FARGO 鈥� The holiday baking season has begun, and I am giddy with excitement. These early weeks are the perfect time to set your plan, stock your kitchen and fill your tins and freezer with specialties that can last throughout the season. This is my favorite time of year to bake, and a little foresight and preparation goes a long way to ensuring you have an ample supply of festive holiday goodies on hand to enjoy before the season gets into full swing.
The first thing I do is make a list of all the treats I hope to make, which is now up to 21 items. This is where reality comes into play, as well as grace, because it is highly unlikely I will get around to every item on my list, and that鈥檚 OK. Once I have my list, I break it down into manageable sections to determine what gets made first, and then I make a list of all the ingredients and equipment I will need to get started.
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In this first week, I always make my family鈥檚 favorite Christmas candies and snacks, like , , and , which yield big batches and can be stored in tins for several weeks. By starting with these classic holiday treats, I know that I will have something festive on hand to serve to family and friends, no matter how much baking gets done (or doesn鈥檛) later in the season. Plus, they make excellent gifts for teachers, party hosts and colleagues. Dollar stores are a great source for holiday tins and storage containers.
Certain candies like toffee and brittle can require special equipment like a candy thermometer, so if you wish to keep this first step simple, I recommend starting with basic recipes like my peppermint bark and traditional or spicy Chex mix. These are easy, stress-free recipes that I made with my mother as a child and have continued to make with my son Giovanni since he was a toddler. Once I have the candies and snack mix made, I store them in traditional cookie tins and keep them in my seasonal walk-in cooler (a.k.a., my garage), to keep them fresh through Christmas.
Once I鈥檝e finished making these goodies, I turn to items that can be made now and frozen to bake and decorate later, like cookie dough for or cut-outs. These doughs can be stored in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for several months, and if I have enough time, I will also roll the cookie dough out and cut it into shapes now before freezing. Once baked, the cookies can be frozen again until you are ready to decorate them, if desired.
There is hardly a better treat for cold winter mornings than a freshly baked scone, and I always make a couple batches early on as the dough can be cut into scones which I freeze so that I can bake them off in small batches throughout December. I have a variety of recipes that fit the holiday brunch season well, like my , and even a savory for cocktail parties and evening snacking.
With tins full of candy and snack mix and a freezer filled with cookie dough and ready-to-bake scones, I know that I can move on to other specialties that are more advanced or require extra time or special equipment, like , , and . I may or may not make all 21 items on my holiday baking wish list, but I will probably get close to the dozen I have mentioned here. At the very least, by setting a plan and starting early, I know that I will have plenty of goodies to last throughout the season. Happy holiday baking to all!
Here are links to each of the holiday specialties mentioned in today鈥檚 column:
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Recipe Time Capsule:
This week in...
- 2022: Nasello Christmas Favorites: Horseradish Beef Tenderloin, Christmas Brunch Strata and Christmas Ice Cream Cake
- 2021: Norwegian Kringla Cookies
- 2020: Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- 2019:
- 2018:
- 2017:
- 2016:
- 2015:
- 2014:
- 2013:
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