Christmas Baking
I’ve never really been a “Christmas Baker”. I do usually make drop shortbread cookies every year, but that was always for my enjoyment, not others! This year we decided to bake some goodies and box them to give them out to some of the people that we’ve met in the community. We thought it was an inexpensive and personal gift to give people that we have just started to get to know.
I spent a lot of time online trying to find easy ideas for Christmas baking. I’ve never really been crafty with baking stuff before, so I really didn’t even know where to start. The first thing I found was a cookie tree kit from Golda’s Kitchen. It is a wonderful idea. I made a Rice Krispies tree with it. It was so easy and looked great. We went over to a neighbors for dinner last week, so I thought it was a great opportunity to try it out. It went over great. Everyone thought I had slaved over it for hours. Little did they know, it only took me half an hour from start to finish. I can’t wait to make a gingerbread tree next year. I will need to practice that one a few times before i’m comfortable enough showing others.
The second item I found was a Candy Kit from Golda’s. This kit was awesome. It comes with everything you need. They were really easy to make. I still need (lots) of practice with making it look less like a 5 year old did it! lol. Etienne enjoyed helping me with this treat as well.
I also decided to make the classic shortbread cookies as well as sour cream cookies and chocolate snowdrop cookies. I bought boxes from Golda’s, and put all the goodies in them. Overall, I think they turned out really well. All the kits are reusable, so I can make them for many more Christmases to come.
This was the first year that I have gotten my butt organized enough to send out Christmas cards. I really wanted something personal from here, so we took a picture of us with the dog in front of an Inukshuk. We then made them into a Christmas card and ordered them through Kodak. They did a wonderful job, and shipping was pretty quick.
I have included a few pictures of our treats.
Rice Krispies Xmas Tree
Another view!
Chocolate lollipops
Looking good!
That looks delicious!
Shortbread all done
Piping the sour cream cookies
Sour cream cookies
Sour cream cookies, iced and ready to be boxed up
Chocolate Snowdrops ready to go in the oven
All done and dusted with icing sugar
All done....ready to be given out
Update:
Since we’ve had a request for the sour cream and shortbread cookies recipe, you can find them below.
Mom’s Sour Cream and Nuts Cookies
Ingredients :
- 2 3/4 cups of flour
- 1 1⁄2 cups of brown sugar
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1/2 cup of vegetable oil or butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup of walnuts
Directions :
1- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2- Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate the mixture to cool it down.
3- Place small spoonfuls (or pipe them with the tip of your choice) on a non-greased baking sheet. (We use silpats to prevent the bottom of the cookies from browning too much)
4- Bake 10 minutes or until the indent of a finger pressed on the cookie disappears almost completely.
Icing :
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 2 cups of icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-4 tbsp of hot water
Directions :
1- Melt the butter.
2- Add the vanilla and the sugar.
3- Add the water until the desired texture has been reached.
4- Ice the cookies while they are still warm.
Carly’s Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients :
- 1 lb of room temperature butter
- 1 cup of icing sugar
- 1/2 cup of corn starch
- 2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 3 cups of flour
Directions :
1- Preheat the oven to 350°F
2- Combine the butter, icing sugar, corn starch and vanilla. Slowly beat the flour until the mixture is well mixed.
3- Drop spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until golden brown.
Happy baking!
Tags: cookies, recipe, shortbread, sour cream
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 19:06 and is filed under Food, The Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
14 Responses to “Christmas Baking”
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The above photo is me and her. You probably had it all figured out anyways. We are about to live a once in a lifetime experience, The Great White Canadian Arctic. We have decided to create this blog to keep our friends, families and curious strangers abreast of our adventures. I'm sure a few misadventures as well. All while living in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut. Read on to see what it's all about!
If you don't feel too comfortable with writing a public comment, you can also drop us a line via email at blog(at)thearcticpost(dot)ca
Oh! And by the way, this is Cisco, our dog. Even though she likes to puke a lot, she's still part of the family and will partake in our adventure to the North. She'll be sure to keep us on our toes and keep the polar bears at bay! She's also good for a few laughs in between leg humping sessions. We still haven't figured out how to stop that...
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December 17th, 2009 at 22:17
All I can say is … really impressive. You put my sour cream cookies to shame! Everything looks beautiful.
December 17th, 2009 at 22:31
Thank you….even if it did take us twice to get the recipe right!!
December 18th, 2009 at 09:45
ooh yum it all looks great! We got your christmas card on wednesday. I loved it. Were they expensive to order? I think I will do ours that way next year. Great idea.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:28
WOW, I am impressed, maybe you should have tried all this while you were living back here so we could enjoy some of it. You and Etienne obviously make a good team and should go into business. The tree looked huge, how do you even eat it??? Just take a piece at a time from the top down? Way to go AGAIN, I am very impressed.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:55
They were actually very reasonable. You had the option of putting an additional picture on the inside flap. We decided to leave it blank so we could write on it. They were less than $2/card. That includes the envelopes.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:56
Each layer was an individual star, so you just pulled the top layer off and ate it.
December 18th, 2009 at 19:01
WOW I’m impressed too!!
Do you think the rice krispies tree is doable without the kit?? … just thinking I could make one for the xmas party at the daycare on Monday!
And what’s that orange thing on the bottom of your baking sheet?
December 18th, 2009 at 19:26
Si tu es assez precise je suis sure que tu peux faire un arbre sans les moules mais ca va etre pas mal plus long a faire.
Le machin orange c’est un Silpat. C’est une couche de silicone, c’est super pour les biscuits et des trucs du genre pour eviter que ca colle.
January 3rd, 2010 at 07:10
I’ve seen those christmas candy making kits but I wasn’t sure if they’d actually come out looking like they are supposed to. I’m going to get one next year though after seeing how well yours came out.
December 5th, 2011 at 23:05
Your shortbread and sour cream cookies look delicious can you please send the recipes.
Thank you,
December 7th, 2011 at 16:35
Henrietta, I will give you the recipe but it might take a few days. I need to translate it to English. It’s currently in French.
December 7th, 2011 at 17:59
Thank you that is so kind of you. Your article was fun and interesting.
December 13th, 2011 at 16:27
Henrietta, I updated the post to add the recipes at the bottom. I hope you like them.
Happy holidays!
December 14th, 2011 at 00:56
That was so nice of you I just hope my come out as good as yours. I hope you have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you so much.