Madeleines top the list. (I think we have 6 pans).

Toll House (some with walnuts, some with pecans), Bourbon Balls, Butter Nut Balls, Lace Cookies and various Brownies and Fudge are in the running. Somewhere I have an old Danish cookbook with incredible recipes.

Another favorite is Almond cake (recipe on pkg of almond paste), baked in a flan pan, the indented part then filled with fresh berries and freshly whipped cream.

Champagne, of course negates *all* the butter, so Cheers!! :p

And we adore the people who send us Leonidas chocolates, Yoku Moku cookies and this year-- The Fourteener from Telluride Truffle.

http://www.telluridetruffle.com/truffles_store.html

Tis the season for making cookies. However, I have gotten to a point where my favorite goodie is Christmas bark. It is unbelievably good!

My favorites are chocolate crinkle cookies and they are pretty easy to make.

Every year my officemates take turns bringing cookies every day in December up until Christmas. It is great to see what everyone likes to make. Of course by Christmas we are all pretty sick of cookies, not to mention several pounds heavier. I can't wait for the day my one friend brings in her heavenly almond roca.

one of the Haley grandkids (of Brown and Haley/Almond Roca fame) used to be one of the managers here, and we always had huges containers of factory seconds in the office at Christmastime. Almond Roca is like crack to me.

When I bake, I usually make bar-style cookies - takes very little time. Some drop cookie recipes I make into bar cookies, e.g. Toll House Bars, Scotch-Oatmeal bars. Of course, I don't follow the recipe exactly - on anything I make/bake - and they usually turn out fine.

OP reporting in on the fruitcake bars: great recipe but I overbaked them (dry, not burnt--I have a funky old oven). No bourbon in the house so I'm annointing the bars with dark rum in hopes of rectifying the situation.

try putting them in a ziplock bag with a couple slices of bread. The bars will absorb moisture from the bread. Works like a charm with overbaked brownies... it can't hurt :)

Stupidly easy to make:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/03/cr...-chip-cookies/

Seem to be that bit better when prepared the day before so that the dough is refrigerated overnight.

Sounds like a good idea, except I never have sliced bread in the house. Maybe a slice of apple, which I should have around but don't at the moment. for the time being they're in a sealed container with the El Dorado presumably working its magic.

My Mum always used to make dark chocolate florentines at Christmas (and a sandwich shop near my office always now makes them too!)

Otherwise, thanks to the odd stock of a shop near us when I was little, we always used to have German lebkuchen at Christmas, too, and still seem to get loads of them in (well, they're rather easier to come by these days). That flavour is what I always associate with Christmas! Similarly, stollen and pain d'épices.

Me too. I also like Trader Joe's toffee coated in dark chocolate and pistachio nuts. Yum.

Christmas time to me always means Lemon Bars, and peanut butter cookies with a hershey's kiss on top

I've always loved the Christmas shaped cookies with green frosting and sprinkles.

I am not a great baker, and don't have the time to bake, either. But My mom makes these incredible Spritz cookies. They are nothing like the ones you buy in a tin or at a bakery - these are moist and almondy and so good. She uses a recipe out of one of those cheapo cookbooks, too for them. But mine never come out as good as hers.

My grandmother made these incredible butter cookies. Actually, she was making sugar cookies, but in her upbringing at the time they tended to cut back on a lot of things, so in many baking recipes she cut back on the amount of sugar, so they ended up coming out as really good butter cookies.

Grandma BamaVol used to make an awesome variety of Christmas cookies. There were pecan drops (kind of a pecan sandy), Italian cookies (almond or lemon flavored, frosted and dusted with crushed peppermint candies) and one with a mint chocolate wafer in the center and walnut on top. She doesn't mess around with baking much anymore, but Mrs BamaVol can duplicate the Italian cookies. I guess the rest are up to me if I want them. And I do.

After a week the rum has infused throughout the fruitcake bars and mellowed, and they're fantastic! Guess they'll go in the freezer while I'm traveling for the next 10 days, just to be safe.

Easiest and best looking Christmas dessert ever
 

Still looking for a Christmas dessert? No time to make a buche??

I ran across this stupidly easy, beautiful, and utterly delicious recipe a few years ago - I'd quote the source, but I don't remember where I found it, and there are several variations out there.

Get yourself an Italian Pandoro (not Panettone that's too sweet and not the right shape.) Any decent Italian deli should have them.

Get some Grappa (ideally) or other liquor of your choice.

Get various berries - your choice.
Optional, if you have time, soak the berries in a little grappa for awhile.

Get whipping cream, or if really pressed for time use a can.
If whipping your own, add some powered sugar and use grappa rather than vanilla.
Ideally, rather than the whipped cream, one should make a simple pastry cream including marscapone, but that may be too much work.
Please don't use cool whip, that's just too far down the "simple" road.

