I want to make homemade biscotti as part of my family Christmas gifts this year. How soon can I make it? Is it okay to freeze it? We may be getting some icy weather this weekend and it would be nice to stay inside and bake. Can I make it this early?
Biscotti are about the best thing you can bake in advance for gift-giving. They keep at least a week at room temperature if well wrapped up, and they freeze beautifully for at least a couple of months. (If you’re going to dip them in chocolate or anything, I wouldn’t do that before freezing.) Plus they’re sturdy, so they won’t turn to dust if you send them by mail. I don’t find that the type of fat you use makes any difference to how well they keep; I always stick to butter because it tastes best. Baking biscotti when it’s icy outside sounds great–have fun.
Homemade Pecan Pumpkin Pie Recipe : Layer Pecan Pumpkin Pie
Your family and friends will be delighted with these thoughtful gifts straight from your own kitchen. With this unique ebook you will have over 200 recipes for gift jars filled with the ingredients to make delicious cakes, cookies, soups and chilis, Gift-giving has never been this much fun and so easy. Great Gifts In A Jar is the ultimate resource for inexpensive gifts you can give for any occasio…
200 Cookie Recipes 233 page eBookEverybody loves cookies. Is there anyone without a memory of their favorite fresh from the oven cookies with milk? With The Big Book Of Cookies you can bring back these great memories or create some new ones, and with The Big Book Of Cookies you will have over 200 cookie recipes to chose from. Whether for holiday treats or just to fill the cookie jar, you will fi…
People from all over the world are filled with joyfulness every year when the Christmas season is about to start. The Christmas season is all about good will and sharing what you have. For many, this is the perfect time to shop and spend lots of money on gifts and delicious foods. While for others, it is the time for a family tradition by having a gathering, a delicious turkey for dinner, the giving of gifts, the mistletoe, and much more which can be related to the Christmas atmosphere. And for all, it is the time to indulge into sweets from cakes, pies, brownies, candies to canes, donuts, and cookies. Everyone satisfies their sweet tooth with these treats during the holiday season.
Looking back at your childhood, think of the memories that you have while in the home and helping to create the Christmas spirit like setting up the manger, decorating the Christmas tree, hanging your Santa socks, wrapping presents, and baking sweet goods. Think of all the wonderful memories you have while eating delicious cookies during the holiday seasons. It was a good feel to be in the kitchen with your mother, helping her bake, eating the cookie dough when she wasn’t looking, licking the spoon at the end and shaping the cookies with holiday pattern cookie cutters. Remember how warm and delicious they were when taking out fresh from the oven, and the joy it brought to the faces of family members and friends when they sunk their teeth into the treats that you helped to create. Of course, the excitement you and your siblings had when you set out the cookies and milk for Santa Clause before you went to bed. As you notice, cookies are an essential part of Christmas that you should not leave out.
Christmas cookies are more than just delicious treats but they are also a holiday tradition. They allow you to look back to the time when you were a child as they refill you with the Christmas spirit. So this Christmas, when you are looking for the perfect gift to an old friend or family member, why not give them that come from the heart. Bring out your old family sweets recipes or visit your favorite bakery and get the Christmas classic treats.
The choices are endless, starting with sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies, butter almond crunch cookies, maple walnut cookies and of course chocolate chip cookies, and a variety of delectable treats. Think of the happiness that you will be spreading to your loved ones. Not only will they love the taste of these treats but they will also cherish the memories that are brought back to them.
This Christmas season, when you are amidst the hustle of gifts shopping, and you are racing for that last toy for your child, or bumping the person beside you to try and get the designer clothes, take a step back and think of what Christmas is all about. Give from the heart and spread the holiday merriment that you will remember. Make it enjoyable for yourself and for others by giving the delicious gift of the Christmas cookie.
About the Author
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Get cooking with this fun kid’s dinosaur marshmallow kit.
Makes an 8″ square pan of marshmallow that kids can decorate with sanding sugar and cut into mini dinosaur shapes.
Great for getting kids interested in cooking, and a fun and easy project for the whole family !
Includes: marshmallow mix, blue and orange sanding sugar, one shaped cutter and easy recipe instructions.
For ages 5 and up.
