What's Baking?

I have my staples that I make over the holidays. This year, I'm adding a few new things that I've come across.

Chocolate Chunk cookies
I've tried a lot of different "the best" chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, from traditional to fancy ones like the Jacque Torres gourmet ones. For the texture and taste that I prefer, the Best recipe for me is still Nestle Tollhouse. Thats probably why it took Monica all those tries to get exactly the right one on that famous episode of Friends. 

You can find it on the back of every bag of Nestle Chocolate chips and its also available online. Here is a link for the recipe. I like the artisan look of the chocolate chunks rather than the uniform, traditional look of the chips, so I use those. Just throw in the entire bag. Why have 12 chunks left over? ;)

While I was looking for the link to share, I realized that it was really hard to find, first you have to go through their corporate site, then do a bunch of selections and pull downs. So to make it easier, I've also included a link to their recipe site as a whole. 


Pecan Pie Bars
From the checkout, I impulse bought a holiday baking magazine from Better Homes and Gardens, in it, I found this Pecan Pie Bar recipe. It was sooo incredibly easy and virtually mess free. I don't personally like pecan pie but my Sweet-toothed sister and my hubby love it so I thought I'd try it out. I wonder how well it ships?

It looked so pretty in the pan, I had to shoot a pic of it. It has to cool for awhile and I'm impatient so I'm posting this straight from the pan. I wish you could smell this!

After lunch I cut them and put them in the stand. Of course I had to try one. It was actually good. It was extremely sweet but not overly so and the crust balanced it well. 

Here is a link to the recipe directly from their site: Pecan Pie Bars

Holiday Cookie Packages

For years, my aunt and uncle hosted all the family gatherings. Their home was centrally located for all of us and it was the largest place - which was needed to hold the up to 50 people that would often gather. Their home, though, was a Chinese laundromat in an increasingly deteriorating neighborhood. They lived on the second floor and kept a large apartment on the third floor that used to be rented out. They'd built their lives there for over 50 years, and even though the area and elements worsened, they kept the extended family close. This year, they finally sold the business, the building and closed up shop. They are in their mid-nineties. Yes, they worked up until they closed.   

Now that the laundry is gone, its harder and harder to get together with my cousins. Where we used to visit each other at the laundry once a month, it wasn't until Christmas that we were all able to hook up.

After much schedule organizing, we met at a local restaurant. I was excited to see everyone even if it was just a few hours and I made some cookies for each family and packaged them, personalizing the labels and the contents for everyone. 

I made a ton of cookies over the holidays, probably around 15 dozen and 8 different kinds. Here are a few that  I packaged up:
Shortbread, chocolate bar cookies, glazed oatmeal, powdered sugar greek balls.

Recipes: Shortbread are Martha Stewart. I got them from the ipad app. Greek Balls (see previous post). The others, I will try to come back and post either links or resources one day. :) 

 

Of course, I snuck a few samples for myself. Yum.

For the packaging, I admit, I cheated a bit. My mom has a restaurant in Myrtle Beach, SC, and I got these cool kraft take out boxes from her restaurant supplier. I made the labels and Xyroned them on. I used a corner rounder cutter from Michael's to give the labels a more finished look.
The kraft bags are wax lined bakery bags from Uline. I also made the gift card holders for the teens/tweens with an iTunes gift card and their initials cut out of the back.