Finding new cookies for holiday baking is a passion. While all of us in this house enjoy traditional cookie recipes, sometimes we’ll find one – or two – that seem to be stand-outs. This recipe for a twist on the Mexican sweet bread, concha, was published in the Washington Post food section and comes via…
Tag: Holiday baking
25 Nov 2022: Thumbprint Cookies
One long-ago December, in a frenzy of cookie baking, I persuaded my teaching colleagues to attempt a holiday cookie exchange. So, we set up shop with several dozen of our favorite holiday cookie recipe in one of the classrooms and, after ooohing and ahhing over the selection, filled our containers with holiday cookies to take…
19 December 2021: Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies
Until this year, I don’t recall ever attempting a swirl cookie. They’re not a simple cut-out or drop, so the intimidation factor was high. This recipe from Alton Brown, however, was too delicious sounding to prevent me from giving it a try, and frankly, it was a bit of a challenge to get the dough…
13 December 2021: Gingerbread Biscotti
My Italian ancestry (Sicilian really, no surprise there) dictates that every Christmas holiday I made at least one biscotti recipe. As I’ve written before, I’ve got the baking part down to a personal science, and I often ignore the baking directions on a particular biscotti recipe. For me, the best bake comes from a usual…
23 December 2020: Egg-Free Cutout Cookies
One of my fondest childhood food memories is of the big rectangular tin of cutout cookies my Aunt Eleanor used to make for the four of us each Christmas and Easter. She had collected an impressive array of cutout shapes which, when I had to downsize, went to another family member. I love her recipe…
20 December 2020: Union Square’s Chocolate Biscotti
Each holiday season, I choose a biscotti recipe – or two – to make for my family as a way to honor my Sicilian heritage. This year’s bake comes from New York’s Union Square Cafe and melds chocolate, espresso and white chocolate (the original calls for milk chocolate). The condo filled with the aroma of…
15 December 2020: Nut Brittle
I remember tins of peanut brittle although I don’t remember exactly where they came from so when King Arthur Baking sent out this Microwave Nut Brittle recipe in a weekly email blast, it seemed like an opportunity to try something from long-ago memory. When I think of handmade gifts for giving at the holidays, I’ve…
A Quebecois Treat for Christmas
Baked from “Sap Happy” written by OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT. New York Times, March 2, 2008 I’m sure there are other more traditional sweets from my husband’s Québécois heritage that we could roll out for the holidays, but this one was a special family request: Sugar Pie (always Maple) or Tarte au Sucre. It ticks all of…
29 November 2018: Laura Raposa’s Coconut Orange Macaroons
In general, I don’t keep a lot of home-baked sweets in our house. I do so, not as a lofty statement against sugar consumption. I do it because I love them too much! But after Thanksgiving has gone by, there is some strange phenomenon that occurs: I feel the need to bake cookies. I like…
13 December 2016: St. Lucia Buns
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Both of my great-grandfathers were bakers; if that’s an inherited trait, I’m officially thanking them both here for instilling in me a love of yeast and flour. Working with yeasted doughs and breads is quite satisfying, and it has been something I’ve dabbled in since high school. I found…
Four Nights A Week 