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?Â
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!
Cupcakes are my favorite thing to bake as well as eat.
I love baking bread. I have a great recipe for French baguettes!
I love baking cakes- I made a cake and two kinds of muffins today.
Snickerdoodles. I love them best of all at Christmas time.
I love anything with mushrooms! I also like to bake muffins. There are so many possibilities.
I enjoy baking. Most recently, it was chocolate cupcakes, then pumpkin bread, and it’s about time for the ancestral Welsh cookie recipe. My favorite thing to bake is probably brownies from scratch; I just found an “all edge” recipe baked in a muffin pan, with the addition of cinnamon and cayenne, that I’m eager to try.
My favorite is dark chocolate pecan shortbread cookies.
I make bread using a homemade sourdough starter. At least one a week a make a pair of big free form loaves, all of which are irreproducible experiments. I have a ratio of starter/flour/salt/water and then I play around with whatever flours, seeds, and spices are on hand. The latest batch is black bread, a very small amount of rye flour (because we ran out, oops), some buckwheat, whole wheat, and little bit of white. Then molasses, cocoa powder, a bit of instant coffee (all for color/taste). Then some chia seeds for crunch, and anise, caraway, and fennel for taste, then I threw in some little cubes of emmentaler cheese because it was in the cheese drawer.
I am an adventurous baker. I don’t do as much of it as I used to, but love making everything from the simple to the complex. I wouldn’t mind honing my cake decorating and bread baking skills a bit more. As far as “regular” food goes, tho, I prefer to eat very simple dishes (and no meat) so I’m a pretty basic cook.
Reading through some of the other responses here makes me yearn for some of the recipes, too.
My grandmother’s cheese crackers. It’s a family recipe and we make them every holiday.
Reindeer Poop! I came across a truffle cookie recipe a few years ago. It was a fun recipe to make with my then 7 year-old son. When we were were done making the truffles, my son said, “You know, these cookie balls look like reindeer poop.” And so, a family tradition was born.
I’m good at making eggs and starting to get good at making fried noodles.
I have an obsession with baking tarts….apple tarts, cheese tarts, apple cheese tarts, raspberry, raspberry lemon cheese..cranberry. You name the fruit and I have likely tried tart-a-fying it at some point.
I love baking all kinds of things, but mostly desserts. A few years ago, my daughter and I had a “summer of pies” where we made a dozen different pies. It was fantastic!
OMG! Penzey’s spices are the absolute BEST. The BEST, I say! Whoo!
Sorry, but I find spices very exciting. And now I want to go shopping at Penzeys.
I like to bake things to share. Dorie Greensoan had the best recipes and so does the Smitten Kitchen website.
I make my great-grandmother’s apple yeast cake, and my family inhales it, and even though it’s a pain I love it because I feel connected to my past and also make people happy
I love making meringues. Once a year, at Christmas, using Grandma’s recipe.
I seem to thrive the most at cakes, breads, and casseroles. I’m guessing most of my friends and family would agree, since they’re always requesting these when I’m invited to a potluck event.
I also make a mean pot of soup, but alas, that’s not as portable….
I simply love to bake — pies, cookies, cakes, whatever. I would have to say my favorite thing, though, is a toll house cookie recipe that I inherited from my Mom. They are wonderful!
It’s technically not baking, but I love decorating the gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve. It’s become a tradition and something the kids and I look forward to. Let’s just say, as the kids have morphed into teens and young adults, the gumdrops, lifesavers and candy canes decor have become more and more x-rated ! Lots of laughter!
I love to cook anything! I love the whole process. We sit down and make the menu for the month, make a list, compare stores and try to stay in budget. Family members add their favorite meals. They share new ideas. Everyone cooks. Three thumbs up and it stays on the menu.
Sweets – cakes, cookies, but I really do especially love a cake that fits in an 8×8 pan.
This is hard as I love to bake but I think my favorites are gingerbread, I make a cakey one from Beard on Bread, corn bread, Irish soda bread and recently carrot cake.
My favorite thing to make is sweet potato casserole. Nothing smells as good as the combination of vanilla, butter, and sugar.
I usually do a baking day with my mom, sister, brother, and our kids where we make all kinds of cookies and bars. I make pans of cinnamon rolls and deliver them to friends. Down here in Texas, we also make kolaches, sweet dough with fruit or cream cheese filling.
I love to bake and share stuff. Feeding people makes me happy.
I’m doing candy right now – took a class at the local bakery and am hooked!
I love baking pies. I don’t do it often because I’m lazy + am always missing one or two ingredients, but making a homemade pie from scratch especially with homemade crust is my favorite. 🙂
Mmm… Dark chocolate avocado cake.
I love baking muffins – bran muffins, apple cinnamon muffins, lemon-blueberry poppy chia muffins, yum!
My favorite thing to make this time of year is the gingerbread recipe from the 1950s edition oh the Houston junior league cookbook.
Sourdough bread, good for any occasion
I loveto make brownies so many variations blondies chocolate cookie dough mixed right in candy cookies man now I’m hungry time to make brownies
I like to mix it up between trying something new and relaxing with an old favorite, most recently appie and pumpkin roll.
Pie! I’m always on Team Pie.
I’m generally more of a savory cook (my Irish stew is delicious), but I do a really awesome pie and fantastic bread pudding.
These comments are making my mouth water; I need to bake more! It’s tough to pick just one thing, but I especially like baking cinnamon rolls. Though I agree: there’s something very elemental-feeling about bread.
Twelve months ago it would have been a no-knead ciabatta bread, but now that I’m on a dreaded low carb diet it is a soused fresh sardine recipe that, according to the historical recipe book in which I found it, is about 2000 years old. It is absolutely delicious and so easy to make. I’ve fed it to friends who have previously disliked sardines and they’ve been converted.
What a lovely prize! Thank you for the contests! I love to cook anything that involves a bubbly cauldron of melty cheese deliciousness.
PS Debbie @ 216 is so right! I’m a great fan of the Smitten Kitchen site and, when I was still baking, of Dorrie Greenspan (her lemon tart is to die for).