my cupboard love |
It's Sunday evening and I am feeling quite accomplished, and mildly annoyed all at the same time. Accomplished because I was able to put a huge dent in the Christmas shopping list, and that has me feeling so damn HAPPY! On the other hand, I am feeling a bit annoyed because I was really hoping to have my home decked out in Christmas splendor. The tree is up and awaiting decorating. This year will go down as the great light debacle. We needed new lights so the boys went out and went from one sold out shop to another with no luck. Later that day, Adrian and I were out doing a bit of shopping and found some. Hooray! Nearly. So there we were today, Christmas music on, ready to deck these halls, when we discovered that the new fandangled blanket style lights we had just bought, were defective. Half of them would not light up. Bahumbug! So good husband that he is, off he went without complaint to replace them. Two stores later, he arrived home with new fancy, LED lights still cheerful and ready to finally get our Christmas cheer on. Or not. Three of the four strands have lit up the tree beautifully. He tried moving them all around to stretch out the coverage but it there just isn't enough lights so at the moment we have a big dark spot in the centre of the tree. It's too late now to return them for a new set, so the tree decorating will have to resume tomorrow night. Tree woes aside, I am feeling pretty chuffed with a few of things I whipped up in the kitchen over the weekend. I wanted to test run a few make-ahead recipes that would be perfect for Christmas morning. I'm happy to report that they were successful and deemed blog-worthy by my gang of taste testing elves. This sweet start to your day is festive in appearance and goes well with a cup of coffee or tea. Perfect to enjoy while exchanging gifts on Christmas morning. If you like, you can make it a week before and freeze it until you're ready to bake it. The dough comes together with a fork and a bit of light kneading. And, if you're not fussy on apricot, change it up. How about cherry or strawberry filling instead? It bakes up quickly into an impressive presentation. Nobody needs to know just how easy it really was...that can be our little secret. Apricot Almond Biscuit Wreath with Orange Glaze 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 tbsp sugar 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cold butter, cubed 1 cup buttermilk 2 eggs 1/2 cup apricot jam 1/2 cup sliced almonds plus more for garnish For the glaze: 1/3 cup icing sugar 3 tbsp orange juice Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, Next, cut in the cubed butter using a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk one of the eggs with the buttermilk and pour over the flour mixture. Stir with a fork until soft, ragged dough is formed. With floured hands, form into ball and turn out onto lightly floured counter. Knead dough about 10 times. Flour rolling pin and proceed to roll dough out into a 16 x 10 rectangle. Leaving a 1cm border around edge of dough, spread surface with the apricot jam. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the almonds over jam covered dough. Now, starting at the long side of the dough, proceed to roll up dough, taking care to pinching ends slightly to seal. Using a serrated knife, slice the dough log into 1 inch thick slices. Arrange the slices, cut side up on the prepared pan, slightly overlapping each piece as you go to create a round wreath. If you're making this ahead, at this point slide tray into freezer until dough is firm. Remove from freezer and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and then over-wrap with heavy duty foil. Will keep for one week. When ready to bake, remove wrap and allow to thaw in fridge. Add 10 minutes to baking time. In small bowl, beat remaining egg and brush over wreath. Bake in centre of oven for 15-20 minutes until golden and puffed. Meanwhile, whisk icing sugar and orange juice together in small bowl. While the wreath is still warm, drizzle with glaze and scatter almonds on top for garnish. I have another make ahead breakfast to share with you too Dear Reader...pop back later this week and I will have it up. For a preview, visit my Instagram page here.
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18 days left Dear Reader...that's all the time we have left to get the gifts bought, wrapped, placed under the tree, dropped off, or sent to some far off destination. Are you sweating yet? Our tree is still to go up and cookies need baking. Am I freaking out? Not quite. I have a plan. And lists. It's going to be ok. It's all in the planning Dear Reader. Armed with my lists, I am ready to conquer December and all the chaos is brings. This is how I do it:
I plan our tree decorating day. It's a busy day so an assembly only appetizer is perfect after a day of Christmas shopping. I put together platters of assorted cheeses, fruit, nuts, crackers, breads and chutney. A festive punch or easy cocktails and we are all set to get our holiday cheer on. Next Saturday is the day! I have my baking list. It comes together over an evening of browsing through my collection of recipes. I love this part of the planning process. I flip through Canadian Living Magazine's holiday issues (I have every issue going back to 1996!) This year included a very uncomfortable ten minutes when I could not find the 2010 issue...but thankfully I found it stuck inside another issue. I poke through a large box of recipes clipped over the years from various newspapers and magazines. I flip through Christmas cookbooks. There is usually Christmas music on and a glass of wine (or two!) involved in this. By the end of all this browsing, I have 20 or 30 recipes set aside. Now the hard part...decisions, decisions! This is when I drag my husband into it. I ask him what he thinks of each selection (and sometimes even listen to what he says!) eventually I weed the pile down to a more reasonable 10 or 12 choices. Although there are old stand bys on the list, I like to change it up every year and add some new treats. Next, I write a shopping list for all the ingredients I will need. Every year I spend one very long day in the kitchen mixing, stirring and baking all these goodies to be parceled up in festive tins, arranged on fancy trays or packed carefully in shipping boxes to be shared with those nearest and dearest to me and mine. Next Sunday is the day! I have just one menu left to plan and then I am officially ready. Not bad for December 6th, if I do say so myself. Today, like most Sundays, I spent time reading as well as cooking. I love ginger anything, but especially ginger cake. Although my home doesn't look ready for Christmas yet, it did smell like Christmas today. This cake came together quickly, with just a bit of elbow grease. No mixer needed so an easy clean up too. My favourite kind of baking! This cake is moist, but the edges are crispy-chewy and the crystallized ginger takes it up a notch with an extra kick of flavour. You need to add this recipe to your Christmas baking repertoire. It's a welcome change from gingerbread men and truly...it's just too good not to! Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Mascarpone Cream 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup molasses 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed 1 large egg 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest 1/2 cup boiling water 8 oz mascarpone cheese 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8-inch square metal baking pan and set aside. Whisk flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in medium bowl to blend well. Next whisk in crystallized ginger and set aside. Next, whisk the vegetable oil, molasses, and brown sugar in large bowl until blended. Next, whisk in the egg and lemon zest. In three additions, whisk in the dry ingredients, then the boiling water until well combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake about 30 minutes, or until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto decorative plate. (The cake can be made 1 day ahead. Cool completely; cover and store at room temperature.) While the cake cools, prepare cream topping. Whisk the mascarpone, honey and lemon juice in bowl until smooth and set aside until ready to serve. When ready to serve, cut cake into squares and dollop each piece with cream topping. Makes 9 squares (or 6 if you are feeling greedy!) |