Make Your Christmas Baking Game Plan with the Holiday Headstart [Episode 8]

Heidi  0:50

Hey there friends, welcome back to the Holiday Headstart Podcast. Today we are talking about holiday baking and sharing tips to make it more manageable, and we have a headstart tip for managing your groceries.

 

Emily  1:01

Traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life. This week, Heidi has a tradition for Thanksgiving. Let’s hear it.

 

Heidi  1:10

This is a really simple tip that you can use to make a meaningful Thanksgiving decoration. All you need is a fake pumpkin. The size and style are totally up to you. I got a white pumpkin with gold lettering that says “thanks” on the front. Then on Thanksgiving, I have everyone who’s at dinner with us sign the pumpkin and add the year. I put the pumpkin out all November as part of my decor, and it’s been so fun to watch it fill up with names over the years. And it is pretty full now, and I kind of think we need a new one, so I will have to make sure and grab one before the Christmas decor totally takes over the fall decor.

 

Emily  1:46

Yeah, I do think that pumpkin is getting pretty full. We’d love to hear about your favorite traditions. Come join us on Instagram @theholidayheadstart.

 

Heidi  1:55

Now, Emily, I would not describe us as cooking people. Do you agree?

 

Emily  2:01

Unfortunately, no, cooking of any sort does not make my list of favorite things to do.

 

Heidi  2:06

Yeah, it is more of a necessary evil than anything enjoyable, but I do have a soft spot for Christmas baking.

 

Emily  2:14

Yeah, I vastly prefer baking to cooking, and I usually do enjoy it when I do it, but I just tend not to even think about baking unless it’s the holidays, and even then, I usually leave it too late and run out of time to do much baking at all.

 

Heidi  2:30

Been there. But growing up, I feel like all of the women we knew baked, probably because all the women we knew were moms. But the week or so before Christmas, the goodie plates would start arriving. Neighbors would fill up flimsy paper plates with an assortment of their holiday treats, and then our mom would send us out into the neighborhood to deliver plates full of her baking.

 

Emily  2:30

Yeah, she really spent a lot of December baking. It would be exciting to come home from school every day and see what new items she made that day. And we knew which neighbors had the treats we liked the best.

 

Heidi  3:03

Yes.

 

Emily  3:04

One lady down the street, you know who you are, made the best toffee, and not everybody got it, because toffee is labor intensive. So if you made the list of people that got toffee that year, you knew you were special. And the year that I lived with my parents, when we were building this house, I told that story. I said something to that sweet lady at church about her toffee and how I dream about it, and she made sure that we got Christmas toffee that year that I was living there. So good.

 

Heidi  3:33

I love it. That sounds like a plot point from like a Gilmore Girls episode or something. Did we get the toffee? Did we make the toffee list? It’s true!

 

Heidi  3:44

For years, I have fought my inclination to bake at Christmas because I really am not a baking person. And since I’m also not sending goodie plates out into the neighborhood, it just it leaves too many treats kicking around for weeks if you bake a bunch. But now that Emily’s kids are a little bit older, there are times when having Christmas cookies around is very handy.

 

Emily  4:05

It’s true. And I really am always glad when I do make the effort to make a few Christmasy items, because there’s just something about it. If Christmas passes and I didn’t have any of the Christmas treats that feel ,especially the homemade Christmas treats, that make it feel like Christmas. I just feel like I missed out a little on the season.

 

Heidi  4:25

Yeah, some of the tastes that we associate with Christmas are just so integral to our experience of the whole holiday. So I don’t want to skip it. I’m in this battle between wanting to make everything and make it in advance and freeze it so I know it’s taken care of, but I also kind of want that holiday magic of a late December afternoon spent in a cozy kitchen. I’ve got a great, beautiful view of the mountains for my kitchen, watch the sunset. I think, because anytime we would cook with mom, maybe, when we were growing up, it would only be really around Christmas, and it would be that time of day, kind of that magic hour. The light is purple and everything is soft and still.

 

Emily  5:00

Right.

 

Heidi  5:01

And so in the past couple years, I have tried to make all of the dough and freeze it, and then there were plenty of cookies. Arguably, probably too many cookies, but I just missed that magic of the baking experience around the holidays. And then last year, I did the opposite, where I waited for the perfect moment for the baking thought to strike, and then I’m scrambling because it’s December 22 and I haven’t made any haven’t made anything yet, and all the ingredients are spoiling. So my plan for this year—I’m going to try a hybrid model.

 

Emily  5:29

Okay, let’s hear it.

