Christmas Baking Ideas for Large Quantity

I LOVE the peanut butter sandwiches made with Ritz crackers and coated in almond bark. SO easy and YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!! If you want to get fancy you can dip some in white and some in chocolate and the drizzle with the contrasting color....

I make chocolate revel bars they are soo good, also 7 layer bars are great bc you can change up the receipe with different layers.

Chex Mix Muddy Buddies - YUMMY and easy and fast with almost no mess to clean up.
http://www.chex.com/recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=4586...

Also, on a side note - my children and I are doing birdseed ornaments for gifts this year. We made some last week, and my toddlers had a great time helping. Its fun to hang them outside and watch the birds (or in our case squirrels) eat them. As an added bonus - they are SUPER cheap to make - much less expensive than baking.

http://www.saltwater-kids.com/2010/12/thrifty-gifts-bird-...

R., if you haven't made the cookies that Sarah C. suggested below... you have to do it! They are sooo good, sooo easy. I used to let my kids help me when they were younger. As she mentioned, make a Ritz cracker sandwich with peanut butter in the middle. Then you dip them in melted almond bark. Set them on wax paper to harden. You can have several bowls of almond bark that you have tinted various colors. Buy sprinkles in holiday shapes and put on right when you set them on the wax paper or drizzle them with colors as Sarah suggested.

They will be a hit.

S. - DFW Cake Decorating P.

Peppermint bark is easy and you can make a ton at once. Also, toffee. You can put melted chocolate on top of the toffee and top with crushed almonds. So yummy!

My friend has a blog called verycilinary.com. On it you'll find a bread recipe called A-Z bread. It's just a simple bread recipe that you can add anything from a-z to and it always comes out terrific! Some of the combinations I've done: pumpkin walnut, pineapple/carrot/coconut, chocolate chips and dried cherries, banana. The list is endless!

good luck!

mini loaf pumpkin bread
no-bake candies/cookies
cookies
cookie jars (mason jars with all of the dry ingredients w/ recipe card)
bunt cakes (give everyone 'half')
fudge
brownies
moose munch/trail mix

I usually end up baking for 2 straight days the week or so before christmas and end up tired, stressed and a messy kitchen. This year I have tried something a little different and so far it has worked. I have been splitting up and spreading out my baking and then freezing the dough. So I have baked 2 times in the last two weeks and have 2 dozen each of 2 different baked goods ready for the holidays and meanwhile I have had an extra dozen that I baked off for us to munch on.
I have also "jarred" hot cocoa mix and chocolate chip cookes and packaged them to give as gifts. It is less time consuming because you don't have to bake it but it is still giving yummy gifts.

I found a recipe for Chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. They are so yummy!!!
Make your brownies, by mix or recipe. Cool them and refrigerate them for maybe an hour.
You basically makke cookie dough with out the eggs:
COOKIE DOUGH (EGG FREE!):
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Mix brown sugar, white sugar, butter. Add milk and vanilla and then add flour till mixed. Spread over chilled brownies and refrigerate for about 20 or 40 minutes. Cut and they will be fine left out!

I try to invision the presentation. I want there to be a variety of colors, shapes and or textures OR all the same color. So I would probably make one of the following

puppie chow
reindeer munch (white trash)
peppermint bark
Danish Wedding Cookies

along with the cookie bars and Chocolate Covered pretzels and strawberries

I make pumpkin bread. The recipe I have makes three 7 X 3 loaves for each batch, and they are really easy to hand out. I made six loaves for christmas and it only took me two and a half hours. If you have a larger oven it would take less time, mine will only take three at a time.

I don't do a whole lot of baking of sweets over the holidays to give away.

But....I will tell you what I love to eat and get from others. Homemade truffles, chocolate covered pretzels with crushed peppermint and butter cookies. I found a Oreo Truffle recipe on all recipes.com that I plan to make a buttload of. They are simple and you can make waaaay ahead of gift giving time. They are nice to put out when friends and family stop by.

Good luck and best wishes with your Christmas quantity conundrum!!

We did candy one year instead of baking. Peanut brittle, almond bark and peppermint bark are all really easy to make and they can be made ahead of time without getting stale and they don't need to be eaten right away if the person has received other baked goods.