Powdered sugar.

Slice the Pandoro horizontally into 6 or 7 slices, and carefully separate the layers.

Put first slice of Pandoro on serving plate and douse liberally with grappa.

Slather on some of the cream, being sure to reach the end of the points.

Repeat until all cake is used, canting each layer so the points wind up between the points of the previous layer. End with the very tip of the cake.

Place berries on the ends of all the points, and scatter remaining berries around the bottom.

Sprinkle the entire thing with powdered sugar. If feeling really festive, put a sprig of mint and a couple red berries on top.

It looks like a Christmas tree, takes about 10 minutes to make the entire thing - tops, and you'll get many oohs and aahs. And as a bonus it contains enough grappa to bring anyone to their knees!!

NOTE: using berries adds a freshness to this dessert, but one can also use other "festive" things - candied fruit, chocolate nibs, crushed peppermint candies, etc. Whatever you have on hand!

Christmas Fudge Clinic
 

I want to make chocolate fudge and chocolate peanut butter fudge for my son for Christmas. I want a chocolate that is rich and chocolatey. Not one of these light brown faintly resembling chocolate fudges.

Anybody have recipes?

Bonus for a nice fruit fudge to go with the chocolate.

Thanks

No recipes but I'll volunteer to drive down 40 and be your taste tester once you've made some.:D

My favorite is the recipe off the Hershey's cocoa can. You can also google it. Probably even better if you used the dark chocolate cocoa instead of milk chocolate. More chocolately and less gooey/creamy.

I'd like to volunteer to fly down too :D

Think I made some a long time ago...doesn't ever seem to last long though :o

OMNI Christmas Fudge Clinic
 

I know of two recipes which are very good for fudge and will find the recipes when I get home from work. I believe the main difference between the two is that one uses marshmallows and evaporated milk and takes longer to cook than one which uses condensed milk and marshmallow creme.

There are two other recipes I now of that are like fudge, but also use peanut butter or unmelted marshmallows and possibly candied fruit.

What brand and type of chocolate are you planning on using? There are 3-4 major brands of chocolate chips in the US.

I'd love the peanut butter recipe, too.

I have no idea what brand of chocolate I'd use. I usually use Penzey's cocoa, but Nestles semi sweet chips. I generally don't like Ghiradelli. I've also used Baker.

Thanks y'all.

I've yet to find a commercial chocolate chip that tastes decent in the US so I use bar chocolate and chop / melt as applicable - this is my usual go-to for baking http://www.lindtusa.com/shop/chocola...excellence-bar - I don't go for the 85% / 90% - they are too bitter.

As for a basic fudge recipe, this is my go-to (it's from an English cook book that has to be at least 50 years old by now, I am afraid I have no idea what it is called, as I've been using an emailed version of it (written out on the computer from the book by my mother) since 2006!)

Vanilla Fudge
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of water
2 oz (quarter cup) butter
1 lb (2 cups) granulated sugar
Half pint (1 and one-third cups) full cream, unsweetened evaporated milk
Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
Method:
Butter a tin or pyrex dish.
Put the water and butter into a strong, large pan and allow the butter to
melt.
Add the sugar and milk and stir over a low heat until the sugar has
dissolved.
Add the vanilla.
Boil steadily, stirring fairly frequently until the mixture reaches 238 degrees F or forms a "soft ball" when tested in cold water.
Take off heat and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture turns cloudy.
(This means until thick and starting to granulate on the side of the pan.
It can take quite a while maybe 6-8 minutes)
Pour the mixture into the dish and allow to almost set.
Cut into squares before fully set.
Wrap to store or the fudge will go too hard.

To make chocolaty / peanut buttery I would stir in the chocolate / peanut butter once the mixture has reached the cloudy point.

I think I might make fudge tonight - I was already planning to make 3 types of cookie, so I may as well add some fudge to the mix!

If you want something really dark and chocolaty, you might want to look for recipes for "chocolate bark" which is much denser and BTW is delicious with some crushed peppermint candy on top.

http://www.christmas-cookies.com/rec...asy-fudge.html

The above is the original fantasy fudge recipe.

Thanks y'all. If I have time this afternoon, I may make some. Son is coming tomorrow and then we're off the NOLA until the 24th.

So what time should I leave LIT to be there to taste test for you?;)

The fudge recipe I was thinking of was the original Fantasy Fudge recipe.

The peanut butter/chocolate thing i was thinking of are called Yum Yum Bars.
http://www.cooks.com/recipe/cg1pq9nn...tter-yums.html

I haven't seen them readily available outside of the West Coast, but Guittard, "San Francisco's Secret Since 1868", makes very good baking chips. They seem to be the only company which makes white chocolate, green mint (non-chocolate mint chips are VERY hard to find), and butterscotch chips without hydrogenated oils and uses real vanilla as well as other non-GMO ingredients. The price is comparable to other brands. Wal-Mart has carried their products the past and they do some private label production for Trader Joe's and Publix.

