How to Pick the Perfect Recipes for Your Holiday Baking

Save Time By Picking The Right Recipes

Choosing Holiday recipes for baking and cooking is always fun but it can be stressful if we don’t prepare properly. We always want to create fond memories of the smells coming from the kitchen and the delicious treats everyone loves. Choosing the right recipes makes holiday cooking more enjoyable.

This information is part of our series on Holiday Baking and Cooking. Also see:

How To Do Batch Baking For The Holiday Season

How To Freeze & Thaw Baked Goods

How To Make An Organized Holiday Grocery Shopping List

How to Plan Enough Time for Holiday Baking By Organizing Your Kitchen

Family Favorite Holiday Recipes

Everyone has favorite which bring the holiday season to life for them. One of my grandsons always wants his Mom’s White Fudge and Haystacks. I think he could eat them every day in December. Try to accommodate family members with special requests to keep that holiday spirit alive in their memories.

Traditional favorite recipes like Christmas Magic Cookie Bars, everyone’s favorite fudge or in my case my hubby’s Snowball Cookies are always expected. I like to fulfill those expectations of favorite baked goodies from my kitchen so those will likely always make the Christmas baking list. See How To Do Batch Baking For the Holidays.

Bake Holiday Recipes With Similar Ingredients

One really good way to select recipes and make the process of Christmas baking easier is to select recipes with similar ingredients. This saves on planning and budgeting the groceries too. Most baked goods actually do have very similar ingredients, just in different amounts, mixed in different ways. See How To Make An Organized Holiday Grocery Shopping List. Grab the free printable Christmas Cooking Set below.

Cookbooks on a shelf — Selecting holiday recipes begins with a cup of hot cocoa and my cookbook collection.

Common Christmas Baking Ingredients

Sugar
Butter
Flour
Chocolate Chips
Baker’s chocolate
Vanilla extract
Peppermint extract
Cocoa powder
Candy canes
Brown sugar
Confectioners sugar
Yeast
Baking soda
Baking powder
Eggs
Milk
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Pecans or Walnuts

Plan Ahead and Make Freezable Baked Goods

Using your freezer to bake ahead is smart and allows you to create more variety because you have saved time. There is only so much you can bake, in reality. There are other aspects of the holiday season we want to enjoy besides being in the kitchen all of the time. See How To Freeze and Thaw Baked Goods for more ideas and tips on the topic.

Recipe Cheats Save Time

We all see ourselves as Little Miss Suzy Homemaker when we are making gifts from the kitchen. But let’s face it, there are only so many hours in a day. Pick and choose those recipes you will make from scratch and those you are willing to use some recipe cheats for. Cake mix cookies are a good example of a recipe cheat.

Baking sugar cookies from the grocery Dairy section and then decorating them your way is a nice recipe cheat. Don’t be ashamed to use it!

Special Diets and Allergies

If you are baking for someone with peanut or other food allergies, I recommend doing a search on Pinterest where you will find a plethora of ideas.

Special diets like low carb can also be found on Pinterest. Admittedly, low carb desserts leave a little something to be desired but I do admire folks who stick to their diet. We have a Low Carb Recipes Board you can follow and find hundreds of recipes.