We send Christmas cards to everyone. It is a nice gesture.
The Holiday Thread
- Thread starter QueenofWrapDress
- Start date
There’s a bakers ratio With lots of room for error. Flour is always expressed as 100%
How to use baking ratios
Learn all about baking ratios, how to calculate them, and how to use them with this guide so that you can become a better baker!
bakeschool.com
. One thing I love about desserts is that unlike individual cookies, it’s one pan and done. I adore gingerbread and love to read Laurie Colwins writing about gingerbread and black cake around the holidaysive found making sourdough rolls, crackers, brioche, simple cake, so much easier bc a moist kneaded dough, handled with oiled hands, will always produce a solid result
from maida heatters Book of Great Desserts (I stir and aerate, but do NOT sift. i also check sifted amounts by weight, bc aerated flour is a lesser weight/amount)
This sounds so lovely! I took the lazy way out and ordered babkas last year.
agree 100% except I kind of improvise and sometimes, well it doesn’t work
Homemade ice cream. As easy as a five minute custard that can be infused with anything, and people are usually happy to have homemade flavors.
otherwise, something homespun. . . deoending on the crowd.
my big crowd is thanksgiving, and despite promises to keep it simple, it never is. . . This year, we ordered a whole roast pig and also had duck magret, lamb, and arctic char, along with the usual sides, plus a table of homemade desserts And desserts that guests brought. A super easy appetizer is homemade salt cured Foie gras torchon ( no cooking)
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What a lovely thing to do.I give them with gifts! I usually make hampers for anyone outside my immediate family that I want to give a gift to (husband's cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) and also give nicer hampers to my in-laws and parents. I include a Christmas card in with these
I did for 40 years then stopped about 5 years ago. I used to do them also for my mother and MIL as they became unable. I'd write out what they'd say then just have them sign them. I wish I would start up again.
There’s a bakers ratio With lots of room for error. Flour is always expressed as 100%
I bought a cheap digital scale and it’s so much easier than measuring cupsHow to use baking ratios
Learn all about baking ratios, how to calculate them, and how to use them with this guide so that you can become a better baker!
ive found making sourdough rolls, crackers, brioche, simple cake, so much easier bc a moist kneaded dough, handled with oiled hands, will always produce a solid result
from maida heatters Book of Great Desserts (I stir and aerate, but do NOT sift. i also check sifted amounts by weight, bc aerated flour is a lesser weight/amount)
View attachment 5664862
This sounds so lovely! I took the lazy way out and ordered babkas last year.
agree 100% except I kind of improvise and sometimes, well it doesn’t work
Homemade ice cream. As easy as a five minute custard that can be infused with anything, and people are usually happy to have homemade flavors.
otherwise, something homespun. . . deoending on the crowd.
my big crowd is thanksgiving, and despite promises to keep it simple, it never is. . . This year, we ordered a whole roast pig and also had duck magret, lamb, and arctic char, along with the usual sides, plus a table of homemade desserts And desserts that guests brought. A super easy appetizer is homemade salt cured Foie gras torchon ( no cooking)
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Oh I love a good spread. My love language is definitely feeding people, and feeding them generously. I'm super squeamish with animal parts, though. I would have shed tears over that pig
We do a full turkey lunch the 26th with three courses (I'm usually skipping the main so I can have more soup), but for dinner we do cold cuts, a cheese platter, a salad platter, homemade bread, a few dips and compound butters and fruit salad. I so prefer the evening because I'm a huge grazer.
Agree! when we have a large group, we move it to my moms place which is bigger and she has help who carve and deal with the scary aftermath. I suggested that they make a brown stock with the bones that could be used in bean soups or cassoulet. i sat away from the animal myselfOh I love a good spread. My love language is definitely feeding people, and feeding them generously. I'm super squeamish with animal parts, though. I would have shed tears over that pig
We do a full turkey lunch the 26th with three courses (I'm usually skipping the main so I can have more soup), but for dinner we do cold cuts, a cheese platter, a salad platter, homemade bread, a few dips and compound butters and fruit salad. I so prefer the evening because I'm a huge grazer.
your lunch and dinner sound lovely!
ETA: I prefer grazing myself, bc by the time the dinner rolls around and guests arrive, I’m sick of the food and would just as soon order a pizza
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I serve a lot of plowman’s dinner. A favourite of ours. I’d much rather bread than sweet any day. Today’s bread fresh from the oven.Oh I love a good spread. My love language is definitely feeding people, and feeding them generously. I'm super squeamish with animal parts, though. I would have shed tears over that pig
We do a full turkey lunch the 26th with three courses (I'm usually skipping the main so I can have more soup), but for dinner we do cold cuts, a cheese platter, a salad platter, homemade bread, a few dips and compound butters and fruit salad. I so prefer the evening because I'm a huge grazer.
