Amateur baker takes on festive holiday treats!

By Mackenzie Hedges

As this holiday season approaches, I have decided to take on a few of my favorite holiday recipes. I feel it’s important to mention that I am definitely an amateur baker. I have had many failed attempts with baking; those resulting in melted cookies and crumbling cake. That being said, I was quite surprised when my go at shortbread cookies, pumpkin spice bread, and dark chocolate mint Kit Kat cookies turned out quite well.

To find two of the recipes for my holiday treats, I went to Delish’s “60+ Easy Christmas Cookies” list. I decided on the holiday shortbread bites and Andes Mint chip cookies. I made a few alterations to the cookies’ recipes to add my own touch of festivity.

One of my favorite cookies is shortbread so I decided to give this holiday recipe a go. Step one would be to preheat your oven to 325℉, grab a large baking sheet, and get ready to gather your ingredients. For this recipe get together 1 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour, 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar, ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, ½ cup (one stick) of butter -softened, red and green sprinkles, and red food coloring. The original recipe says to put your flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, and butter into a food processor. I do not own a food processor so I just skipped this step and used my hands to knead the ingredients together. Once your dough has come together, knead in your desired amount of sprinkles and food coloring. Grab your baking sheet, with a piece of waxed paper lining it, and roll your dough into a ½”- think square. Freeze this for 15 minutes. Grab your dough out of the freezer, remove the wax paper, spray the baking sheet with olive oil, and cut the large square into ½” squares. Bake cookies for around 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

The holiday shortbread bites were certainly my favorite. I love shortbread and these definitely didn’t disappoint. They were perfectly buttery and the bake time was perfect. Everyone else who tried them liked them too; though they didn’t have a fair chance at eating any.

The second recipe called for Andes Mints, but due to the current COVID-19 circumstances, we had little available options so I decided to go with dark chocolate mint Kit Kats instead. The original recipe yielded 38 cookies so I decided to cut the ingredients in half. Make sure to preheat your oven to 375℉, collect a large and medium-sized bowl, a large baking sheet, and parchment paper. Gather ½ cup (one stick) of butter, ½ cup of packed brown sugar, ¼ cup of granulated sugar, 1 egg, ½ teaspoon. of vanilla extract, 1 ½ cup of all-purpose flour, ¾ teaspoon of baking soda, ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt, and 1 cup of chopped up Kit Kats. In the medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl use a hand mixer to beat together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat until all is combined. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture then fold in the Kit Kats. Form the dough into small balls spacing them about 2” apart on the baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

The dark chocolate mint Kit Kat cookies were fairly good. The base cookie batter wasn’t necessarily the best but the Kit Kats made them taste really great. I would maybe suggest finding a different recipe and adding in the Kit Kats to that and perhaps they would be better.

For my final recipe, I decided to have a go at one of my grandmother’s recipes. I had to dull it down and didn’t make the streusel to go on top but for my first time making bread, I think it turned out pretty well. Her recipe yields 5 loaves of bread so I cut her recipe down to make 1 loaf. Preheat oven to 350℉, lightly coat an (8x4”) loaf pan with nonstick spray. Gather 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 ⅓ teaspoon of baking powder, ⅓ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of ground ginger, ⅙ teaspoon of ground cloves, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, 2/3 cup of packed light brown sugar, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 5 ounces of pumpkin puree, ⅓ cup of vegetable oil, 2 eggs, and ⅓ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Start by whisking together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add in the sugar mixture, then stir together. Pour the batter into your loaf pan and bake for 50-65 minutes. Make sure to let this cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack.

Since the pumpkin spice bread was a family recipe it was evident that it would be delicious. Even with the changes, I had made to the original recipe it turned out great. This was definitely the favorite of everyone else. Especially when my grandmother bakes it, it’s a real hit.

Even in the midst of all of the chaos going on in the world, the holidays are a time for cheer. Though some of us won’t be with our families this holiday season it is important to do what we can, even with only our immediate family, to embrace the feeling of the season.