Christmas in the making, 2020

This sure is one unusual holiday season, to put it mildly! So many things are different this year, and as we stay cautious during these times, I'm thankful for the holiday season. Frankly, it's a welcome distraction, and keeping busy making Christmas cookies and treats is a tradition that I'm happy (and grateful) to keep up with.

So despite everything, our kitchen is humming along and I've been busy making some of our favorite Christmas cookies. My love of almond paste is well documented and it's surely the time of year for a batch of chewy, fragrant cherry almond macaroons. 

There's no neglecting peppermint this time of year.  My son is a big fan of all things chocolate-and-peppermint so we've been enjoying these peppermint brownies....

and a batch of chocolate cookies with peppermint chunks.  I use this recipe but instead of white chocolate chunks, I substitute peppermint chunks along with semisweet chocolate chunks.  A touch of peppermint extract in the chocolate cookie dough adds plenty of cool holiday flavor.

Naturally, we're all about "sugar, spice, and everything nice" during the holidays season.  Personally, I crave the combination of gingerbread and chocolate.  It's become the taste of the holiday season for me.  So to kick things off, I made a loaf of chocolate gingerbread loaf.  It's chock full of gingerbread flavors (from fresh and dried ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves), made sweet and moist from dark brown sugar and molasses, and studded with chocolate flavor with a little cocoa powder as well as chocolate chunks that somehow turn into bits of fudgy pudding baked in the cake.

As if that wasn't enough, I can't let Christmas go without a batch of soft & chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies.  I'm savoring them as we speak!

Holiday baking, 2019 (part 2)

It's almost time to hang up the oven mitts and get down to the business of properly relaxing (at least for a couple of days)!  I hope it's been a sweet holiday season despite the inevitable stress and time crunch that comes along with it.    

I've had a lot of fun cocooning myself up in the kitchen and baking up a storm this holiday season.  I think we'll be finding sparkling sugar and bits of nuts and chocolates around the kitchen for a while yet.  So while I continue the cleanup, I'd love to share the final (part 2) recap of my recent holiday baking whirlwind.  

First up - I finally gave "the" cookies a try.  If you're on social media and into baking, you'll likely have heard of Allison Roman's "Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies", which were so popular, they essentially went viral and became dubbed "the" cookies.  I saw these cookies on my Instagram feed repeatedly for ever so long and have kept them in the back of my mind.  Since Christmastime is a great time to make shortbread cookies, it was time I gave them a try.

I can tell you the salted chocolate shortbread cookies are mighty tasty and they were not as tricky to make as I feared.  In my mind, you can't go wrong with adding chocolate to most things and inserting them into salty, buttery shortbread certainly works.  The salt stands out here; don't forget to add the flaky sea salt on top before baking...the extra bite of salt intensifies the flavor.  The edge of crunchy turbinado sugar not only brings a touch of glamor, they add a lovely sweet crunch.  It's a great holiday shortbread to bring to the party.

In addition to Allison Roman's salted chocolate shortbread, I made the vanilla sablé cookies that I made last holiday season.  This is going to become a holiday tradition because my family and I really, really adore these simple vanilla recipe by Dorie Greenspan.  They are a beautiful balance of sweet and slightly-salty, crisp and sandy yet tender, with that extra skirt of crunchy, sparkly sugar that adds to their elegance (and deliciousness). 

Holiday baking, 2019 (part 1)

The holiday season is my favorite excuse to amp up on baking.  It's a year-round sport for me but come late November through the month of December, baking takes on a whole extra level of sweetness.  I'm savoring this time in the kitchen, and I thought it'd be fun to once again cobble together pics of some of the baking that's been going on in my kitchen.  We're baking plenty of family-favorites, with some new recipes mixed in.

Let's start with the peppermint-chocolate macarons shown above.  I'm no stranger to trying macaron recipes and even though it's always a high-wire act with uncertain results, I can't help myself.  Since it's the holidays, it's all about the peppermint - my son's favorite flavor this time of year - so I went with the chocolate and peppermint combo using Martha Stewart's recipe in her latest book, Cookie Perfection.  I wish I could say my macarons were perfection but I did have some cracked shells.  Overall, though, we ended up with a solid batch of macarons.  It was the first time I flavored the macaron shells with peppermint (as opposed to adding it in the chocolate ganache filing) and we really liked the result.

Did I mention it's all about the chocolate-peppermint right now?  I snuck in an early batch of my son's favorite peppermint brownies a few weeks ago.  By request, I'm actually making another batch today as I type this.  

For me, it's time to stock up on almond paste during the holidays.  A batch of pignoli cookies hit the table this season and I also made the cherry-almond macaroons just yesterday.  

They bake up, and disappear, very quickly.  I love having almond paste around and making some version of these chewy almond macaroons whenever I have extra egg whites on hand.

