Holiday Baking Tips from a Former Pastry Chef

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So, it’s almost the second week of December. How far along are you with your holiday baking? Do you have all your cookie dough in the freezer, ready at a moments’ notice to be plopped onto the counter?

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Did you stock up on unsalted butter, powdered sugar, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, 46 different kinds of chocolate, all purpose flour, cake flour, cocoa, extracts and everything else? NO?! Not a problem!

I have managed to organize my holiday baking over the past 15 years, and it’s worked so well for me that I wanted to share some of my tips with MadMike’s readers. I hope they work as well for you as they have for my family.

1) Find five cookie recipes you like. What I mean by that is find five recipes that do not have 189 ingredients, take seven hours to prepare and use more than 2 bowls and 2 cookie sheets. The key here is simple. Sugar cookie dough, maybe chocolate crinkles, butter cookies, rum or bourbon balls and Mexican wedding cookies. I throw in clove lemon shortbread, primarily because I love shortbread. Every one of those recipes can be frozen for up to a week, except the shortbread.

2) Get your cupboards in order. If you have three bags of chocolate chips, but they are not in the same place, get them in the same place. Find all your cookie sheets, wipe them clean and store them together. Make sure you have foil, parchment paper and plastic wrap, again in the same place. Sugars, flours and cocoa on one shelf, bar chocolate and bagged chips on another. Extracts with baking spices. When you’re hip deep in dough, the last thing you want to be doing is trying to find a bag of walnuts. Take a few hours and get your kitchen organized.

3) Figure out which cookies are staying and which are being shipped. Check recipes, and make sure the cookies are sturdy enough for travel. Run to the post office and get all the supplies you need to protect your creations, checking prices while you’re there. Be prepared to wait if you ship too late. Let people know they are receiving perishable items, and to watch for the package.

4) You do not need to buy crystal plates and multi-tiered buffet items on which to display your cookies. Freshly washed cloth napkins are perfect for lining a dinner plate, especially if you have a few with Christmas or holiday designs. Paper doilies are inexpensive, or you can even make your own from patterns available online. Kids love to cut out doilies; you simply tell them they are making snowflakes.

5) One week before Christmas, or the big family dinner, is not the time to decide to attempt a croquembouche or Noel roll or some other fantastic but incredibly difficult dessert. That would be February. This is a stressful enough time without weeping copiously as your truffles melt before you can attach them to the 4-foot high chocolate coated Styrofoam cone with toothpicks. Unless you are actually a pro, please, keep it simple. You can make gorgeous desserts that will not drive you mad. Which brings us to step six!

6) Get the family involved. Pull out your cookie cutters, all your food coloring, old Life Savers and go nuts. Kids love to cut out cookies, they love to frost (and eat said frosting) and decorate, and if supervised, love to gently remove the warm, golden cookies from the sheet pans. Bring the spouse into the mix! Tempt them with a little chocolate then show them how fun it is to twist butter cookie dough into candy canes. Help kids learn recipe math with measuring spoons and cups. It’s the holidays-have fun!

There are a myriad of baking sites online, but the best one I’ve found is Family Fun. I have their holiday baking cookbook, and it’s fantastic. Simple recipes with diagrams for a train, gingerbread people and even a gingerbread house. Every recipe is kid friendly, and the instructions are detailed and well written. If you plan and organize, holiday baking can be really enjoyable and relatively stress free. Just in case something goes awry, it never hurts to have a bottle of good sherry in the pantry. If you have a tradition for your holiday baking, please let me know. Happy Holidays!

About Post Author

Erin Nanasi

Erin Nanasi is an avid underwater basket weaver, with a penchant for satire and the odd wombat reference.
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Bill Formby
12 years ago

Wow, Erin. You really get organized. I am pretty well organized my self. I have everything already laid out – I am going to my son’s house first before the grand kids eat all of the cookies there and get a go plate, then I will drive to my daughter’s place and get another go plate, come back home, make a big mug of Irish coffee to go with all of the cookies and watch football.

PatB
12 years ago

Yeah Mike. Really subtle dude 🙂

Admin
12 years ago

I wish I knew someone that could cook like you Erin 🙂 🙂 (Comment planted for maximum effect on girlfriend)

Erin N.
Reply to  Professor Mike
12 years ago

Subtle. Really subtle.

Reply to  Professor Mike
12 years ago

It isn’t my fault that you didn’t come over for some pumpkin pie when invited, 927 miles of distance notwithstanding. If I bake another one tonight, I wonder if I can work chocolate into it somehow…? 🙂

Erin N.
Reply to  Greenlight
12 years ago

Yes you can! Instead of regular pie crust, make a ginger-chocolate cookie crumb crust. Pumpkin and chocolate is a very chi chi combo, very elegant taste. Increase the ginger in the pumpkin filling by about 1/4 tsp and dress it up with either chocolate whipped cream or white and chocolate shavings. Then lock yourself in the bathroom with the pie, a fork and a bottle of water. Trust me-you will not want to share.

12 years ago

You had me at “46 different kinds of chocolate.” 😀

Erin N.
Reply to  Greenlight
12 years ago

To be honest, I currently only have four kinds, but am heading out today to buy a few more. Guittard makes mint chips that are so amazing-they melt into the cookie or brownie, but leave just enough texture for that “ooo” moment. Plus, they’re great out of the bag. I don’t DO that, of course…

Reply to  Erin N.
12 years ago

I know, Erin. None of us do. 😀

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