And Let The Holiday Baking Begin…

I love this time of year. I have never been one to get caught up in the craziness of it all. I am a minimalist and I try not to overindulge when it comes to shopping. I like to keep things simple. But there is one thing that I love to do and that is to bake.

It comes back to my childhood when right around the beginning of December, the pastry shop and everyone in my family would start to gear up for all the seasonal baking that would happen all month long. Turron, intricate marzipan figurines, tarta de ponche and many other petits fours and cookies. All of them heavy on almonds and labor. Lots of labor.

We would help in any way we could and I vividly remember sitting down peeling kilos and kilos of raw almonds that my grandmother would blanch in-house. Something they do to this day. Blanch, peel and grind the almonds to make their own almond meal.

So now when Thanksgiving comes around, I start to get excited for all the baking. The old Gourmet and all the Martha Stewart magazines provide so much inspiration. Love browsing through past issues and getting inspired.

Here is an assortment of things we are baking. Mesquite meringue cookies with chocolate cream, pistachio and raspberry layered shortbreads, almond and raspberry linzers, milk jam cookies and many more.

And finally, Arielle is the winner of last week’s book giveaway. Please email me so I can get your address. Thanks everyone for sharing your family recipes.

Have a great Thanksgiving!