Tis the Season

The baking season is upon us... that's right, there is a season for baking! It starts when the weather gets chilly, and will go well through winter. Of course, the peak of the season is the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas...

I eased my way into baking season this year. I had one mission... learn how to make a southern biscuit... I figure, I've been down in the south for over 10 years, it's about time I learn how to make a proper biscuit... and thanks to a recipe by Tyler Florence, I am well on the way. With a few tweaks, I have come up with a tender biscuit, that has some decent flavor... I probably could pass for southern now.

After the biscuits, the canned pumpkin came out... pumkin zucchini bread, pumpkin fluff (which doesn't actually qualify as baking, but still...), and pumpkin cookies with pomegranate seeds.

Then, the yeast breads... cinnamon raisin swirl bread (which did not have enough swirl), and sesame and pumpkin bagels (that's right.... pumpkin bagels, served with a pumpkin cream cheese, because really, there never can be too much pumpkin).

It seems that every weekend, and then some evenings, have been spent with the oven on, and the smell of hot carbs wafting through my house... it's been great.

In the next couple weeks, I will be tackling the following... Pumpkin pie, Apple pie, white chocolate pecan pie, all with home made crusts. Pumpkin-Apple bread, and cranberry bread. Then there will be the cookies... snickerdoodles, Italian lemon cookies, Chocolate chip cookies, gingersnaps, fairy footstools (don't let the name fool you... a lemon creme sandwiched between two layers of pastry), and whatever else I have the ingredients for. Then there's the non cookies... peanut butter fudge, baklavah, spiced nuts, orange chocolate truffles, maybe a couple other types of fudge (I've done egg nog and dark chocolate raspberry in the past) ...

I have also made the big mistake of subscribing to a daily cookie recipe, that is delivered straight to my email box... out of the 15 cookie recipes I've seen come through my email, I decided that I want to make at least 13 of them...

It's a wonder I don't go broke during baking season...

You know, this is just MY list... I've talked to K2 a few times, and she's a baking machine...

I'll try to get some pictures up.

Happy baking season to all!!

-Wendi-