As I mentioned here, I've kicked off Christmas baking season at my house, and I'm starting to experiment with some gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free and egg-free baking recipes. At some point, I plan to go back to my rice flour sugar cookies, which are already reminiscent of shortbread, and see if I can kick them up another Christmas-y notch. (Cranberries and candied mixed peel, perhaps?) However, today I thought I'd start my investigation of cakes and muffins.
What makes Christmas baking? For me, it's all about the spices and the fruit. All other times of the year, I'm all over the chocolate - chocolate cake, chocolate brownies, chocolate chip cookies, etc. But once December hits, then the dried fruit comes out. I did a survey of my baking cupboard today: sultana raisins, golden raisins, currants, craisins, apricots, candied ginger, and candied mixed peel. And then I moved onto my spice cupboard, where I found cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and allspice. What to do with all this bounty?
It's my goal this season to find a really good spice cake recipe that I can turn into a fantabulous layer cake, using my super-secret apple filling. (Ok, not that secret - I promise, once I've finalized the recipe, I'll pass it along). However, today, I wanted to make individually-portioned baking, because I also need December birthday baking for my choir. So, I opted for muffins instead.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Christmas Baking: A Trial Run
Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. Drat being employed, it so gets in the way of my blogging habit...
Anyway, I have a few recipes I've made since then (vegan "shepherd's pie", apple-cranberry crisp, gluten-free apple pie, and even some Thanksgiving recipes) which are hanging out in the back-log, but I thought I'd jump back into blogging with something a bit more relevant. Namely: holiday baking.
I got thrown into the holiday spirit fairly early this year; my roommate decorated our entire house for Christmas (including a giant Christmas tree) on the 30th of November. Plus, the week before that, we had a huge snowfall (like, 10+ cm). Now, in Vancouver, it doesn't snow. Certainly not often, and most definitely not in November. So the minute I see snow, I immediately think Christmas, because the earliest it normally ever snows is the week before the holidays. All of which is to say, after spending most of November fighting the oncoming holiday fever with every bone in my body, I've now jumped solidly on board. I haven't sent out my cards yet, or bought presents, but I have started my favourite part of holiday preps - baking.
Anyway, I have a few recipes I've made since then (vegan "shepherd's pie", apple-cranberry crisp, gluten-free apple pie, and even some Thanksgiving recipes) which are hanging out in the back-log, but I thought I'd jump back into blogging with something a bit more relevant. Namely: holiday baking.
I got thrown into the holiday spirit fairly early this year; my roommate decorated our entire house for Christmas (including a giant Christmas tree) on the 30th of November. Plus, the week before that, we had a huge snowfall (like, 10+ cm). Now, in Vancouver, it doesn't snow. Certainly not often, and most definitely not in November. So the minute I see snow, I immediately think Christmas, because the earliest it normally ever snows is the week before the holidays. All of which is to say, after spending most of November fighting the oncoming holiday fever with every bone in my body, I've now jumped solidly on board. I haven't sent out my cards yet, or bought presents, but I have started my favourite part of holiday preps - baking.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
This recipe has been used by my family for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, it's not gluten-free. But it is vegan; and more than that, it's tons and tons of fun to make. The batter itself is my favourite part, because it makes use of the baking soda-vinegar foaming reaction. My mom, on the other hand, prefers the fun of rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookie shapes. (We make a pretty awesome baking team! She is also the cake-decorator in the family to my cake-baker).
The dough in this recipe needs to chill for a minimum of several hours before it can be rolled. At first, this may seem like an inconvenience; but in my opinion it's really a blessing in disguise, because the dough can stay chilled for extended periods of time. (We've left the dough in the fridge for up to a week with no ill effects.) Our general strategy is to make huge recipe in one go, and then portion into smaller batches of dough we can roll, bake and eat as we need it and/or as we have time. Once I left home, I would generally do my favourite part (the mixing), stick the dough in the fridge, and then bring it home with me when I went back for the holidays so my mom could have fun cutting out the cookies.
The short baking time also makes these cookies ideal for classroom (or Sunday school) use - bring in the dough, pre-made and chilled, and let the kids have fun rolling, cutting, sprinkling, baking, and eating!
The dough in this recipe needs to chill for a minimum of several hours before it can be rolled. At first, this may seem like an inconvenience; but in my opinion it's really a blessing in disguise, because the dough can stay chilled for extended periods of time. (We've left the dough in the fridge for up to a week with no ill effects.) Our general strategy is to make huge recipe in one go, and then portion into smaller batches of dough we can roll, bake and eat as we need it and/or as we have time. Once I left home, I would generally do my favourite part (the mixing), stick the dough in the fridge, and then bring it home with me when I went back for the holidays so my mom could have fun cutting out the cookies.
The short baking time also makes these cookies ideal for classroom (or Sunday school) use - bring in the dough, pre-made and chilled, and let the kids have fun rolling, cutting, sprinkling, baking, and eating!
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