From fine pastry to mealtime, from the sublime and seductive to the absurd and abnormal, from heavy duty learning to the insane and ridiculous. Old posts or new, anything goes here. Here’s the roundup of things I’ve stumbled across during the past week.
The Holiday rampup continues. The malls are packed and you don’t even want to begin to think about wrapping gifts. So if you have a few minutes you can whip up this lovely Gateau St. Honore over at Martha Stewart Hey! Just kidding! It is one of the nicer presentations I’ve seen and it is the ultimate in sinful desserts.
It’s Holiday Party time, and if you need an item to take, how about wow-ing your friends with these Homemade Cheese Crackers from Dish & Tell. I might just try this one out myself. Pretty easy – kind of like making pie dough.
How about having those cheese crackers with Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese from Rain Day Gal. Honestly it’s like she was reading my mind here.
I’ve got Homemade Tater Tots from Heather Christo for you. Sounds much better than the frozen food variety.
Ok let’s get to some baking stuff. The Oreo frenzy continues here with Death By Oreo Cupcakes.
Food & Whine has updated their Cookie Recipe Index for 2011 and it now boasts a total of 52. This list includes some old favorites along with some that are more unusual like Brown Sugar Cashew Cookies.
If you’re into baking lore as I am, you can read about the Dangers of Mincemeat Pie at Chicago Reader. Author Cliff Doerkson ferrets out some interesting mince pie stories and sets out to bake his own.
Make your house smell like a brewery with this Beer Bread. I make a variation of this every now and again.No yeast in here so it’s just right for the beginning baker or one who can’t overcome the yeast fear.
Feeling artsy? Want to tackle a project? See Julia Usher’s Snowglobe Cookies. It’s quite an undertaking but the results are stunning.
What the heck is a Figgy Pudding anyway? Dorie Greenspan explains it all on NPR. Her Figgy Pudding recipe is here, and there is an audio link on the page too where you can listen to Dorie tell the story.
NPR also shares an old time Fruitcake Recipe here. It has a pound of butter in it so it can’t be all bad.
I like to do Cranberry Bread at holiday time, and here is a nice one from Red Star Yeast that includes some whole wheat flour.
Years ago I tried to make a Buche De Noel, sometimes called the Christmas Yule Log cake. What a disaster. But I’m primed to try one again and this version over at Zoe Bakes is of interest. Now whether or not I’ll get it done is an entirely different story.
If you have a Buche de Noel or Yule Log cake, you will definitely need Meringue Mushrooms. For new bakers, this is one of those things where you sort of need to see it done. Here is a good process video along with some tips and good explanation of pitfalls. She’s had a little too much coffee though LOL.
That wraps it up for this week. Enjoy the mayhem!
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**Any commercial shopping links listed in this post are not endorsements as the products have not been purchased or tested. It’s just interesting stuff that I thought might be of interest. As always, investigate vendors before making any purchase.
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Commented: 2011/12/12 at 22:36
Cranberry bread would make a great addition to my holiday meal. I like to add new items to our menu and this sounds terrific.