Christmas Baking

03 Oct Christmas Baking

• When I gave up doing a lot of extra baking for Christmas when my kids grew up, it de-stressed me and my older daughters. We used to do a lot of extra baking to pass around and now we gave that up. Mary O.

• We use the fronts of past Christmas cards to make our name tags with and it makes it look so much prettier. Great too when you are dropping off a batch of cookies to teachers. Write the recipe on the back of your old Xmas card and tuck it in. Rene

• www.northpole.com I love this website so full of Christmas recipes at your finger tips. Beth G.

• If you only have rimmed baking sheets and need rimless ones turn the sheet over and use the bottom. Ellen D.

• I really like the cookie exchange idea. Host a party where each person brings two dozen or more cookies and some Tupperware containers and then everyone goes home with a variety of baked Christmas cookies.  I usually contribute my family favorite Grand-mamma’s gingerbread cookies! Michelle S.

• When I returned to work, I found the combination of work, family life and Christmas very draining. I decided I needed to change my way of doing things so that I too could enjoy Christmas. I decided to stop baking. My kids can bake if they want to, but I don’t have the time. I buy some really nice cookies and dessert items. Everyone adjusts and still has a great Christmas and I am less burnt out as a result. F.J.

• Keep your pantry well stocked with baking ingredients so you’re not interrupting your work. I often will make my cookie dough in the evening for the next day- and bake in the morning. Or make dough in the morn- bake after supper( great time to entice your kids to help- they get to be cookie bakers and testers).   You often don’t have time to do the entire job at once. I also keep my cookie pans ready to go(don’t put them away) and just change the parchment paper every few batches. I try to freeze cookies, or meal components in advance of when they are needed. Always start with your tried and true cookie recipes first- and if you have energy to try something new – do it only if you have time. Chris M.

• When I started my family, I wanted to bake Christmas cookies like my mom. I found that so hard to do with little children. I was so frustrated and always felt like I was missing the boat. Finally, an older mom told me some people are bakers, others aren’t; there’s also an age and stage of family life for different things. My mom is at stage where she can do fancy, time consuming recipes and takes great joy in it since her kids are grown up. I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum and I need to be realistic. So, I decided I buy my cookies and aim each year to find one simple, inexpensive, fast recipe I can make that my kids enjoy. Now over the years my repertoire has expanded and my kids are getting older and help. I don’t bake any of my mom’s old recipes for Christmas, but I’ve developed my own to suit my stage of life. If I don’t find the time or have the energy, I just pick something up at the store. Either way, my family is happy and I am happy too for not making a mountain out of a molehill anymore. Helen

• A quick dessert for company is preparing a white or yellow cake mix and placing in a greased 9×13 pan. I always keep a can of pie filling on hand. Doesn’t matter whether its cherry, raspberry, blueberry,or any fruit filling. Use a tablespoon and place (slightly indenting with the spoon) one tablespoon of filling in 12 to 15 areas of the surface of the batter. Sorry, describing what I do is not easy, hope you get what I’m saying. As the cake bakes, you end up with a jelly doughnut kind a cake with 12 (or 15) squares of filling and cake to serve to your guests. A dollop of whipped cream and you have a quick dessert. It’s best served one piece at a time, rather than trying to flip it out of the pan. Another tip is to use either icing sugar or cocoa to dress up a dessert plate. You take a fine sieve, place a dessert fork on the plate, toward the side of the plate and sprinkle either sugar or cocoa over the fork. Remove the fork and you’re left with the print. Nice with the piece of cake or pie. Rita F.

• For dessert I have my children making lots of cookies for the whole month of December.  They work on a different recipe each evening, we freeze them so no one gets into them, and that is dessert.  My neighbour makes chocolate Santa Sleighs, I buy one of them and set it in the centre of the cookie tray, and fill it with cookies.  Dianne W.

• As soon as my kids are able to follow a simple recipe (maybe 8 years old), I give them one to make for Christmas.I have it written in a way that they can follow (i.e. grab the green bowl, get the glass measuring cup, measure 2 cups) whereby the recipe was already doubled or tripled from the original one. Each child therefore makes a huge batch sometime during advent. I keep all the recipes within plastic sleeves in a regular binder for on-going use by the kids during the year. Some examples of kid-friendly baking are posted on this website: sugar plums (no bake), peanut butter balls (no bake), snow balls (no bake), triple layer bars (squares and bars), rice krispie squares (squares and bars) … Quick and easy, these recipes almost instantly generate sweet things in quantity for everyone to enjoy over the holidays. They have become a yearly tradition. In our house, the kids now fight to add a new recipe to their repertoire. So … we have lots of sweets and I do very little baking. Irene F.

• I have my neighbor store my baked goods in her freezer since she has the room, is willing and my kids can’t access and nibble before its time. Eleanor

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