Yes, have started. Gotta love my freezer.

/t

Yes I've started. In September I start picking out cookie & candy recipes to try. The end of October / beginning of November I start baking. The cookies get stashed in the freezer.

I haven't started on any candies yet.

I'll probably start making cookie doughs this week and putting them in the freezer. Breads and cakes we bake a few days before we are attending the parties or seeing the people we are giving them as gifts to. NancyLouise

I'll be interested to see others' plans. I bake fruitcake the week after Halloween, so it can age and "steep" several weeks. The day after Thanksgiving I have always spent with my lifelong best friend baking her family's traditional Springerle cookies. Her son (now 21) and I have kept up the tradition since she passed away 3 years ago. My sisters and I will get together next week to make our families' favorites--potato candy and date/nut kolachi. Aside from those scheduled baking days, I bake as I can in December, starting with cookies that keep well, and I store each kind separate from others in airtight tins and containers.

I have already started. The weekend after Thanksgiving was Chex Mix and popcorn ball weekend. This weekend is kolachi...for some reason I have not tried date/nut, but I think I would prefer it over any of the homemade jams we use. My dear SIL from Korea always makes it and she uses fruit/jam filling. I'm less of a sweet, more of a savory person. I've gotten some of the cookie dough done and into the freezer.

I would love if either/both of you would share your kolachi dough and the date/nut filling. I want to make those sometime soon - for the first time.

Thanks in advance!
Teresa

This is our family favorite, which I had never seen anywhere else until a couple years ago when a co-worker brought some to the office. She rolled the dough into a rectangle, patted the filling on, and rolled and sliced like pinwheel cookies. Less labor intensive and just as tasty. Turns out her grandmother lived in Pennsylvania as mine had, so maybe this type is regional.

Grandma's Kolachi

Dough:
4 cups flour
1 lb cream cheese, softened
1 lb butter or margarine, softened

Filling:

2 10 oz. pkg pitted dates
2 10 oz. pkg walnuts

Mix cream cheese and butter together. Knead in flour. Form into small balls, about the size of small walnuts; chill on wax paper or parchment lined baking sheets. (we usually chill overnight.)

While dough is chilling, grind the dates and nuts together in meat grinder. (I use Grandma's old hand grinder clamped onto the edge of the counter, but have also used the meat grinder attachment on my KitchenAid mixer with the larger holes.)

When dough chilled thoroughly, remove dozen or so dough balls from refrigerator at a time. Working on board dusted well with confectioners' sugar, flatten each ball, pat on filling (it's too sticky to spread), roll, overlapping edges to enclose most of filling.

Bake 10 - 15 minutes in 375 degree oven until golden.

Store in airtight container. Keeps for two weeks.

The dough is savory and the filling is only mildly sweet, so the confectioner's sugar is just enough. I have to hide these from myself. They're great with tea or coffee for breakfast, all day for snacks, as well as dessert.

Enjoy! (Said as I hurry off to start a batch NOW.)

KOLACHE DOUGH

1 c. warm milk
3 1/2 c. flour
1 egg
1 pkg. dry yeast
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. butter, melted
1 tsp. salt

In a cup, put 1/3 cup warm milk and 1 teaspoon sugar, stir. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Let it stand and get bubbly.

Place flour in a large bowl. Make a depression in the center. Add warm milk, eggs, sugar, melted butter, salt and yeast mixture at once, mix and knead until smooth. Grease the dough ball, let rise again. Make dough balls about the size of a lime, roll out till about a half inch thick. Fill center with favorite homemade preserves and pull edges up.

Put 2" apart on a cookie sheet, let rise 10 minutes. Brush tops lightly with melted butter and bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees. When golden brown remove from oven and place on paper towels to cool. Brush tops with butter while kolaches are still hot.

My version is a little different. They are round pastries about the size of a doughnut, not sliced.

Jaktup, when you say "pull edges up" do you mean to completely encase the filling in the ball of dough?

And Empress, I like the way your co-worker thinks! I've made date/nut pinwheel cookies this way - so why not the kolaches?

Thank you both for providing these recipes!
Teresa

Thank you for the help. I guess it's time to start.

Jaktup, how far ahead do you make these or are they best eaten the same day?

They sound wonderful....

Nancy

I've made 10 mini loaves of Apple Cranberry Pecan Friendship bread for my Mom to give the aides who take care of my Dad. It tastes really delicious and is very easy to make - what more could I ask for?

I plan to make more quick breads, Lemon, Banana Nut, Orange Cranberry and more of the Friendship Breads too for gifts. I want to try the gingersnaps with lemon glaze recipe that I found and make a few Cinnamon Babkas as well. We'll see if I get all this baking done before Chritsmas...or not. Plus, I may have new neighbors moving in next door soon, so I know I will want to take them some bread and/or cookies.

Teresa

Teresa, would you share your Amish Friendship Bread starter? I know you bake to sell, so I will understand if you don't want to share it. I found a starter recipe online a little before Thanksgiving which I tried and it was a total failure.

