Baking and Gifting

Well, I had intended to get to y’all earlier to let you know what I had decided to give for food gifts this year — especially after all the help you gave me before Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, I’ve decided for next year to just give away lots and lots of cinnamon rolls. Those things are always a hit. Not that I think my gifts from this year were bad. They tasted really good. I just want to do ONE thing next year. After that I can grouse about how sick I am of cinnamon rolls. Not really, I shall try to restrain myself from the grousing.

So, the gifting (cooking) began last Saturday as I made Toasted Coconut Walnut Fudge and Pecan Delights. The recipe for the fudge is the same as my Rocky Road Fudge, only I substituted toasted walnuts and toasted flaked coconut for the peanuts and marshmallows and added a bit of salt to make up for the salt it missed when I didn’t include salted peanuts. The Pecan Delight recipe was given to me by Jennifer S. who sweetly emailed it to me. The candy was delicious and beautiful. (I didn’t get a decent picture, dang it.) I discovered, however, that I don’t have the soul of a candy maker and so I feel that it was a miracle that the candy turned out well — especially since I found out that my candy thermometer was kaput once I was to the point of needing it (way to plan, right?). I’ll be happy to email the recipe for this gorgeous candy to anyone who would like it. Just leave a blog comment.

And may the candy force be with you.

So, I gave out a bunch of gifts and then found myself needing more. So I switched over to cookies. Both of these recipes can be found on Smitten Kitchen. I made the crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate and the peanut butter.

They were both really good. The peanut butter was particularly liked by my boys — only next time I’ll be making them without the chocolate or peanut butter chips. The boys want them plain and I sort of like plain peanut butter cookies, myself. The texture of these is really good.

Then I ran out of cookies. So, I moved on to this cracker that I also found on Smitten Kitchen although an example of it is in cookbooks everywhere. I just love this cracker because it is a combination of salt and chocolate and buttery goodness. Also, it is cheap and easy to make. And, I like to top it with walnuts and craisins.

What? My boys don’t like it that way? I guess that’s more for me…..I’ll stuggle through, somehow.

And, now I think that I might be close to being done with my Christmas baking, although I have a few more gifts to give. Maybe I’ll just bake up some cinnamon rolls for the remaining people. YES. We have a winner.