Holiday Baking - Round 1

This year we decided that for Christmas we're only doing gift shopping for our family, and that for everyone else whom we normally get gifts (friends, co-workers, group members, etc) that we would give them baked goods.

My first round in the kitchen was Sunday, baking treats for co-workers (both mine and my husband's) and my writer's group. I picked 5 recipes to work with, all of them from The Joy of Vegan Baking. The first thing I did was write down the ingredients I needed for each recipe in an excel table, listing by gram (for solids) or ML (for liquids), and create a formula to multiply the number of recipe batches I was making of each (3 of one, 1 recipe worth of another, and 2 batches of the rest). I made my shopping list from there, then hit the grocery store.

I read through the recipes, and came up with a baking order, and planed to do some of the baking on Sunday, and some on Monday, as both holiday parties I was attending were on Tuesday. I ended up making everything in a massive baking session that lasted through 4 movies which I put on in the background [ Ever After, Ella Enchanted, High School Musical and Mulan if anyone is interested- all movies I had seen before, so great choices for background noise, but little attention required].

I started off with some prep work. I toasted the pecans I needed for the recipes, as well as zesting an orange and lemon, and juicing the orange. With these ingredients prepped, and all the remaining ingredients for all the recipes brought out to the counter where I could access them quickly, I set to work.

I made a triple batch of Pumpkin Spice Bread first, each batch making 4 mini-loafs. In retrospect, I should have either made three separate batches, or made a double batch followed by a single batch. It was a bear to mix the ingredients (ended up splitting them between my largest mixing bowl, and the bowl from my stand mixer), and 3 batches made 12 mini-loafs, which I put in the oven all at once. This probably slowed the heating, as the two cookie sheets the loafs were on took up the entire space on the shelf. Ah, hindsight. The loafs are for immediate co-workers, my massage therapist, and two neighbors.

While the mini-loafs were cooking, I cleaned up, and started making the batter for a loaf of the Cranberry Nut Bread. I made this recipe 2 times over the Thanksgiving season, so I felt pretty confident with it. The mini loafs came out of the oven, and the single large loaf went in. This bread is my contribution to the holiday snacks at our writer's group workshop/holiday party.

While the bread was in the oven, I started making a double batch of Caramelized Pecans AKA Pralines. I almost mis-measured the butter for this recipe, forgetting to double it like I had the rest of the ingredients. Actually, I worried about this a lot when baking, since I was making double or triple sized batches of most things. Note to future self: either make the batches separately, or copy the recipe with the doubled measurements to work from. I managed to scoop the pralines out onto the buttered wax paper just before the bread had to come out of the oven, so my timing was pretty good in this case. The only problem was the mix was sticking to the pot, but when I was scooping it out, it was too runny. Instead of discrete praline pieces, I have two sheets of pralines that I need to navigated. These were originally intended to go to extended co-workers, though they may end up being a holiday party food, if I can't make pretty / even pieces.

Next up were Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip cookies, double batch. Another old favorite of mine from the cookbook, so again, I wasn't too worried about the execution of the recipe. I used the ½ TBSP measuring spoon to make even sizes, and kept the cookies small. The cooking time on these was low (10-11 minutes), and I ended up falling behind and the first tray was out of the oven before the second tray was ready to go in. Same for the third and forth trays. These cookies came out well, and pretty even in size. Any note I would have would be to get a better spoon (easier to get the dough out of), or find another way to get uniform size that is quicker (perhaps roll and chill the dough to enable slicing?). These cookies are for everyone - immediate and extended co-workers, writer's group members, neighbors and my MT.

Last up was a double batch of Mexican Wedding Cookies. I ended up having to grind the pecans for this recipe, as I forgot to prepare these in advance. I used my food processor rather than the manual nut grinder, though, so this step went pretty quickly. My stand mixer was finally called to use in making the dough for these cookies, and I used the same measuring spoon to scoop out balls of dough for the tray. Baking time on these was 30 minutes, so I managed to complete the second tray worth by the time the first batch finished baking, but only just. Again, a different spoon may be the answer, here. Once the second batch went in the oven, I rolled the first batch (still warm) in powdered sugar, and finished clean up while the  second batch cooked. These cookies are also for everyone on our list.

After the marathon day of baking, the only thing I have left to do tonight is to separate the cookies (and possibly Pralines) into some of the decorative holiday bags and boxes, and maybe put bows on the mini-loafs, which are in holiday tins that came with their own lids. Then a small break, evaluating recipes, and next week I start again, making treats for our friends.

New tools/ ingredients: Pumpkin Puree; my own candy thermometer (yay)
Recipes used: Cranberry Nut Bread - pg 61; Pumpkin Spice Bread - pg 65; Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies - pg 112 ; Mexican Wedding Cookies - pg 14 ; Caramelized Pecans (Pralines) - pg 197 ; all from The Joy of Vegan Baking
Co-bakers:  solo mission
Date: Dec. 12, 2011