What's your favorite holiday season baked good?

[tiredmommy]

A lot of people love to bake this time of year, so I was wondering: what do you have planned to bake? I'll be making some cut-outs this year (as usual). Please share your favorite recipes and tips!

 

[DDD]

I bake Christmas cookies with the youngest gd. She looks forward to it. I am not "into" sweets and I do what I've got to do. Sorry.....I'm no fun. How I can be overweight eating organic health food I'll never understand, lol. Thank God I do not lust after fried foods or sweets. The worst memory is my former mother in law's fruit cake. She was a wonderful loving lady who baked her fruit cake in early November and weekly poured a bottle of expensive bourban all over it before rewrapping it in chesscloth. OMg (yes, I really loved that woman) one piece in December would almost make you slide under the table, LOL. Funny thing was that she and Grampa didn't drink. Weird but part of my Xmas memories every year. DDD

 

[buddy]

We bake cookies together with all the cousins....My fav are the almond flavored spritz and Russian tea cakes. Just so great. (We also do pb blossoms and traditional frosted/decorated sugar cookies)

 

[AnnieO]

My Grandma made what she called fruitcake, but it was actually applesauce cake with nuts, some fruit and rum. I adapted it a couple years back, put in green maraschino cherries (BFF is allergic to red #40), pineapple, dates, apples, mandarin oranges... And then soaked it in coconut rum. Only one bottle. And because it had time to evaporate... We all slept well, but no one got drunk! I might do that again this year... I love fruitcake. <DUCKS>

I also like chocolate rum balls.

I'm beginning to think my Grandma wanted me to sleep on Christmas Eve...

OK, I do love shortbread and fudge, too. And I make peppermint chocolate chip cookies. And candy cane syrup for coffee or ice cream.

...I just like to cook.

 

[Jody]

we always make chocolate chip cookies, and we have also added oatmeal raisin and walnut cookies to our list of baked goods. My daughter makes a sweet potato pie and that's it.

 

[AnnieO]

Oh, last year I made sugar-free buckeyes for the other BFF. They were difficult and awful (in my opinion - he loved them).

 

[InsaneCdn]

I have to pick just ONE? Noooooo.....! I can't!....

Butter tarts and apple pie and fruitcake (more fruit than cake and soaked in pommegranite juice instead of rum) and... and... and...

<drool>

 

[tiredmommy]

Butter tart recipe, please!!!!!!!!

 

[Mattsmom277]

I usually make several things, on top of hosting a cookie exchange which gives us a selection of a dozen treats from each person. I gift tins of baking, so tend to make more than the average bear. Some I bake, I do several no bake recipes as well. This year I am making: chocolate covered sponge toffee (for my cookie exchange guests), sugar free shortbread cookies, chocolate peppermint fudge, gingerbread, stained glass window cookies (colored marshmallows, walnuts, chocolate, coconut, yummm), sugar free banana bread and sugar free zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies, skor bars, sugar free cran-raspberry thumbprint cookies. I am also making French Canadian meat pies, sugar free apple pie, sugar free blueberry pie and sugar free pumpkin pie. I'm going to gain 10 pounds, I just know it, despite gifting far more than we will actually keep in the house. Usually that idea bothers me. After the horrible year I had, I'm perfectly okay with it. Thankfully being a former gastric bypass patient, I can't consume more than 12grams of sugar at a sitting which should spare me a little of the holiday gain. But I can graze, and I'm not going to feel guilty this year. I'm having a no stress December, it has been decreed!

 

[Star*]

Was this a pick one? Post????

 

[flutterby]

Scotcharoos are everyone's favorite around here. easy child and I also really like Fantasy Fudge.

 

[Mattsmom277]

oooh Flutterby, I have no idea what either of those are but their names sound delicious. What are they?

 

[donna723]

Since we have been going to S. Carolina to my daughter's house for Christmas the past few years, I always make things that are easy to take along. I bake a big lemon pound cake in a bundt pan every year with a lemon glaze and a bit of grated lemon peel on top. Not very Christmasy but my grandson loves it. And I always make cookies. I make big, soft oatmeal cookies with pecans in them. And I always made my special peanut butter sandwich cookies - two peanut butter cookies with a melted smooshed peanut butter cup in the middle - but I won't bring them this year. My grandson, Ethan, is severely allergic to peanuts. It was easy enough to keep them away from him when he was smaller but he's 3-1/2 now and gets in to everything. Last year I bought a cookie press and made a bunch of little cookies just for Ethan and he loved them! Lots of little Christmas trees, flowers and stars, painted with colorful thinned-down powder sugar icing. They're a lot of work but it's worth it.

