Bakin' in a Winter Wonderland

Published on: December 13, 2003

by Shauna Harrison

Forget the chestnuts roasting! For me, it's all about cookies bakin'! There's nothing like the smell of holiday goodies baking — cookies, brownies, gingerbread, fudge, pies, the list goes on. Not only is baking a great rainy day activity, but it also can be your answer for budget gift giving. Homemade (or almost homemade) gifts are always well received by loved ones and your bank account! With a little creative thinking you can come up with some great ideas perfect for any of your friends and family. As an added bonus, you get to taste test and have some leftovers, but you don't necessarily have to have dozens of cookies looming around the house!

During the holidays, the flour, sugar, walnuts, sprinkles, and various other baking necessities go flying off the shelves in order to concoct all kinds of sweet temptations. Specialty items always start appearing (these days, they appear in the beginning of November!) with holiday colors, flavors, and shapes. This is my favorite time of year to get in the kitchen and bake, so I thought I would share some of my favorite goodie-giving ideas.

For the healthy eater: Goodies can be modified to accommodate special diets; I do it all the time. Despite the lack of enthusiasm by most people about low or non-fat items, I always seem to surprise people with how good they really can be. It's all about substitutes and reductions.

Substitutes - Use low fat or non-fat dairy products instead of the whole milk or cream versions. Applesauce and prune puree can both be substitutes for oil, some say mashed bananas also work. Egg substitute works just as great as whole eggs. If you are okay with sweeteners (it is controversial for some people), you can substitute sweetener for sugar to reduce calories. Switch to whole wheat flour instead white flour, or use half and half.

Ingredients that can often be reduced - Sugar, butter, shortening, and oil.

For the athlete: A lot of the same stuff for health eaters can be applied to athletes, but other things you might want to consider for those who are extremely active are energy-boosting items. Often athletes need that something extra to push them through their grueling workouts.

Granola or granola bars - There are tons of recipes all over the web for granola-type items. I tend to go for the low or no oil versions, it's easier to make and it's a lot less greasy. Really, you only need oats, dried fruit, and nuts (assuming the person is not allergic ... double check! You don't want to be causing any kind of anaphylactic shock. Doesn't bode well with the holiday cheer.) Usually there is also some sort of honey or sugar and water combination to bind it together.

Banana bread (or other fruit-based breads) - Another great source of energy. Again, use oats and/or whole wheat flour to add to the wholesomeness.

Trail mix - A personal favorite of mine and ridiculously easy. Buy some dried fruit mix, some nuts (not going to remind you again about that), and maybe some M&Ms or chocolate chips. Throw them in a big plastic bag, close, and shake. Done. How easy is that? Of course, I would suggest you stick it in a pretty bag or container for presentation sake. Ziploc is fantastic, but not as exciting (unless you get the holiday-themed Ziplocs!) One more suggestion is using unsalted nuts to lower the sodium.

For the Choc-a-holic: Ah, yes, a special breed they are. Depending on the degree of choc-a-holic-ness you really can go all out here. Pretty much anything can be enhanced by chocolate. The obvious ones are cookies, brownies, and fudge, but there are additional items you can add to choc-a-fy the basics even more.

Adding more and different chips - Chocolate chips can be added to anything, even breads (banana and chocolate, for instance). But don't stop at one kind of chip. Think dark, milk, semi-sweet, white, M&Ms, mini chips, big chips, chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate-covered espresso beans, and chocolate holiday shapes and chips. These are so fun. I admit I haven't actually made anything with them yet, but they just look so darn cute! Red and green shapes and little chips ... what's better than that?

Different takes on chocolate - Chocolate is commonly paired with peanut butter, but it has also been known to be combined with various spices and even chilies. May sound horrific to you, but it's just chocolate kicked up a notch. It's good. Cinnamon is another thing that is a great accompaniment to chocolate. In fact, Mexican chocolate (my all time favorite!) uses cinnamon to boost its great flavor. Coffee and espresso also go very well with chocolate—think mochas!

Chocolate toppings - Syrups, sprinkles, shavings, candies, and even chocolate Cool Whip can turn any normal chocolate goodie into something devilishly decadent.

For the cookie monster: Cookies are definitely the stars of the baking show during this time of year. They come in many shapes, sizes, flavors, and designs. It would be impossible for me to write all my ideas about cookies, but I can definitely give you a few.

Find out their favorites - if you know your gift recipient loves oatmeal raisin cookies, don't make them peanut butter with chocolates kisses. Make what you know they love and then make them something extra to try out, maybe a traditional holiday-type cookie.

Sugar cookie decorating - Again, the possibilities for decorations are endless, but you can start with the traditional cookie cutters. Again, making the cookie appropriate to the person shows them you put in extra thought. My mom is great at this (though, I must admit, she has the luxury of having the largest out-of-factory cookie cutter selection I know of). She always makes special cookies for people on top of the traditional stars, trees, angels (or dreidels, menorahs, etc. and yes, she has those too!) Then, all you need is a good frosting or glaze recipe to make the shapes colorful and real-looking. Top it off with some sprinkles, edible glitter (it exists!) or whatever you can come up with and you've got yourself a beautiful almost-too-good-to-be-eaten cookie. Almost.

Step outside of the box - There are many selections beyond chocolate chip. Do some investigating or creating. Oatmeal white chocolate chip and cranberries, Mexican wedding cookies, mint-flavored ... you get the idea.

For the last minute gift: Some of the best goodies don't even require an oven. There are many no-bake options as well as some that do require baking, but don't require much preparation.

Chocolate dipping - I went to town with this last Christmas. I bought those long pretzel rods and dipped half of it in chocolate then rolled them in various toppings (shredded coconut, crushed candy cane, sprinkles, chopped almonds to name a few.) You can also do this with any other pretzel shape, whole apples on a stick, fresh strawberries, dried apricots, dried whole pineapple slices, fortune cookies, biscotti, etc.

Rice Krispy Treats - You can do the basic back-of-the-box recipe or you can modify that slightly. A common modification is using the Cocoa Krispies, but I have also tried it with plain popcorn and added in trail mix, chocolate chips, or coconut. Golden Grahams works and gives a s'mores flavor if you had some chocolate chips also. Pretty much any cereal that doesn't immediately turn to mush in milk will work.

Mixes in a jar - I used this one last year also. Super easy, super fast. You just need the ingredients to whatever cookie, brownie, hot chocolate, or even soup recipe that you are going to use, a jar, and the recipe itself. Don't forget this last part. You don't want to give someone a jar with flour, sugar, etc. and not tell them to add eggs, milk, or oil and at what temperature and how long to bake it. There are lots of recipes on the web specifically for jar mixes.

Refrigerated cookie dough/boxed mixes - Unlike, the mixes in the jar, I'm not suggesting you give this as the actual gift. Wrapping up a box of Duncan Hines probably won't thrill many people (OK, so I might enjoy it, but I'm not what you would call normal). I’m suggesting that you make your cookies, cake, pie, and breads from the pre-made dough or the "add oil and water" boxed mixes. They do have a lot of holiday versions out of both refrigerated and boxed and this can save you a tremendous amount of time.

As frightening as the thought is, I have really only touched the surface of what you can do for holiday gifts. With a little thought and a lot of love you can make some great things for very little money. Think about it this year. Maybe you won't buy any gifts, just make them all. Save some of your dough by making some dough!

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