The starter recipe I used is very simple:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 1/4 t. dry instant yeast or 1 package of regular active yeast

In a glass or crockery container (never use a metal bowl!) stir all together with a wooden or plastic spoon. Beat well until smooth and to incorporate air into the starter.

Cover with a clean cloth or kitchen tea towel and let sit out on the kitchen counter. This is Day 1.

Day 2-5 Stir the starter once a day and recover with cloth.

Day 6 Feed the starter with equal parts of flour, sugar, and milk. If you want to share the starter, use 1 1/2 cups of each, flour, sugar, and milk. If you want to keep less starter on hand and do not plan to share it, feed the starter with 1/4 to 1/2 cup each flour, sugar and milk. (I used the lesser amount.)

Day 7-9 Stir the starter once each day.

Day 10 Make a recipe using the starter; then give a cup full in a glass jar to some friends along with the instructions and a recipe for bread or cake.

If you plan not to give away any of the starter, you can take out a cup to make the bread or cake, then feed the starter with equal amounts of the flour, sugar, and milk.
Just be sure to feed the starter every 5 days and stir it each day between feedings, that's basically what you do to maintain the starter. I have read that you can freeze the starter in 1 cup amounts if you wish. Don't refrigerate the starter though.

Remember, there is sweetness in the starter, that is why I use less sugar in the bread recipe.

As with any sourdough starter, I do not overwhelm a small amount of starter with large amounts of the feed.

Here is the recipe for the Apple Cranberry Pecan/Walnut bread:

oven set to 325 degrees F

one large 9x5 loaf pan or 4-5 mini loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar

Apple Cranberry Pecan Friendship Bread

1 cup of the Friendship Bread starter
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon (use 1 1/2 t for a stronger cinnamon flavor)
2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (recipe calls for 1 cup sugar)
2 cup regular all-purpose flour
1 1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda

1/2 cup chopped or halved fresh cranberries
1/2 to 3/4 cup finely diced fresh apple
1/2 to 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans (or walnuts)

I mixed all in order in my mixer, stirring in the cranberries, apples, and pecans lastly just briefly to mix in well. Put in the pan(s) you are using. I used 4 non-stick mini loaf pans to make a nice size for gift giving.

Bake the large loaf at 325 for 1 hour. Bake the mini loaves at 325 for about 35 minutes, checking them at 30 minutes. When the loaves look dry-ish on the top and a toothpick inserted comes out with no wet batter on it, the loaves are done. Cool in pan about 5-10 minutes, then turn out on a rack to cool completely.

I really like the tartness of the fresh cranberries mixed into the sweet (but not too sweet) bread batter. When completely cooled and wrapped in plastic wrap, I will put a label on each mini loaf, freeze them, then put several loaves in a heavy zip bag.

The mini loaf is a good size for just about anyone, or you could give a trio of mini loaves of different breads to a larger family.

These breads would be great to have in the morning with breakfast, as a snack with a cup of tea or coffee, or put out on a holiday open house or brunch buffet.

There are lots of recipes on the web using this type of Friendship Starter. I will include a link with lots of variations. I plan to try a variation using the instant pudding that is part of so many recipes, but IMO it is just added expense and sweetness which may not be necessary. I think the use of less oil and added applesauce makes the bread nicely moist - with less fat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Friendship Bread Kitchen

Ahh, kolache! I just made a large batch last month for my son's B-day and do every year. Mine are also about the size of a doughnut, but the edges are not pulled up. Just plop filling(my faves are poppyseed and cheese/cream cheese)into the indentation, let rise, brush edges with egg, and bake. I'm half Czech, so had these a lot growing up...my mother liked prune filling and made the cheese filling with farmer's cheese. I just use cream cheese(always available).

My late mother-in-law always started her holiday baking as soon as the weather cooled in September, if not sooner. Her freezer was her best friend, and she knew how to pack items in there to keep them tasty. When she passed on this summer, I found the following treats in the freezers:

* coconut bon-bons
* chocolate covered cherries (my daughter's favorites)
* peanut clusters
* peanut butter cookies
* Snickerdoodles

I also found plenty of home-done corn and other vegetables, but that's not baking. :-)

Donna

Thank you so much, teresa. I wanted to make some to send to my 70 some year old bachelor cousin in PA who has no one left anymore except me to make goodies for him. Of course, I made the goodies for DH and I as well. Does the milk need to be warm or room temp? I will be making the Apple Cranberry Pecan Friendship bread for all of us.

I just add the milk cold from the fridge. Doesn't seem to hurt the starter at all. Remember not to ever put the starter in the fridge, though. If you have to be away and can't "tend" to it, just freeze a cup, then thaw at room temp and feed it, stir at least 5 days, and you can use a cup to bake with.

Teresa

Thank you!

Teresa nc, there are lots of ways to shape kolache. Here are my disasterous examples from two years ago! :)