It's Time for Holiday Baking!

Every year about this time, an amazing thing happens across the country and around the world: Cooks everywhere dust off their holiday recipes and get to work baking oodles of wonderful things to eat.

The variety of traditions and recipes available to the holiday baker is absolutely incredible. Witness all the holiday magazines that come out right after Halloween with their pages packed with all sorts of decorating and cooking advice. When I was younger (and thinner) I used to buy several magazines every year to pore over, wondering what new delights I might find to bake for my family and to give away as gifts to co-workers and friends. In the process, I garnered a collection of my own favorites through the years. Back when we had the dairy goats (yes, I had them—about 40 of them in fact, but more on that another time), I even made Goat Milk fudge one year. My husband Sam pokes fun at me, but I have a huge cardboard box of recipes I’ve torn out of magazines or saved from labels or boxes, and that’s where my treasure trove resides. There are a few holiday magazines I’ve saved too. After we moved into our house five years ago, I couldn’t find said box or magazines for a couple of years, so I had to improvise and come up with some new holiday favorites, but the good news is that when I found the old recipes, I had loads of new ones to add.

In the meantime, I really have been trying to get my recipes sorted through, written up, and saved onto my computer. That way I can someday be rid of The Recipe Box forever, and I’m sure Sam will be glad. He is a very organized person. I have a refrigerator magnet that reads, “I am not disorganized. I have anti-systematic methodology disorder.” Describes me to a T—at least with some things.

One thing always happens to me whenever this season rolls around, however. I get anxious, because I like food (like most people), and I know I will not be able to resist the yummy creations I encounter at work or make at home myself. In fact, whenever I do bake something at home, it normally goes right to work. My co-workers can tell you I don’t bring goodies to work very often, because out of the instinct for self-preservation, I don’t bake much anymore. Why? Because I know I’m going to gain a few pounds if my creations hang around at home very long. One thing I’ve found you can do though is to be very picky about the goodies you eat. Let’s face it. You’d better really enjoy that Christmas cookie, piece of fudge, or slice of fruitcake, not to mention the glass of holiday punch or Irish Cream, because it will be with you for a while. With that said, I must say that I DO enjoy holiday baking, and I DO enjoy sampling everything! No bah, humbug Christmases or New Years for me!

Of course, Sam and I have formed certain personal traditions by now. One of them is to enjoy homemade Irish Cream and shortbread cookies, while listening to holiday music, as we put up and trim our tree. Needless to say, we always have a really good time doing it, too. A few years back I also learned how to make gingerbread houses, which are great fun—and people absolutely LOVE destroying and eating them. I like to make a couple recipes of fudge and divinity every year and of course there are the inevitable sugar and candy cane cookies, and hors d’oeuvre plates of Swedish meatballs or Viennese wieners. You get the picture. By the way, do you know that if you misspell hors d’oeuvre, that Spell-check has no competent suggestions for you (drovers? dourest?)? It figures! Thank God for my three volume set of Webster’s Third Unabridged!

Now in parting, since I tantalized you with my tale of homemade Irish Cream and shortbread cookies, here are my recipes so you can enjoy them too!

Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur*

1 ¼ cups Irish whisky
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk!)
2 cups whipping cream
3 eggs or equivalent in egg substitute
2 tbsp. chocolate syrup
2 tbsp. instant coffee
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with a whisk or in a blender. Will keep for at least two weeks in the refrigerator.

*Adapted from a recipe found on Eaglebrand sweetened condensed milk.

Homemade Shortbread Cookies* (This is one of the easiest recipes I have found!)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (two sticks softened butter—and please, it absolutely MUST be butter!)
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. granulated sugar (regular white sugar)
Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350⁰. Beat together the flour, butter, ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, baking powder, and vanilla until well mixed. Scoop dough into a 9-inch cake pan and pat it down, then prick it all over with a fork (to allow steam to escape). Bake until the top is slightly golden, about 30-35 minutes. Immediately cut cookie dough into eight wedges and invert pan on a wire rack to remove cookies. To serve, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar as desired. One variation is to substitute lemon flavoring for the vanilla.

*Adapted from a recipe found in the 1989 Women’s Day Super Special Great Holiday Baking issue, p. 79.

Happy Holidays to all!