BS: Holiday Baking

Subject: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 11:51 AM

Yeah, I know. Another food thread. :)

Maybe we need an AA-like statement here at the 'Cat: "My name is _________ and I'm a foodie."

Diane Rehm has a chocolate expert on her radio show this morning. Clay Gordon Discover Chocolate had me running to the cupboard for a hot cuppa cocoa to listen in solidarity.

This week I'm starting my holiday baking, so this thread goes beyond chocolate. Every year the folks in my office bring xmas cards for coworkers, but I offer something affordable but with more substance. I take in baked goods. This year I'm making several varieties of quick (soda) breads (banana, pumpkin, zucchini) and am taking in paper plates and gallon-sized bags. I have a large tray and will slice these loaves so that my coworkers can mix and match the loaves they want to package up and take home.

Along with the loaves I'll print out the recipes.

This morning I went looking for a few recipes--I know there are lots on the Internet. I was just curious to see what would turn up with a couple of keystrokes. They're probably arranged according to hits; in this case, I clicked on a Yahoo directory. Here's the page I'll explore more this evening: http://www.joyofbaking.com/cookies.html. I'm particularly interested in some of the fruit bars.

If anyone is interested, I'll post my bread recipes. I also have a regular group of cookies I bake every year (spritz, peanut butter cookies, snickerdoodles, oatmeal cookies, and krumkaka.)

What do you bake for the holidays? This thread title doesn't reflect a particular seasonal name, so the term "holiday" isn't just in late December.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Sooz
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 12:32 PM

Can't have too many food threads!

I was late baking my Christmas cake this year (did it this last weekend). It should be a bit special as I soaked the fruit in black beer. First batch of mince pies have been eaten, shortbread and cookies yet to come.
I'd be interested in your soda bread recipes, SRS. I make bread at least once a week and am always on the lookout for something new.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: ClaireBear
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 12:33 PM

Lately I've been tending towards baking biscotti at Christmas. Some of my favorites are biscotti with dried apricots and pistachios, or vanilla and rosemary, or black pepper and figs. I can relate to these better than I can to classic cookies.

Mind you, I am quite a cook, but there was not a sweets/cookie tradition in my family when I was growing up (my mother never ate sweets and did not serve desserts or sweet snacks, on the whole -- and I don't remember her ever making cookies), so I've never quite felt a part of the holiday baking tradition.

...which is a shame, as I now have a seven-year-old son I would love to have the experience I never had. So I try, but I feel so incompetent at it! I can't decorate my way out of a paper bag.

Also I work full time and have a long commute, so weekdays are out, and I sing in two church choirs, which doesn't leave heaps and bunches of weekend time either.

I did once make a batch of hamantaschen filled with homemade mincemeat (the no-meat kind, btw) for a holiday party. I called them "Eastern Stars." They were quite yummy.

I often make "fruitcake" using a buttermilk gingerbread foundation and folding in various dried fruits and nuts -- nothing candied except heaps of ginger, and sometimes orange peel that I've candied myself (which tastes completely different from what you get in the store).

This year I thought we might make fudge and nut brittle, along with the biscotti. And the homemade mincemeat (my own recipe), and plum pudding (also my own recipe).

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Bee
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 12:51 PM

Wails piteously... You're all making me hungry! For bad sweet, sweet baked goods!

I am not much of a baker (I'm a cook-er), so I depend on several old reliables my mother always made, most of them predicated on an easy brown sugar shortbread base. I make sweetened condensed milk lemon tarts (shortbread tarts), thimble cookies with crushed walnuts or pecans and jam (apricot's my favourite), caramel balls (dangerous, as I just boil a can of sweetened condensed milk for four hours and roll the resulting thick delicious caramel in shredded coconut), plain and iced shortbread cookies, maraschino cherry balls (shortbread with cherry centre) and biscuit based cinnamon rolls when I know someone's coming - I can make, bake and serve those in about twenty-five minutes flat.

