What are you Baking the week of December 10th?

[BakerAunt]

Hi, Rascals! It's good to know that you are reading the posts. Thank you Jan for keeping us informed.

[Joan Simpson]

Hey Rascals,prayers still coming your way,glad you're daughter is keeping us informed on your well being.Thank you Jan and for taking good care of your Mom.A loving family is a blessing.

[BakerAunt]

Tuesday evening, I baked Swedish Lucia buns to celebrate Saint Lucia's day on December 13. I never had the chance to know my Swedish grandmother, as she died when my father was an infant, so I try to recover some of those traditions.

The bake was not without incident. (See discussion thread about never turning your back on softening butter.) I have not baked this recipe for at least a year, and perhaps it has been two years. The basic recipe comes from Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, but I have played around with it over the years. I now use the special Gold yeast and substituted in a cup of white whole wheat flour. I've found that I also use a cup less flour (4 1/2 rather than 5 1/2) than in the book's recipe. I added 2 Tbs. potato flour because I have it and want to use it up. I'm not sure that I will order that ingredient again. They came out well, but they perhaps should have baked another minute or two. They are still good.

[Italiancook]

It's official: I baked 32 Butterhorn dinner rolls for the first time! I don't have a camera to post a picture, but they look gorgeous. Taste good, too. In the end, I liked working with a refrigerated dough. I roll dough slowly, probably because of the rolling pin, so the cold dough kept the butter cold enough to live with my slow rolling. I think I'll buy a marble rolling pin if the vendor has free shipping today. I would definitely make butterhorns again, but I will find a recipe that doesn't use as much flour. Probably, I'll refrigerate the dough overnight even if the recipe doesn't call for it.

[BakerAunt]

Congratulations on the Butterhorns, Italian Cook!

This morning I baked Speculaas cookies from the dough I made last evening (see thread under dessert). This evening I baked two loaves of my Buttermilk Grape Nuts bread because we are out of bread, and my husband has been patient while I have done some other breads recently. I am continuing to experiment with the recipe I posted, this time by adding 1/4 cup barley flour. This bread always makes me think of Dachshundlady, who introduced us to it, and it makes me think of Rascals, who also enjoys baking it.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[luvpyrpom]

This week was prepping all the cookie dough for the holiday cookie trays. I also wanted to make a birthday gift of sunburst lemon bars for a coworker. The recipe is from Barefeet in the Kitchen blog. It was pretty good after I upped the lemon (I really like tart stuff). I wanted to try the same recipe but with lime to make lime bars. I think I need to up the lime on that one, too, as I could barely taste the lime. So for the holiday cookies this year, I decided to try making the dough ahead of time and freeze them in either rolls (so I could slice and bake) or in tubs so I could just scoop and bake. It did make it easier for me to bake more in a timely manner - like today I baked a dozen of each flavor of cookie (total of 8 kinds). I made honey bars, christmas cookies - Fudge cookies, Andes Mint cookies, Snickerdoodles, Peanut Butter, Thin & Crispy Oatmeal, White Chocolate & Cranberry, Molasses, and Lemon-Coconut Snowballs. I also made People Puppy Chow or Chex Puppy Chow or Moose Munch - I guess the name varies by region. I wanted to bake some bread but am kind of tired from being in the kitchen all day.

Bakeraunt, I've been meaning to ask about the Maple Shortbread I saw you had shared on here. Will it hold imprint pretty good? I bought some cookie stamps and I still have my springerle molds and would love to use them with this recipe.

[skeptic7]

All of you are cooking such wonderful things! I had oral surgery to remove a tooth so I can only eat soft things. I finished up the last up the last of the lemon meringue pie myself, but found the crust was harder than I liked. I'll try more blind pie crusts later.
I admire the Swedish Lucia buns and the butterhorns and all the cookies. They all sound fascinating.
Does anyone have favorite recipes that use almond meal? I bought a bag for one recipe that only used 1/2 a cup so I have most of the bag left. I thought perhaps Scottish Shortbread with almond meal subsituted for part of the oat flour.

[BakerAunt]

Luvpyrpom--Yes, that maple shortbread holds the images well. I was very pleased with my maple leaves. I'm thinking of trying it with some small Christmas pie crust press cutters.

[luvpyrpom]

Skeptic, I have the same problem - bought a bag of almond flour to make Chinese almond cookies like what I had as a child and haven't remade them again. Plus, I've met too many people that have nut allergies so I have to be careful of exposing them to the cookies. A friend offered me a recipe that uses almond flour/meal - it's a cake that also has ricotta and lemon. I haven't made it yet as I didn't have the heart to tell her that I can't do dairy. I hope you find something yummy to use your almond meal.

[Italiancook]

luvpyrpom, I admire your ability to make so many different kinds of cookies. You, BakerAunt & others are so busy with holiday baking. I still haven't decided if I'm going to bake cookies before Christmas.

[luvpyrpom]

Italiancook, every year I tell myself - don't do this again. This year, I actually wrote in next year's calendar of when to start making the cookie dough. I did find it easier this year when I premixed the doughs and froze them in log forms or in tubs so I can just bake when I need to. But it's the prep work that kills me each time - I only have one mixer bowl and each recipe is either doubled, tripled, or quadrupled. So it's a lot of washing!

[Italiancook]

Maybe I'll try that idea in November next year, luvpyrpom. I could make the doughs and freeze them. Even the dough for cut-out cookies can be frozen. So I don't see a downside to this. I'm hoping, though, that I develop . . . something . . . to make cookies next week for the families who are used to receiving from me at Christmas.

[Mike Nolan]

Today is my wife's birthday, so I made a 10x10 Texas Chocolate Sheet cake. (1/2 of the batter recipe but about 1 1/3 X the icing recipe, because it's better when the icing is thick.)

[BevM]

Happy birthday to Mrs. Nolan. My sons' birthday is coming up on the 18th.

Today I baked my Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake from the KAF website. I still have lots of frozen blueberries from the summer!

[Joan Simpson]

Happy birthday to Mrs.Nolan!

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