Preparing for the holidays

It might seem a little early to post about preparing for the holidays but the whole point of preparing is to do it early.  I don't believe in stressing for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  That's missing the point of both holidays.  I'm also starting my Christmas decorating so in this and future blog posts, I may be including shots of some of my favorite Christmas ornaments.  I've been collecting ornaments since I was in high school so there aren't enough posts to include all the pictures but I'll show some of my favorites.

A fellow ornament collector, Linda, was kind enough to gift me with this Christmas cupcake ornament

My stress-avoidance means doing a lot of stuff ahead of time so when the big day(s) arrive, I can enjoy it.  By that I don't mean just stocking up on cookie doughs for the freezer, ready to be baked at a moment's notice when I need a gift or to go to a party.  Although that is one tip/trick I do every year.  But this is also the time of year to do other kinds of prep.

Stocking your pantry:

Buy bananas early and give them time to ripen

As the holidays approach, many ingredients go on sale.  Keep an eye out but don't necessarily wait for it either if you can find something already at a good price.  A 10-lb bag of granulated sugar at Costco is $5.29.  If I see a 5-lb bag selling for half that or less, I'll stock up but right now, the Costco price is the most competitive.  There's already 20 lbs sitting in my pantry, ready for the holiday baking season.  A 72-ounce bag of Nestle semisweet chocolate chips went on sale, also at Costco, for $8.74.  That translates into $1.46 for a normal 12-ounce bag.  A price I never see, even with a good sale elsewhere.  144 ounces of chocolate chips are also now in my pantry.  Stocking up early on ingredients ensures I don't run out of anything at a crucial moment and, since I'm buying the stuff when I'm normally already out, I don't waste time or gas making any special trips to the store for something I need later on.  Oh, and if you plan to bake anything with bananas like banana bread, cake, muffins, cupcakes, etc for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I would highly advise you buy your bananas now and give them plenty of time to overripen.  If they get too ripe before you need them, peel them, plastic them in freezer bags and put them in your freezer until you're ready to use them.

Packaging items:
You know those 40%-50% off coupons from Michaels that come out pretty much every week?  I use those throughout the year to get parchment paper and plain treat bags.  As the holidays approach, I also use them to start buying holiday-themed packaging items like Christmas cellophane treat bags, cupcake liners, and decorated treat boxes.  The best time to buy that stuff is as soon as your store stocks them, not when the holiday is actually getting nearer.  Once we're full swing into holiday season, those items go on sale but at less than a 40% discount so you're better off when it's regular price and you can use a 40% off coupon for it.  Plus early on is when you get the best selection.

Cleaning

Thanksgiving is fast approaching - 'tis the season for pumpkin pie

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday but Christmas is the one I decorate all out for.  (Yes, I'm one of those people.)  I used to alternate between decorating big one year for Halloween and more modestly at Christmas and vice versa the following year.  Then it got to be too much in too short a timeframe and now I alternate between decorating with 50% of my Christmas stuff and decorating with almost 100% of it.  Halloween got back burnered.  But before I decorate, my house has to be clean.  And I mean clean.  As in, for a couple of October weekends, I moved furniture and vacuumed and swept underneath them, hands-and-knees-on-the-floor scrubbing, dusting all the way down to the baseboards, cleaning blinds and shutters slat by slat with an actual cleaner, and spiders fleeing in terror as any hint of a cobweb was aggressively dusted out of existence.  That kind of clean.  And while I'm at it, I'm decluttering stuff I don't need to give away to Goodwill, gathering excess jackets to give away to One Warm Coat as the weather cools, and thinning out my embarrassingly large collection of books to give the ones I'll never reread to the library.  Freaky-obsessive fall housecleaning time is also when I put away picture frames and knick knacks that have been out all year so I can clear display space for my Christmas decorations.  It's a 2-weekend project and one I strive to complete in October so I give myself enough time to finish decorating by Thanksgiving.  Because all I do in my free time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is bake and socialize.  I don't want to spend it deep cleaning so I get it out of the way first thing.