How gorgeous! I love your food photography
a dessert option might be sticky toffee pudding in a Bundt mold inspired by a TPF friend. Since i am a maximalist, extra toffee sauce and homemade ice cream
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One has just cinnamon and raisins, the other usually whatever is at hand. Today's has nuts (pumpkin, sunflower, flax and chia) dried fruit (cranberries, pineapple and papaya).
Yum, I’ll be right there.There’s a bakers ratio With lots of room for error. Flour is always expressed as 100%
I bought a cheap digital scale and it’s so much easier than measuring cupsHow to use baking ratios
Learn all about baking ratios, how to calculate them, and how to use them with this guide so that you can become a better baker!
ive found making sourdough rolls, crackers, brioche, simple cake, so much easier bc a moist kneaded dough, handled with oiled hands, will always produce a solid result
from maida heatters Book of Great Desserts (I stir and aerate, but do NOT sift. i also check sifted amounts by weight, bc aerated flour is a lesser weight/amount)
View attachment 5664862
This sounds so lovely! I took the lazy way out and ordered babkas last year.
agree 100% except I kind of improvise and sometimes, well it doesn’t work
Homemade ice cream. As easy as a five minute custard that can be infused with anything, and people are usually happy to have homemade flavors.
otherwise, something homespun. . . deoending on the crowd.
my big crowd is thanksgiving, and despite promises to keep it simple, it never is. . . This year, we ordered a whole roast pig and also had duck magret, lamb, and arctic char, along with the usual sides, plus a table of homemade desserts And desserts that guests brought. A super easy appetizer is homemade salt cured Foie gras torchon ( no cooking)
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You are more than welcome! Pls bring some of your leftover breadYum, I’ll be right there.
I was experimenting with a Filipino brioche called ensaimada. . .my memory of it is a very slightly sweet, rich brioche with hints of sharp cheese, no buttercream. made with a sponge, then several cold, slow rises. When I was young, I recall my grandmother giving me a four page handwritten ensaimada recipe on yellow legal pad, but I have no idea where that went. But, I’m easily distracted, and when I came across this recipe (unrelated to ensaimada), I decided that it might be a good holiday thing to try after (I tend to tinker with recipes, especially bread ones, so it may go sideways, but custard is always a good idea in my mind)
Brioche Rolls with Custard Cream
Make it a breakfast to remember with one of these fragrant and soft brioche roll filled with custard cream
Ive always made simple loaves of brioche or, if sweet, a savarin kind of thing, but I bought brioche cups which are new to me
ETA: plus an orange cake with whole oranges, peel and all puréed into it (recipe from food52 — the jury is still out)
and a maida Heatter chocolate pound cake with choclate butter ganache. My frosting skills are seriously out of practice and I cannot find my offset icing spatula, but no matter lol
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I have made a Swiss rustic baguette type of bread the past few Christmases, but I think I might just do the NYT Low Knead bread this year because we really love the taste and texture. I usually do one plain, one walnut and one fried onion loaf, but maybe I'll do something fun like dried tomato and feta or hazelnut and cranberry.
Or maybe I'll try the Low Knead dough shaped like the Swiss bread? It's twisted like a gnarled root and I could bake two on one sheet. Maybe I'll go all out and do a preferment. The sky's the limit
Or maybe I'll try the Low Knead dough shaped like the Swiss bread? It's twisted like a gnarled root and I could bake two on one sheet. Maybe I'll go all out and do a preferment. The sky's the limit
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In my neck of the woods many people don't anymore but we always do. I find that we tend to receive less and less from others every year but I still like to send them out regardless as we don't send them out with the expectation that others send us one back.
Lechon!There’s a bakers ratio With lots of room for error. Flour is always expressed as 100%
I bought a cheap digital scale and it’s so much easier than measuring cupsHow to use baking ratios
Learn all about baking ratios, how to calculate them, and how to use them with this guide so that you can become a better baker!
ive found making sourdough rolls, crackers, brioche, simple cake, so much easier bc a moist kneaded dough, handled with oiled hands, will always produce a solid result
from maida heatters Book of Great Desserts (I stir and aerate, but do NOT sift. i also check sifted amounts by weight, bc aerated flour is a lesser weight/amount)
View attachment 5664862
This sounds so lovely! I took the lazy way out and ordered babkas last year.
agree 100% except I kind of improvise and sometimes, well it doesn’t work
Homemade ice cream. As easy as a five minute custard that can be infused with anything, and people are usually happy to have homemade flavors.
otherwise, something homespun. . . deoending on the crowd.
my big crowd is thanksgiving, and despite promises to keep it simple, it never is. . . This year, we ordered a whole roast pig and also had duck magret, lamb, and arctic char, along with the usual sides, plus a table of homemade desserts And desserts that guests brought. A super easy appetizer is homemade salt cured Foie gras torchon ( no cooking)
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My all time favorite! Probably the only and best reason I remain a carnivore!