Well, technically it’s more like twelve days of snacking, along with twelve days of guilty pleasure binge-watching Hallmark Channel Christmas movies…which is the intellectual equivalent of ingesting a mountain of empty calorie-laden holiday treats.  Hey, I’m not knocking it.  On the contrary, sometimes it’s just what you need to pull yourself out of the holiday blues, or in my case that end of year ennui..  Normally around this time of year I stack my movie playlist full of cozy favorites like Love Actually (that finale at the airport with the two kids gets me every time), Meet Me in St. Louis (Tootie bashing the crap out of the snow people!), and Elf (SANTA!)–a nice way to kick my feet up after a long day in the kitchen.  

This year, however, I find myself gravitating towards an endless parade of charmingly formulaic, predictably homogenous feel-good Christmas fare only Hallmark can churn out with singular efficiency and economy of plot.  Not all of them are gems worthy of repeat viewing, though God knows they provide ample opportunities for you to do so given their 24/7 holiday movie cycle. I admit (so shoot me) to being partial to the Hallmark iterations of Austen classics, shamelessly titled Christmas at Pemberly Manor (2018) , Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe (2018) , and Sense, Sensibility & Snowmen (2019). Like washing your martini glass with a swish of vermouth, these movies have just a whisper of Austen to peak my interest but not enough genuine plot to fully engage me. 

So is it junk food for the brain or chicken soup for the soul?  For me it’s a little of both.  2019 has been, by and large, a crappy year full of misses and disappointments.  I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say it’s left me spiritually and emotionally exhausted.  During these waning days of 2019, it seems all I want to do is nurse myself with uncomplicated, easily digestible entertainment…like chicken soup to a person fighting a cold.  I want to see a clearly delineated path to a happy ending where everyone by some miracle gets their Christmas wish at the two-hour mark, barring minor obstacles and foreseeable plot twists.   And I want to have it soothingly playing in the background while I engage in holiday baking therapy–twelve days of it in fact. While I probably produced almost double the number of items during the twelve days—like infused gin and vodka for cocktails, which I will cover in a pre-New Year’s Eve post—these are some of the highlights.

Day One –

Ugly Sweater Sugar Cookies –

I found these adorable and CHEAP sugary decorations on sale at JoAnn’s, most for 70% off.  Armed with ugly sweater cookie cutters, I went to town!  Swapping out the traditional tasteless, teeth-achingly sweet royal icing for colored coating chocolate (which sets up five times faster), I attacked my sugar snowmen, candy canes and sprinkles with gleeful, reckless abandon.  I kept the sugar cookie recipe simple, flavoring it with vanilla and judicious amounts of almond, orange, and butterscotch extracts.  

Day Two –

Gingerbread Men & Reindeers:

Unlike the blinged out Ugly Sweaters, I demonstrated restraint decorating these, sticking to white and red coating chocolate accents, preferring to let the complexity of spices and nuance of molasses shine through.  

Day Three –

Cashew Snowballs:

Had to make them, no way around it.  I’d have a wailing chorus on my hands if I didn’t whip up a batch of these for family and friends.  The key to these classic “Russian Teacakes” is to roll the dough balls in granulated or superfine sugar before baking.  It forms a protective coating to keep the powdered sugar from absorbing moisture and becoming gooey.  

Day Four –

Ginger Molasses Cookies:

Another one of those “must-bake-or- else-there-will-be-a-riot” cookies. They’re everything a proper ginger molasses cookie should be–crispy from the coarse sugar crust, tender and chewy, fragrant with a hint of citrus (in this case tangerine zest), assertive ginger flavor.  

Day Five –

Matcha Shortbread Fingers:

I love the vibrant green and punch matcha powder lends to the traditional Viennese piped shortbread.  Dipping one end in melted semi-sweet chocolate and coconut oil, then spritzing with edible gold spray took it up a notch.

Day Six – 

Chocolate Peppermint Butter Cookies:

This is a variation on Rick’s Butter Cookie Recipe from Bon Appetit.  I subbed out some of the flour with black cocoa to give the dough that Oreo deep dark hue, flavoring it with peppermint extract.  To finish, I drizzled on melted white chocolate, sprinkled on crush candy canes, then drizzled on more white chocolate for good measure.

Day Seven –

Pistachio Cranberry Torrone:

I don’t make this Italian honey nougat very often, but during the holidays visions of bright green pistachios and red dried cranberries suspended in chewy honey nougat dance in my head.  It also helps if you have a surplus of Costco-size bottles of honey and a stack of edible rice paper laying around.  

Day Eight –

Mocha Hazelnut Torrone:

Like I said, I have a lot of honey and rice paper at my disposal.  I flavored this one with espresso powder, cocoa, and hazelnut extract.  Given the soft texture of the nougat, I decide to cut these (along with the pistachio cranberry variety) into bars and individually wrap them in waxed paper to help keep their shape.   

Day Nine –

Spiced Blue Cheese Crackers:

I snuck in a savory treat as a respite from all the sugar.  I used Ina Garten’s recipe, minus the walnuts (which I hate).  I added finely chopped chives, punching up the spice with cayenne, black pepper, and smoked paprika.

Day Ten – 

Guinness Sticky Toffee Loaves:

It’s essentially Sticky Toffee Pudding baked in smaller decorative paper loaf pans.  I bought the pans last year from Daiso, supplier of all things cute, cheap and Japanese–a very dangerous place to go if you love inexpensive kitchen/cookery gadgets.  Cooking the dates in two bottles of Guinness instead of water is the best way to amp up the coffee/caramel notes in the pudding…and adding a splash of bourbon to the toffee sauce.  

Day Eleven –

Cracker Jacked Up Caramel Corn:

I love the sweet/savory character of this caramel corn.  Initially I bought the salted roasted peanuts to make peanut brittle, but decided caramel corn was infinitely more snackable.  I stirred a tiny spoonful of miso paste to the hot caramel to add a bit more umami.  And a drizzle of milk chocolate at the end can’t hurt.

Day Twelve –

Caramel Pecan Bars:

I bought a bag of pecans from Costco fully intending to make pecan pies for Christmas since I didn’t get to make any for Thanksgiving.  But since I’m laying out a mini dessert buffet, bars are easier to serve.  A butter, honey, and cream concoction is cooked to a caramel consistency before being poured over a base of shortbread and chopped toasted pecans and baked until the caramel is bubbling throughout.  

All that’s left is to share these holiday treats with family and friends…and hunker down with more Hallmark movies until we ring in 2020.  

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