Saturday
Before any baking was done, the Husband and I went to buy our Christmas tree. We normally buy it at Summerwinds Nursery. They usually have a decent selection of trees over 7-feet tall, but not this year. They had very few trees of the size that I wanted and the ones they had looked either skinny or had wonky trunks. I guess the shortage really affected them.
We decided to finally break down and buy an artificial tree, something I wanted to avoid for another couple of years. The Husband had to stop at Yamagami's Nursery to check the availability of bare-root trees (to replace our apricot tree). We normally don't look their for our tree, but I decided to check out them out while the Husband did his thing. I found a very nice Douglas fir tree in the size we wanted (7 to 8-feet), so... I guess we'll get the artificial tree next year!
After we got home, we put Mr. Tree in a bucket of water and I started the baking.
I made 12 types of cookies this year: Spumoni Slices, Pistachio Spirals, Chocolate-Espresso Slices, Chocolate Mexican Cookies (needs powdered sugar), Lemon Slices, Lime Slices, Cinnamon-Ginger cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies (needs powdered sugar), Christmas Spritz, and Cherry Kisses. Not shown: Sugar cookie cut-outs and chocolate sugar cookie cutouts.
Saturday's tally:
12 types of cookies; 694 total.
There are still a couple I'd like to make, but I'll wait until after I start my vacation on the 20th.
Sunday
I did a quick run to Rite Aid - they had cookie tins at 50% off - and did my grocery run. When I got home, I put away the groceries and loaded the crock pot with beef stew ingredients. Then I started the biscotti.
I think I've mentioned in past years' Christmas baking posts that I found the perfect biscotti recipe in the rec.food.cooking Usenet group many moons ago. It's not rock hard, so you can eat the biscotti without dunking. I've tried other recipes, but they don't turn out nearly as well. I've used that perfect recipe to create different types.
By using the same basic recipe, I'm able to change the flavorings and add-ins and still get the same texture and crunch as the original. I queue up the add-ins and flavorings on my island - sort of mise en place - matching them to the recipe. I usually have both a laminated version of the recipe and a print-out so I can make notes. Once everything is lined up, I start with the lightest colored biscotti (coconut) and end with the darkest (chocolate).
I make them one right after the other, lining up the baked biscotti loaves on the cooling racks you can see at the back of the island. It helps that I have 3 mixing bowls and 3 paddles for my KitchenAid, multiple rubber spatulas, and lots of cookie sheets. I make 3 batches in succession, wash the all bowls, paddles, and spatulas, and then make the next 3.
When all of the loaves are baked, I slice them and bake the biscotti for the second time. This is where multiple cookie sheets come in handy. I have 17 cookie sheets, so I'm able to get all of the slices on to sheets, ready for baking. I bake 2 sheets at a time. As soon as 2 come out of the oven, 2 more go in until I'm done with them all.
This year I made 7 types of biscotti: Grand Marnier, Cranberry-Pistachio, Espresso, Gingerbread, Coconut, Peppermint, and Chocolate.
Sunday's tally:
7 types of biscotti; 333 total.
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