On the sixth night of Hanukkah, Smart Bitches gave to me…. cookbooks, gift cards, and spices from Penzey’s!
Hey, that almost rhymes. Nice!
Today we’re celebrating RedHeadedGirl and her love of historical cookery, and also of things that smell good when you bake them!
There’s been a lot of historical cooking this year, and we want to help you make some delicious treats, too!
Here’s the prize pack – ready? Hold on to your aprons!
Included in this giveaway are:
A Penzey’s 4-jar Baker’s Gift Pack, including China Cinnamon, Natural High Fat Cocoa, Baking Spice, Double Strength Madagascar Pure Vanilla Extract.
A copy of The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy:
A Smart Bitches apron, so you don’t get your clothes dirty when cooking all the things!
Plus – a $25 gift card to the bookstore of your choice! You need more cookbooks, right? Of course you do!
So, ready to enter? Leave a comment below and tell us: what’s your favorite thing to make? Do you love baking cookies? Pie? Brownies? Saffron buns? Gingerbread? Anything so long as it’s delicious?
Standard disclaimers apply: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Must be 18 years of age and ready to tote and read. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. No dolphins, kangaroos, small fur-bearing animals or trees were harmed in the production of this giveaway. Only organically-grown alphabetical letters were used. Stiff penalties for early withdrawal. Comments will close on or close to 8:00am EST Saturday 12 December and winners will be announced soon after.
Cheers, happy cooking, and Happy Hanukkah!
ETA: We have a winner! Congratulations to Lisa J! I hope you bake up something terrific. Thank you to everyone who entered and celebrated with us!
I love baking bundt cakes. All sorts of flavors. One particular favorite is a spiced cranberry bundt. It’s delicious for breakfast. 🙂
And I make 10 to 15 pumpkin rolls (pumpkin sponge cake rolled up with a sweet cream cheese filling) every year for gifts. Baking pumpkin rolls is my traditional day-after-Thanksgiving activity rather than shopping. 🙂
I also make a fantastic pie crust courtesy of my Great-Grandma’s recipe.
Just got thru making some Marble Cake (Grandma’s recipe) today – I love me some marble cake. And cookies – chocolate chip, chocolate crinkles and oatmeal butterscotch. Love to bake!
Pfeffernusse, which I have to get around to making. I guess I should look at my schedule and see when that can happen.
Mincemeat brownies.
I did a huge cookie-baking binge for my housewarming party last weekend, and my favorite of the five kinds of cookie is a soft dough made with cream cheese that’s rolled thin and then wrapped around sections of Hershey bars, and sprinkled with Maldon salt. It’s the perfect combination of sweet and buttery and salty and I ONLY HAVE ONE LEFT.
I also did some brown butter–dark chocolate chip–pecan cookies, which were great, but the Hersey’s croissant cookies are so much effort and so delicious. I’ve never tried to make a Bûche de Noël before, but that might be my next fancy baking project.
it’s hard to pick just one! around the holidays, my favorite is gingerbread cookies in dinosaur shapes (i got the BEST cookie cutters from my mother in law). or chocolate chip pumpkin bread. i also love baking homemade sourdough loaves. i just like baking 😛
I don’t make it often, but there’s one thing I bake. It’s an apple torte with a cream cheese filling and a thin almond crust. I also make chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling.
Bread is the most satisfying, I think. It’s like the fundamental element of eating for most people and nearly everyone eats it in some form or another. When I first made it (on a rainy day so long ago) I actually picked the loaf up and ran it out to the car to show my dad!
Now I like to make lemon braided bread with lemon curd and cream cheese filling. Not as portable, but oh so good. And pretty to boot!
I make lots of chocolate zucchini muffins every summer, then freeze them for the winter. Unfortunately, someone got into this year’s supply, and ate them all up!
My favorite thing to make? Reservations!
I do make a fantastic shortbread cookie from an old James Beard cookbook. It’s mostly butter along with confectioner’s sugar and flour, and it’s delicious.
I don’t know if I have a favorite thing to bake. I just love baking! Maybe the old family recipes that have been passed down for generations. This time of year I’ll bake Italian cookies from those recipes.
I love making brownies from scratch. I think they’re less sweet than the boxed kind, and they’re a one-bowl recipe so nearly as easy!
Cheesecake!
I love to braise meat and vegetables (braised leeks!). When I bake, I love to make molasses cookies, sugar cookies, and buttery shortbread!
I enjoy baking all kinds of things. Recently, I baked a peach lemon butter cake for our work Christmas party, and it was a big hit.