This year I'm getting my Mom's no-bake fruit ball recipe as well, which contain fine graham crumbs, chopped apricots, cherries, mini-marshmallows and margarine or butter.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Cats at Work
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 01:02 PM

My name is Cats and I am a foodie! So far the cake is made, the mincemeat is made and alot of it eaten [the recipe starts take half a pint of rum and half a pint of Brandy], sausage rolls made [and 3 dozen already eaten. I have yet to make the raised game pie [forget the jokes about monopoly!!!] but have all the menus planned and lists made. At the end of term I usually bake flapjacks with almonds, apricots, ginger etc and take them in for the end of term meeting.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Emma B
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 01:07 PM

Needless to say I have miserably failed to remember to cook that wonderful seasonal speciality Black Bun yet again! Why does the season always seem to sneak up when I wasn't looking?

I love cooking soda bread it's so quick and easy and is delicious with bacon.
I use 1 cup of soda bread flour to 2 cups of wholemeal flour and 1 cup of buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda a little brown sugar and butter.

oh and yes.......

My name is Emma and I'm a foodie :)

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: sian, west wales
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 01:22 PM

Well, my cakes and puddings were made a few weeks ago (yes! fruit soaked in Guinness!) so I'm on to the cookies now. I've done pfeffernusses (however they're spelt) which are to cookies what vindaloo is to curry. Crikey! Maybe a leeeeeeeedle bit less pfeffer next year? And I've done the shortbread and brownies and chocolate fudge with pistachios and welsh cakes (OK - they're not really Christmas, but they're good). I've got a new cookie cutter that cuts fluted rounds and then, with a spiffy little attachment, cuts out 'tops' with a Christmas shaped hole (I used the christmas tree one), so I'm making spekulaas and sandwiching them with dark chocolate icing tonight. I've also got some orange shortbread to roll out, cut in little stars, then sandwich with orange butter cream. And I want to make chocolate rocky roads, and butterscotch rocky roads, and some caramalized nuts. Tomorrow night (hopefully) I'll have time to make some little almond and chocolate meringues and some thumbprint cookies.

Good grief. What am I doing here? I have work to do ...

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 01:40 PM

My wife makes a pretty good banana bread - but for the holidays I make a big batch of hot sauce and put it in jars to give away to friends and neighbors. When someone moves into the neighborhood I tend to take over chips and hot sauce. Too many other folks bring cookies. Green onions, celantro, jalapanos, garlic, fresh tomatos, salt and lime juice. Easy and tasty. Also low in fat and calories. If you're watching your weight you can always substitute celery for tortilla chips.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 02:51 PM

Wesley, that sounds good! I made my own salsa a couple of years when I had a good garden. Mmmmmm! I have been making a shift to fewer sweets lately, more veggies and savory items. (I give away the lion's share of these baked goods.) A friend of mine some years makes a jalapeno jelly that is served on a big dollop of cream cheese. (You can still get plenty of calories even if you skip some of the sugar.)

I have a coworker with diabetes, so in lieu of sweets I will take some good crackers and a package of the creamy Havarti we discovered over at Central Market a week or two ago. I'm getting my son into eating more cheese by letting him pick out some to experiment with when we shop. "I'm thinking about the Scandinavian countries" he said as we examined the artistic map renderings above the dairy cold case.

Bee, I also like to cook, and have in mind a new dish to try this month. Last year Martha Stewart had a recipe called "short ribs with root vegetables" that looks marvelous.

I don't usually think of banana bread as a holiday bread, we make it all year round. I make a few special loaves now because my boss loves it, so I always give him a loaf to take home and eat by himself. :) I experimented with that recipe a few years back; his wife is diabetic, but was going through chemo for breast cancer and nothing tasted good to her except she loved the banana bread. I put as much Splenda in as I could, with only a little sugar, so the consistency would come out okay.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 02:59 PM

I bought all the fruit to make my christmas cake back in October but work seems to have taken over and I haven't made it yet. Its getting a bit late now but I will try to get it done this weekend - still gives me a week or so to feed it :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 03:23 PM

I've made and marzipanned the christmas cake - Mary Berry's Victorianna christmas cake which I do every year and it never fails; it will be iced tomorrow. This year for the first time ever I've pickled shallots and they will be ready for New Year.

I am planning to try 2 Nigella Lawson recipes, one for spiced peaches and one for chocolate pistachio fudge. She serves the spiced peaches with ham. I usually cook a piece of ham over the Christmas and Easter holidays but it isn't quite as big as the one she cooked! She used 7 litres of ginger ale to cook it in. I've never tried that before so I'm seriously considering it. I won't need 7 litres though!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 04:29 PM

I brined a turkey this year for Thanksgiving. I'll never go back to my old dry turkey. It's a revelation, how succulent and juicy the bird can be.