Butterscotch Fingers, Chocolate Crinkles, Gingerbread Cut-Outs, Peppermint Meringues: all these Christmas cookies sound delectable, but nobody can bake dozens of recipes at the same time. The solution? A swap! All across America, families, neighbors, community, and church groups gather at Christmas cookie swaps, where each participant brings a large batch of his or her favorite recipe to share. Ev…
Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie? Is it made of chocolate or spice? Is it an iced and decorated sugar cookie or a molasses ginger round? Or maybe it’s a crisp, chocolate-covered toffee bar or a jam-filled Linzer sandwich cookie. There are so many choices! Christmas cookies are loved for their special shapes, cheery colors, and seasonal flavors. They bring joy to our gatherings, help pres…
Book is chock-full of scrumptious recipes with all the flavors of the season…Chocolate Mint Stars, Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprints, Frosted Ginger Creams and Cranberry Crumb Bars. You’ll find old-fashioned favorites like Pecan Icebox cookies, Grandma;s Butter Fingers and Pastel Cream Wafers…even Oh-so-easy Cut-outs and 1-2-3 Cookies that bake up in a jiffy.
Of course included are candies for…
This program provides easy to follow directions to create a wide variety of Christmas treats. With easy to follow directions, these 5 projects range from unique frosted cookies and cupcakes to making your own Christmas bark. Give your home a unique and personalized flair for the holidays! Projects include *Snowflake Cookies*Holly Leaf Cookies*Tree Cupcake*Snowman Cupcake*Holiday Bark* Includes saf…
Christmas gift baskets are gifts that can deliver the most joy for the holiday season. These beautiful Christmas themed baskets are decorated with festive, colorful ribbons and bows, and overloaded with mouthwatering holiday treats. They are often sent by businesses as corporate Christmas gifts for their clients and business associates. At the same time, Christmas baskets can be sent to family or friends to deliver your warm holiday wishes with great taste. This article reviews the different types of Christmas gift baskets for the recipients on your gifting list.
1. Holiday Basket: An elegant way to say Season’s Greetings to business associates, family and friends is to send a holiday gift basket. These gift baskets come in different sizes to fit your gifting needs, and are great for events from a family get together to a company party. Holiday gift baskets are all dressed up in their holiday best, and filled with scrumptious gourmet treats and delicious snacks. These indulgent gifts are sure to satisfy even those hard to please recipients on your gift list.
2. Chocolate Basket: Chocolates are popular gifts for everyone, especially women. You can send your holiday wishes with a beautiful gold hinged-lid gift box that carries a collection of chocolates and other fine treats. The box is filled with Bellagio white chocolate cafe, vanilla caramels, Ghiradelli chocolate bar, chocolate wafer cookies, chocolate truffles, Lindt cream truffles bag, gourmet chocolate brownies, and more. The basket can be used long after the season as a reminder of your gift of good taste.
3. Holiday Sleigh Gift Basket: A popular variation of holiday gift baskets has a beautiful brass decorative holiday sleigh filled with plenty of goodies, including chocolate covered almonds, chocolate cream pastry, cranberry trail mix, shortbread butter cookies, chocolate fudge caramel corn, cinnamon caramel wafers, gourmet holiday cappuccino, and holiday jingle bells door knocker. Your recipients will love the beautiful sleigh that will serve as part of the holiday decorations for years to come.
4. Festive Sweets Truck Delivery Gift: For families with young children, you can send them a festive truck of Sweets. The keepsakes truck is hand stenciled with Merry Christmas and has actual moving wheels with a lid that opens and closes. This old-fashioned wooden truck is filled to overflowing with sweet treats, candies and cookies that are perfect for all sweets lovers on your holiday list. They will find chocolate covered pretzel rods, chocolate truffle cookies, chocolate covered almonds, old fashioned fudge, almond Roca toffee, French truffles, and Bellagio Caramel chocolate cocoa mix. The kids will love this festive truck for years to come.
5. Gift Tower: Instead of gift basket, you can send a holiday gift tower consisting of 3 beautiful red gift boxes filled to the brim with holiday favorites, including English almond toffee, crunchy caramel corn, butter toffee pretzels, Giradelli chocolates, and shortbread butter cookies. This gift is sure to please the most discriminating holiday snacker.
6. Fresh Baked Breakfast Basket: For your mom, wife, girlfriend, or sister, you can send a cozy wicker basket filled with ready to serve pound cake, chocolate chip blondies, brownies with walnuts, milk chocolate Christmas foils, and aromaful coffee. They will appreciate the aroma, the warmth, and the love that goes into every bite.
7. Holiday Meat and Cheese gift: For your dad, husband, brother, or boyfriend, you can send a meat and cheese gift. Inside the festive holiday gift pack are fine gourmet cheeses, Bavarian meats and mouth watering almond bark. They will find roasted garlic cheese block, cranberry cheddar cheese, tomato basil cheese block, gourmet mustards, Bavarian Halle sausage, beef salami, cheddar cheese spread, white almond cranberry bark along with wreath and a Happy Holidays message.
