I have been gluten free for almost two years now. In that time I have discovered that there are a lot of sawdust tastin’ turds out there disguised as gluten free cookies. Those are not the treats you are going to make this year.  You are going to make buttery, sugary, chocoately deliciousness. You can tell people they are gluten free, but they aren’t going to care. They’ll be too busy asking for more.

Many of the recipes I’ve love are naturally gluten free. They don’t call for xantham gum or lecithin–things I feel weird about buying.  They are old recipes based on nuts or egg whites or cooked sugar. Some you might have made for Christmases past, some you might have never heard of. I ordered this list from most familiar to least, but all of them are delicious.

1. ENGLISH TOFFEE: It simply would not be Christmas without a batch of english toffee. It is quick, simple, and everyone loves it. You cannot go wrong with the old favorites. And look I happen to have a recipe for english toffee right here.

2. MARSHMALLOWS: We are making peppermint marshmallows for my kids’ classmates this year. Making marshmallows is strangely magical. You start with a little sugar and gelatin and end up with fluffy sweet pillows. The image above is from a Martha Stewart recipe for peppermint marshmallows, but they can be flavored in a thousand different ways: toasted coconut, dulce de leche, coffee, anything!

3. CARAMELS: Every Christmas I make an absurd number of caramels and give them to my friends and family (and mailman and yoga instructor and neighbors and anyone else I know). The Martha Stewart recipes have not failed me yet. The gingerbread caramels are my favorite, but the chocolate ones are lovely, and the golden caramels are even better flecked with crunch salt.

4. FRENCH MACARONS: This is the hardest recipe to make on the list, but well worth the effort. Last year I made peppermint, chocolate, and lemon ones for Christmas. The ones pictured above are my favorite to date: vanilla macarons filled with mascarpone cheese and boysenberry jam. Whatever flavor you make, do yourself a favor and follow the recipe and tutorial on the Not So Humble Pie blog. It is excellent.

5. SUGAR PLUMS: We go from the hardest recipe to the easiest. Dead easy.  I don’t know if these are what sugar plums actually are–does anyone know?–but they are delicious. Almonds and orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg, apricots and dates. They taste like Christmas. They are gluten free, no bake, and vegan to boot.

6. BASLER BRUNSLI: These swiss cookies are simple and sophisticated. It is an almond based cookie held together with egg whites and melted chocolate, and flavored with cinnamon and cloves. They don’t spread at all when baked, making them perfect for your cookie cutter collection. This beautiful photo of basler brunsli is from a lovely greek blog.

7. CINNAMON STARS: Even though these German cookies have many of the same ingredients as Basler Brunsli, they are somehow completely different. Nut based and flavored with lemon zest and cinnamon, they are brushed with a meringue before they are baked. When you bite into one you get a little crunch from the meringue, but then it gives way to the chewy, cinnamon-y cookie below.

8. DACQUOISE: Dacquoise is just a word for a nut based meringue. You can have hazelnut, almond, pistachio, or pecan dacquoise–any nut will do. Usually you make a dacquoise cake layered with pastry cream and chocolate. Dacquoise is incredibly versatile and quite simple. I think it’s strange it’s not more well known. These little hazelnut dacquoise cookies sandwiched together with chocolate ganache are just right for Christmas.

9. DUTCH CREAM TRUFFLES: I haven’t made these yet, but they are on my list this year. Dutch cream truffles are made by whipping butter, then adding a mixture of cream, vanilla, and sugar that has been warmed until sugar dissolves and then cooled. This sweet cream cloud is then shaped, frozen, dipped in chocolate, and rolled in cocoa. I mean seriously.

I found the recipe in the book Sugar and Spice by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra. The book is absolutely amazing. Chock full of sweets from around the world and half–if not more–are naturally gluten free. If you love making desserts of all kinds, you must check this book out.

10. CALISSONS: I have never tasted a calisson, but the recipe intrigues me. Traditionally it is made by grinding almonds, candied melon, and adding orange flower water to make a paste. Then it’s rolled out, cut into shapes, and frosted with royal icing. Doesn’t it sound amazing? And there are many variations, like orange and ginger calissons pictured above in an amazing photograph from the French blog, Carnets Parisiens.

That’s it! Well really there are so many more, but it’s a start. Are any of these new to you? Do you have any naturally gluten free treats on your Christmas cookie list this year? Have I made you hungry?

Abby from things for boys asked me to be a part of her Cooking the Books series. The idea is that we all have (or in my case check out from the library) an enormous amount of cookbooks, but we don’t always cook the recipes in them. I love a good kick in the pants challenge like this series! Head on over to Abby’s blog to see which book I picked from that huge stack!

The cookie baking blizzard came and went this year already (and weirdly, left no snow). All the butter! All the cream! All the chocolate! All the nuts and dried fruit! Okay, so the last one isn’t so exciting, but there was a lot of fruit and nuts in this house for a while. Panforte, anyone?

I don’t think I made any new recipes this year, which is odd.  No wait, I made one new recipe, but I can’t tell you because there are some of you out there getting it! Oh and the linzer cookies were new to me, but not terribly exciting. I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are the deets:

caramels: three kinds, all by martha, gingerbread, chocolate, and plain with sea salt on top

sugar plums: Honestly, I make these mostly because of the name. How could you pass up sugar plums at Christmas? These are spice filled, honey sweetened, date and almond laden-ed bits of christmas past. And they are vegan to boot.

hazelnut thumbprints: My daughter and I like these the best. This year I put a bit of ganache in the middle instead of the usual jam. Surprisingly, the jam is better, but no one has complained about the chocolate.

english toffee: I make this every christmas, but this year I got all fancy and cut it in squares instead of breaking it in pieces. You have to cut it when it’s not too hot and not too cool. And hey, it worked! Also, I ate all the ones that broke.

alfajores: These were a new addition to the cookie roster last year and I’ve been thinking about them since! Creamy, caramelicious dulce de leche sandwiched between two light, flaky cookies with a crunch of sugar on top. Bomb! And hey, I wrote up a recipe for you on Dana’s blog for her Sweets and Treats Christmas Countdown.

