Holiday Baking 101
By Rachel Bucci, Willamette Woman, December 2008
Nothing says happy holidays like a tray of luscious baked goods. And while the vision of presenting your neighbors, co-workers or family with beautiful and tasty treats is certainly appealing, just how do you make it happen without losing your sanity?
Facing the holidays is stressful enough without a kitchen perpetually stacked high with dirty dishes or counter tops smeared with flour and frosting. Lucky for us, it turns out that Salem is full of busy and organized bakers, at the ready to share their secrets for keeping your cool as you turn out tins and platters of holiday cheer.
Choose Recipes Wisely. When deciding which baked goods to make. There are several key things to keep in mind. What keeps well or can be frozen ahead of time? What looks good? What tastes good? Is the recipe versatile?
Chef Donna Smith, of Kelley’s Kitchen Center, has been baking for the holidays since she was 10, working alongside her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother to create Christmas goodies and gifts and to stockpile holiday treats for large family gatherings. She routinely bakes everything from Russian tea cakes, biscotti, pecan tassies and shortbread to cream caramels, dipped chocolates, truffles and toffee. To keep things manageable, she does her baking in stages, based on how well particular goods keep.
“We have traditionally baked quick breads first because they freeze well. Next we do cookies that freeze well, but we frost and decorate [them] a few days before giving away to prevent the frosting from weeping. The week before the holidays we do candies that can be held in air tight containers,” says Smith.
Each year Susan Cook, a busy Salem attorney and mother, bakes four to six standbys that have been passed down from her mother. Her secret? Choosing simple, no-fail recipes that don’t require special ingredients or last-minute trips to the grocery store. Her Czechoslovakian cookies require only flour, butter, sugar, eggs and jam.
“One of our family favorites is the original fantasy fudge recipe from the marshmallow jar. They changed it one year and my sister and I frantically searched for the old recipe. We found it and that’s the one we always use,” says Cook.
A recipe’s versatility can also be a key time saver. Rebecca Rigsby, a local artist and avid cook, says she has had particular success with mini-bundt cakes. She makes two base batters – one white and one chocolate – to which she adds complementary ingredients. White and chocolate batter swirled together becomes a marble cake; with the addition of seasonal spices, plain white cake becomes a spice cake.
Equally important is thinking about how the finished product looks. Rigsby says,“You might have a great bar cookie that tastes great, but doesn’t look pretty. If you want something to look fancy, take that into consideration when choosing what to make.”
Plan Ahead. Chef Donna Smith’s key to creating an array of goodies to rival Santa’s bakeshop is to be prepared and well organized.
“I try to decide by the first week in November which recipes I want to make. Often I coordinate with my mom and sister…we start early in the season, shopping holiday ads for baking needs and I dedicate a pantry shelf (or three!) to hold marshmallow cream, melting chocolate, mincemeat, and gumdrops, so I know at a glance what I have,” says Smith.
“My recipes are simple enough that I can go to just about any market and pick up the ingredients off the top of my head. And it’s hard to make a bad batch, even if I’m distracted or working with the kids underfoot,” says Cook. Still, she finds a happy medium between involving the kids with fun recipes like gingerbread men and working on goodies when they are in bed. She also tries to batch her baking – volunteering to bring goodies for the parent club meeting one night and a friend’s holiday party the next.
Know your limits. While Rigsby admits that she often “dreams and schemes” nearly to her breaking point, she does know her limits. “The main thing is that I do things I’m familiar with and I am confident will turn out,” says Rigsby. In other words, don’t choose your first Christmas with the in-laws to attempt a buche de noel, when a beautifully frosted platter of sugar cookies will do the trick.
Cook says that last year she almost didn’t have time to make her time-honored family fudge recipe, so her husband, who she emphasizes is not a cook, stepped up to make “such an amazing batch of fudge that he may be doing it again this year,” she laughs.
Combine Forces. Instead of knocking yourself out cooking a gazillion kinds of cookies, see if friends or family are interested in organizing a cookie exchange.
For the last eight years, Rigsby has been gathering for a cookie exchange with ten college girlfriends. They each bring three dozen of one kind of cookie to trade. To make the afternoon even more festive, the hostess makes a batch of unfrosted sugar cookies and they spend several hours catching up, drinking cider, decorating sugar cookies and participating in an ornament exchange.
“It’s a really nice afternoon because I don’t get to see a lot of these friends regularly. Afterwards, I have a nice tin of cookies to bring to another holiday event or to give away as a hostess gift,” says Rigsby.
The Art of Presentation. For an artist like Rebekah Rigsby, presentation is paramount. “I like to cook and I like to make things in general. I would always rather make something that go and buy something, so presentation is really important to me. I like to shop at Paper Zone or Big Lots for tins and crafty and creative presentation supplies like cello bags and scrap booking materials that can be used for decoration.”
Chef Donna Smith, who plans way ahead on presentation, says, “Another tradition in our family is to shop sales right after the holidays for decorative platters, boxes, candy cups and bread trays. It’s like giving two gifts in one. The recipient has a tray of goodies and a useful platter.”
Focus on the Reason You Are Baking. If you go overboard and end up feeling overwhelmed, it’s easy to loose sight of why you are going to the effort in the first place.
“It’s easy to make things more complicated than you need to," says Rigsby. "Really, you don’t need to make a bunch of different things. Or even two things. Make one thing that’s really good. Whatever you make, people will enjoy it. It really is the thought that counts.”
And in many ways, holiday baking is about much more than the finished product.
“Holiday baking is one of the few creative outlets that I have. It’s also an opportunity for me to give something I make, versus something like a gift card,” says Cook. “When I was a college student, my mom would always save the baking for when I came home. It was a way to ease back into home. Now my husband is in on it and hopefully it is something that I can pass on to my kids.”