 

Heidi  5:30

Okay. I’m planning to make most things in advance, but save one recipe for the moment in December, when it feels like time to bake. And now that I have said this, I know what’s gonna happen. I’m gonna get so caught up in the special in the spiral of, oh, is this a moment or would another moment be better? Then I’m never gonna make anything!

 

Emily  5:54

As soon as you said it, I was like, you better get that on the calendar.

 

Heidi  5:58

I’m my own worst enemy.

 

Emily  6:01

So maybe it needs to be on the calendar, and then if another day seems better, you can always jump the gun. But like we talked about in last week’s episode, if it’s not on the calendar, very unlikely to happen. But then it could be moved on the calendar to whatever day suits your fancy. If there’s a better day.

 

Heidi  6:20

Okay, maybe I need to schedule one so I know I get some Christmas baking time, and then I will leave like a recipe that doesn’t really matter. If it doesn’t get done. I didn’t buy a bunch of special ingredients for it, and if the mood strikes later in the month, I can bake then.

 

Heidi  6:36

yes, I think that’s a good idea.

 

Heidi  6:37

I had no idea baking was such a psychological exercise.

 

Emily  6:42

I think probably for people like us who don’t bake very often, so it does feel like an ordeal when we do it. And we’re also perfectionists, and we love Christmas so much that it is all about like the perfect moment, and the playlist that’s on, and the weather outside, and how’s the sun setting, we want the whole scene, and that makes it have a lot more pressure. I’m hearing us right now, and I’m like, Who are we? What is wrong with us? Hopefully we have attracted some listeners who are also Christmas aficionados, who will appreciate what we’re bringing to the table here.

 

Heidi  7:24

The mental gymnastics that go into a batch cookies.

 

Emily  7:26

Yeah, go figure.

 

Heidi  7:28

Well, let’s work on making our baking plan for the season. And since we have already kind of discussed our preferences and what we’re going for this year, we can move into the second step, which is listing our favorite recipes. All this is broken down in the Holiday Headstart Playbook, and you could follow along if you have those pages.

 

Heidi  7:28

Yes, you can grab that at theholidayheadstart.com/playbook but if you don’t have the playbook, just grab a notebook and you can make this list with us as we go.

 

Heidi  7:58

Okay, so Emily, let’s start by listing our baking favorites. What are your favorite holiday recipes? Grammy shortbread.

 

Emily  8:04

Yes, Grammy shortbread. Our grandmother was from Scotland, and growing up, having warm, fresh shortbread was a huge part of Christmas to us and and other times of the year, but especially at Christmas. So we can’t have a Christmas without shortbread.

 

Heidi  8:24

Any other favorites?

 

Emily  8:26

Well, I love that Christmas crack. That’s like, I hate calling it that, but it’s that, you know, chex mix, coconuts, M&M’s, that little delicious…

 

Heidi  8:40

It’s almost like a trail mix, but it’s…

 

Emily  8:43

But it’s got the Karo syrup kind of stuff on it that, like, holds it all together. This is the worst description ever. This is the problem with talking about something that you want to see when we’re on a podcast. But I feel like a year that I don’t make that I’m bummed out after, like, I I want that. I used to have a neighbor that always made it so that then I could just at least have hers, but she moved so I got to make sure I make it myself.

 

Heidi  9:11

Yeah, that is a good one.

 

Emily  9:12

What about you, Heidi?

 

Heidi  9:13

Well, I tried to think of like, the flavors that are Christmassy to me. Peppermint’s an obvious one, and orange. And a few years ago, I started making these, like, ricotta cookies with chopped up chocolate orange in it.

 

Emily  9:27

It’s good. I love those cookies.

 

Heidi  9:28

Yeah. So that’s kind of become Christmasy to me. So I need to make those. And I want to make some peppermint, like, white chocolate peppermint. I found some, like, peppermint chips, so gonna give that a try. Ooh. But I guess instead of a favorite, that’s going to be our next one, which is like new recipes to try, and that’s going to be a new recipe for me to try. Is there anything else you’re wanting to try this season?

 

Emily  9:50

Well, I haven’t been looking at, like, cookie recipes or anything, so I don’t have one like ready to go, but it’s been a long time since I made peanut butter blossoms. And those feel very Christmassy to me. I don’t know if mom used to make them at Christmas, but I really like those. And I think my kids like those. It’s been a while since I’ve made them, so I might bring those back this year.

 

Heidi  10:12

That’s a good one. So then the next lists we need are any goodies that are needed for upcoming events. So I could think we do our book lunch. I like to have cookies for the kids to snack on, and I usually just make, like, chocolate cookies with Christmas M&M’s in them. So I do that. I’m trying to think of the other events we have that would need baking. I don’t know if this counts, but I need to make pancakes for our Grinch Breakfast for Dinner.

