All Things Considered Considers Packable Sweets

 

This afternoon, Michele Norris, host of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and I will be talking about packable sweets, goodies sturdy enough to travel.  We've got lots of tips for what to bake and how to pack what you've baked so that everything arrives crumbless whether it's going across the river to grandma's house or across the sea to far-flung family and friends. 

To get more tips and two packable recipes (including one for the Lenox Biscotti in the picture) emailed to you, click through to the ATC site. 

Photo by Alan Richardson

Comments

[Mary]

Thanks for the follow-up!Sounds like the bundt will be good to go.
Actually, my sister-in-law has a light fruitcake recipe that is actually *good*. I'm looking forward to hearing your radio defense. :-)

[RuthWells]

I made these biscotti during our summer-long fundraising cookie sale, and they were phenomenal. The corn meal adds a certain something that is hard to identify, but that definitely lifts these above ordinary biscotti. (Alan Richardson's photos are swooningly beautiful.)

[Dorie]

Mary, I don't think you have to worry about bacteria, unless you think your package will be bouncing around for a couple of weeks in a very hot place. Most well-wrapped butter cakes, like the sour cream bundt cake in the recipe, will keep at room temperature for 5 days or so. After that, they're more likely to get stale than they are to get moldy. And about that dreaded fruitcake -- when it gets closer to Christmas, I'll be talking about it. I'm not sure how to break this to you, but I'm a fan! Made right, I think fruitcake can be swell.

[Mary]

Thanks for the helpful advice on NPR. I'm very tempted to make and send mini-bundts using your delicious-sounding recipe, but then I got to thinking about bacteria growing in un-refigerated baked goods while they're in the mail. Would a tablespoon or two of vodka added to the batter be enough to help preserve the cake? I don't *really* want to resort to a dreaded fruitcake...

[Maria]

Dorie-
Hi. I listened to your interview on the radio. It was wonderful!! Thanks for the great tips. I can't wait to start my holiday baking.

[Dorie]

Maria, I love that you're going to send cookies for the holidays. Can there be a better gift?

Colleen, it's funny, last night we had both the chocolate and the spice cookies from the Bon Appetit article. I had leftover dough in the freezer, defrosted it, rolled it out and we had the cookies with homemade chocolate-chip ice cream -- a great hit. You could easily roll the dough into logs and make slice-and-bake cookies, but I'm not sure how the dough would work in a press (I have a feeling it might be too heavy). Of course, you could try by just taking a small hunk of dough and putting it through the press - it it doesn't work, you'll still have the lion's share of the dough to roll out (it's actually an easy-rolling dough) or shape into logs. I hope you enjoy the cookies no matter what method you use to shape them.

[Colleen]

Hi, Dorie - just read through your holiday cookie recipes in the December issue of Bon Appetit and they look wonderful, as always. My daughters are anxious to try out our new cookie press and I'm wondering how I would translate the Chocolate Roll-out Cookies to a cookie press...do any of the proportions need to change? Can I just form the dough into a log versus a disk and go from there? Or would I be better off sticking with these as roll-out cookies, and looking for a different chocolate-cinnamon cookie for the press? Any guidance would be appreciated - thanks for so many great recipes!

[Maria]

I need to put some cookie packages together in December so this will come in handy! I can't wait to see the recipes! Thanks!!