Keeping the memories: Adapting the Baking and Candy Making Season

The first week of December is a biggie for a lot of folks. Now that Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are past, we can focus on what's really important: Christmas cookie and candy making.

My sister made the same candy as Mindy!

My sister Ann already sent out her Christmas cards and she's gotten a head start on the sweet treats too. She's the one who inherited our grandmother's knack for all things sweet. Nanny used to send us a big box of homemade cookies and candy that would arrive right before Thanksgiving. The goodies were stored in the cold garage until Mom's Open House. But we'd sneak a piece now and then.

Now, me?  I hang up Mom's Christmas apron:

Mom loved poinsettias.

Pull out Mom's recipe box:

And revisit all the old memories with Mom's and Nanny's original recipe cards.

But every year recreating those memories is a challenge because of my allergies to wheat and corn. This year I added financial concerns. Baking and candy making are not cheap ventures. I know so many other families who are in the same situation. This year I know folks who have gone vegan or vegetarian, have discovered their child has celiac disease or other allergies, who developed diabetes, or are unemployed. Whew!

I'm all about keeping stress low this holiday season.  So what to do when you are trying to recreate Christmas memories for family members with allergy, sugar or vegan concerns without breaking the bank?

1) Give thanks for that one recipe that you can eat or afford to make.  I looked at the picture of the recipe cards and, wow, there was one that didn't have wheat or corn and wasn't overly expensive, Forgotten Cookies. What a find! Bonus? It's a star on the Pinterest gluten free Christmas cookie lists. So a recipe that's been around for decades before folks talked gluten and celiac stays on my list. (Recipe at the end of this post.)

2) Think flavors, not recreating the exact recipe.  My other favorite recipes featured in the above picture are fruit cake cookies (expensive ingredients and allergy issues), Date Nut Roll cookies (wheat), and peanut butter roll candy (corn syrup). Cane syrup does not work the same way as corn syrup does. I don't like xanthan gums that lots of GF baking recipes use and it's not cheap. So I focused on the flavors: fruit and nut, dates and short bread, and peanut butter. Then I did what I do when I'm desperately in need of help and low on creativity, I headed to....

3) Pinterest, go to Pinterest! The mecca of all things helpful with food challenges. Thanks to www.finecooking.com, I could savor that date and shortbread combo. It wasn't a pinwheel cookie recipe but I found a date nut cookie substitute  .

Now for a corn syrup free substitute for Nanny's peanut butter candy roll . Thanks to Pinterest, I found the recipe on www.justapinch.com. I'll use confectioners sugar with tapioca rather than cornstarch.
   
Fruit cake cookies? I started looking, got distracted by Christmas decor pins, and then...

I GOT LOST ON PINTEREST FOR HOURS!  

Ah, hem. Back to the blog. Here's the recipe I promised you:

Forgotten Cookies

2 egg whites (large eggs)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

Beat egg whites, sugar and salt til stiff peaks form. Add chips and nuts. Line cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper, drop meringues by teaspoonful.  Put cookies in the oven preheated to 350 degrees. TURN OFF HEAT IMMEDIATELY and leave in overnight. DO NOT OPEN DOOR.

Makes about 2 plus dozen.

PS. No pictures of the making due to the weather. I don't make these on high humidity or rainy days.

So what challenges are you facing this year in your baking or candy making? Have you been able to adapt family recipes to preserve the memories while sticking to food restrictions or your budget?    

Vintage Memories and Paleo Loaf aka Fruitcake

We used to get a box of goodies from my grandmother. I think I waxed poetic before about the fudge and date nut cookies. But I love, absolutely loved the fruitcake cookies and fruit cake. Guess that makes me a bit weird. Fruitcake is one of those things that folks either love or hate. But for me, it is all about stoking memories of  bygone times by making vintage recipes.

I am all about vintage these days as I will be starting an etsy shop sometime in the new year focused on table top arrangements designed to invoke memories of the past of whatever decade. Gotta balance out the writing with a different kind of creativity. My market will be those who love vintage and also those who want something to spark conversation and memories with relatives and friends in nursing homes or the hospital.

The picture of me and my sisters in buns inspired the search for an angel with the same hairdo. The ornament on the top of the tree is from when I was little.

 
Isn't it funny how a recipe, a picture, a statue, a scent bring the past rushing back?

Did you have one of these?

 

Or did you have these on your Christmas cupcakes at preschool?

Did you have one of the mass produced fruit cakes that was all fake corn-syrup soaked fruit at Grandma's?  Or was it just about getting a candy cane at her house?

Here is a recipe that evokes the memory of fruitcake but is better for you and good to eat in the first place. None of that corn syrup-laden almost fake fruit. (Though I do miss the glazed cherries in all their red neon glory.) So you can make a new fruitcake memory! Maybe a better one, depending on who you are!

 

Gluten Free Fruitcake (adapted from celiac.com)

Note: You can make this recipe more paleo (low carb) by deleting some of the fruit and all of the sugar. If you sub out the fruit, be sure to add in the same amount of nuts.

1/4 cup orange juice

1 cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon lemon rind (dehydrated) or 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon rind

1 teaspoon orange rind (dehydrated)

1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup figs and 1/2 cup chopped dates (or any combination to make 1 1/2 cup dried fruit)

1/2 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1 cup chopped almonds (or any combination to make  2 cups nuts) 

1 cup gluten free baking mix

1/2 cup sugar (or none if you want to rely on the sweetness of the fruit)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten well

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put cherries and peel in orange juice to soak thirty minutes. Then drain, reserving liquid for later by storing in fridge.

Combine fruit, rind, and nuts.

Sift baking mix and salt.

Add to bowl and mix well.

Make sure the fruit and nuts are coated by the baking mix and looks like this!

Lightly stir in beaten eggs to moisten but don't over mix.

Spoon mixture into a buttered parchment lined large loaf pan. Drop pan on counter to get rid of air bubbles.

Bake at 300 for 1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours (or longer) depending on how hot your oven runs and if you use a non-stick pan. Test with toothpick.

Immediately after taking the pan out of the oven, pour reserved orange juice over the loaf while hot.

Cool in baking pan for 30 minutes.

Transfer to wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

So what do you make this time of year that evokes a memories of Christmas or holidays long past? Have you gone paleo and are good during the holidays or do you set aside restrictions in your diet for the holidays?