 

Emily  10:42

Yes, that counts as baking.

 

Heidi  10:44

Sure.

 

Emily  10:45

And I frequently forget about cookies for Santa until Christmas Eve at 8pm and then I’m scrounging for whatever the neighbors have given us that we can leave out for poor Santa. So I need to make sure that that’s part of my plans in December, to make sure that we either have dough we can pop and cook that night, or some already made cookies that we can leave for Santa.

 

Heidi  11:12

Yeah, that’s kind of a big one.

 

Emily  11:14

Yeah, kind of it’s weird how it has never been high on my list of things to remember, and it sneaks up on me every year. We don’t have any respect for the big guy, I guess.

 

Heidi  11:26

Okay, so let’s figure out our baking priorities. So starting with our favorites, our “gotta make” list. Shortbread. Cookies for Santa, obviously need to happen.

 

Emily  11:39

I’ll have to see, like, I need to make something that the kids will be excited about. So I’ll have to look at my recipes and see which ones they would be most excited about.

 

Heidi  11:49

Yeah. Or we could do some kind of, like, cookie decorating or something, if we want to do sugar cookies.

 

Emily  11:54

That’s true.

 

Heidi  11:55

But that’s going to take some thought.

 

Emily  11:57

Yeah, that’s a whole other ordeal, unfortunately, because that’s more of an activity than baking, in my mind, even though technically it’s baking. Same with the reindeer noses, for the reindeer games tradition. But I think of that more of an activity than baking, even though technically it’s baking together.

 

Heidi  12:17

Baking for all of like, three minutes, for the Rolos to get soft. But yeah, yeah, I’m the same way. I think of it as more of an activity than baking, although I probably need to think of it as baking so I can make sure to buy the stuff for it.

 

Emily  12:28

Yeah, you got to get those Christmas MM’s early, everyone. PSA, they go off the shelves fast.

 

Heidi  12:34

Yes. Okay, so thinking, so we’ve got our favorites of shortbread, something for the kids for Christmas Eve, and then baking that’s useful. So we’ve got reindeer noses, cookies for our book lunch, Grinch dinner. Oh, yeah, gotta have Grinch pancakes. And then anything else we would like to make. So I’d like to make my orange chocolate cookies, you might do peanut blossoms, unless you do that for Santa. Oh, your Christmas. Crack.

 

Emily  13:04

Yes. I think that’s a must do for me. I have had years in the past where I did a lot more Christmas baking when my kids were very little, or I had less kids, and it’s been a long time since then. In fact, I did a Christmas cookie exchange with my friends one year, where we all made cookies and then came and exchanged them. And it was so much fun, but I don’t remember what I made. So it’s so funny, I used to like, have a list of things that, to me, was like, Christmas baking, this feels like Christmas, and now I can’t remember. I do always love an empire biscuit, but I don’t make them. I only have them if mom makes them.

 

Heidi  13:40

100%. I made them once, and they were so much work, I’m never doing it again. So it’s, it’s a sandwich cookie, so you need double the cookies, right? There’s, and then the dough is a little bit finicky, yeah, and you have to put the jam on, and then you have to glaze them…

 

Emily  13:57

Mom, make us some Empire biscuits this year, please.

 

Heidi  14:01

I know in the past, she’s had at least one of your kids help her, like a grandma bonding activity.

 

Emily  14:06

That’s a good idea.

 

Heidi  14:08

Everyone wins.

 

Emily  14:09

Yes! Win, win, win! Okay, so I feel like it’s hard to fully fill out these priorities when I like, I’m not fully prepared for this conversation, because of my brain has not been in, like, holiday baking mode yet, but I’m gonna get into it and make my own priorities list and make sure that I’ve, like, figured out which—okay so the categories are your favorites, useful, would like to make, maybe make, and let it go. So I’m going to go through and see if I can figure out what needs to go in those categories for me. And maybe I won’t have to let anything go.

 

Heidi  14:47

Yeah, that would be fun, because then once you have your priorities done, you can go ahead and look at your make ahead list so you can make a plan for what what can be made and frozen as a finished item, what can be made and frozen as dough only, what things could be made ahead and refrigerated, things that could be shelf stable, or things that can’t be made in advance.