8. Holiday Candles: Holiday candles add warmth, light and scent to holiday ambience. For your friends and their family, you can send a reusable willow basket filled with red currant scented pillar andle and aroma tarts, evergreen scented aroma tart and votive candles, unscented votive candle in glass holder, tealight candles, ceramic aroma diffuser, glass candle plate, and potpourri.
9. Container Gardens: You can send a Christmas tree container garden that includes easy-grow Spruce Tree seeds, nutrients, and soil in a Christmas tree designed leak resistant container. The recipient just has to plant and water and let the plant grow in the container it came in. It is a great way to grow your own Christmas Tree, and a great gift for co-workers, neighbors, teachers.
In summary, Christmas gift baskets can be sent to everyone on your gifting list. You can choose from holiday basket, chocolate gift basket, holiday sleigh gift basket, festive sweets delivery keepsake truck, gift tower, fresh baked breakfast basket, meat and cheese gift, holiday candles, and container gardens. Send Christmas gift baskets to friends, family and business associates to share the spirit of the season.
Kate S. is the CEO of Gift Basket for All, LLC. You can visit her site by clicking on this link:
Tag gingerbread apron and mitt set is a great gift or special purchase for you! Red apron with embroidered pocket and adjustable ties. Gingerbread-shaped mitt with hang loop. 100-percent cotton. Machine wash gentle; tumble dry low. Set is folded and tied with matching red twill tape….
One fun, generously cut, 65/35 poly-cotton that fits virtually anyone, washes like a dream and will not shrink up to nothing. Other documented properties include ability to generate smiles and create an instant party atmosphere….
Perfect for gift giving. Use to line those gift tins and fill with your home baked goodies. Bake your favorite cake or bread recipe right in the paper liners. Easy to transfer from baking pan to gift tin with very little clean up. Great for cookies and candies as well….
Cherry-Berry Dried Fruit Mix by Cherryland’s Best is for you if you love dried fruit. The Cherry-Berry Dried Fruit Mix contains a delectable mix of Door County dried cherries, Wisconsin dried cranberries, and dried blueberries for three great flavors in one. Enjoy two 2-lb. packages for a total of 4 pounds. Perfect for baking, topping, and snacking….
Willow Creek Mill’s Deep-fried Cheese Curd Batter Mix allows you to make this wonderfully delicious snack at your home. (Note: Cheese curds are NOT included.) Each deep-fried cheese curd batter mix is made of the finest stoneground flours and ingredients, containing no preservatives or additives and not overly processed combine to ensure customers of old-fashioned goodness and satisfaction. Eac…
Don’t you just hate it when you follow a recipe to the letter and when the bread baking is finished the bread not only looks nothing like the recipe book’s picture, but tastes terrible as well?
There is no denying that bread baking as with baking anything is a delicate process.
Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves.
Little do they realize that if they only possessed the professional Baker’s secrets bread baking would be so easy that the bread would practically make itself!
For instance: How many amateur bakers know the secret to keeping bread from sticking to the pan every time?
None! So when they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try to force it out.
Then they cry and give up thinking that the problem lies with them.
The shocking truth is that it doesn’t!
The problem lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker’s bread baking secret.
The secret professional chefs and bakers won’t tell you, the secret they guard so jealously.
My father happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger baking days (which is no surprise since his great great grandfather was a chef for the White House and owned his own bakery) and has passed it on to his children ever since.
Okay, okay, I know you’re probably screaming at me by now “Beth, get on with it! Tell us the bread baking secret already!”
So here it is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply CORNMEAL (you shouldn’t need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread).
“Cornmeal?” you ask doubtfully. “YES, cornmeal!”
No, you do not add the cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread baking secret.
What you do is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom of the bread pan.
Now you can safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of it sticking to them.
While your bread is baking instead of sticking to the pan, your bread will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done baking.
You may need to use a butter knife and slide it in between the pan and the bread before turning the pan over and allowing your bread to pop out.
A lot of the time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down.
You will probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not care for the taste of cornmeal.
This bread baking secret will work whether you’re baking a batter bread or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it for both.
Here is another treasured bread baking secret, this one only for batter breads:
On the last ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking.
This will keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on top. You may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on according to how your batter bread usually looks when it is finished.
If it is a very dark brown on top and difficult to slice because the top is so hard, then 20 minutes will work best. But if it is just a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should suffice.
Do not cover the bread at all if it usually comes out golden and soft on top after the baking is completed.
You may also glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked coconut or sliced nuts on top of that.
To glaze you start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes before the required baking time is finished, then spread the butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes.