Alton Brown on Good Eats has done a pork roast (I think that's what it was--bigger than a tenderloin) that he wrapped in a bread dough crust to bake. Didn't eat the crust as I recall. But one of the others (Paula Deen?) used some kind of store biscuit (crescent rolls?) and completely covered a baked ham with them after putting on a mustard glaze. It looked pretty good. It's nice when you can combine your baking with something else! (My daughter got me started watching the Food Network a little. I'm still more of a HGTV kind of gal when it comes to "how to" programming, but I do like the science that comes through with Alton's recipes.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Morticia
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 04:40 PM

Cake and puddin' done, mince pies still to go but the mincemeat was made 2 years ago so I think it's about ready now.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 05:20 PM

Holiday cooking???? We always eat out on Christmas Day, we say "merry Christmas", none of this ludicrous USAian "happy holidays" nonsense.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Bee
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 05:39 PM

Well, yeah, Bonzo, but geeeze, man, "the holidays" includes Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's, not just one day - you want us bakers and cookers to say every durn word before we add 'banana bread'?

And, you say "Merry Christmas" but you encourage some business to make their poor workers sweat it out in a restaurant when some of 'em might actually rather be home with family on Christmas day? Wow, good for you.

See? There is no politically correct position, and no traditionally correct position to take. ;-p

So Happy Holidays to you! When it's Christmas Day or near to, I'll wish you a Merry Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 07:06 AM

Blimey morti...2 years ago, don't go lighting anything near it!!!!*G*

I'll be making a rich chocolate and rum cake for xmas day (requested by Harry's Nana) also an apple cake and some scones...requested by family too. I love baking and there is always some sort of cake in the house. I'm going to have a go at making some bread next week too.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Cats at Work
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 10:19 AM

I'm with Morti on this one! I usually make enough mincemeat to last for 3 or 4 years and Christmas pudding at least 18 months in advance.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 11:20 AM

I don't celebrate christmas with a big "C"; we're more little-c catholic in our celebration of the holidays at the end of the year. ;-D

There are other times of the year when baking comes up, hence the more general label.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 01:54 PM

We don't make them work on Christmas Day, anyway it's an Indian restaurant this year and they put their advert through our door!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 01:55 PM

My best friend taylor and I used to have marathon cookie baking sessions back in the late 1980s. He'd then send the cookies in tins to far-flung friends and relatives. Bless him, he's kepot this up for close to 20 ears and without fail, a tin of cookies shows up each year about a week before Christmas. He has certain standby cookies that everyone deamnds but each year, he tries a new one. The ones we always beg for include a Carrot cookie drop with orange scented icing, lemon-poppyseed cookies with royal icing, oatmeal-toll house cookies dipped half in chocolate and Mexican Wedding Cakes.

My mother makes the most amazing holiday shortbread cookie I've ever had and I cannot duplicate her efforts no matter how hard I try. She rolls hers out fairly thick and then cuts into holiday shapes. She only ices them with piped icing to enhance the shape or add a little decoration. She uses a rich butter icing that hardens up nice on the outside but melts in your mouth when bite into it. The Shortbread does the same. Even if I follow her recipe and method exactly, I cannot get mine as tender or as crisp.


I, however, make the all-time best cranberry sauce EVER. Anyone who has ever had some of mine says so. I could post the recipe if anyone is interested. I don't know how manyof you will be making Cranberry Sauce for Christmas - it's really more of a thanksgiving thing. Even so, I put up a quart or more in jars in case I'm serving a pork roast later in the year. My Cranberry sauce goes so well with pork.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 09:48 PM

I've always been proud of my daughter, Monika, but no more so than right now.

Not only did she give birth to and is raising three lovely children, and not only besides that does she work as a special assistant to the CFO of the corporation where she works (at a pretty nice salary, I might add), and not only is she going to night school on top of all that get a degree in accounting, which will be helpful in her business career, but . . . .

For the holiday season she's making and selling holiday goodies--pumpkin rolls in two varieties and cheesecakes in two varieties--all of the profit of which will be divided between two Indianapolis feed-the-hungry agencies, called Wheeler Mission and Gleaners Food Bank!