Oh and those linzers up there at the top of the page: wow, linzer cookies are kind of a pain in the butt. They just look so damn christmasy I had to make them. I used Karen DeMasco’s recipe from The Craft of Baking (a killer book by the way). It was chock full of orange peel and nutmeg and hazelnuts. The texture was perfect, but I wasn’t keen on the taste. It was almost too grown up and boring. Maybe a boozy filling would have made it grown up in a good way.

Gingerbread men too: well you have to make gingerbread men (look more instagraminess).

Merry Christmas everyone! We’re off to Grannyma’s. I’ll see you back here on Monday!

Today is the first day of advent! Did you make your advent calendar yet? We are still using the string of lights advent calendar I made a few years ago. I put activities in each of the little bulbs and I love it. I write up the activity the night before (surprise your kids, not yourself!) and all the projects keep me on task for christmas.  If cookies need to be made, or christmas cards written, or gifts wrapped it’s going to happen if it is in the advent calendar–the 4 and 6 year olds will demand it!

A friend of mine (hi Ellen!) asked me to write up a little list of activities she could use, so here they are! I divided them into effort needed, because sometimes you really need to drink some (spiked) eggnog while the kids watch a movie.

big projects

• make christmas cards
• pipe cleaner ornaments
• meringue snowmen
• bake cookies, cookies, cookies, and candy
• make a gingerbread house
• string cranberries and popcorn (or just cranberries, or dried cranberries and golden raisins, or whatever else is in your cupboard)
• borax snowflakes
• giant cardboard christmas trees
• make pine cone + peanut butter +bird seed feeders and watch the birds eat
• egg carton jingle bells

little projects

• make paper snowflakes (use coffee filters for easy cutting)
• write a letter to santa
• make gift tags
• make dried orange slices ornaments
• wrap presents
• deliver cookies to neighbors
• make jars of love
• make a gingerbread mobile (this is a quick project only if the cookies are already made, of course)
• make pomanders
• woven ornaments (these were a hit with my kids last year)

if it’s cold and snowy projects

• make snow angels
• go sledding (or have a whole sledding party!)
• make ice wreathes
• build a snow fort or a snowman
• have a picnic outside (with a thermos of hot chocolate and some cookies)
• go ice skating
• blow ice bubbles

phoning it in projects

• hot chocolate with marshmallows
• call grandma and grandpa
• dress up like an elf/santa/wise man/christmas tree
• dance to christmas music
• camp out under the tree (this may or may not be an easy one)
• color christmasy pictures–oh look I have a bunch right here
• look at pictures from christmases past
• I think one year I actually wrote down “eat christmas cookies” for an activity

for the whole family

• drive around looking at chrismtas lights
• dress up in your fanciest for dinner
• make popcorn and watch a christmas movie
• go see the nutcracker/christmas carol/holiday concert
• cut down a christmas tree/ put up your christmas tree
• decorate the tree!
• put up lights outside
• go for a evening walk

This list is my no means exhaustive. Some of these we do every year, some are new ones I’d like to try. Do you have any christmas activities or projects for advent? I’m always on the look out for good ones.

One of the nice things about blogs are the amazing tutorials and recipes that people share. One of the crappy things about having a blog is listening to the tutorial writer in your head narrating all the steps while you make something. Of course this only happens when my two toddlers aren’t screaming or banging or just being as loud as they can be for no reason, but when there is quiet that little voice in my head starts writing an informative and witty tutorial for whatever it is I might be doing at the time. So that’s why, out of the blue, I’m going to tell you how to make popcorn balls.

First make popcorn. Normally I hate popcorn, but it is quite a spectacle for the smaller set and we were stuck inside because of the rain.  We had it with tomato soup for lunch and there was a bunch leftover (how do you make just a little popcorn?). The recipe–Betty Crocker–says you should have 7 cups of popcorn to make popcorn balls–I think I had more, it just a big bowl full really. Be sure to pick all the unpopped kernels out or you will break a tooth on one. This is a good thing for kids to do while you deal with the blistering hot candy syrup.

Now put

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 tsp salt
and
1/4 cup butter

in a sauce pan. If you have a candy thermometer put it in the pan, if not have a small bowl full of ice water next to the stove. Cook the delicious butter and sugar mixture until it hits 250 degrees. This is hard ball stage and the syrup will form a hard ball (duh) when you drop it into the ice water. I broke my candy thermometer, so I had to use the ice water method and I just kept checking throughout.  It will color a little when it’s done and the ball shouldn’t be rock hard, but should give a little under pressure.

When it’s done, take it off the heat right away and add

1 tsp vanilla and
a couple drops of food color if you feel like it

It’s better to have these ready before you start so you don’t forget. Now pour the syrup all over the popcorn stirring quickly. It’s nice to have another person help at this point, but you can manage by yourself just fine. Let it cool a minute or two and make balls. If it’s sticky you can butter your hands a bit and then shape them. Voila! popcorn balls. I always remember these to be a halloween treat. I also remember them being enormous, but I made little ones for little hands. Remember to brush the little teeth when your done!