Here is another useful bread baking tip for rising breads…
If your bread loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top.
You may then use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls.
Rise them for another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Do yourself a favor and put these tried and tested bread baking secrets immediately to use in your kitchen, and your family will rave over the results. Don’t you just hate it when you follow a recipe to the letter and when the bread baking is finished the bread not only looks nothing like the recipe book’s picture, but tastes terrible as well?
There is no denying that bread baking as with baking anything is a delicate process.
Bread baking involves so many things that first time bakers are often discouraged after a few failed attempts to turn out professional looking and tasting loaves.
Little do they realize that if they only possessed the professional Baker’s secrets bread baking would be so easy that the bread would practically make itself!
For instance: How many amateur bakers know the secret to keeping bread from sticking to the pan every time?
None! So when they try their hand at bread baking for the first time their bread sticks to the bread pan, and ends up a crumbled mess if they try to force it out.
Then they cry and give up thinking that the problem lies with them.
The shocking truth is that it doesn’t!
The problem lies with their lack of knowledge of THE baker’s bread baking secret.
The secret professional chefs and bakers won’t tell you, the secret they guard so jealously.
My father happened to learn this bread baking secret in his younger baking days (which is no surprise since his great great grandfather was a chef for the White House and owned his own bakery) and has passed it on to his children ever since.
Okay, okay, I know you’re probably screaming at me by now “Beth, get on with it! Tell us the bread baking secret already!”
So here it is; You will need only one tool besides for the oil and bread pan you already have, and that is quite simply CORNMEAL (you shouldn’t need more than 1/4 to 1/2 cup for two loaves of bread).
“Cornmeal?” you ask doubtfully. “YES, cornmeal!”
No, you do not add the cornmeal to the bread ingredients! That is not the bread baking secret.
What you do is you oil your pan as usual, and you lightly sprinkle cornmeal on all of the sides and bottom of the bread pan.
Now you can safely place your bread dough into the pans without fear of it sticking to them.
While your bread is baking instead of sticking to the pan, your bread will stick to the cornmeal and slide easily out of the pan when done baking.
You may need to use a butter knife and slide it in between the pan and the bread before turning the pan over and allowing your bread to pop out.
A lot of the time this will be unnecessary however and your bread will pop out just by your turning the bread pan upside down.
You will probably also want to use the butter knife to scrape the excess cornmeal off the bottom and sides of the bread as you may not care for the taste of cornmeal.
This bread baking secret will work whether you’re baking a batter bread or a rising bread (also called yeast bread). I personally use it for both.
Here is another treasured bread baking secret, this one only for batter breads:
On the last ten minutes of its baking time cover the bread pan containing the batter bread with another bread pan (a steel bread pan works best), and leave it on until the bread is finished baking.
This will keep the batter bread from burning or becoming too hard on top. You may vary the time you leave the steel bread pan on according to how your batter bread usually looks when it is finished.
If it is a very dark brown on top and difficult to slice because the top is so hard, then 20 minutes will work best. But if it is just a little too hard on top and a little too brown the 10 minutes should suffice.
Do not cover the bread at all if it usually comes out golden and soft on top after the baking is completed.
You may also glaze a batter bread on top with a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with a tablespoon of honey, and sprinkle some flaked coconut or sliced nuts on top of that.
To glaze you start by taking the bread out of the oven five minutes before the required baking time is finished, then spread the butter/honey mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle on your coconut or chopped nuts and bake for the remaining 5 minutes.
Here is another useful bread baking tip for rising breads…
If your bread loaves over rise (say because you were busy and forgot about them), then you can use a pair of scissors to cut off the excess sides, being careful not to cut any dough from off of the top.
You may then use this excess dough to make rolls. You simply oil a pizza or cookie sheet and form the dough into several small balls.
Rise them for another half hour and then bake on 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Do yourself a favor and put these tried and tested bread baking secrets immediately to use in your kitchen, and your family will rave over the results.
Children’s cooking kit for the Little Kitchen Chef.
12-piece Playset includes rolling pin, whisk, cookie cutters and much more! Great little gift set for the little chef. Presented in gift box as pictured.
Suitable for children age 5 and up….
The award-winning authors of Bread in Half the Time present a detailed, engaging, practical guide to making almost one hundred European-style breads, from sourdough to focaccia to raisin pumpernickel, using a bread machine….
Introduction to bread machines, tools, ingredients and measuring. Bread machine recipes developed by kids for kids. Family favorites like pretzels and cinnamon rolls along with special holiday breads. Step-by-step photos to turn dough into edible art. A whole chapter devoted to themed parties using the bread machine. A fun experience for the whole family!!!!!!…
