Tips for Easy Holiday Baking

Every year at Christmas, my mothers kitchen turned into a cookie factory. Hundreds of cookies went through that oven, and yet, Mom was never that stressed about making them. Here are a few time saving tips that Mom always used to keep her holiday baking organized and simple.

Plan Ahead

Every year, Mom would sit down with her cookbooks and make a list of which holiday cookies and baked goods she wanted to bake that year. After making her list of choices, she would then make another list of all the ingredients that each recipe would contain. Using that second list, she would then figure out exactly how much of each ingredient she would need, like butter, flour or eggs. She then used that information to make her grocery list, so that she could get the right amount of everything. This helped to keep her from running out of ingredients, and having to make countless trips to the store.

Assess Your Cooking Utensils

Before you get started baking, get all of your baking utensils in one place. Measuring cups and spoons, cookie sheets, cake pans, cookie cutters, cooling racks, etc. should all be placed in one area where you have easy access to them. This is also a good time to make sure that you have all the utensils you will need. You don't want to get started baking and realize your missing your 1/2 cup measuring cup, or that you need a specific cake pan to make your cake. If you haven't used these utensils in some time, give them all a good washing before starting your baking.

Bake One Item At A Time

Never try and make three different varieties of cookies at one time. It's easy to get confused, and can cause more stress when baking. Not only do you have to make sure ingredients do not get mixed up, but you have to remember different cookie cooking times, deal with different oven temperatures, etc.

Pick one cookie to make, and work on that one cookie! Before you start your baking, get out all of the ingredients you will need for that particular recipe, and place them on your workspace. This way, your not constantly running around your kitchen in search of cookie ingredients.

Clean Up As You Go

As you bake your holiday cookies, wash your dishes and work spaces as you go. After a hard day of baking, no one wants to stand on their feet and wash a sink full of dishes. As you use an item, wash it. If you plan on washing the dishes in a dishwasher, rinse the item and place it in the dishwasher.

Cleaning up as you go not only helps prevent a big mess at the end of the day, but helps keep your work space free from clutter and easier to work on as well. It may take a little discipline to get in the habit of cleaning up your mess as you go, but it's definitely worth the effort.

These few tips will help make baking for the holidays a breeze, and much more enjoyable. And with all the time you will save, you can make more cookies for your friends and family to enjoy!