Holiday Treats: 2013

I enjoy cooking and creating treats in the kitchen and I just don't feel like I have the same creativity and freedom to do so while living in London, for one reason or another. So while I'm home for the holidays and as my annual Christmas presents to friends and family I am baking up a storm in my parents kitchen. There are challenges with this as they are in the midts of kitchen renos and still it's only a half functional room on it's way to fabulous.

Last Christmas I baked some great treats, most of which I tried to recreate this year with a few new things I came across over the year.

I started with Peanut Butter Fudge, last year I had my Grandma's recipe which worked out perfectly, however, that recipe card is safely tucked away in my room in England so to the Google machine I went and found something that sounded similar. Two attempts were made at this. Last years was better.

I felt like I might have been off my game a bit. I shook it off and attempted treat #2.

I was looking forward to making again the salted toffee. My first try this year was a failure as i second guessed the timing and burnt the first batch along with my finger. It eventually turned out great despite what my mother says about chocolate ruining everything.

It would seem that the secret to my cooking was that if I had never made the recipe before, it would turn out perfectly as it should, however, 2nd time around everything has been going pear-shaped.  With this in mind, I pulled the ingredients together for a new treat for #3.

Chocolate Caramel Brownies. I had similar ones at the Bloggers Afternoon Tea and when I found this recipe I had to try it. The caramel has saved this one. It tastes very chocolaty but don't expect it to melt in your mouth like a good brownie should. Next time I think I'll just try using a brownie mix for the base to make things easier.

Crestfallen but with the encouragement of my mother, I attempted my last treat the Cranberry Shortbread. Thankfully this worked. Perfectly.  And on the first try...for the 2nd time.

All in all, my Christmas baking was a struggle this year. Good thing there is enough holiday treats floating about at this time of year that I can console my misery with sugar.

Need any ideas for holiday cooking? Here are 27 cookies to bake.

Did you try any holiday baking this year? 

Fun travels!