I have no idea when she expects to sleep.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 10:52 PM

Cranberries are excellent with many things.We always had cranberry sauce on hand, not only for turkey and chicken, but with sweet potatoes.
In the last 2-3 years, everybody seems to have gone on a cranberry kick, with them appearing in the stores fresh, dried, sauced and in pies, cakes and cookies. A cranberry-pecan crostata has appeared in our grocery; it is very good and we will have to find a recipe.

Dave's Wife, I would like to see your sauce recipe. Ours is less sweet than most people seem to like, but the slight bite from the cranberries is our preference with meats.

Sprinkle dried cranberries on curry along with piñons, cocoanut and dried apricot bits to add contrasting but complimentary flavors.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 11:32 PM

I get to sample... Jenn's baklava - yum!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: open mike
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 03:49 AM

the delicacy i am making tonite is Swedish Rosettes..
not baked but fried...i guess we can tolerate them
once a year...yum.

http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/desserts/cookies/03/rec0366.html
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=138872
`click on alternate view to see the finished pastries
http://www.pans.com/general/nordicwareswedishrosettetimbaleset.cfm

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Eye Lander
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 04:49 AM

My name is Jillie and I am a foodie, so is Miskin Man! Bad combination for diets!

cake made, not marzied or iced though.
mincemeat made, (tasted oops tested! yum yum yum) ready for Andy to make mince pies.
off to Bridgend for special butchers sausage meat for sausage rolls (Andy to make)
pudding done for my friend. We'll have one from last year.
Tiffin tested!!! now ready to make sweeties for friends.
finnish cookies - ah recipe on the IOW. back there on Wednesday.
Collecting crusts for homemade sage and Onion stuffing.
Cor getting excited now!

Merry Christmas one and all and a safe journey for those travelling.

Jillie

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 06:05 AM

I make cranberry scones as I'm not keen on raisens/currants,

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 06:10 AM

I, however, make the all-time best cranberry sauce EVER. Anyone who has ever had some of mine says so. I could post the recipe if anyone is interested.

Yes PLEASE. I make cranberry sauce every year and would love to try your recipe.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 06:19 AM

We recently scored a gallon jug of cream. Made butter by hand. Used the buttermilk to make pancakes.... ahhhhhhhh...

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: GUEST,Essex Girl
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 08:32 AM

Cake is made and marzipanned, and been liberally doused in rum and brandy (both before and after cooking). I am trying out lots of new apple recipes as well as I had a huge glut of them this year and my freezer is now bursting with frozen apples and apple puree.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Bee
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 09:05 AM

Myself and a friend pick our own cranberries every year - gallons of them, and we give quite a few bags away to family and friends. It's the best berry for picking, large, plentiful, no insects biting, and usually a wonderful view of the sea while you crouch back of a dune. Best done at low tide, when there is less water in the boggy spots, where the biggest berries always hide.

We say we have to 'get our cranberry eyes on' as we begin picking, because at first you might think there are no berries, then suddenly you see that there are hundreds of them right under your hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 09:51 AM

OK, here's my recipe for never fail Cranberry sauce - it's rather tart but not unplesantly so:


Dave'sWife's Never Fail Cranberry Sauce
Makes 2 generous quarts


Ingredients

* 12 ounce can frozen Orange Juice Concentrate (with pulp is possible)
*1 cup filtered water
*Zest of 2 lemons plus the juice of one of those lemons
*4 bags fresh cranberries (I buy Ocean Spray bags, I'll see if I can come back with the precise size of those bags)
*2 cups Frozen wild blueberries (the little ones)
*2 cups castor sugar (Superfine white sugar)
*1 package of fruit pectin - the regular kind (not the freezer jam kind)
*Spices - I use liberal amounts of Cinnamon along with a teaspoon of both Allspice and Mace. By liberal amounts I mean a tablespoon or two.
*1 6 ounce package of Cranberry Jell-O gelatine dissolved in 1 and 1/4 cups of very hot water

Method:

Wash the cranberries in a colander, picking out anty stones, stems or rotten berries. Remove under-ripe berries or berries that popped their skins. Set aside. Zest your lemons and juice one of the lemons. Set the juice and zezt aside together in a small custard cup or ingredient dish.