 

Heidi  15:08

So I’m thinking the white chocolate peppermint cookies and the chocolate M&M cookies, I can make and freeze both of those. And I think I will freeze them, because I could freeze those as dough, or I could freeze them as whole cookies. When you freeze it as dough, sometimes that affects how it bakes, but if you freeze the baked cookie, sometimes that affects the texture of the finished cookie. So there are some ups and downs, but I think I’m gonna, I’m gonna just bake them and have them frozen so I don’t have one more thing to be worrying about. And then the ricotta cookies with the orange chocolate, because it has that ricotta in there. I’m just not sure how it will freeze, especially as the dough. I think if I bake it and then it has like a glaze on it, but that’s easy, too. I think I will bake them and then freeze the whole cookie and then when it’s Christmas time, I can take them out and thaw them and glaze them.

 

Emily  15:55

That’s a good idea. And I have, I mean, I have, of course, frozen cookie dough before, but I don’t know that I ever have at the holidays, like in advance for the holidays, so I think I’m gonna make ahead at least, like one batch of cookies and see how I like having some frozen dough that I can just pull out on the day we want them, or pulling out a few at a time so that we can have hot cookies after dinner a couple different nights. I always like that. I was remembering mom used to make Rolo cookies, and those feel very Christmassy to me, where it’s like a Rolo inside of chocolate cookie dough, and then it’s like, rolled in, like, sugar. And that feels very Christmassy to me. And I think those, I think that dough would freeze well.

 

Heidi  16:39

I think you’re right, yeah, that sounds like a fun one.

 

Heidi  16:40

Maybe I’ll do that one.

 

Heidi  16:41

Yeah, love it. Okay, so we’ve got November and December to get some stuff baked.

 

Emily  16:48

Yes.

 

Heidi  16:49

I’m gonna try and get all of my baking done at least the week before Thanksgiving. So then I can just worry about Thanksgiving.

 

Emily  16:57

Yeah, you bear a lot of the cooking burden for Thanksgiving.

 

Heidi  17:01

And then I can just leave my magical cooking recipe—that’s what I need to figure out. Is like, what recipe do I want to leave for last minute.

 

Emily  17:11

Because it needs to be one that, like, worst case scenario, if it didn’t happen because of something, you won’t be devastated. But also, if you get the chance to do it, you’ll be delighted to have it.

 

Heidi  17:21

Yes, it’s gonna be…Stay tuned, everyone! This is breaking news.

 

Emily  17:29

Yes, I don’t have a plan yet, but I will. I’m gonna look at the calendar and see like when would be a good time to get at least one batch of cookies in the freezer, and then maybe make, make a plan for something that, if there’s time, I will also make in December with like, do like, if there’s an opportunity with the kids to cook something, you know, figure out what that would be. But also, like you, not be devastated if it doesn’t happen. So I’ll have to figure that out.

 

Heidi  17:56

Worst case scenario, we just pull out all the Green M&M’s out of the mix and just have red M&M’s and call it a Valentine cookie.

 

Emily  18:02

Yeah. I like it. Let’s do it.

 

Heidi  18:05

We would love to hear your baking plan. If you have some tips for us, clearly, novices at Christmas baking.

 

Emily  18:13

I know if you’re a serious Christmas Baker, you’re probably cringing through this whole conversation. You probably have a whole system.

 

Heidi  18:20

Yes, so please let us know what we’re forgetting, and we would love to hear all about the cookies that you have to have at Christmas, because it’s just not the holidays without them. You can connect with us at Instagram @theholidayheadstart.

 

Emily  18:32

Now it’s time for a Get a Head Start Tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday planning. This week’s Get a Head Start Tip is list your upcoming grocery needs. Tell us more about it, Heidi.

 

Heidi  18:45

So for most people, our grocery lists for the next few months are going to be a little longer than any other time of year, and the place to start with making all of those lists is to make a list of your upcoming grocery needs. If you have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, this is the first exercise in the food section, but you can make this list on any sheet of paper. Start by taking a peek at your calendar and noting any upcoming event that requires food. Add that event to your list. And then consider the events that aren’t on the calendar and add those to your list as well.

 

Emily  19:18

In the playbook, we have a long list of suggestions to spark your ideas. You might need food for baking, of course, but also for care, packages, birthdays, food drives, guests, New Year’s Eve, road trip snacks, cold and flu supplies and so on.

 

Heidi  19:33

There is a lot going on the next few months. Once you have your list of upcoming events, use it to help you stay on top of your groceries each week.

 

Emily  19:42

If you have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, we walk you step by step through how to break this list of events down into individual grocery lists, and then how to get a jump on buying all of those groceries. You can find a link to the playbook in the show notes or at theholidayheadstart.com/playbook.

 

Emily  20:00

Now it’s time for what we’re working on this week. As a way to keep ourselves accountable and give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebration, we are sharing what we’re working on. Heidi, what are you working on this week?

