So, all the baking I did over the holidays? I pretty much took no pictures. At all.

You’ll just have to take my word for it that things were delicious.

As usual, I made a lot of cookies. Although I tried some new recipes, I also made some favorites from last year, including cranberry oatmeal cookies and lemon coins. Unfortunately for Michael, I never got around to making any sort of peanut butter cookie. Luckily, my friend Sarah gave us some, so the holidays were saved!

But I also tried to branch out a bit this year, by adding different kinds of breads to the mix.

As I mentioned last week, the cranberry walnut bread recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum turned out extremely well. We’re currently eating the loaf I froze.

I also tried my hand at challah, using the recipe frmo the King Arthur Flour Baking Book. That also turned out very well, and the french toast Michael made from the second loaf was delicious.

For something slightly sweeter, I made pumpkin walnut bread, with the recipe from the Cook’s Illustrated Holiday Baking 2007 magazine. Actually, one of the reasons I made challah was because Grandmom can’t eat nuts, and I really wanted walnuts in my pumpkin bread. I ended up making three loaves of this bread, and although I’ve run out of fresh pumpkin, I’m going to pick up canned pumpkin from the store so I can make more of this bread. It was wonderful to snack on, and for a lazy weekend breakfast. (Plus it has pumpkin! And Nuts! That makes it healthy! Yay!)

The fourth type of bread I made was an Italian bread, this recipe also from the King Arthur Flour Baking book. The first loaf turned out extremely well, although the egg wash made a crush that Grandmom has a harder time eating. I left the egg wash off the next flour, and although it tasted fine, the color was extremely pale. I made another loaf over the weekend using white wheat flour, and that was a disappointment–the loaf hardly rose–so no more substituting white wheat flour in breads without more planning ahead and a better knowledge of making that substitution.

All in all, it was a fabulous holiday, and there were plenty of delicious baked goods to be had around here.