Holiday baking can be fun or stressful or a combination. I love baking in November and December because it's the only time of year when I focus on cookies and candies. I have fond memories of cookies and candies growing up, so I've continued the tradition with my family.
Each year I add new cookies, but for the most part my family is traditional so I end up baking the same cookies. I have the routine almost down to a science. Here's a picture of my assembly line for my first round of cookie baking. Since each recipe uses basically the same ingredients, I see no reason to make recipes one by one especially when all four recipes need sifted flour and/or cocoa. Warning: this is an advanced technique and not for the novice or unorganized baker. It's easy to get recipes mixed up, but with careful planning, a lot of recipes can be made quickly.
As you can see, I print a recipe for each batch of cookies. In this session, I worked on four different cookies. All of the recipes are now on iwannabeacook. With everything mise en place, I spent the afternoon assembling the cookie doughs. Three of the four recipes required varying degrees of refrigeration. At the end of the day, I had only baked one recipe and that still needed to be dipped in chocolate, but the remaining doughs were refrigerated and ready to be baked.
Over the next few days, I leisurely baked the remainder of the cookies, which took some of the stress out of baking. And honestly, the Lebkuchen dough benefits from longer refrigeration. I made the four recipes on Saturday but didn't bake the Lebkuchen until Tuesday, and this is the best batch I have ever made. I've added that note to my recipe for years to come.
For novice bakers, I recommend choosing a few recipes for your first year and working on them one by one. When you are more comfortable with the fundamentals of baking and particular recipes, then you can work on more than one at a time.
This week's recipes focus on flour-based cookies. Please read the Baking flour-based cookies for the fundamentals. Next week's recipes will focus on candies and meringues.
Happy cooking and eating! Email with thoughts and suggestions!
