Holiday Baking 2011

A quick rehash of this season's holiday cooking: because I've been a negligent blogger.

My last Thanksgiving treat - leftover cranberry sauce bread. I view such recipes as a reason to make extra cranberry sauce, not get rid of it!

I also made the standards: cinnamon rolls, pecan pie...

apple pie...
and pumpkin pie, not pictured this time around.

My main Christmas baking this December was gingerbread men. Lots of gingerbread men:

But for the holiday dinner, I made up a three layer cake from this recipe - a caramelized apple spice cake with brown sugar swiss meringue buttercream:

The finished dessert (and yes, that is a pie in the background as well)!

Gingerbread Waffles

In December, my friend Cherie hosted a Chaos Cooking event. The idea is that everyone comes bearing ingredients, and cooks. It's kind of a demented potluck.

Since Cherie owns a waffle iron, I decided to make peanut butter waffles, with grape jelly and bananas to top:


I was inspired, and asked for a waffle iron as a holiday gift:

For my first homemade waffles, I decided to keep the holiday going and make this recipe for gingerbread waffles.

Waffles are very similar to a quickbread recipe - wet ingredients (butter or other fat, eggs, milk or other liquid, andin this case, some molasses) added to dry ingredients (flour, leavening, spices):

Ready to go:

The leftovers, ready to make like Eggo and go in the freezer for weekday breakfast!

Cheesecake Blondies

Instead of a regular chocolate base for cheesecake...cheesecake blondies:

First, the blondie batter - lots of rich brown sugar and butter:

Then the cheesecake:

And a swirl!

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Rice Krispie Treats are delicious and simple, but I rarely take the time to melt the marshmallows and make them:

But when you add peanut butter, like here, I just can't resist. I already have another bag of marshmallows in the kitchen, ready to go!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It may be a little cheesy, but hearts and valentine's day do go together, so I made up this recipe to celebrate:
Tempted as I was to use a blueberry jam filling, I stuck with the raspberry jam so that I wouldn't be presenting friends with black hearts.

These cookies are not very interesting until they get shaped, but here is the butter, sugar, peanut butter and eggs, all creamed together:

The dough, rolled into balls and flattened:

And with preliminary heart indentations:

And the finished cookies, after baking, filling and baking again.

Pumpkin Muffins

I like to make muffins and freeze them for a quick breakfast hot from the microwave. If they last that long, that is:

These pumpkin muffins, like all good fall flavors, start with a good dash of cinnamon and other spices. I particularly like to add a bit of clove and nutmeg:

Muffins are (usually) quickbreads, made with an oil or (applesauce as a substitute) but this recipe called for butter, creamed with sugar. yum!

Once the eggs and dry ingredients were mixed in, the final step was chopped pecans and golden raisins:

Straight into the oven:

Whole Wheat Cheddar Biscuits

I love cheese:

So I added some to a biscuit recipe, instead of using all butter for the fat:

Ready to bake:

And melted, ready to serve:

Apple Pie

This was my last apple pie of the fall (and I'm not posting it until now...), so I tried to make it a pretty one:

Apple Pie is best kept simple: thinly sliced, well spiced, not too much sugar and a touch of lemon for brightness:

A detail of the finished crust:

(Almost Vegan) Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I altered the recipe for these delicious and (almost) healthy cookies from another running food blogger, Vegan by Valerie:
Although I'm not vegan (or even vegetarian) I love Valerie's site because she always considers nutrition and how she is going to be fueling her body for her running.

The recipe works like one for a quickbread. First, the dry (note - instead of using pumpkin pie spice, I used a combination of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg):

and then the wet ingredients (note - here I used pumpkin puree I had made from a fresh pumpkin rather than canned, and I used an egg rather than egg replacer after speaking to a vegan friend. Incidentally, my vegan friend told me the egg would probably taste better than any replacement I could try):

Mix it all together, add your chocolate chips and bake!
Full Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour (or regular whole wheat flour)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

spices: about 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. ginger, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and 1/4 t. cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. pumpkin puree

1/4 c. maple syrup

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 T. canola oil or coconut oil

1 egg (large)

about 3/4 c. chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine all dry ingredients

3. Combine all wet ingredients and whisk until smooth

4. Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring until fully mixed in.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips.

6. Form sticky balls from the dough (tablespoon size at least, I like mine larger) and place on buttered or oiled cookie sheets

7. Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until cookies are cooked through.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

This is what I think of when I think of oatmeal cookies, no matter whether they are adorned with raisins, chocolate chips or coconut: oats, cinnamon, flour and eggs:

But this particular chocolate oatmeal recipe is built more like a brownie recipe - melted chocolate and butter, to which the other ingredients are added:

The shiny chocolate mixture getting the final crucial ingredient:

and ready to bake on parchment!

Peanut Butter Brownies

Friends, I have lost my camera. Therefore, I only have finished brownies for you, taken with a camera I now share:
Other things lost are a few batches of bread and a lovely layer cake with homemade lemon curd and meringue buttercream.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding

I cubed some leftover raisin challah (it was a few days old):

Made a quick custard - milk, eggs, spices and a nice splash of bourbon:

mix it all together:

Then bake: bread pudding! You can't go wrong.

Preview: Lemon Whipped Cream Cake

I like making lemon flavored baked goods:

Like those that include a good homemade lemon curd:

And many, many layers:
video coming soon.