gift ideas – Page 5 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

17-55: Scottish Shortbread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 17, 2016November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, almond extract, anise, baked goods, butter, coconut, cookie cutters, cookie press, cookies, creamed, dough, easy, egg-free, flavorings, food coloring, gift ideas, grated, inexpensive, lemons, Mother's Day, oranges, party food, powdered sugar, rum, Scottish, shortbread, snacks, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, walnuts, zested

Here’s another good cookie press recipe. It’s a long way away from the holiday season, and cookie cutters/presses tend to get a bit dusty during the spring & summer months. I had a bunch of shapes for the press that weren’t holiday-related, so I decided to get creative with some colors & flavor extracts and use 17-55: Scottish Shortbread to play with the press.

Theirs look really thick–mine came out thinner since I used the press. These would probably work well with differently-shaped cookie cutters too, not just rounds. As I learned, they also work well with food coloring and flavor extracts.

I ended up using these for Mother’s Day gifts, and made a mix of three colors/shapes to bag up and mail/hand out. 💐

16-37: Double Decadent Brownie Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 11, 2016November 6, 20204-6-09 dinner, all-purpose flour, baked goods, birthday, brownies, butter, cakes, chilled, chocolate, chocolate chips, cornstarch, creamy, custard, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly inexpensive, frosted, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, Kahlúa, light corn syrup, macadamia nuts, melted, party food, pastry, pastry cream, pecans, revisited, roach motel apt, semisweet, strawberries, torte, vanilla extract, vegetarian, walnuts, whipping cream

I had mentioned in 1-8: Delicious Cocktail Snacks that I had attended a birthday party recently–I used 16-37: Double Decadent Brownie Torte as part of the birthday cake that I made for it. This is one I’ve made before, and this time I kept some of the changes I made the first time.

I noted that I made this with Kahlúa whipped cream the first time. I did that this time too, along with a Kahlúa pastry cream to layer between 2 layers of torte.

17-6: Best Ever White Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 9, 2016August 23, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, baked goods, breads, breakfast, dairy-free, durum wheat flour, egg-free, gift ideas, kneaded, lunch, party food, proofed, revisited, salt, side dish, slit, snacks, steamed, vegan, vegetarian, white bread, yeast

Here’s a really simple and easy white bread recipe if you find yourself in need or want of fresh white bread. 17-6: Best Ever White Bread doesn’t have a lot to it, but if you want to use it for something like 1-13: Crusty Toast with Mushrooms, it works really well.

I made this particular recipe once before, a little under a year ago according to the red Sharpie notes on the card. I was working on this project then, but had taken a bit of a break at that point. I had been making a lot of bread at the restaurant at this point and was doing a bit of practice at home using what I had learned.

9-22: Meat Pie

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2016July 6, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, black pepper, bread crumbs, brown sugar, butter, caramelized, chilled, cookie cutters, cut in, decorative, dinner, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flute, French, garlic, gift ideas, ground beef, ground meat, ground pork, ground turkey, lunch, melted, milk, mushrooms, nutmeg, panko, pared, parsley, party food, pastry, pie crust, pies, pot pie, revisited, roach motel apt, salt, sautéed, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetables, Worcestershire sauce, yellow onions

Meat pies have been around for a LONG time (like 9500 BCE old, according to Wikipedia). They cross a lot of cultures and are featured in some fashion in most cuisines (even if they look somewhat different–for example, empanadas, lahmacun, and samosas all are meat/pastry combinations from varied places). 9-22: Meat Pie is probably closest to the French Canadian tradition of meat pies, otherwise known as tourtière.

This one’s got some of my old notes on it–I’ve made this one before, about 6-7 years ago for my friend’s birthday party (the same friend from the 80s party in 1-22: Onion-Potato Diamonds). It was a “pie party” because he was (at the time) obsessed with the Keri Russell movie Waitress, which apparently has something to do with a lot of pies.

I made some adjustments to the recipe the first time (you can see those listed on the side), but this time, we’re going legit.