In a large non-reactive stock pot, heat the OJ concentrate and water, bringing to a boil. When boiling, add in all the cranberries and the 2 cups of frozen blueberries and bring back to a boil. When boiling add in the Lemon Zest and juice. Reduce heat to a medium and wait for the berried to begin to pop their skins. When this has happened, add in the sugar, the pectin and the spices. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and pectin. Simmer until the berries are soft and all the skins have popped - about 10 minutes or so. Add in the Cranberry Jell-O dissolved in water and turn the heat back up to high. Aloow to come to a boil again and then turn heat down to simmer.

Allow the mixutre to simmer as long as it takes to get to the thickness you like. I like mine very very thick so I let mine simmer on a medium to low heat for at least 30 minutes - more if necessary. When berry mixture is to the thickness of your liking, remove from heat, cover and let cool down for 30 minutes.

At this point you have a choice. You can leave the sauce as is (chunky) or you can push it through a sieve for smooth sauce. My experience has been that you get a better gelled suace by pushing it through a sieve and removing the skins.

I push the mixture through a sieve (or a colander if you have no sieve) with a wooden spoon in batches. Be sure to scrape it against the sieve as hard as you can until all that is left is dry skins of the berries. You want to get every last ounce of sauce!

Once the sauce has been processed through the sieve, you can proceed with regular canning methods. I recommend using pint jars for yourself and half pint jars if giving as gifts.


Cooks Notes:

If you like spicey cranberry sauce, you can add chili flakes and white pepper.

This sauce is also good if you add 3 medium thinly sliced vidalia onions to the cranberries and blueberries as they cooking.

********************************


I hope you enjoy this recipe. The secret is the addition of the pectin and Jell-O. That's what helps the sauce set up well. it will not be jellied like the kind you get in a can but it should be substantially thicker than most homemade cranberry sauces. You may always reduce the amounts of water if you like to try and get an even thicker sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 09:59 AM

Many thanks.

I've just copied and pasted it into my recipe folder in Word.

It's certainly different to what I usually make .................... and I've just bought some chili flakes!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: GUEST,maire-aine
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 11:56 AM

A few months ago, I made corn relish (the store-bought stuff was thickened, and i didn't like that), so some folks will get some of that.

I've been trying to watch my carbs (lost 41 lbs since March) so I won't be baking cookies this year. I've got all the ingredients for a fruited (candiedorangepeel-dates-cherries) cake, so I'll bake that this weekend, in individual bundt-cake pan & muffin tins.

Have a yummy holiday, y'all...
Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 12:39 AM

My banana bread recipe from the top of my head follows. I'll pull out the books for the others later.

BANANA BREAD

Heat oven to 350 degrees

4 or 5 mashed bananas (recipe calls for 3, but I like it really moist and usually use 5 if they're "normal" sized, 4 if they're huge)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar (I use a combination of about 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Splenda--can use all sugar, but not all Splenda. Splenda by itself doesn't work right with the baking soda, it doesn't rise properly)
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat (or you can use 2 cups white and no wheat)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons melted butter, added at end after egg mixture is combined with flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Mash bananas well, add eggs. Mix in dry ingredients, add butter. Mix in nuts (sometimes I arrange pecans on the top instead of mixing into the batter.) Pour into greased bread pan. Bake for at least an hour. Test it with a toothpick for doneness. I usually have to bake this about 65 minutes with the extra moisture to be sure it is done.

Good as muffins also, especially with a nut on top of each. Bake only about 30-35 minutes in the muffin pan.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 01:45 AM

"My banana bread recipe from the top of my head follows. I'll pull out the books for the others later."

You have no idea what I thought you were going to say about WHERE you would pull them out of...

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Cats at Work
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 06:02 AM

Cranberry sauce just has to have port in it. Try cooking the cranberrys in port for a few minutes until they begin to burst open, take off the heat and leave overnight to infuse. Use them as you usually would.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: RangerSteve
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 07:58 AM

For cranberry sauce, I have a recipe that calls for boiling the water and then brewing some green tea in it, then follow the usual recipe for making cranberry sauce, adding something called Chinese Five Spice (it's sold in most stores), about 1/2 tsp.

