I bagged baking early last night. I chocolate-glazed the Molly Wizenberg dried fruit balls, and I think they’re going to be really good this year; I used more prunes than figs, and Grand Marnier, and really good chocolate. I made the fruit cake gems, and I think I bought 1/4 inch larger bon bon cups, 1.25 in., instead of just 1, to bake them in, so they are not so cute and small as last year. I had a vat of fruitcake batter, ending up with 12 dozen larger gems, that packed into 2 full 5-qt. buckets this morning. Over abundance was a theme of the night – I had softened enough butter to go with 8 cups of flour to make the Mexican wedding cookies, and after I started mixing them – I got as far creaming the butter & sugar – I realized that my mixer doesn’t hold 8 cups of flour … and four cups of butter and 1 1/3 cups of sugar and 2 cups of ground pecans … I had to eyeball half the butter/sugar mixture, transfer it to another bowl, mix two half batches, and then finally combine them – had to mix with my hands – in one of my biggest bowls. So I thought I should knock off early for the night, before I did something stupid. On a happier note, the almond cinnamon stars that are new this year are really nice, and gluten- and dairy-free. I hope the pffernuse, also new this year, that I mixed up last night, will bake up as well.
Fruit & nut balls
Fruit Cake Gems
Not my shot but my stars are similar