17-67: Coconut Crescents

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 25, 2015November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, breakfast, butter, Christmas, coconut, cookie cutters, cookies, crescents, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, filling, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, holiday baking, inexpensive, kneaded, lemons, melted, milk, oranges, pastry, powdered sugar, proofed, salt, snacks, untested, vegetarian, XMAS 15, yeast, zested

Merry Christmas! 🌲 Or if it’s not Christmas when you’re reading this, hope you’re having a nice day. 😃 The final component of my holiday assortment this year was 17-67: Coconut Crescents, and since they turned out somewhat nicely (unlike some of the other components), I thought it best to end this holiday baking burst on a high note.

I included these in my assortment to vary some texture (not all cookies) and to make at least one that used a yeast dough. These can be really versatile–just swap coconut for something else like a strawberry filling or sprinkle something like brown sugar on top.

17-31: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 24, 2015September 13, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking soda, brown sugar, butter, chocolate, Christmas, Christmas Eve, cocoa powder, cookies, creamed, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, gift ideas, Glendale apt, holiday baking, oatmeal, oatmeal raisin, orange juice, pecans, raisins, revisited, rolled oats, salt, snacks, unsweetened, vanilla extract, vegetarian, walnuts, XMAS 15

The only chocolate-containing component in my holiday baked goods assortment, 17-31: Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies are honestly pretty good any time of year. So if you’re reading this at some other time of year besides Christmas Eve, don’t feel like you can’t make these.

I found a way to mess these up as well (seems like this year I had a hard time with some things that should have been really easy), but I’ve made them before previously to this, and both times (then and now) they’re still definitely very edible and good.

17-52: Apricot Macaroons

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 23, 2015November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, apricots, baked goods, butter, chilled, Christmas, cookies, egg whites, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, gift ideas, granulated sugar, holiday baking, jam/jelly/preserves, macaroons, parchment paper, pastry bag, untested, vegetarian, XMAS 15

This recipe is another Simply Delicious “take” on something that already largely exists in a slightly different form. These aren’t really these kind of macaroons (the Passover kind). They’re not these kind of macarons (the French kind) either.

17-52: Apricot Macaroons were part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.

Mine were a horror show compared to the picture on the card–I blame poor tools (my pastry bag blew its side out early on, rendering it useless and me bagless) even though any chef knows that’s a cop-out. I also blame exhaustion–these were the last ones I made of all of the recipes.

17-61: Vanilla Chip Cookies

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 22, 2015November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking soda, brown sugar, butter, chocolate chips, Christmas, coconut, cookies, creamed, easy, eggs, fail, fairly expensive, gift ideas, golden raisins, granulated sugar, holiday baking, macadamia nuts, salt, shredded, sifted, untested, vanilla chips, vanilla extract, vegetarian, white chocolate, XMAS 15

I had high hopes for these. They sounded great. And to be honest, it still might have been my fault these went badly. 17-61: Vanilla Chip Cookies were part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.

Maybe I overworked them. Maybe my dough was too warm. Maybe it was my oven or my pans. Something just didn’t work out here. After the jump, I’ll show you what happened.

17-43: Orange Date Quick Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 21, 2015September 21, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking powder, baking soda, breads, breakfast, butter, Christmas, creamed, dates, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, holiday baking, loaf pan, muffins, nuts, orange juice, oranges, quick breads, snacks, untested, vegetarian, walnuts, winter, XMAS 15, zested

I’ve made quick bread from Simply Delicious before (17-51: Three Palms Quick Bread) and it turned out well–this recipe is no exception. 17-43: Orange Date Quick Bread is part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.

I chose to include this recipe in my holiday gifts this year because I wanted to include some different textures, flavors, and shapes, as well as reflecting the abundance of citrus fruit during winter in California. 🍊

17-37: Holiday Cookies

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 20, 2015September 13, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking powder, butter, chilled, Christmas, college, cookie cutters, cookie press, cookies, creamed, crispy, dessert, egg-free, fairly easy, gift ideas, granulated sugar, holiday baking, inexpensive, revisited, rye flour, snacks, vegetarian, XMAS 15

Hopefully I haven’t caught you too late for this year’s batch of holiday baking. If so, keep this one around for next year–17-37: Holiday Cookies is a great butter cookie recipe for using cutters or presses. This is part of my big batch of assorted baked goods that I made as gifts for people this year–you can find the others linked at the end of this entry.

I got a new cookie press for Christmas last year, and finally got to test it out this year. This cookie press is AWESOME–so much easier than the old stubborn buggers from the past.