Every now and then I take a break from the blog and focus in on my craft. I've spent the last couple of months reading other people's blogs, considering their recipes, examining their photos, and trying out new things myself - both with the camera and in the kitchen. I've been working with my new light box, playing with props and trying to set up scenes for my food. I've also been trying new recipes.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Spiced Apple Cookies
I like a little spice cookie and am always looking for new recipes to incorporate spice into my holiday cookie basket. I found this interesting recipe on Food52 from user Kelsey the Naptime Chef, who credits a neighbor for this recipe. It's a straight-forward recipe that results in a moist, cake-like cookie with a nice apple pie-like flavor as promised by the baker.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Figgy Pudding Butter Cookies
Last year, I decided to try to incorporate fig into my holiday baking. It's one of those traditional holiday flavors, and many classic recipes can be found that feature dried fig. But, when it comes to incorporating figs into my annual holiday cookie basket, I've had little success. Last year I tried Anise Fig and Date pinwheels, a challenging recipe that I am not entirely sure ended up tasting the way it should. This year, I opted for what I hoped would result in a sweeter cookie with a more pronounced fig flavor - Figgy Pudding Butter Cookies from Food52.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Fig and Date Pinwheels
Last weekend's Holiday Baking Marathon resulted in some lovely cookie baskets, including a couple for the office. The baskets included my traditional shortbread and my mother's butterscotch brownies, plus cocoa chocolate chip, honey ginger, Chinese Five Spice, and my first attempt at pinwheel cookies - anise-scented fig and date swirls. It was this last variety that inspired a comment from a coworker that captures the spirit of holiday baking. He said that his grandmother had made those cookies, and he remembered eating them every Christmas when we was a kid. And that's really really the reason for the holiday baking season - to summon cherished childhood memories from years long gone and recapture a little of that magic.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Triple Ginger Cookies
I'm an absolute sucker for those Holiday Cookie mini-magazines in the check out line at the grocery store. Even thought most of the recipes are absolute crap and always start with a box of cake mixed or a tube of pre-made cookie dough, I keep buying them because every one I have ever purchased has contained that single gem of a recipe that becomes a Yule favorite. Last year's Holiday Cookies mini-mag put out by PIL Cookbooks contained this recipe. It's all from scratch and is similar to the triple-ginger cookies at Trader Joe's. Except you make them in your own kitchen. Whenever you want.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: World's Best Sugar Cookies
This is another one of my mom's famous recipes from childhood and one she made often after school. She posted the recipe to kick off her blog back in 2008 and credits The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer once again. And, as long as we are baking cookies, I'm going to delve into some Good Cookie Technique.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: How to Host a Cookie Party
A neighbor of mine used to host a cookie party for her friends and their children this time of year. Everyone would bring their favorite cookie recipe - pre-made - and we would cut, decorate and bake cookies all evening. I was lucky enough to be able to participate for several years running, and it was really a wonderful way to spend a cold December evening. With enough planning, it's not that difficult to pull off.
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