Our 2007 holiday gift baking spree report...

It was one crazy weekend in our house! We finished up all of the baking, got everything packaged and the gifts were hand delivered (mostly to our great neighbors) or brought to the post office bright and early this morning - I think the total number of packages, including what Jeff delivered, was 21... certainly more than last year! We even added a few new and untried recipes to the list this year!

Fair warning - this is a massive post! It may take a bit to download all of the pictures if you are on a slow connection. If there is a recipe for any of the treats, you will find them colored in blue and located directly underneath the picture. Now, shall we dive right in?

Starting us off is one of Jeff's all-time favorites - Almond Roca. We toyed with the recipe this year - occasionally we had issues with the butter separating during the cooking process in the past. By changing the sugar amount (slightly), reducing the water and adding a couple tablespoons of light corn syrup, I made around 7 perfect batches of this - no separating issues at all! Crunchy, buttery, nutty and a rich layer of chocolate make this candy irresistable.

Almond Roca

Here is one of the new recipes - Candy Cane Biscotti. This biscotti is crunchy, yet still somewhat tender as it has a butter-based dough. We dipped half the ends in melted white chocolate and sprinkled them with additional crushed candies.

Candy Cane Biscotti

Buttery checkerboard pretzels are the base for these next treats. They are topped with a caramel laced rolo, placed in the oven to slightly soften the chocolate and adorned with a crunchy kissable candy.

Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Squares

It wouldn't be right if we didn't make one of our favorite cookies. Using chocolate malt powder in the dough gives these a leg up over regular M&M cookies.

Chocolate Malted M&M Cookies

We always do two types of fudge and here is the first. Always a big hit and gets lots of comments!

Cinnamon Fudge

The pups felt a little left out during the past couple of years when we did this mega baking spree. They decided we had to include a baggie of holiday-shaped biscuits to give away to the people who have doggies so they can feel the love too!

Crunchy BBQ Biscuits

While this next treat is not a new recipe to us, it is the first time we have made them to share with others. These caramels are so fantastic, yet so easy to make. Chewy and delicious. There is a picture of them unwrapped if you click on the link to the recipe.

Espresso Caramels

These cookies are new to us this year. Instead of decorating them all, we sent along a bag of homemade royal icing (no worries, we used meringue powder and not egg whites!) in a few of the boxes so they could have some fun and decorate the cookies themselves.

Hee hee... we did have a little fun while baking them - let's just say a few of the cookies lost a limb or their head(!) by the swift plunge of a scalloped cookie cutter. This was done by special request from Jeff - is he evil or what? So we did decorate a few cookies after all... see?

Gingerbread People

A caramel/toffee mixture that is heavily ginger-spiced is poured over popcorn and slowly baked in the oven to crisp up. This is so crazy good - it is one goodie that is hard to keep your hands out of!

Gingerbread Popcorn

These spiked pecans are a new recipe to make the list this year - the nuts are first thoroughly coated in a combination of egg white and the coffee liquor. They are then tossed around with granulated sugar, cinnamon and salt, and then roasted until the nuts are golden and the coating is nice and crunchy. They don't have a boozy taste at all, just sweet with a very mild coffee/cinnamon spiced background - these fancy nuts would be an exquisite addition to any holiday party tray.

Kahlua Spiked Pecans

We have to make so many batches of this bark because it is just so good. This has two layers of real white chocolate with a dark chocolate/cream mixture in the middle that is infused with peppermint. It also has two layers of crushed candy canes!

Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark

We do these crispy meringue bites often - the only thing I did differently this year was to add a green and red stripe to the pipping bag to create the effect you see!

Stripped Peppermint Kisses

This next unusual treat is a great way to use up popcorn. Salty and sweet with a mild molasses hint lingering in each bite.

Popcorn Brittle

We always make this snack mix to have around - this is quite spicy, so feel free to reduce the cayenne if you like.

Spicy Chex Mix

We thought we should include another cookie to the mix (or we may just be crazy), so we did one of our new favorite gingersnaps! These store quite well and have a pleasant spicy (but not hot) bite.

Swedish Gingersnaps

Smooth, creamy and rich - the only words that can describe this additive fudge!

Two Toned Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

And finally, another recipe that is a must for every year. One-bite salty and sweet treats - these are small Ritz Bits crackers, filled with peanut butter, dipped into real white chocolate and finished off with a variety of holiday sprinkles.

White Chocolate Dipped Mini Peanut Butter Ritz Bits

Here is a snap of some of the gifts before we packed them up in their boxes - this is probably just over half of what we did - the rest are scattered anywhere there was a free space!

I think I'm ready for a nap...