Coating

• Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside

Cookies

• Heat oven to 375°F for conventional or 350°F for convection. Line baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.
• Whisk together all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add butterscotch and white chocolate chips and mix to coat.
• In a separate bowl cream together pumpkin puree and sugars, add melted butter and mix thoroughly. Add vanilla and mix well.
• Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Scoop about 1 ½ tablespoons of the dough and roll to form a ball, roll ball in the coating sugar and place on baking sheets. Using your hand or a glass with a flat bottom, slightly flatten the balls into disks. Carefully dip the flattened cookies in the coating mixture again and return to baking sheets leaving about 2” between them.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until slightly puffed and lightly golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cookies cool on the baking pan for about 3 minutes. Using a spatula transfer cookies to a wire rack to completely cool before storing in an air tight container.

Cookies

• Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add sugar and molasses. Continue heating until the sugar is completely dissolved stirring often. Add salt and spices and stir to combine. Remove from heat and place in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature before beating in the egg.
• Whisk dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to the molasses mixture stirring to completely combine.
• Divide the dough in half and form each half into a thick rectangle. Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for at least an hour to chill. The dough is a bit sticky and needs to be completely chilled to roll.
• Heat oven to 350°F and line several baking trays with parchment paper.
• Work with one half of the dough at a time, rolling dough out on a floured surface to 1/8” or ¼”. Dip cutters in flour and cut out shapes as close to each other as possible. Roll scraps into a ball and place back in the fridge to chill before rerolling.
• Bake cookies for 8 to 12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Let the cookies cool for several minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to completely cool.

Icing

• In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and meringue powder. Add color if desired. Add water a teaspoon at a time until desired constancy for piping. If icing becomes too stiff and a few drops of water.
• Allow icing to dry for several hours before storing.

• Soak raisins and currents in spiced rum overnight in a non-reactive bowl with a lid
• In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Mix to combine. Add the soaked raisins, citrus peel, and almonds. Mix well.
• Add almond oil, butter, lard, and milk. Mix with hands until a dough is formed. Turn out on to a lightly floured board and knead for about 5 minutes. Return dough ball to bowl and cover with a tea towel. Allow to rise for 1 hour.
• Knead well again and let rise for another hour.
• Slightly flatten the ball of dough into a circle and divide in two. Working with one half at a time roll the dough into an oval about 1" thick. Use your hands to tighten up the edges if necessary. Fold the oval in half the long way (like a taco shell) bending it so the top is held back and not even with the bottom. Transfer the lugs to a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with a tea towel. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes.
• While the dough is resting heat the oven to 350°F. Bake for one hour, cover with foil if necessary to prevent burning. Stollen should have a nice dark color but not be burnt.
• After baking, allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack. Brush warm lugs with the melted butter and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
• When lugs are mostly cooled, brush again with melted butter and heavily dust with powdered sugar. When loaves are completely cool, wrap tightly in plastic wrap or foil.
• Stollen should be held for 2 weeks before serving.

Cookies

• Preheat the oven to 375°F and line 2 baking trays with silpats or parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
• In a large bowl with a hand mixer cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice and beat to combine.
• Stir in the dry ingredients. Chill dough for 30 minutes.
• Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon drop the chilled dough on to the baking tray spacing about 2” apart. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until slightly golden at the edges.
• Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to completely cool.

Glaze

• While the cookies are cooling combine the confectioners’ sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a small bowl and stir until smooth.
• Dip the tops of the cooled cookies into the glaze and return them to the wire rack. Sprinkle cookies with sprinkles or sanding sugar if desired.
• Let the glaze harden for several hours to prevent sticking. Store in an airtight container.

• In a small bowl or measuring cup, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside to bloom.
• In a large bowl mix scalded milk, sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs. Add two cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture and stir.
• Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Place in well-greased bowl, in a warm location out of drafts and cover with a tea towel. Let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
• When doubled, punch down dough.
• Roll out on flour surface into a 15×9 inch rectangle.
• Spread the dough with the jam stopping several inches away from one of the long edges in order to seal the roll. Evenly sprinkle the dried cranberries and cinnamon over the jam.
• Roll the dough into a log and pinch to seal.
• Spray a 13″ x 9″ baking dish with non-stick spray.
• Cut the log in to 1½ slices and evenly space them in the baking dish. Cover and allow to rise for another hour or until doubled in size.
• While the rolls are rising, heat your oven to 350° F.
• Bake the rolls for 25 to 30 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to cool.

