Christmas Baking...

Leading up to Christmas I had been eating healthy, so the week of Christmas I started researching all of the yummy treats I wanted to make for Christmas! I was going to make sure to enjoy the weekend, not only with our families, but with FOOD!! Here are a few of the "treats" I made.

Christmas morning we had thought about doing cinnamon rolls, since they are quick and easy, but then Andy came up with the idea to make Monkey Bread. I'd never made it, so I searched the internet and found a great recipe. It was fun, because the whole family was able to help. After openning stockings we started making it. I would cut up the biscuits and Drew and Knox were able to shake them in a plastic bag with cinnamon and sugar to coat them. It was great to have an easy recipe, that we could all work on together. I think it may be our new Christmas breakfast tradition.

I thought a fun appetizer for the day would be baked Brie. It was SOOOO good! There are many different ways to make it. I chose to make mine with raisins and nectarine preserves. You basically take the puff pastries, brush on butter, put preserves on the top of the Brie and put it face down, throw some raisins on, and close the pastry. We served it with baguettes and crackers.

Here's the Brie after eating half of it. I forgot to take a picture before we started eating! It was hard to wait!



For dessert on Christmas day I wanted to try something new. I found a recipe for chocolate ganache. It looked so pretty as a cake topping I decided to incorporate it into my dessert. I made a chocolate cake. I frosted it with chocolate, and filled the center with strawberries, homemade whipped cream, and ganache. I also coated the top with ganache and made a few chocolate covered strawberries to go on top. It was very rich, to say the least, but I enjoyed every bite. :)