Shopping

One of my new additions this year - "tiramisu"

There was a point in time where I actually enjoyed shopping.  As in I made a near-weekly trip to the mall every Saturday just to browse even if I didn't have anything I had to buy.  Not that that stopped me from buying stuff since, you know, I was already there anyway.  Then, some years ago, I went through a major decluttering phase and I haven't stopped decluttering since.  Now I only go to the mall if I absolutely have to - meaning I can't buy something online or my clothes are threadbare rags that need to be replaced.  Otherwise I'd rather spend my downtime baking or reading or working out or poking my eye out rather than braving the throngs at the mall.  It's worse during the holiday season because the novice shoppers are out.  You know the ones that I mean: the dawdlers who aren't aware there's a tide of people behind them but they're in the way, the baffled-looking ones who actually want assistance from the store clerks but can't find any, the impatient ones who can't believe there are this many people in line at the store but when it's their turn at the cash register, they pull out their checkbook and then start writing a check.  I like people but not all of them in a confined space.  So no malls for me in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Which means I either shop online (Cyber Monday is superior to Black Friday), I bake my gifts, or I buy stuff way ahead of time.  Throughout the year when I do buy something, I ask for a box, whether it's for a gift or not.  So when December comes, I already have a stockpile of boxes to use if I need them - which beats standing in line at the store in December to ask for a box for a gift I just bought.  Usually I don't even need boxes anymore as lately I've been giving more gift cards and service-oriented items.

Ultimately, you have to do what works for you - some people love the last-minute frenzy (I'm not one of them), some people enjoy a minimalist holiday so the spirit doesn't get lost in the letter, and others believe in letting it all hang out as their expression of enjoying what they love about the holidays (that would be me in case it's not obvious).  Whichever type of person you are, do what you love and share with those you love.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake - made October 24, 2012 from Favorite Brand Name Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes

This is the third thing I made for my nephew's bake sale and the only one I had time to make the night before my cousin picked up the baked goods and previously blogged cookie doughs.  This is a perfect cake for a bake sale.  It's quick and easy to put together and because of how liquid the batter is, the baked cake is moist and stays moist for a few days.  I did make one mistake and took the cake out too soon.  You can tell it's underbaked by how dark the top half looks beneath the frosting.  I ended up slicing the edge pieces but held back the two middle pieces as being a little too underbaked to sell (darn, had to eat those myself).  To dress it up a little and make it more visually eye catching, I sprinkled toffee pieces on top of the frosted cake.  It added a bit of crunch and paired nicely with the dark chocolate of the cake and the sweetness of the frosting.

The only caveat is this cake has a pretty soft texture so you don't want to stack it on top of each other or place anything on top of the wrapped cake.  You'll crush the cakiness of the texture into something inadvertently more dense.  For people who like boxed cake mixes (shudder), this has the fluffy texture of a boxed cake mix but infinitely superior flavor.

2 cups sugar

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

1.     Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     In a large mixer bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes.  Stir in water.  Batter will be thin.

3.     Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely.

4.     Frost with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.  Sprinkle with toffee pieces if desired.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

6 tablespoons butter, softened

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup - 1 cup toffee pieces, optional

1.     In a small mixer bowl, beat butter.  Blend in powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk, beating well after each addition until smooth and of spreading consistency.  Blend in vanilla.  Add additional milk, if needed.  Spread over cooled cake and sprinkle with toffee pieces if using.

