I have a confession to make….I’m a pastry chef who has just started her Christmas baking.

You may wonder how is it that I just started? Chalk it up to the luxury of having the time to do it last minute as I have few distractions at the moment. I am also participating in a bake exchange with friends so it’s time to get crackalackin’ on some baking.

Together with my Mom (yes even pastry chefs need help with baking from time to time) we planned out what we wanted to make and split the work.  Along with the traditional mince tarts, whipped shortbread, and sugar cookies, we also included butter tarts, poppycock and gingersnaps.

Here’s what I am responsible for: butter tarts (yes, I stuck with tradition and made them full to the brim with raisins. And I’ll have you know I was grossed out by the raisins the whole time) mince tarts, chocolate pecan tarts, poppycock (is it just me or is that a dirty sounding word?) cranberry lemon loaves and my version of Ferrero Rocher.

I am a firm believer in using high quality ingredients in baking and if an ingredient is going to taste that much better by taking it that extra mile and tweaking it to help bring out it’s full potential, I’m all over that too. For example:

Vanilla extract – I make my own using fresh vanilla beans. I loathe fake vanilla and I even went to the extent of making my mother pour out her fake stuff and replace it with my real stuff ( my poor mother, but honestly she had artificial vanilla and her daughter is a pastry chef. What would the neighbors say?)

Nuts – Every nut I use, I always toast.  Even coconut. Toasting helps bring out their natural oils which is what makes them more flavourful.  When a recipe calls for walnuts, I usually substitute with pecans because I like them better. When I have toasted hazelnuts, I rubbed them against each other to take off their husks. When I store nuts, I keep them in the freezer as it slows the nuts from turning rancid. I also try to buy nuts, not in bulk, but in smaller quantities, already packaged. Again, to avoid encountering rancid nuts.

Pie dough – I make pie dough using vegetable shortening and instead of ice water for the liquid, I use iced 7-up, Sprite, or Ginger-ale.  I find the carbonization in the soda helps make the pie dough extra flakey and the lemon/ginger flavour of the drink leaves a nice somewhat lemony taste behind.

Mince tarts – Not a huge fan of mince tarts, but I do enjoy one every Christmas. I also love the smell of mince baking.  The best mince filling I have found is the President Choice no suet/no alcohol version from Superstore/Loblaws. However, I do Annaify it by adding some crab apples and plum jelly.  The additions seem to add a tanginess and mellowness at the same time and makes a really good mince tart. A good friend of mine uses green tomatoes in her mince filling. That would be interesting to try.

Butter tarts – The recipe I use is one from my Grandmother.  It was further improved by my mother.  Her recipe calls for toasted coconut and soak the raisins in hot water to make them plump before adding them to the tarts shells.  Because of my heated dislike of raisins, I have further modified the recipe by adding dried cranberries instead of the raisins.  However this time, I used the raisins because it’s tradition.( I just pick out the raisins when I eat one.  It leaves me with sticky fingers though)

Chocolate pecan tarts – Along with toasting the pecans, I used a milk couverture chocolate. A couverture chocolate is a more expensive type of chocolate.  It has a smoother finish as the cocoa butter has been left in the chocolate and its been further developed.  A good way to tell quality chocolate from bad chocolate is; look for a percentage on the packaging. If your buying in bulk, it’s probably not couverture but chocolate coating. Also, the quality will be reflected in the price.  If you are able to purchase a 3 foot chocolate Santa from Walmart for $5.95, chances are, your buying bad chocolate.

Unsalted butter, and 34 to 36% cream – Pastry chefs are usually making large quantities of baked goods, so when a recipe calls for butter, we use unsalted butter, or sweet butter.  If we were to use salted butter, the end product would be way too salty.  When I bake at home, I use unsalted butter.  It’s more expensive then salted, way more then margarine or shortening, but the flavour it gives your products just can not be beat.  I can always tell with the first bite if someone has used shortening instead of butter. When a recipe calls for milk, I use cream and not the 10% coffee, but the heavy 34% or 36% cream.  When I do have to use milk, it’s always 2%.  Rarely 1% and never skim milk, unless it’s a diabetic dessert.

Maple syrup -I’m a snob when it comes to maple syrup.  Maybe it’s because my in-laws (Pat and Val) spoil us with Ontario artisan maple syrup they bring us each year from their neighbors maple trees.  The darker and more smoky the syrup is, the happier I am. It’s to the point where I don’t order anything in restaurants that would call for maple syrup because the fake stuff is truly dreadful and I’m unhappy with the results.  If I could get away with it, I’d bring my own bottle, but somehow that seems tacky.  I even have the good stuff on my Eggo’s.

Liquor – Pastry shops do have the best liquor cabinets in a commercial kitchen. On any given day we will have Grand Marnier, Baily’s , Kahlua, Rum (both dark and white) Brandy, a white wine of some sort, Kirche, Calvados, and sometimes Champagne. Yes, we use every last drop of it (and no, not all at once, although there was this one time…never mind). Rule of thumb when using liquor in baking, if a recipe calls for something with an alcohol name in the title such as rumballs, use good quality rum as the dessert will taste like it. When using wine to bake with, don’t use “cooking wine”  Get yourself a decent bottle, just remember, the alcohol will burn off if the dessert is to be baked.

With the holiday season upon us once again, anytime spent on Christmas baking is usually focused on desserts we only see this time of year. I do, however have a list of desserts that I am not making this year in which I don’t miss. They are as follows:

Gingerbread anything – This includes ginger bread men/women, gingerbread cake and gingerbread houses.

Yule logs – They were hugely popular at Anna’s Indulgence, but very messy to make, and incredibility time consuming. I also don’t miss the meringue mushrooms that are used to decorate a traditional yule log.

Candy-cane anything – I don’t like candy-canes, and I’m not a big mint flavoured anything kinda gal.

Fruit cake and steam pudding – I have never liked either and over the years, the demand for them seems to be dying. I say good riddance.

Well it’s time to end this post. Besides I think I hear a cup of coffee and a chocolate pecan tart calling my name. Have a great Christmas and may your New Years be safe and warm! Until next year!