"HolidayBaking" news and stories

I love this very clever Apple-Mince Christmas pie from Sarah of the food blog What Smells so Good? Here's her description of this pretty pie.

A layer of crisp, tart apple slices lines the bottom of this mincemeat pie, made with my vegan, home-made green tomato mincemeat and a part-buckwheat crust. It'll be a welcome addition to this year's Christmas dinner!

The recipe for this pie isn't posted yet, but if you've yet to do your holiday baking, this is a cute way to do change up your standard lattice topping.

Thanks Sarah, for adding your image to the Slashfood Flickr Pool.

Source

When I think of this time of the year, I think about delicious sweet and fruity Stollen, a traditional German cake made with chopped candied fruit and dried fruit, nuts and spices. For the past 4 years now, I have been savoring this bread on Christmas.

Ah, the variety of fruit cakes one can eat this time of the year! There is also the classic Italian panettone and panforte. Perhaps, less cake-like and bread-like than Stollen, panforte is made by dissolving suger in honey in a shallow pan with various nuts, fruits, spices, flour, and cocoa.

Below are some festive fruity recipes:

1. Gina DePalma's Panforte
2. Panettone
3. Stollen
4. Panforte di Siena

• When it comes to baking cookies, butter makes all the difference.
• Rocco DiSpirito was once one of most talented and fastest rising chefs out there. Now he's something of a food world joke. What happened?
• American chef Daniel Rose has become a hit with his Parisian restaurant Spring.
• Frank Bruni reviews Sucession and finds it confusing and sadly wanting.
• Looking for a gift for a wine lover on your list? How about one of the new crop of wine books?
• Holiday baking inevitably leads to leftover egg whites. Take that surfeit and make meringue cookies!
• For a succulent pot roast, try using flanken.
• Celebrate Christmas with the iconic Elizabeth David whispering in your ear via her posthumously released book.
• Italian chef G. Franco Romangnoli has died. He and his wife were hosts of one of the very first cooking shows devoted to Italian cookery.

Every year, I find myself searching for that new cookie recipe, the one that will really wow my family, friends and co-workers. This year, Gourmet.com has made my search both easier and far more painful, all at the same time. Early last week, they posted a feature entitled "Gourmet's Favorite Cookies: 1941-2008" that chronicles their best cookie recipe from each year since the magazine's inception.

The piece features cookies like the more traditional Old-Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies (1947) and Gingerbread Men (1959) to more obscure holiday goodies like "Shoe Sole" Cookies (1970) and Pistachio Tuiles (1988). It's also interesting because is shows how cookie trends have shifted and evolved over time. The World War II-era cookies are far more austere than the cookies of the booming 1980's. I'm planning on trying out the Fig Cookies (1964) and the Honey Refrigerator Cookies (1942) in the next week or two.

Which recipes call out to you? Do any of these recipes happen to be favorites in your family?