 

Heidi  20:14

Well, obviously I got to start some baking. First. I’ve got to put my kitchen back together. I had to have a faucet replaced, and everything under the sink is all over my counters because there was some damage under the sink and all the things. So I gotta do that first, and then my goal is to get one recipe made and frozen this week. I’m saying that out loud, so I will hold myself to it. And now that I think about it, I think I need to start with the pancakes for our Grinch Breakfast for Dinner, because those are kind of the most important of any food I make. If I don’t get any other baking done, I can always buy cookies, but I can’t buy lime green pancakes anywhere.

 

Emily  20:54

That is true, and your pancake recipe is delicious.

 

Heidi  20:57

Thank you. It was mom’s recipe.

 

Emily  20:59

Yes, I know.

 

Heidi  21:01

But I will take credit for it. Emily, what are you working on this week?

 

Emily  21:06

I am doing a pantry inventory, because, since I bake so infrequently, I am sometimes just assuming that I have all the things I need, and then it’s like, oh no, this, this is empty or expired, or this brown sugar is rock hard, and every trick that I have tried (this has happened to me before) will not get this thing loosened up. So I do not want that to happen again this year, and I need to know which things I need to start buying. So first I gotta start with the inventory. So that’s the plan.

 

Heidi  21:39

Well, good thing there is an inventory sheet in the playbook, so you can write everything down right there.

 

Emily  21:44

I know the playbook is the reason that helped me remember that I needed to do it. I was like, Oh yeah, baking, yeah, baking supplies inventory, pantry inventory, I better do that! So thank you, playbook.

 

Heidi  21:55

Well, last year, we apparently both had brown sugar woes, because I have, I couldn’t even get it out of the canister. It was so bad. It’s like trying to microwave the, oh my gosh, yeah, it was, it was not good. So not doing that.

 

Heidi  22:10

To wrap up the show, we are sharing our nice list. Emily, what has made it on your nice list this week?

 

Emily  22:15

I’m giving extra credit to my flameless candles.

 

Heidi  22:17

Oh, yes!

 

Emily  22:18

I have a pretty set that looks so warm and realistic, I like that. It turns on at the same time of day and stays on for the number of hours that I choose. And as the days start to get shorter, I really appreciate the coziness of candles that just magically turn on on their own as the sun goes down.

 

Heidi  22:36

Emily, you gave me a set so I can enjoy that as well. I do need to change the batteries.

 

Emily  22:40

Me too. What’s on your nice list, Heidi?

 

Heidi  22:44

Okay, well, I’m adding the Hallmark Better Together characters to my nice list.

 

Emily  22:49

Oh, they’re so cute.

 

Heidi  22:50

They’re so cute. I don’t know if you’re familiar. They’re just these cute little plush characters that have magnets in their hands so they can stick together because they’re best friends, and they have iconic duos like peanut butter and jelly, and spaghetti and meatballs. And then there are sets that are like Disney characters and Harry Potter characters and stuff. And I know Target has something similar, but they are nowhere near this cute.

 

Emily  23:10

No, they’re not.

 

Heidi  23:11

I scoff at them. They’re so not as cute.

 

Emily  23:14

Stick to your birds target!

 

Heidi  23:16

So I have limited myself to only getting ones I could conceivably use at Valentine’s Day, because they’re, you know, together. They’re friends, like love on Valentine’s. And not that I have not gone completely overboard there, but, you know, I am holding a line. I’m only getting some. But then I even made the mistake of looking at the ones they have out right now, and the Christmas ones are so cute. And there’s this triple Thanksgiving set with turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

 

Emily  23:49

Alright. But here’s the thing, the ones that you got that would work for Valentine’s Day can just be for Valentine’s Day, and so you can have ones that are for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. And so I actually think you can enjoy these over more holidays, and they bring you so much joy that you absolutely do need Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

 

Heidi  24:09

You’re absolutely right. Emily, I’m so glad we had this conversation.

 

Emily  24:13

Me too. I’m glad I could help you see what really matters.

 

Heidi  24:18

Hallmark will also be really glad for this conversation.

 

Emily  24:21

Sponsor us, Hallmark!

 

Heidi  24:25

That’s it for today’s episode, start thinking about your baking plan for the next few months, and remember to make a list of your upcoming grocery needs.

 

Emily  24:33

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see you here again next week. If you enjoyed this interesting deep dive into baking and Hallmark characters, it would be so very helpful if you gave us a five star rating and a review on Apple podcasts. As a new podcast, we really need all of the positive promo that we can get.