Christmas Baking

When I was growing up, Christmas baking was a really big deal.  My Mom and I would hunker down for what felt like a week to bake cookies and make candies.  It was a good time for the both of us.  They were very special and memorable times, and I'm thankful that I have those memories.  

I don't really have a baking buddy like my Mom did with me.  I bake solo almost every year.  Having a tiny set of hands to "help" bake is far different than having an experienced baker.  My Mom and I could have two or even four recipes going at once by working independently on them.  Shandi cannot bake.  She just cannot.  It's difficult for me to get my arms around, but she's just not a baker.  Like to the point of "PLEASE don't come in my kitchen Shandi!  I love you, but…..".  Her presence is enough to frighten my baked goods into tragedy.   She is very good at wrapping them up and all that stuff though so she does help out on the back end.  

This year, I had Jack to "help".  I also had Bo, who was a royal pain in the arse the entire day.  He was either right in between my ankles yanking on my pants and biting my ankle, or he was laying snow-angel style right in the middle of the floor, wailing and whining to be picked up.  He was definitely a pain though, no matter where he was at.  Well, he may have been a little smiley for about ten minutes.

Jack wanted to help.  And I was happy to have his company.  He is a pretty decent helper.  He can stir a pot of fudge or peanut brittle for the length of time it needs to be stirred without complaining.  For any of you that make candy, having a pot-stirrer is a HUGE bonus.  

OK, Mom disclaimer.  Jack is in his pajamas, and his hair is obviously not combed.  We started at 7 AM and right before I started taking pictures I thought to myself… I ought to get Jack dressed so he looks good in these pictures.  And then I changed my mind, because that just sounded ridiculous.  I don't want to stage photos, EVER.  So you get Jack in his natural state for the first few recipes. 

Stirring fudge.  We made five different types of fudge and he stirred them all.  He was a champ.

Yeah, Jack is stirring 300 degree peanut brittle syrup without a shirt.  I did not tell him he could take it off, and I made him put it back on after I realized he wasn't wearing it.  I can't imagine how badly a drop of that syrup would burn on a naked chest.  Anyway, he claims he was hot.  And I believe that because peanut brittle is hot.  But I swear I'm a better parent than it appears by this picture.  

Peanut Brittle has always been my nemesis until this year.  My Mom effortlessly whipped out batch after batch of peanut brittle every year in twenty minutes flat per batch.  

Every batch I make fails the first time around.  It takes me two or three tries to get a good batch.  I lamented over this yesterday as I was tossing out the first batch, and then I remembered that I had my Mom's old cookbook.  The candy and cookie one.  I dug it out and took a deep breath and opened it and found her peanut brittle recipe.  It had hand-written temperatures next to it that were different than the recipe notes.  After a good long cry because of the memories it brought back, I followed her recipe modifications and within twenty minutes I had a perfect batch of peanut brittle.  Less than an hour later, I had three more batches, and all were perfect.  Thanks Mom, for keeping such good notes and original recipes.  And here I've been screwing it up for years and boy does that make me mad.  It's not hard.  But it was sure kicking my butt.  And her recipe was much different than mine.  And then I got mad because I wished I could have called her years ago to ask her why mine sucked every year, but that's neither here nor there.  

Jack was supposed to be packaging up the peanut brittle.  I caught him red handed.  I'd like to say his hands were clean, but since he's shoveling peanuts in his mouth I can't really even stand by that.  They were clean when he started.  That's the best I can do.

I also make my Mom's caramels every year.  Woah, they are good.  I've tried different recipes and hands down this is the very best.  I always make a double batch.  She was as famous as a person can be  in Kingman Arizona for her caramels.  

This is her recipe if anybody is interested.  See the scribble?  That's my scribble.   I'm guessing around five years old, maybe even younger.  The sea salt isn't anything I add.  She must have gotten tricky later on with her recipe, because I never recall any sea salt.  If you want to make caramel ice cream sauce instead of firm caramels, bring it to soft ball stage instead of firm ball.  

Jack can also bash the daylights out of Oreos, or graham crackers, or whatever else you need "crushed" for a particular recipe.  You can't even really see the rolling pin in the picture on the left.  

He was also very good at breaking up a whole bunch of white chocolate bars.

I love making candy and fudge.  I greatly dislike making cookies.  I really just dread that part of the day.  But my family has favorites and I have childhood favorites that must be baked or people get all whiny and woe-as-me like I've ruined Christmas. 

Justice's favorite are chewy ginger cookies.  I made 12 dozen, because he inhales them. 

Seven in hand the second he got off the bus yesterday.  

These are Shandi's favorite.  Meltaways.  It's a pretty boring cookie but she loves them so I make them every year.  I made them eggnog flavored this year, she approved.

These raspberry thumbprint cookies are my favorite.  My Non (paternal grandma) made these every year and they were always my favorite.  I can plow through these babies.  They are missing the powdered sugar at this stage.  

 These are The Coaches favorite.  He has three requests every year.  Chocolate fudge with pecans, peanut brittle, and these things.  Fudgy bonbons they are called.  They are a cookie wrapped around a Hershey's Kiss.  

My favorite things to make is always fudge.  I don't like chocolate fudge, but I do like any other flavor. And it's easy to make.  This year I made cookies and cream, peanut butter, chocolate with pecans, plain chocolate, and a new one this year… eggnog.  The eggnog fudge is AWESOME and will definitely be making a repeat appearance every year. 

Close up of the eggnog fudge.  It really is that good.

We packaged up treats for Justice's teacher and also his bus driver.  Bus driver's need Christmas gifts.  They need them badly.  They have a crappy job.  I don't know why children lose their minds everyday on the bus, but they sure do.  So give your bus drivers some love this year.

We started out our day with 32 sticks of butter, and used all but four!  72 ounces of chocolate chips, three containers of marshmallow cream, seven cans of sweetened condensed milk, four pounds of brown sugar and five pounds of white sugar, and six white chocolate baking bars later, I was tired.  Really tired.  

Bur my family is happy.  And if they are happy, then Mama's happy.