Sara Perry - Holiday Baking: New and Traditional Recipes for Wintertime Holidays

Here they are, the old-fashioned recipes you loved as a child, the ones that meant a holiday was here or just around the corner. And there are other recipes, toonew ones, straight from the oven, with contemporary twists stylish enough to celebrate the season with panache and tasty enough to please the child in all of us.

At no time of the year are traditions more alive than during the holidays, especially in the kitchen. For some bakers, its all about going to the old recipe box to choose from among the favoritesyour mothers pumpkin pie, your bubbees apricot rugelach, and those ever-so-sweet dinner rolls your best friend never seems to make enough of. For others, its the chance to update a classic favorite with different ingredients and timesaving methods or to try something altogether new and enticing from a different cultures holiday tradition, another familys custom, or the pages of a favorite food magazine or newspaper.

Holiday Baking is here to help you celebrate, with more than 65 recipes highlighting six wintertime holidays Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, and New Years. Some holidays are religious, while others are secular. Most are centuries old, though Kwanzaa was first celebrated in 1966. All are linked with distinctive baked goods reflecting the history, the lore, and the culinary habits of the people who observe them. In this book, we explore each holiday by sampling those time-honored, oven-baked specialties.

From beloved GINGERBREAD MEN AND A FEW OF THEIR HOLIDAY FRIENDS to a peanut-buttery KWANZAA PUZZLE COOKIE to a regal BUCKINGHAM PALACE SHORTBREAD for Boxing Day, there are delectable holiday cookies too good to go missing from anyones cookie jar. Youll find a grandmothers sweet APRICOT NOODLE KUGEL, delectable THANKSGIVING DINNER ORANGE ROLLS from an old farm journal, and SOUL-SATISFYING BISCUITS whose ancestry was never determined. Sweet treats include a four-year-olds I can do it dessert, my own familys favorite double-layer Christmas SNOWFLAKE CAKE, and a dynamite New Years Eve CHOCOLATE BROWNIE TERRINE.

Baking childhood favorites with your own children and grandchildren is a way of keeping family traditions strong. Kids love the thrilland the messof baking. Since they learn by touching, tasting, feeling, smelling, and listening, baking with an older relative or friend is an ideal way for them to pick up new skills and learn the stories behind the recipes. For a sweet and festive Hanukkah, preschoolers love to poke and smoosh cinnamon red hots into cored-out apples to make yummy, colorful BAKED CANDY APPLES. Before or after Santas presents are open, older pixie Picassos can help with breakfast by creating and decorating a CINNAMON-ROLL CHRISTMAS TREE, and thats just the beginning of the seasons shared adventures. In Holiday Baking youll find lots of recipes specially created for baking with children.

The easy-to-follow recipes gathered here are ready to mix and match with your holiday plans as well as to satisfy every appetite from the first meal of the day through a toast to the midnight hour. When it comes to breakfast, ITS-THANKSGIVING-MORNING-BUT-THEY-STILL-DESERVE-SOMETHING-SPECIAL APPLE PUFF PANCAKE, a Hanukkah STREUSEL-TOP SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE, and a versatile Kwanzaa SWEET SPOONBREAD SOUFFL give everyone in the family a reason to start celebrating early. For a holiday gathering, homey favorites like Thanksgiving MAPLE PUMPKIN PIE or STICKY-TOP GINGERBREAD are perfect desserts to partner with a sophisticated Hanukkah PEARAPPLE STRUDEL WITH ROSEMARY WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE or a divine Kwanzaa CHURCH SUPPER CARROT CAKE. Sassy CASHEW CARAMEL CRACKER BARS, CANDY CANE CUPCAKES, OLD-AS-PILGRIMS MOLASSES CRINKLES, and PETITE FRENCH ALMOND CAKES theyre all here, and all too good to resist.

If youre a novice in the kitchen, this book will help you shine. Successful baking takes practice, like riding a bike. But the unfamiliar soon becomes second nature. The grand old recipes in the book have stood the test of time. They have been baked and tested repeatedly. In earlier generations, people had a limited repertoire of recipes they used time after time. After making a recipe fifty or sixty times, they had it figured out. Newer recipes, too, enjoy an anyone-can-do-it reputation. BACKYARD APPLE TREE CRISP and THE AMAZING LEF TOVER EGGNOG AND CINNAMON ROLL BREAD PUDDING, to name just two, give near-instant gratification.

Both new and veteran bakers will find the first chapter of Holiday Baking chock-full of helpful reminders. Be sure to read it. From helpful steps to essential ingredients and tools, from tips for storing, freezing, and mailing to ideas for having fun in the kitchen with kids, there is valuable information for everyone.

So thumb through these pages, get out the eggs and the butter, and build your own family traditions. May all your holidays be warm, memorable, and filled with good things to eat from your kitchen.