate-hazelnut cake I made for the first time this weekend.
Lanea, can you share the recipe? It sounded nice from the other post you had.
I want to make some kind of Christmas bread this weekend.
Then my sister and I get together for a massive cookie baking event, I guess we will be doing this the week before Christmas.
We always make spritz cookies, and almond crescents, and then we haven't sorted out what else. Probably at least 5 kinds. Sometimes I make ones that you shape in a log and slice off and dip the edges in melted chocolate. I should probably make piparkökur, but maybe I should do that with the kids a different day. And I want to make something with marzipan this year, I <3 marzipan.
Rebecca
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Visit my blog at
http://www.spacesheep.com/Fiber/knitblog.html |
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truly violet
Permanent Resident
6397 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 06:41:15 AM
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if you mix a dough at night, it takes what? 15 minutes..... and bake tomorrow night... and do that for a couple weeks you have all your cookies done
make a lot of drop cookies
and one or two rolled out ones....
use colored sugars on most of the rolled out ones...
but if you are doing trays...
then make sure you have a few pretty ones that are iced on the top
I fill in the trays with hersey kisses....
wrap in cello and do the curly ribbons on top
now today I have to go and GET new trays cause darlink blue eyed 'she who can do no wrong'
dropped my trays and broke them
she is ok though
she didn't get hurt..
and one slow blink of them blue eyes.... well we forgive her anything....
oye
vi
~ who is glad she replyed here as now I can remember to put the tray thing on the town list... which I could NOT remember before
none of this will matter in 100 years.......
except I will finally be at my goal weight...vi
http://notashyviolet.blogspot.com/ ~now with chickens!
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Valk_scot
Permanent Resident
United Kingdom
1281 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 07:02:51 AM
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I don`t do any special baking at Christmas...do you lot over in the USA traditionally go on a cookie swap or something at Christmas? Only reason I can think of for this mass outbreak of cookie-baking!
The only special Christmas baking done in my house is the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding, and they were made in September to allow them time to mature. (And for me to give them a daily drip feed of brandy.) If I`m going to give home made gifts then it has to be rhubarb jam (jam=jelly?) that I made in the summer. I make a LOT of jam, and Christmas is a chance to get rid of some of it, lol!
(Though I do make great rhubarb jam. ;-) )
Val.
[img]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/26/26_9_21.gif[/img] |
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KellyKnits
Permanent Resident
USA
1608 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 07:21:49 AM
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We just make cookies like mad to eat ourselves, we have them out when people come over before the holidays and after the holidays and take plates to parties and such - last year my mom and I made about 900 cookies plus toffee and turtles and peppermint ice.
Kelly |
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jaymeKnits
Permanent Resident
USA
1326 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 07:43:04 AM
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Vi,
Of course you are on my good list. I'll send a tin over when I get them done.
As far as time goes I just do one candy a night for a week and then spend an evening packaging them. The time consuming part is wrapping the caramels but only the gift ones get wrapped anymore, we eat the rest straight from the pan
JAyme |
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lemons
Permanent Resident
1692 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 08:17:09 AM
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Some people do cookie swaps, but in other families, it's just a tradition that there are cookies for family gatherings and the night we trim the tree. They're more for snacks than actual desserts, on the whole, and bringing into one's office to share, if you feel particularly generous.
As to rhubarb jam, I'll have some, please; it sounds divine with hot buttered toast! The jam-jelly difference here is that for jelly, we cook the fruit and sugar and then strain the results so that only the juice is used. In common usage, though, you'll find people using the two words interchangeably sometimes. The British/American gap in language on "jelly": I remember the first time I went to a birthday tea for a young Londoner and was told they were having jelly. I was surprised to find what we'd call Jell-O, the brand name that's pretty much used to describe any gelatin dessert.
What I am not making, but love for Christmas, is fudge with black walnuts, followed closely by divinity with toasted pecans.
lemons of missouri |
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Valk_scot
Permanent Resident
United Kingdom
1281 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 09:57:04 AM
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Ahh, right, then they`re for nibbles at gatherings? I get it. Here we have mince pies (with sweet mincemeat, not beef mince!)instead of cookies, or small savory things like cheese straws and salted nuts. If we take holiday food into work it`s usually candy or mince pies.
The jam/jelly think is the same here, but most jam isn`t strained except for a few traditional fruits like redcurrants. Redcurrant and orange jelly is great with roast turkey, btw....I don`t know if it`s popular over in the USA?
Val.
[img]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/26/26_9_21.gif[/img] |
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brown-eyed purl
Chatty Knitter
182 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 10:25:56 AM
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| As to simple quick cookies - I'm usually not a fan of sugar cookies or premade stuff (just not my thing), but in a recent recipe magazine I get, they suggested one use that I actually might try - you take minature candy bars (I want to say it was snickers or milky way) and mold a bit of sugar cookie dough around them, then roll them in colored sugar. As my family eats scads of cookies (I'll be baking quite a few batches when my husband and I go back for Christmas) I think I'll make a batch of these so I'll get a few more of my favorites. Just an idea if it sounds good to anyone else. |
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Valk_scot
Permanent Resident
United Kingdom
1281 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 10:44:36 AM
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One cookie (we call them biscuits here) recipe I do sometimes make at Christmas is stained-glass biscuits to hang on the tree. You use any dough recipe that won`t go soft or stale if left out, cut out Christmas shapes then lay them on baking trays lined with baking parchment (the parchment is important) and cut a small circle out of the middle of each biscuit. You then put a coloured boiled sweet into the centre hole before baking. The sweet melts in the oven, then sets hard again to fill the centre hole when the biscuit cools. It`s transparent, of course, so gives the stained glass effect. You need the baking parchment to stop the hot sweet burning onto the baking tray. Stars are particularly effective. You make a hole in the edge of the biscuit for string or ribbon as the biscuit is cooling. Kids can make these, but be VERY careful of the hot sweet centre.
What`s a boiled sweet? It`s a hard candy made by boiling sugar and colour and flavourings together to the hard crack point. Gawd knows what you call them over there!
Val.
[img]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/26/26_9_21.gif[/img] |
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lemons
Permanent Resident
1692 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 1:44:05 PM
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The lovely little mince pies I got when I visited my pal in Wales a couple of years ago pretty much don't exist here. All the mincemeat available is sweet and totally vegetarian. I have begun making the wee pies to bring to holiday dinners we're invited to. Mince pie is not a favorite, at least here in the Midwest, but once they take a bite, they're usually hooked. I use mini-muffin cups, a bottom crust and for the top, I use a star cooky cutter of a slightly smaller diameter than the pie will be and glaze the unbaked crust with a little beaten egg to make the pastry shine.
Stained-glass cookies/biscuits we do here, too.
lemons of missouri |
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mokey
Permanent Resident
15375 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2005 : 1:50:19 PM
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Mince filling is available year round where I live - even the corner stores carry it. Well stocked grocers have regular(suet), vegetarian, and even a fruited mince. Mincemeat pies are available year round. I buy the filling but always add rum or brandy to it, along with some ginger.
"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King Jr.
www.femiknits.blog-city.com |
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