Mom's Best Fudge

4 1/2 cups sugar
1 large can evaporated milk
3 bars German sweet chocolate
12 oz. semisweet chocolate morsels
18 large marshmallows, cut into small pieces (108 small ones are better)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar and milk, bring to a boil and boil exactly 4 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until chocolate and marshmallows are melted.

Pour into a buttered pan or shallow dish, about 16 x 8 inches in size and cool until firm.

Cut into squares and store in an airtight box or can.

I've made microwave fudge (chocolate, chocolate/peanut butter) a couple of times this year and it's worked out surprisingly well!

Ingredients:

• 16 oz semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate (I use the mini semi-sweet since I think they melt easily); I've also substituted part of this with peanut butter chips to make PB fudge and a friend has used peppermint extract and Andies mints for mint fudge
• 14 oz (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup butter

Microwave 1 minute, stir, repeat until smooth.
Poor into foil lined (I spray it with non-stick spray) pan.
Chill

I've also added marshmallows in and/or topped with more chocolate chips

Wow!

What a sweeping generalization!

I guess it just depends on your taste. I personally like the chocolates found in certain European countries, but consider most British candy to be overly sugary rubbish. Tastes differ.

Fudge recipe: whichever one you use, make sure you have a candy thermometer to get the sugar to the right temperature so the fudge will have the right texture. Undercooked fudge is more like chocolate soup.

I've been making candies and fudge for many years now, and the most popular fudge recipe is one on the back of the marshmallow fluff jar. If you want to make it more intensely chocolate, instead of using 12 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate, use 6 oz. semi--sweet and 8 oz. bittersweet.

A couple other things to note about that recipe:
it calls for the hard to find 5 oz. can of evaporated milk. Do not make the mistake of reading "can of evaporated milk" in the ingredients and putting in the large (12 oz.) can! If you do, you will have to get very, very creative very quickly. (yeah, I did that once). Pouring the evaporated milk from the large can into a measuring cup to get 5 oz. works well. ;)

The recipe suggests a 9x9 pan. This makes a very thick fudge. I prefer to use a 9x13 pan because I make 7 or 8 kinds of candy and shorter pieces of fudge fit better into the gift boxes.

It's common to add nuts to fudge, but don't be afraid to be more creative with the add-ins. I've used nuts, chopped peppermints, "white chocolate" bits, dried fruit, and chopped cookie bits.

Christmas Baking Thread
 

Do we have a general Christmas baking thread? If so I cannot find it.

Dough made and in the fridge for pinwheels, frosted sugar cookies, will bake those this week and the kids will decorate next weekend. Lace cookies made- some flat, some wrapped around a wooden dowel. Still need to do rumballs.

What's on your baking list?

Done: sugar cookies rolled in sprinkles

Half done: almond truffle filling made, in to chill

Next: Maple pecan shortbread, spritz cookies, chocolate fudge, mint stars

Less than usual this year because we'll be traveling


p.s. this is all gluten-free, of course!

I am planning on making this on Christmas Eve:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/f...aked-camembert

and later in the week will have a go at this one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ei..._plaited_57815

and this will be made at some point during the week (I am hoping it freezes well!):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/st...eoatcake_92371

(basically Christmas = time to bake breads and other fiddly things!)

I will also be making a trifle, mini mince pies with fondant icing stars (was going to make them this weekend until I hurt my back), cheese scones, and some other savoury nibbly bits. I did so many cookies and cakes last year when my English family were over for Christmas that I am all sweeted out (the mince pies are for the office, and the trifle is just a christmas necessity frankly!)

This weekend I'll make some biscotti as they will last until Christmas.

I'll make some pretzel rolls and granary rolls and freeze them. I'll slightly under bake them and will defrost and reheat before we need them.

Christmas eve will be the busiest. As well as making soup and other bits for the lunch, I'll make a clementine cake and some rose apple tarts. I love the rose apple tarts - they are easy and look incredibly impressive.

Christmas Baking Thread
 

Scored pork belly from the Ginger Pig. Can't wait

That's cooking, not baking! :-)

I'd love to see this recipe.

I followed this with a few amendments. I add a little sugar before I fold the pastry and I glaze them with warm apricot jam. They're a little fiddly the first time but not hard.

http://cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.c...ple-roses.html

This is what mine look like before I glaze them (sorry don't know why it's so big).

[IMG]http://i1161.photobucket.com/albums/...psl02qdfft.jpg[/IMG]