“Seriously?” I exclaim under my breath.
Exasperated, I realize now—after what feels like my millionth trip to the grocery store this weekend—that I don’t have any baking soda. It’s an essential for making Nestle’s chocolate chip cookies. And so was the granulated sugar that I had just brought back from the grocery store five minutes ago.
Lesson learned, I guess. Never assume you have a baking staple.
I refuse to go back to the grocery store. Instead, I Google whether baking powder can be used as a substitute for baking soda. Turns out: It’s not an exact replacement, but it can work.
“Sweet,” I whisper.
I’m done running errands, and sugar plum fairies are starting to dance in my head. I turn on Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, plug in the Christmas lights, and survey my countertop.
Brown sugar. Check. Flour. Check. Granulated sugar and butter. Check and check. Baking powder, chocolate chips, walnuts, salt, eggs. All check.
I’m on my fourth and almost final batch of treats for the weekend. Before the chocolate chip cookies came chocolate bourbon fudge, lemon-lime basil shortbread, and whiskey butterscotch thumbprints. Next up: Peanut butter caramel brownies. It’s a lot of sugar, and I’ve unwrapped more than two packs’ worth of butter so far this weekend.
Each treat will get coupled with others, bagged, tagged, and dropped on the desks and front stoops of my coworkers and friends. It’s my Christmas thing. Baking gifts to fill bellies with cheer.
There are so many holiday treat recipes and baking websites online, it can be a little overwhelming to search. And how do you know which blogging baker is trustworthy? The answer is that none of them are trustworthy. However, I do trust Bon Appétit and Food Network (and the back of a bag of Nestle chocolate chips—it is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, seriously), even if the recipes are somewhat complicated. They’re usually delicious and, as an added bonus, they also look festive.
Bon Appétit’s lemon-lime basil shortbread cookies are simple, cute with flecks of green, and pack a tart citrusy sweet bite.
And I always end up with a jar of bourbon vanilla sugar to keep for myself after I make a batch of Bon Appétit’s bourbon vanilla fudge. You definitely need to plan for this one. It’s an endeavor, which involves splitting a vanilla bean and scraping it into Demerara sugar with a couple of tablespoons of bourbon before spreading it out on a baking sheet to dry out overnight in a 150-degree oven.
This year, I tried two new recipes—which can be risky, plus I have a teensy-weensy tendency to overestimate what I’m capable of (as is the case with the rest of my life, too).
High five to the LA Times and its 12 days of Christmas cookie recipes. Salted whiskey caramel thumbprints are tasty, with a little bit of salt to balance out the pile of sugar, and I’ve got a whole tub of whiskey caramel leftover to boot. It’s pretty tasty in coffee, by the way.
The Food Network’s Bobby Flay, though, is full of it. His peanut-butter caramel is bomb, but the bake time on his brownies isn’t long enough. Don’t be scared, he said, let those brownies be soft and fudgy; don’t bake them all the way through.
Well, I went over his 25-minute bake time by almost 20 minutes, and my brownies are still soft and fudgy in the middle. So there. Those brownies were the last thing on my weekend gift list, and now they’re lined out on the table with everything else, waiting to be dropped in with the others.
All weekend, I spilled flour on the floor and countertop, washed dishes, wiped the kitchen down, pushed and pulled trays in and out of the oven, rolled my eyes when I realized I didn’t have something I needed, and exhaled before I made another list and ran to the store yet again!
It’s definitely amateur hour, but I secretly love it.
My Grandma always had a tin full of goodies at the end of December. She would walk through the front door, and it would land on the kitchen table. Bright blue and full of surprises. Fudge, sugar cookies, brownies, and other little treats of sugar, chocolate, and love. I would struggle with the lid, full of anticipation for what was inside.
The confections weren’t always homemade, and I’m honestly probably not recollecting things 100 percent accurately, but that’s not the point. The point is what I do remember: A certain joy in opening something to see what it held. And being able to nosh and nibble throughout the next couple of days, picking and choosing the delectable edible to chew in a given moment. Indulging in a smidge of rich gluttony.
Now, I make the treats, trying out new recipes every year and stockpiling the ones I like enough to make again. And I gift out the results. It’s a combination of two things that make me happy: baking and making other people happy. Merry freaking Christmas!
Editor Camillia Lanham is obsessed with baking once a year. Send your favorite recipes to clanham@santamariasun.com.
Nibbles & Bites
• Looking for a way to ring in the new year, one chocolate-covered bite at a time? Well, Riverbench Winery and Vineyard in Santa Maria’s got just the event for you. The winery is partnering with Jessica Fosters Confections to pair its sparkling wine flight with four chocolate truffles. Riverbench invites revelers to pre-purchase the handmade truffles and come by the tasting room any day from Saturday, Dec. 28, through Tuesday, Dec. 31 (the winery will close early at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and will be closed on New Year’s Day). Foster describes her chocolate-making endeavors as an “expressive epicurean art,” which encompasses Belgian chocolates blended with teas, herbs, and spices. Though the wine and chocolate pairing is designed for the sparkling wines, tasters can choose any tasting flight, including the pinot noir lineup. Tickets cost $10 and include the box of chocolates (the wine tasting flight is sold separately). Visit eventbrite.com for tickets, and riverbench.com for more info.
• The Far Western Tavern in Orcutt invites locals and travelers alike to its New Year’s Eve dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 31. The meal features an entree—a choice of oak-grilled sirloin surf and turf, the tavern’s bullseye steak, oven-roasted prime rib, oak-grilled wild salmon, or oak-grilled portobello mushroom—will also include the restaurant’s classic relish tray, shrimp cocktail, green salad or soup, baked potato, garlic bread, pinquito beans and salsa, plus a glass of Champagne so you can say cheers to 2020. Reservations are recommended; visit farwesterntavern.com for more information.
• If you’re itching to go back in time to celebrate the new year, you’ll want to check out Vino et Amicis’ and Naughty Oak’s roaring party—with drinks, live music, and food. Break out those fringy short dresses, long strings of pearls, cigarette holders, and fedoras because costumes from the 1920s are strongly encouraged! Bender and Jack will play music from 8 to 11 p.m. at Vino et Amicis, and Will Breman will play at Naughty Oak at the same time. The brewery’s party wristband includes any two beers on its menu for $10; the wine bar’s wristband is $10 for a glass of wine and a glass of sparkling wine; or you can buy a $15 wristband good for both venues, which will come together for a toast to ring in year 2020! For more information, find the venues on Facebook or visit vinoetamicis.com or naughtyoak.com.
Associate Editor Andrea Rooks is ready to raise a glass to the new year! Send resolutions and food news to arooks@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 26, 2019 – Jan 2, 2020.
