justanorthernlight

I really have not been keeping up with this journal, November was a complete waste of a month for me. I completely flaked out of NaNoWriMo (my 87 year old Nana had hip replacement surgery, I was sick off and on for several weeks, fun times, then had to do Thanksgiving with each side of my family, even more fun times), I didn't read anything, I didn't write anything, I barely even watched anything besides football.

It is, however, midnight baking spree season. I baked these Date Swirl Cookies, which were delicious but a shitton of effort and sticky everywhere, I don't know if I'll be baking them again. Then I baked Nana's Fig, Date, and Apricot filled cookies since she wasn't going to be able to bake them for Thanksgiving. They are also a ton of effort, but at least the recipe makes 10 dozen cookies.

Funny story: A few months ago Nana had asked me to bake a coffee cake her mother (my great grandmother) used to bake and bring over for Sunday brunch that Nana had never baked before. She gave me the recipe card, and I had a horrible time figuring out what to do because it was basically just a list of ingredients and some notes that were more like reminders for someone who had already made it before rather than actual instructions. I had no idea what to do. There was no pan size listed, but Nana assured me it had always been in an 8x8 pan. Raisins were listed in the ingredients, but I was told no actual raisins went into it. So I mixed up the batter as best as I could and stuck it in an 8x8 pan and it rose a ton while it baked and completely overflowed! I can only assume it went in TWO 8x8 pans and my great grandmother kept one for herself every week. It was an amusing and frustrating experience, to say the least.

Now here's where the funny part comes in. I had helped Nana bake the filled cookies last year and written the recipe down so I could make them again myself. When I opened my notebook of recipes this year all I found was a list of ingredients and some vague notes about boiling the sugar and water before adding the fruit for the filling. Nothing about how to make the dough or assemble the cookies. Clearly I am the pot and my great grandmother is the kettle.

Cookie #3 I just baked tonight is Chewy Dark Chocolate Orange drop cookies, and these might be the first chocolate cookies I've ever made that I actually want to eat. I'm 27 years old and I'm still waiting for my tastebuds to mature enough for me to appreciate dark chocolate, hasn't happened yet.

On the non-cookie baking front, I finally truly mastered our traditional family Rye bread. The recipe I was given many years ago when I first wanted to learn how to make it was misprinted, said it was made from 100% rye flour, when in fact it was 2 cups rye flour and the rest 6+ cups of white flour, and that makes a huge difference. Also, the full batch makes two pans of rolls, not one, and so they weren't rising properly when I was trying to cram them all into one pan.

 It's almost Christmas, which means it's also Christmas cookie time. Last year one of my grandmothers was in the hospital for a while and couldn't do her usual cookie making, and the other one's health hasn't been that great either, so I wound up baking most of the cookies for both sides of the family. Nana said that I did an okay enough job that it would be my responsibility again this year. On one hand I enjoy it but on the other I'm kinda in a funk and don't particularly want to eat the cookies myself, which is putting a damper on things. 

Last year I did sugar, gingerbread, double chocolate macadamia nut, oatmeal-craisin, and peanut clusters. (The gingerbread wound up being a whole saga, although probably only to me.)

This year I'm planning on doing peanut clusters, double chocolate macadamia nut, sugar (although whether I'm doing icing decorations or dipped in chocolate remains to be seen), gingerbread (different recipe, like I said it was a saga), cinnamon apple-butter spritz, and maybe chocolate spritz and/or pecan pie thumbprint cookies. I tested those two recipes over the past few weeks and others seemed to like them, so we'll see if I have time. 

Nana wants me to come over and help her make a few of her own recipes, but my sleep schedule hasn't been super permitting. The grocery store near me is 24 hours, so baking is one of the things I can do by myself at 3 in the morning. Plus, I don't really have the precision that she has when it comes to rolling things out, and I hate being yelled at for not doing things her way. (I spend the entire holiday season braced for being yelled at, not my favorite time of the year.)