"holiday baking" 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.

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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?

I was 18 years the first time I had a Pecan Tassie. I had just finished my freshman year of college and was spending a couple of days with my mom's cousin, Amy, and her partner, Jean, at their house in the Columbia Gorge (White Salmon, WA to be exact). While I was there Jean did some of her holiday baking and I watched with fascination as she got out a stack of miniature muffin tins and started packing pastry crusts into each cup. She topped each crust with a batter of sugar, spices and finely chopped pecans. Soon after they were out of the oven, she offered me one to try and in one bite, I fell hard.

Ten years later, my love had not diminished. The pecan tassie and I are tight, and knowing of my affection, Jean makes an entire batch just for me each season. She and Amy are now living out here in Philly and I got an email from them just recently reminding me that I can't go back to Oregon for the holidays without a tin of tassies to take along with me.

If you have never had a pecan tassie, I implore you to give them a shot. You can find them in some bakeries, but as with other holiday delicacies, they are best when you make them yourself. They are a bit labor intensive, but the results are well worth it. Check out the recipe after the jump...