holiday bake-a-thon – Page 3

S’mores Cookies

Happy New Year!

Writing is so unbelievably cathartic. I know none but a very select few actually read through these posts, but I’m going to pull out my “Collect $200 and Pass GO” card and maximize the medium I have going here. It’s not you, it’s me.

2011 as a whole was on the rockier side, but I’m indelibly grateful for what I do have in my life. So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can complain scot-free!

Kidding.

But really, I am happy that 2011 finally came to a close and am looking forward to all that the new year will bring. Yes, 2012 just got real.

Campfire Nostagia with Just 3 Ingredients!

I took a brief sabbatical from writing, as I was spending a lot of time not only making new content for this blog, but just plum having some FUN. I need to do more of that this year.

My annual holiday bake-a-thon was full steam ahead a few weekends ago. However, instead of creating a single post inclusive of all of the things I made during this year’s bake-a-thon, I’ll create separate posts for each item. It’s an organizational thing (or perhaps OCD) – you can pick which. I hereby commence my backlog of holiday treat posts with the S’mores Cookies I made for my coworkers, Christmas dinner for my mom’s side of the family, some friends. I got the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything (my kind of girl!).

Dough - Almost Ready! — Dough – Almost Ready!

I made these twice over Christmas weekend. The first batch came out too thin as I used too little dough to cover the graham crackers. For the second batch, I made fewer but thicker cookies by putting nearly twice the recommended amount of dough on each graham cracker and was much happier with the outcome.

These were a bit to sweet for my taste as I’m not a huge fan of milk chocolate, but I loved the texture of the cookie dough hot out of the oven. They were still chewy a couple days later, but it’s just not the same as when it’s fresh.

I thought of a great tagline, and whipped out the graphic design skill (yes – singular “skill”) to make tags for the cookies. I really love puns, so don’t judge me based the below…

I'm a Sucker for Taglines — I’m a Sucker for Taglines

Whomp whomp.

I’ll definitely make these again some time! Any takers??

Flour, Sugar, Cinnamon, Baking Soda, Salt

Holiday Bake-A-Thon 2009

As a belated follow-up to the Holiday Bake-A-Thon 2010 post, I’m dedicating this entry to the fruits of my labor circa December 2009.

To date, the Penguin Cupcakes I made last Christmas have been my favorite baking project, albeit the most laborious. That means blog content will probably go downhill from here, but I promise to try my best not to let my readers down… all three of you.

The penguins themselves are Jordan Almonds strategically dipped in chocolate. It was particularly difficult to get them dipped evenly because A) I had trouble finding the right balance of butter and chocolate to give the coating a thick and even consistency, and B) the almonds are ridiculously slippery so I kept dropping whole almonds in chocolate. A full bag of chocolate chips, two sticks of butter, and two hours later, I caved and bought some Wilton melting chocolate which worked perfectly. See penguin carnage in below photo. If you look closely, you might be able to spot the one with the accidental chocolate pompadour.

Next, I made the beaks from tiny pieces of orange Swedish Fish and frosted them onto the face of the penguin. My little flightless friends sat on a bank of white frosting topped with coconut “snow”, all on top of a homemade chocolate cupcake. A miniature candy cane “North Pole” sign was posted behind them. I got the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes as well as the inspiration for the decorations from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes.

DSC05589_rev — My little fleet of penguins

In addition to the aforementioned fowl armada, I also made a plethora of cookies… specifically, one batch each of cranberry orange oatmeal, peanut butter kiss cookies, chocolate chip oatmeal, and pumpkin spice. My girl, Martha, put out some nifty treat boxes that year that I picked up at Michael’s. Target also had some small gift bags that I used too. Click on the thumbnails below for close-ups!

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal (front) and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal (back)

Martha Stewart Treat Boxes — Cookie Boxes

Holiday Bake-A-Thon 2010

Happy New Year! If you know Kevin and I, then you know that we aren’t fans of spending loads of money to be around lots of drunk, belligerent people with inevitably flailing limbs and flying drinks in tight quarters. To kick off 2011 KJ-and-Al style, we had a great dinner and got dolled up in our best ensembles for a night out… on the living room couch watching episodes of Top Chef until about 15 seconds before midnight. Classy. I’ve never stayed home on New Year’s Eve in my adult life, but I must say it was stress-free and really fun.

I’ve also been a bit sick the last couple of days, so I thought I’d spend the time updating here instead of circulating my germs in a new baking or crafts project. The holidays are an infamous time for reveling in buttery, sugary foods. I admittedly do partake in providing artillery for expanding the waistbands of those around me, as I usually try out a new baking recipe (or three) around the holiday season.

Nine sticks of butter (yes, NINE) and more than an entire brand new carton of sugar later, I think I truly outdid myself this year. I had been itching to make madeleines ever since I got a madeleine pan from my Sho-Yu Secret Santa last year. The little french cakes are so classy, and in my opinion, make a great holiday baking gift. Thanks to Martha, I found some great recipes I was dying to try out. I was really pleased with the colors that all three madeleines had distinct colors, making a nice looking gift bag. And the madeleines would not have come to existence if not for the help of Santa’s Little Helper, Kevin, who took some great photos and helped out a ton with the baking. I’ve never seen madeleine pans buttered so masterfully!

In addition to the madeleines, I also pulled out some White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies from my baking repertoire, as well as a Chicken Apple Sausage Cornbread Stuffing from scratch for a Christmas dinner potluck.

DSC07290_rev — White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Also, big thanks to Shirley for sending me the recipe for the Japanese Furikake Chex Mix that I’ve been eating my whole life but finally made for the first time.