I love baking shortbread cookies, especially with Earl Grey tea. Simple and delicious.
My favorite thing to make is pizza with made from scratch dough. I also love making almost any kind of soup, especially during the winter.
Pickles. I like making pickles. Pickled lemons, pickled cukes, pickles zucchinis, pickled peppers for Peter Piper, and, oh, my pickled beets! I also like making jam, especially tomato jam, and lemon jam! Come to my house at harvest time, when the garden is ripe, and you will find me in the kitchen at one am, dripping sweat and water bathing yet another batch. Which is why I am seriously researching refrigerator pickles.
Cookies. Generally while reading a book. And procrastinating. Basically, I love making procrastination cookies (any flavor, just so long as there is something else you should be doing).
Pie, shortbread, pavolva, many other sugary things…
Savory wise, soups of all sorts. My ultimate comfort food (and I’m pretty good at soups if I do say so myself). Lately I’ve been totally in love with this killer potato corn chowder-even my father who hates ALL hot liquids will eat it!
Sweet-chocolate chip cookies. They’re a classic for a reason!
I love baking brownies (gooey, wonderfully chocolatey brownies), although I do have a caramel covered chocolate cookie/brownie recipe that everyone I know always asks for.
cardamon lemon butter cookies! They are delicious! And an oatmeal/chocolate/coconut cookies that my Nana called turds.
I love making soup and chocolate chip cookies.
Cookies! Or cookie bars. With heath and chocolate chips…
I love baking almost anything. Cookies, elaborate cakes, bread, pastry…. I love handling yeast doughs, because I feel like they have a life of their own, and it takes the proper care to get the dough just this side of perfect.
I am a cookie loving fiend, so baking cookies is some of my favorite things to do; chocolate chip, ginger-molasses, or pepper cookies are my usual repertoire, but with Christmas around the corner cookies will soon abound.
My favourite thing to make for the “holly daze” is Wicked White Russians: which requires vanilla extract, vanilla Stoli and French vanilla Kahlua and vanilla soymilk… The rest of the world can have their darn hot chocolates, I’ll have my ‘cold vanillas’, thank you! 😀
I love baking butter tarts (a Canadian treat that’s a little similar to pecan pies). And also scones for my Englishman husband!
Brownies and cookies!
I have a “cookie base” recipe that I love to make. “Cookie base” because I add … stuff … to it to get the varieties that I want – this time.
Some favorite options:
Walnuts! Lots of walnuts! And spices, of course. Cinnamon? Ginger? Cloves? Whatever fits!
Hazelnuts and dark chocolate. Usually with a pinch of cayenne added.
Powdered ginger and preserved or candied ginger, finely chopped.
Dried fruits and nuts. And spices again.
Shredded coconut, cocoa and coffee powder.
…
Among others.
I often make up a big batch of the base dough and divide it into three or four parts, adding a different mix of … stuff … to each of the parts. Voilá! Several different kinds of cookies!!
I love baking pumpkin bread. If I have the time, I also like the Pioneer woman’s pumpkin cinnamon rolls.
Apple pie! After I discovered infused sugars, specifically vanilla, I started making my own and using it in my apple pies. They barely last a day in my house and I have to make extra when I have holiday dinners, people insist on taking their own home.
Gingerbreads, with my BBF, loots of sugar coating in crazy colors and French chanson in the background 🙂
I have to bring Bakewell tarts to our office pot-luck; they are always specifically requested. The other thing I like to make is lemon bread. It’s more of a pound cake and the recipe is my mother’s. She made it for as long as I could remember with no written recipe, but I got her to record it a few years ago.
I love making super elaborate chocolate cakes. It may be a more socially acceptable for of masochism. I also love to make bread on a cold rainy day. It’s the best.
I like making cupcakes with ice cream cones instead of those paper liners.
Happy Hanukkah! It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’m a fan of Cranberry orange scones. Great for breakfast or dessert or Downton Abbey watching parties 🙂
I have a recipe for brownies that has never let me down, and that I usually always have the ingredients for (or can easily find in the kitchen cupboards of anyone I happen to be visiting.) I’ve even fancied it up for birthdays, christenings, and confirmations. Yeah, I really like those brownies.
I love baking pretty much anything, as long as it doesn’t call for hard-shelled nuts or too many eggs – the allergies don’t let me eat my hard work 🙁
My favourite flavour is maple, and I particularly love maple butter tarts. And holy crap, the smell in my house when I’m making those should be made into a scent spray!