I've also tried it with Earl Grey tea, and it worked fine. Next I'm going to experiment with fruit teas.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 08:34 AM

They're not etched on my brain though I could probably make a good guess. Banana bread is a staple, one of the important food groups around here. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: artbrooks
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 09:11 AM

Since we are off of baking and on to cranberrys, here is Susan Stamberg's (from NPR) recipe for cranberry relish:

"Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish

2 cups whole raw cranberries, washed
1 small onion
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons horseradish from a jar ("red is a bit milder than white")

Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," says Stamberg. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind — not a puree.")

Add everything else and mix.

Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some little icy slivers left.")

The relish will be thick, creamy, and shocking pink. ("OK, Pepto Bismol pink. It has a tangy taste that cuts through and perks up the turkey and gravy. It's also good on next-day turkey sandwiches, and with roast beef.")

Makes 1 1/2 pints."

This is great stuff if your holiday cooking tends more toward roast beef than turkey. I (personally) don't care for it much with the latter.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 04:08 PM

I looked online and I believe that a standard bag size for the Ocean Spray cranberries ia 12 ounces. It's not as if you can find other non-standard sizes. Ocean Spray is about all you can get in most grocery stores unless you are lucky enough to live near cranberry bogs.

I believe the next time I make it, I will heat the water I use for to dissolve the Jell-O and then steep it with some Celestial Seasonings Blueberry fruit teat to try and deepen the bluebrry flavor. of course, any red fruit tea would also work as would any good black tea. I could also steep the first cup of water used in the same tea.

I don't use sherry or alcohol in my cranberry sauce out of habit because several members of my immediate family are recovered alcoholics and YES, you can still taste it even if the alcohol component has cooked off. it's not so much the alcohol content that recovered AA members worry about, it's the taste of it and the potential to make them jones for a drink.

My recipe may seem complicated but it's really not. You can make it while you are doing something else such as threading on Mudcat!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 08:00 PM

My my - i do seem to kill just about every thread I post in lately.

BTW - it's blueberry fruit TEA ( I typed teat - blueberry teats are what cows get when it dips below freezing in the barn)

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 09:35 PM

Nope, don't worry. It's a busy weekend at home for a lot of folks. We'll be back on this thread once we're back at our workplaces and have more leisure. . .   ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 09:57 PM

Well, here's a great holiday pie if you've got access to Lime juice or Limeade:

"Ya Puts Da Lime in Da Coconut an Stir 'em Bode Up" Pie

Ingredients
1 can Coconut Milk (not the lowfat kind)
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
4 eggs
1/2 cup frozen limeade, thawed or fresh key Lime Juice
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 9" deep-dish pie shell, frozen or homemade    (can be a vanilla cookie crust or shortcrust shell)

method

1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Adjust rack to lowest level for baking.
2 Combine coconut milk, coconut flakes, eggs, limeade (or juice), castor sugar, flour, extract, and salt in a blender. Blend until mixed, and pour into pie shell.
3 Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake for 40-45 more minutes or until set.
4.Cool on rack for 1/2 hour and refrigerate until cold before cutting. If desired, serve with sweetened whipped cream, lime curls or fruit of choice and Harry Nilsson on the stereo.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 01:51 PM

The kids just came through the house and carted off 2 loaves of zucchini bread and a quart bag of peanut butter cookies. They know where to come get the good stuff before their party!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: open mike
Date: 16 Dec 07 - 03:29 PM

Art, glad you posted Stamberg's Cranberry recipe, you beat me to it!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 04:59 PM

Well, I have made Nigella Lawson's chocolate pistachio fudge and it is delicious. You can keep it in the freezer and eat it straight from there without defrosting it.

So just the spiced peaches to go!

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 05:48 PM

Without taking the time to read every previous message first, I feel compelled to pass this along:

Due to a ridiculous oversupply of government-commodity oatmeal shared by a flood-victim friend, I've been making batch after batch of oatmeal cookies. By Christmas, I should have the process down pat.

The most important thing I've discovered:

Where the recipe calls for cinnamon (a half-teaspoon per batch, in the recipe I've been using), substitute Pumpkin Pie Spice, which is a blend of cimmamon, nutmeg, and allspice. It imparts a "holidays" flavor just below the level of consciousness. People won't be able to pinpoint just why the cookies taste so good, and so subtly different ~ they'll just enjoy them.