   

Milk Chocolate Chip Nutella Swirl Cookies

Milk Chocolate Chip Nutella Swirl Cookies - made October 23, 2012, recipe adapted from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle

This is the other cookie dough I made for my nephew's bake sale that my cousin Christine picked up to bake on her own.  The original recipe was essentially for a milk chocolate macadamia nut cookie but I modified it to leave off the macadamia nuts and instead I dolloped nutella in the dough as I scooped it out so I could have swirls running through the cookie, similar to the Almond Butter and Nutella Swirl cookies.  I was trying to make a chocolate chip cookie that had generous swirls of nutella running through it but I was only partially successful.  The cookies spread a bit more than I wanted and the nutella spread with it so instead of moist, melt-y dollops through the cookie, it was more like a marbling of nutella in it.  Still tasted good but I think it would work better with a cookie that didn't spread as much.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

6 ounces Swiss milk bar chocolate, cut into 1/3-inch chunks

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/3-inch chunks
3/4 cup to 1 cup nutella

1.     Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Spray two baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

3.     In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown and granulated sugars at medium speed until well blended.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the vanilla extract.  At low speed, beat in the dry ingredients.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in the milk chocolate and bittersweet chocolate.  Cover the bowl and let the dough stand for 10 minutes.  (The dough can be wrapped in plastic and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen, well wrapped, for up to a month.)

4.     Drop dollops of nutella in teaspoonfuls over the top of the dough as you scoop it out, leaving the nutella dollops intact (don't marble into the dough).  Drop the dough by 2-tablespoon mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart.  Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 11 to 13 minutes, until golden around the edges.  Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to a week.  Makes about 40 cookies.

Peanut Butter Cup & Snickers Crunch Brownies

Peanut Butter Cup  & Snickers Crunch Brownies - made November 1, 2012, recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

I've got more than a week's worth of blog posts to put up but I'm going out of order to address the all-important issue of what to do with leftover Halloween candy.  Besides the obvious of sneaking in a piece here and there until suddenly it's December (or earlier) and you've consumed them all without any conscious memory of tearing open those wrappers and having "just one small piece".  Don't do it.  Instead, sift through those bags you optimistically bought but ended up with less trick or treaters this year than last year or else go through that hard-earned pile your kids gathered traipsing through the neighborhood.  Pull out the Snickers and the Reese's peanut butter cups and use them for this recipe.

You make the brownie layer and right before it's done, you sprinkle it with chopped toasted peanuts and chopped peanut butter cups and Snickers, return it to the oven for a few minutes, just long enough for the candy to begin to melt, then you take it out and top it with a rice krispie peanut butter chocolate mixture that will make you salivate.  It's similar in concept to my nutella crunch topping but uses peanut butter instead of nutella.  You can't see the middle layer very well in the picture since it's smothered by the rice krispie peanut butter chocolate topping but rest assured, every bite of this brownie will give you the full impact of how much goodness you can turn that candy into.  If you're a peanut butter and chocolate lover, this is a brownie must-make and have-to-consume.  After it cools completely, it's easy to cut and share with others so not only are you not the only one eating all that leftover Halloween candy but you (and your friends and family) are also consuming it in a much loftier fashion.  These also freeze well for future consumption.

Brownie Layer

1/2 cup butter
8 ounces coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Middle Layer
1/2 cup peanuts, toasted
1/2 cup peanut butter cups, chopped
1/2 cup Snickers, chopped

Top Layer
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 9 inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. 
2. Melt butter and chocolate in the top half of a double boiler set over hot water on medium heat, stirring constantly until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. 
3. Add in the eggs one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla. Gently fold in the flour and salt.  By hand, stir enough to emulsify the batter and bring it together but do not overbeat or your brownies will be cakey rather than fudgy if too much air is whipped into them.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top with a knife. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.
5. Remove brownies from the oven and sprinkle the top with the peanuts, chopped peanut butter cups and chopped Snickers. Return to the oven and bake for 3-5 additional minutes.
6. While the brownies are finishing up in the oven, melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the Rice Krispies until evenly coated. Remove the brownies from the oven and pour the chocolate and peanut butter mixture over top.  Spread to cover evenly. Refrigerate for 2 hours before cutting into 24 squares. Share.

Linked to Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Saturday