During this season of warm drinks, it's also nice to have simple cookies like hazelnut biscotti around for dipping.  I love a dry, crunchy biscotti filled with nuts!  It's also a great option when you want something a little less rich - that way, you have space for all the other chocolates and treats around us this time of year.  

Happy holiday (cookie) season, 2018!

Happy Holidays!

Italian butter cookies - always festive and makes me think of the holidays

It's my favorite time of year again!  The best time, when baking takes center stage - our kitchen smells like sugar and spice, and sprinkles go flying everywhere!  No matter how hectic it is, with those long to-do lists, there's a magical quality about spending time making things and doing things for others at this time of year that makes it all worthwhile.  I look forward to gathering and sharing, spending peaceful time with family over platters of cookies and mugs of hot chocolate!

I wanted to dust this blog space with a little holiday cheer right now and what better way than to talk cookies and treats.  We may bake cookies all year round but come December, it is all about cookies.  It's no wonder we love the holidays!  It's especially fun to see all the variety, the colors, the festive decorations, the flavors that come alive during the holidays.  I love it all and while I certainly can't do it all, we have family favorites that we bake and we also try a few new things because there are just so many enticing recipes out there.  

Red velvet crackle cookies

"Operation: Make/Eat Christmas Cookies" is in full swing!  Basically, I make it a leisurely monthlong process at my house.  I make cookies, we eat cookies, and we repeat this simple process.  I know some people make Christmas cookies in one frenzied swoop right before the big day and I love this idea of turning my house into a cookie factory for a day with a massive output but I never could figure out how to make that work.  Stretching it out, generally enjoying it a batch at a time, works for us and that's what we do throughout late November and December.  

So in the spirit of making and eating cookies during the holiday season, here's my latest contribution.  No surprise "crackle" (or "crinkle") cookies make an appearance because they usually do.  Their snow-topped appearance makes them perfect for the winter and holiday time.  I've made a few versions and I'm always looking for another to try during this time of year.  When I saw this recipe for red velvet crackle cookies, I knew I'd found the one for this holiday season.

I saw the recipe in this lovely Holiday Cookies book.  Naturally, I liked the red velvet aspect - the color fitting for the holiday season.  I also liked that the recipe had not only cocoa in it but also melted chocolate.  And brown, rather than granulated, sugar suggested a nice soft, moist texture that appeals to us.  Sure enough, these red velvet crackles were very chocolaty and moist.  They are chocolate crackle cookies dressed in red for the holidays!

Nutella-hazelnut crinkle cookies...'Tis the season!

It's the holiday season!  It's cookie season!  It's the season for treats and indulgence, and quality time with family!  Can you tell I'm excited?  I have a feeling there's a good chance you're just as excited as I am.   

Chewy nutella-hazelnut crinkle (crackle) cookies perfect for the season

I just love December and Christmastime.  I try to get as much done as possible - as far as Christmas shopping and other to-do's - so I'll have time to savor the season.  

Aside from the twinkling lights and general goodwill floating in the air, one of the best part of the holiday season has to be all the good eats - the cookies and treats, all being washed down with cups of hot cocoa!  I made a list of family-favorites I'll be baking up this month both to savor at home and to pack up as gifts.  I have a ton of things I'd love to make but like all of you, I had to be realistic and narrow it down.  I hope to get to as much as possible while keeping things manageable so it's enjoyable instead of stressful (because if it's stressful, why bother).  It is indeed that time of year when I happily turn into a little kitchen elf, baking up old favorites and trying a few new recipes, too!

On the "new" side of things (for me, anyway), I'd love to share these nutella-hazelnut crinkle cookies with you.  Crinkles/crackles, I can't decide which to call them!  Because of how wintry they look, I like to make them at Christmastime.  Plus, my little one is partial to them and if you have a child, you know it's all about what your child likes - particularly, at Christmastime!  Last year, I really enjoyed adding a little almond extract to our batch of chocolate crackles and this year, I've been saving up this hazelnut version to try for the holidays.

I added chopped hazelnuts to half my batch of cookies and left the other half plain

I'm glad I kicked off our holiday cookie season with these because they were awesome! While chocolate crackles are generally like a light brownie, moist and soft, these nutella-hazelnut crinkles are nice and chewy.  I am a big fan of chewy cookies so they were right up my alley.  With these, I also finally got a chance to make cookies with nutella and I'm happy they didn't disappoint one bit.

I divided my batch of cookies into two: half without chopped hazelnuts inside (for my son) and the other with.  My son loved these cookies and was very grateful for his hazelnut-free half batch - though he wanted a lot more.  For my part, I think the toasted hazelnuts balance out some of the sweetness of these cookies and heighten the hazelnut flavor.  The original recipe called for rolling the outside of the cookies with additional hazelnuts but I opted to keep things simple.  Instead, I upped the amount of hazelnuts I used inside my cookies and skipped the additional roll in nuts.  This way, they also keep the classic, snowy, crackled look I love for this time of year.