I don’t do a lot of baking for Christmas. I don’t make cookies because it’s just me here and I don’t need 4 dozen cookies sitting around. :) But there are two things I like to make and bring to my parents for Christmas Day celebrations, so I thought I’d share them with you!
The first one—which you see above in its unbaked state—are these Crumble Bars, from Ina Garten. She uses raspberry jam in hers but I’ve found any type works as long as it’s good jam and not like, basic store brand jam. I use Stonewall Kitchen a lot of the time, or Trader Joe’s preserves. The other tweak I make to the recipe is I don’t use sliced almonds. The granola I use does have almonds in them—you can see them in the photo—and if people want it, they can eat it, if they don’t, no biggie. :)
The second are Ina’s Hermit Bars. These are basically like gingerbread but cut like biscotti, so they’re really good and easy to make. I don’t do the glaze because I don’t need any more sugar in my life. These are great and people really like them! I also don’t chop up the crystallized ginger unless it comes in really big chunks like mine does this year. If you get it in the spice aisle in the jars, it usually comes in fairly small bits so you can just add them whole. The other great thing about the hermit bars is that you can make them ahead of time. I’ll make them tomorrow, wrap them in plastic wrap in the fridge, then bring them to room temp and slice them on Thursday before I go to my parents.
Happy baking!