christmas goodie bags

instead of buying my coworkers gifts for the holidays, i like to bake. i think receiving something homemade is really special and means a lot - you know the person worked really hard and did it with good intention and of course thought about you when making it. it's so easy to buy a gift card or coffee mug for someone, but baking takes a lot more thought.

this year i kind of went crazy with the baking. i suppose i was a little ambitious (as usual), but everything turned out really great (if only i could say the same for christmas morning, my cinnamon rolls didn't rise and breakfast was a failure).


first i had to bake some vegan cookies for a holiday party. left to right: vegan chocolate chip cookies (a veganized version of betty crocker's recipe), vegan snickerdoodles (a veganized version of martha stewart's recipe), and vegan chocolate chip candy cane cookies (betty crocker + extra candy canes in my house)

then i used martha stewart's linzer cookie recipe for these pretty treats. most linzer recipes call for almonds, but martha uses hazelnuts. the taste is much more rich and nutty, but i think it's nice.

i was making three batches of gingerbread cinnamon rolls for my coworkers...

luckily i had the space in my fridge to store them!

they came out really nice. i topped them with a lemon icing - i added some lemon juice and a little zest to the normal icing recipe.

all wrapped up for gifts!

i also made some chocolate cherry muffins, but they didn't come out too great. i tried to make them in a christmas tree shaped muffin pan, but it's actually really hard to get pointy muffins out of a tin. i messed most of them up, so they were not picture worthy.

after all of this, i think i can safely say i'll be staying away from the kitchen for a while. well, not too long. my friend's birthday is in two days and i think i have to bake a cake...