12 Homemade Treats for the Holidays!
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have heard me engaging in battle with my current nemesis, Tiny Oven. I have admitted Tiny Oven is suffering mostly in my eyes from an unfair comparison to Dream Oven, my industrial wonder from Christmas Past.
One of the many facets of Tiny Oven’s personality, apart from a propensity to burn everything, is that he is not a multi-tasker. He just does not like to take on multiple projects at one time. Or multiple baking trays.
If you are satisfied with cooking one small tray of cookies at a time, Tiny Oven will do the job. He is happy to perfectly brown 6-8 cookies. But don’t even think about stacking trays of cookies to try to cook 18 at one time. Tiny Oven and I get along better if I just try to forget that Dream Oven would happily bake 48 cookies at a time to perfection. And we’re not even going to talk about cupcakes. Dear goodness, it’s like that girl who used to buy 25-pound bags of flour and sugar to make 800 cupcakes at Christmas is from another lifetime.
If I tried to bake at that scale today, I would also have to contend with Tiny Fridge and Tiny Freezer.
Even though I will not be churning out the sweet treats like I would from my Arkansas kitchen, I am determined to make a few Christmas goodies. In very small batches.
However, if you are fortunate enough to have a regular sized oven or dear goodness, a chest deep freeze, you can spend a day baking and filling it up to be ready for the holiday season!
I LOVE to freeze cookies at every stage. I freeze dough in balls to be baked and served warm. I freeze sugar cookies cut out and ready to be baked, or already baked and ready to be iced. There is nothing that makes you feel on top of the holidays like having several different kinds of cookies frozen and ready to pull out to put together a platter for a party or a box for a friend!
So if you are planning a baking day soon, here are my:
12 Favorite Holiday Recipes for Baking and Gifting!
Cellophane Bags + Curling Ribbon + Baked Goods = Christmas Presents Sorted!
Gingerbread (bake in small tin loaf pans)
Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Dipped Pretzels (easy to adjust this recipe for any holiday!)
Happy Baking Friends!
PS Anytime you bake one of my recipes, I would LOVE to see a picture, so tag me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!
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[…] Also see my 12 Favorite Recipes for Baking and Gifting Christmas Treats. […]
I have the same battle with my oven, miss the double oven I grew up with that evenly bakes things. I think it is such a fun American tradition sharing baked treats during the holidays. At least it is not something common here in Iceland. I am bringing the tradition to them this year and I am glad I found this great list of cookies! Next weekend will be filled with baking and I may need to add one or two of these recipes to the list:)
I’m so glad to know I’m not alone in trying to bake for the holidays in a weensie oven. 🙂
How wonderful! I love that you put (links to) all the recipes in one place!
I won’t bore you with my oven disasters, except this: When we moved to Batesville in mid-2010, our oven was probably original to the 1968 house we bought. That first Thanksgiving, I had pecan pies that were nearly burnt on the outside and runny in the middle. It would be another year before we sold the North Little Rock house and I could buy my Dream Oven (convection). (I have similar NLR stories about a practically raw Thanksgiving turkey and other disasters with an ancient oven, but we won’t go there.)
All that is to say, I feel your pain! But I’m so very glad you can still bake small batches in Tiny Oven. Baking is a joy I’ve had for many years, and holiday time brings out my longings full-force.
May the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas in Scotland remind you of the warmth of our Savior’s love.
Love it Suzy! I guess the disasters make for funny stories and memories later on. 🙂
great! thanks for sharing!
Sure! Happy Baking!!
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