About a week ago, it was time to make our gingerbread men. I make these every year, but I vary the size of the men, and sometimes make gingerbread ladies, as well. Many years ago, my daughters received little baking sets, that came with tiny baking sheets, small rolling pins and tiny gingerbread men and women cutters. I saved the cutters, when they outgrew that set, and use them for cookies. I also inherited my mother's large gingerbread man cookie cutter, which I use with great sentimentality. And then there's the mid-sized gingerbread man, that I bought in an after-Christmas sale when my children were all young. I think it makes the "right" sized gingerbread man, so I do favor this one. And that's what I chose for this year, mid-sized gingerbread men. I filled a tin with gingerbread men, and had some left over to give to my son's GF.
I like the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, for gingerbread cookies, as it doesn't call for any eggs or baking powder, and very little sugar. The dough handles well, too. I can make the dough up one afternoon, refrigerate it overnight, and roll, cut and bake the cookies the next day.
Also about that time, I had some heavy whipping cream near expiry. As I mentioned before, I whipped a couple of cups and froze in mounds, to use later. But I also used 2 1/2 cups of the whipping cream to make peppermint ice cream, to serve on Christmas Day with our Buche de Noel. I really enjoyed the washing up afterwards on that one (lots of spoons, spatulas, beaters and the ice cream paddle to lick).
In addition to the heavy whipping cream, I used whole milk, a bit of sugar, pinch of salt and crushed candy canes. That's it. I didn't cook a custard, but microwaved the milk, to heat enough for the sugar and some of the crushed candy canes to dissolve, before adding the heavy cream and salt.
I had about 1/2 cup of Wilton peppermint melting disks in the cupboard from 2 years ago, not quite enough to make a batch of peppermint bark candy. So I thought topping the chocolate-covered pretzels with a drizzle of that stuff would be festive. I melted those with Crisco, until thin enough to drizzle over the chocolate-covered pretzels. I put the peppermint-white chocolate in a used (but clean) zip loc baggie, then snipped the corner to make the drizzling go quickly and neatly. And finally, before the chocolate and peppermint melting disks had hardened, I sprinkled the whole mass with crushed candy canes.
I still have the Buche to bake and fill. Cake rolls can be filled, rolled up and frozen until just before serving or icing. I'd like to get this done in the next few days. We'll see how that goes. I'm working on a mostly make-ahead Christmas dinner this year. I'd like to have the bulk of Christmas Day "off".
How about you? What are your favorite Christmas goodies to make? Are there any family favorites that you just can't not make?