By Rachel Bucci, Willamette Woman, December 2008
Nothing says happy holidays like a tray of luscious baked goods. And while the vision of presenting your neighbors, co-workers or family with beautiful and tasty treats is certainly appealing, just how do you make it happen without losing your sanity?
Facing the holidays is stressful enough without a kitchen perpetually stacked high with dirty dishes or counter tops smeared with flour and frosting. Lucky for us, it turns out that Salem is full of busy and organized bakers, at the ready to share their secrets for keeping your cool as you turn out tins and platters of holiday cheer.
Choose Recipes Wisely. When deciding which baked goods to make. There are several key things to keep in mind. What keeps well or can be frozen ahead of time? What looks good? What tastes good? Is the recipe versatile?
Chef Donna Smith, of Kelley’s Kitchen Center, has been baking for the holidays since she was 10, working alongside her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother to create Christmas goodies and gifts and to stockpile holiday treats for large family gatherings. She routinely bakes everything from Russian tea cakes, biscotti, pecan tassies and shortbread to cream caramels, dipped chocolates, truffles and toffee. To keep things manageable, she does her baking in stages, based on how well particular goods keep.
“We have traditionally baked quick breads first because they freeze well. Next we do cookies that freeze well, but we frost and decorate [them] a few days before giving away to prevent the frosting from weeping. The week before the holidays we do candies that can be held in air tight containers,” says Smith.
Each year Susan Cook, a busy Salem attorney and mother, bakes four to six standbys that have been passed down from her mother. Her secret? Choosing simple, no-fail recipes that don’t require special ingredients or last-minute trips to the grocery store. Her Czechoslovakian cookies require only flour, butter, sugar, eggs and jam.
“One of our family favorites is the original fantasy fudge recipe from the marshmallow jar. They changed it one year and my sister and I frantically searched for the old recipe. We found it and that’s the one we always use,” says Cook.
A recipe’s versatility can also be a key time saver. Rebecca Rigsby, a local artist and avid cook, says she has had particular success with mini-bundt cakes. She makes two base batters – one white and one chocolate – to which she adds complementary ingredients. White and chocolate batter swirled together becomes a marble cake; with the addition of seasonal spices, plain white cake becomes a spice cake.
Equally important is thinking about how the finished product looks. Rigsby says,“You might have a great bar cookie that tastes great, but doesn’t look pretty. If you want something to look fancy, take that into consideration when choosing what to make.”
Plan Ahead. Chef Donna Smith’s key to creating an array of goodies to rival Santa’s bakeshop is to be prepared and well organized.
“I try to decide by the first week in November which recipes I want to make. Often I coordinate with my mom and sister…we start early in the season, shopping holiday ads for baking needs and I dedicate a pantry shelf (or three!) to hold marshmallow cream, melting chocolate, mincemeat, and gumdrops, so I know at a glance what I have,” says Smith.
“My recipes are simple enough that I can go to just about any market and pick up the ingredients off the top of my head. And it’s hard to make a bad batch, even if I’m distracted or working with the kids underfoot,” says Cook. Still, she finds a happy medium between involving the kids with fun recipes like gingerbread men and working on goodies when they are in bed. She also tries to batch her baking – volunteering to bring goodies for the parent club meeting one night and a friend’s holiday party the next.
Know your limits. While Rigsby admits that she often “dreams and schemes” nearly to her breaking point, she does know her limits. “The main thing is that I do things I’m familiar with and I am confident will turn out,” says Rigsby. In other words, don’t choose your first Christmas with the in-laws to attempt a buche de noel, when a beautifully frosted platter of sugar cookies will do the trick.
Cook says that last year she almost didn’t have time to make her time-honored family fudge recipe, so her husband, who she emphasizes is not a cook, stepped up to make “such an amazing batch of fudge that he may be doing it again this year,” she laughs.
Combine Forces. Instead of knocking yourself out cooking a gazillion kinds of cookies, see if friends or family are interested in organizing a cookie exchange.
For the last eight years, Rigsby has been gathering for a cookie exchange with ten college girlfriends. They each bring three dozen of one kind of cookie to trade. To make the afternoon even more festive, the hostess makes a batch of unfrosted sugar cookies and they spend several hours catching up, drinking cider, decorating sugar cookies and participating in an ornament exchange.
“It’s a really nice afternoon because I don’t get to see a lot of these friends regularly. Afterwards, I have a nice tin of cookies to bring to another holiday event or to give away as a hostess gift,” says Rigsby.
The Art of Presentation. For an artist like Rebekah Rigsby, presentation is paramount. “I like to cook and I like to make things in general. I would always rather make something that go and buy something, so presentation is really important to me. I like to shop at Paper Zone or Big Lots for tins and crafty and creative presentation supplies like cello bags and scrap booking materials that can be used for decoration.”
Chef Donna Smith, who plans way ahead on presentation, says, “Another tradition in our family is to shop sales right after the holidays for decorative platters, boxes, candy cups and bread trays. It’s like giving two gifts in one. The recipient has a tray of goodies and a useful platter.”
Focus on the Reason You Are Baking. If you go overboard and end up feeling overwhelmed, it’s easy to loose sight of why you are going to the effort in the first place.
“It’s easy to make things more complicated than you need to," says Rigsby. "Really, you don’t need to make a bunch of different things. Or even two things. Make one thing that’s really good. Whatever you make, people will enjoy it. It really is the thought that counts.”
And in many ways, holiday baking is about much more than the finished product.
“Holiday baking is one of the few creative outlets that I have. It’s also an opportunity for me to give something I make, versus something like a gift card,” says Cook. “When I was a college student, my mom would always save the baking for when I came home. It was a way to ease back into home. Now my husband is in on it and hopefully it is something that I can pass on to my kids.”