I'm sure you could simply use straight cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice, but the quantities might be tricky since I don't think they make measuring spoons smaller than a quarter-teaspoon. Not that I think the proportions are critically important; it's just that it would be difficult to measure out three different spices to make a total of one-half teaspoon. Plus which, whatever the proportions of the three elements might be in a given brand of pumpkin-pie spice, it's probably well-thought-out, and is certainly time-tested as well as (perhaps most importantly) familiar.

Also: learn from this mistake I made:

My recipe calls for manually "folding in" raisins as the final step, after machine-mixing all the other ingredients. I did so last week when making my first batch of cookies in many years, and the results were quite good, although I balked at the manual labor and was still unsatisfied with the uneven distribution of raisins throughout the dough. Second time around, I substituted "craisins" (dried cranberries) for raisins, which was OK, and mixed 'em in by machine, which was NOT at all OK.

Beating the dried fruit into the mixture by machine broke too many craisins open and released too much moisture into the dough, so the cookies didn't "stand up" through the baking process but instead "ran." When I took the cookie sheets out of the oven, each one contained, essentially, one big thin rectangular cookie.

I cut 'em apart while still warm and soft, and the individual cookies or "bars" had enough structural integrity after they cooled and became crisp. And, most importantly, they tasted just fine. But normal individual round-ish cookies a little thicker in the center than at the edge wuold have been far preferable. So, no more machine-mixing of the raisins or craisins or choc-chips or nuts or whatever...

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 06:19 PM

PoppaGator,

Give yourself permission to depart from the recipe after you have the technique and science of it down. Give yourself permission to use more than the amount called for if it suits your tastes. I, for example, can never put in just the amount of vanilla a recipe calls for, I often use at least double. I LOVE vanilla. Cinnamon is also one of those spices. I don't think my recipe calls for any my my oatmeal cookies (and I will be making some later this week). To each his own on some of these matters.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: RangerSteve
Date: 17 Dec 07 - 06:57 PM

A tip I learned from watching TV cooking shows: When making muffins or cakes with fruit such as raisins or blueberries, mix the fruit in with the dry ingredients before adding the liquids. After the fruit is coated with flour, it won't sink to the bottom of the batter. If you're supposed to add the fruit after the batter is mixed, toss it with just enough flour to coat the fruit, then add to the batter.

Subject: RE: BS: Holiday Baking
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Dec 07 - 01:35 PM

A coating of nice dry white flour on your pieces of fruit also helps to keep the pieces separate from each other, not clumped together.

Something else ~ a semi-related tip ~ that works in a similar manner: When making cocoa (or any recipe using cocoa and sugar), thoroughly stir the cocoa powder and gradulated sugar together before mixing with any liquid, or indeed with anything else at all. This eliminates lumps very efficiently and easily, as the sharp edges of the sugar particles very quickly "cut" right through the powdery cocoa, which otherwise tends to adhere to itself quite stubbornly.

SRS:

I absolutely respect anyone's right to fiddle with recipes and create their own variations, reflecting their own tastes. I'm returning to baking after a long layoff (decades!), which makes me a little more reluctant to improvise than I once might have been.

It IS important that the little changes one introduces not make a significant difference in the batter's consistency (wetness/dryness, looseness/hardness, etc.) Making my most recent batch, night before last, I found that I had only one egg where the recipe called for two. I figured I'd just skip it and wing it, then found the batter too hard without the additional liquid-ish-ness of that one missing egg. I threw in a lttle water (one or tablespoonfuls or so) to make up for it, and the results were fine. Milk might have been an even better idea, a little more egg-like, but since the basic recipe does not call for any milk at all, I stuck with water (which would evaporate awy completely after fulfilling its function of "softening" the mixture during the critical folding-in-of-raisins phase).

Spices and intense flavorings like vanilla can be doubled (or even more!) without making a huge difference in the overall mix's consistency because they are used in such very small quantities in comparison to the basic ingredients (e.g., flour). Using a teaspoon of cinnamon instead of a half, or two teaspoons of vanilla instead of one, isn't going to throw off the texture of your mixture enough to make a difference.

Since you like cinnamon, why not try throwing in a half-teaspoon or so into your next batch of oatmeal cookies? Or, better yet, try the "pumpkin-pie" blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Even though your recipe doesn't call for any such spice, you know that it will be thoroughly compatible with the basic flavors of oatmeal and raisins...