 

[DammitJanet]

I am not a baker, especially of cookies. I kill sugar cookies. I have the best of intentions but they never come out. I get so frustrated. Years ago I had one of those cookie presses and that worked pretty well. A few times I made tea cakes and they come out well because they are pretty much idiot proof. Two years ago I made macaroons which I thought Tony would love but he didnt seem to like them that well so I didnt make them again. My favorite cookie is meringues with the mini chocolate chips in them and they are so easy but I dont do them much anymore. Maybe I will make them this year.

A few years ago I learned to make vanilla custard and I much prefer that...lol.

 

[trinityroyal]

White chocolate cheesecake with caramel sauce. Not actually a Christmas goodie, but I bake it for every dinner party I throw and Christmas dinner is no different.

Other than that, I love to bake cookies. I've come up with a weird icing meld -- part buttercream, part glaze -- that is lovely for decorating cookies. This year I think I will do Gingerbread men, Ginger snaps (English style, with large chunks of real ginger), sugar cookies and perhaps a Christmas Tree cake. (I have a pan shaped like a Christmas Tree. I just bake a regular cake and decorate it to look like a tree.)

If I'm feeling brave, I will attempt my Grannie's Christmas cake recipe, but I'm already a few weeks behind. The cake should have been baked and the rum soaking begun at least 2 weeks ago to make it properly.

 

[hearts and roses]

I can't choose only ONE! We make A LOT of cookies (usually...this year I'm cutting back).

Mexican Wedding Cakes (similar to Russian Tea cakes) are everyone's all time fave.
Rum Balls.
Cream Cheese Sugar cookies (they are softer).
Chocolate Florentines.
Biscotti for my BFF.

And H's favorite is a concoction I created that I call Choco-Chip-Oat-Nut cookies.

We also make a variety of girlfriend bar cookies for my sisters and niece.

 

[Tiapet]

Another one here that can't do just one really except for my mom's Oatmeal lace cookies (undercooked due to teeth issues) that I absolutely adore! Terrible sweet and addicting. She made me some while here. Started out making a single recipe but put in too much butter so had to double it so I got a double batch just for me!

Normally every year my oldest difficult child and I will bake a bunch of different kinds of cookies (probably 10-15). I can't do it this year being sick so instead she did but I decided to try, what I thought, would be easier for her kinds. Turns out they weren't necessarily easier for her. More frustrating since her abilities are different then mine.

They were all varying kinds of cookie balls:

Basic Oreo Cookie Ball
Raspberry Cookie Ball
Cherry Cookie Ball - these are like chocolate covered cherries
Strawberry-Nilla Cookie Ball
Nutter Butter Ball
Nutter-Banana Ball
Golden Oreo Cookie Ball
Cappucino Ball
Lemon Lime Sugar Cookie Ball
Oatmeal Cookie Ball
Granola Ball
Cool Mint Oreo Ball
Nilla-Banana Ball
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ball - this is Gluten free

 

[flutterby]

MattsMom - They are both very easy to make.

Scotcharoos - 6 cups rice crispies, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup butterscotch chips (although I use the entire bag of both chips)

Mix together sugar and corn syrup in a pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Pour mixture over rice crispies, mixing well. Butter bottom and sides of a 13x9 baking pan and spread mixture into pan. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together and spread over rice crispies mix. Allow 3 or so hours to set.

A couple of tips - have everything measured and ready (except for the chocolate and butterscotch chips) before you get started. Once you mix the peanut butter into the corn syrup and sugar mix, you'll not want to stop. The mixture hardens fairly quickly to a point that is hard to work with. When I'm flattening the rice crispies mix in the pan, I use butter on my fingers to keep from sticking to it - and because the mix is still pretty warm. I use butter in the pan opposed to cooking spray or crisco because of flavor issues since this isn't cooked.

Fantasy Fudge - http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/easy-5-minute-fudge-6624

 

[recoveringenabler]

I love to bake. I always make chocolate chip cookies with nuts, my favorite.........my granddaughter makes my SO sugar cookies, his favorite, which she loves to decorate. I make peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies for granddaughter, her favorite....I think I'll also bake some kind of shortbread cookie, anyone have a favorite shortbread recipe? I know a woman who makes the most incredible bread pudding with chocolate chunks, it's to die for, so I will be enlisting her to make that for us too. That should keep us all on a sugar high for quite some time.

Peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies (kids really like them)

[h=2]Ingredients[/h]

• 48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup REESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Additional granulated sugar

[h=2]Directions[/h]

• 1 Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
• 2 Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
• 3 Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
• 4 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each
  cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.
  About 4 dozen cookies.

 

[JKF]

I have to admit - I'm not the best baker. I'm a great cook but my baking is questionable. I think it's the measuring that throws me off. It's more of a science than whipping up a good pot roast. lol

On that note - I do make a very good chocolate walnut fudge every year at Christmas. And last year I made the cookies that RE posted with the Hershey's kiss in the middle. They are soooooo amazingly good!