Holiday Baking Tips No. 2 and 3

2. Always use butter for the best flavor in your holiday baking. If you prefer to use margarine make sure to select products with 70-80% fat. Do not use reduced-fat spreads for cookies as they will spread too much and tend to stick to the cookie sheet. Butter makes cookie dough easier to roll out after refrigerating because it becomes firm when chilled so I always recommend using it for cut-out cookies.

3. When butter is too soft, cookies will spread too much. Soften butter by allowing it to sit at room temperature about 30-45 minutes before needed. I often soften it in the microwave using DEFROST and microwaving in 10-15 second increments. Go slowly the first few times so that butter doesn't melt. Once melted, use the butter for vegetables or other foods but not for baking.

Check back for more tips later this week!

Holiday Baking Tips

The holiday baking season has begun. Between now and December 25 I'll be posting helpful tips for successful baking.

Tip 1: Follow your recipe closely the first time you prepare it- you can make changes next time. Always use high quality ingredients like pure vanilla extract, unsalted butter and real chocolate. Measure accurately using stacking measuring cups for dry ingredients and clear measuring cups for liquid.

Let me know what your favorite cookies are.

Buttery Croissants

Whenever I'm in Phoenix there's always a new restaurant to visit. Yesterday I went to P. Croissant in Tempe and bought a dozen croissants. But not just any croissants, I selected a unique assortment.

When I entered the store I expected to find bakery cases full of a variety of buttery crescents but the cases were empty! Fortunately there were croissants just coming out of the oven. I got two each of their most popular, Bavarian custard, almond and chocolate. The remaining six were assorted and we are still decoding to see what we have.

P. Croissant makes 21 kinds of filled croissants and places a code in frosting on top of each. The box has a sheet that shows the different flavors. So far we've tried cinnamon apple, raspberry, and cinnamon apple. All were delicious.

The croissants are very light and delicate with a buttery flavor that isn't overly rich. We'll go back but next time we'll preorder!

www.pcroissant.com