Icing

• Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl, add the almond extract and only enough water to make a thin icing. Drizzle over the rolls with a spoon or piping bag, sprinkle with slivered almonds, and enjoy!

• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add extracts and orange zest.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• Mix in dry ingredients about a third at a time until incorporated (dough will be a little crumbly but not dry).
• Stir in white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and pecans.
• Drop by rounded spoonfuls on to a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet (I roll my dough into 1 ¼” balls for more uniform cookies). Allow your baking sheets to cool a bit between batches (placing dough on a hot baking sheet causes the cookies to flatten out too much).
• Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden. Cool cookies for 2 minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cake

• Position a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350° F. Butter two 8″ round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. (trace around the outside of the pan with a pencil).
• Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, sift together by mixing with a whisk.
• Cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very soft and light. Beat in the vanilla.
• Whisk together the egg whites and milk by hand in a medium mixing bowl until just combined.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-quarter of the flour mixture, then one-third of the milk mixture, stopping and scraping down the bowl and beater after each addition.
• Beat in another quarter of the flour, then another third of the milk mixture. Scrape again. Repeat with another quarter of the flour and the remaining milk mixture; scrape. Finally, beat in the remaining flour mixture.
• Pour the batter into two mixing bowl dividing it evenly.
• Add 6 – 8 drops of peppermint oil to one half, and 5 – 6 drops of red gel paste to the other.
• Using a quarter cup scoop for each half of the batter, place a scoop of the white batter in the center of each pan. Drop a scoop of the red into the center of the white batter. Alternate between the two colors dropping the batter into the center of the last color until all the batter is gone. Don’t worry if it is not exact. Lightly tap the pans on the counter to help the batter even out.
• Bake the layers for about 30 to 35 minutes, until they are well risen and firm and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.
• Cool the layers in the pans on racks for 5 minutes, then turn out onto racks to completely cool.

Ganache Frosting

• Place chocolate pieces in a mixing bowl.
• Heat the cream in a sauce pan until it just begins to boil. Pour hot cream over chocolate and slowly mix (the heat from the cream will melt the chocolate). When the mixture becomes smooth and creamy add the butter and mix well.
• Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.
• When the chocolate mixture is room temperature place it in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. On low-speed add the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time. Add the meringue powder. Increase the speed of the mixer to high, and whip for 5 to 8 minutes, or until stiff peaks form (Frosting will double in volume and take on a silky appearance).

Assemble

• Level the tops of the cakes if needed with a sharp knife by slicing off the “hump” in the center if need be. Spread a layer of frosting on top of both layers.
• Put a small dab of frosting on the center of your cake circle or plate (this will prevent sliding) and place the first layer over it. Turn the second layer over and place it frosting side down on top of the first to create a sandwich. Using a gentle twisting motion shift the top layer to make sure the two are evenly stacked and the top of the cake is level.
• Cover the top of the cake with a layer of frosting.
• Frost the sides of the cake. Once the entire cake is covered with an even layer, use the tip of your knife add peaks and swirls (Remember ganache frosting is chocolate and dries with a thin hard shell, so make sure to work in all the swirls you want before it sets, do not try to go back into the frosting with your knife once it is set up).
• Dust the top with some crushed candy canes. Arrange some canes to create a topper for your cake. Dust with CK Disco Dust or Edible Glitter for some added magic.

Dough

• Cream together the sugars and butter. Beat in the vanilla, orange zest, and egg until fluffy. Fold in the flour and salt just until a soft dough forms. Cover and chill the dough for about an hour.
• While the dough is cooling you can make the filling.

Filling

• Beat all ingredients together until smooth, fluffy and easily spreadable.

Icing

• Whisk ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Using a piping bag or spoon drizzle the icing over the cookies.

Assemble

• Remove dough from the refrigerator, lightly dust with flour, and roll between two pieces of plastic wrap to about a 12″ x 16″ rectangle. Gently remove the top layer of plastic and spread the filling evenly over the dough.
• Using the bottom piece of plastic wrap, gently roll the dough into a log trying to prevent air pockets.
• Wrap the roll of filled dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours (once you have wrapped the dough you can gently work it in to an even shape).
• While the dough is chilling, heat your oven to 350° F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• When dough has chilled, unwrap and slice into 1/4″ pieces and place at least 1″ apart on your prepared baking sheet.
• Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden. Place cookies on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
• Using a piping bag or spoon to drizzle icing over cookies. Allow icing to set up until firm and not sticky before storing.
• Tip: To easily drizzle icing over a large number of cookies, line them up on wire racks over wax paper. You can then pipe the icing back and forth over the entire row at once.