Holiday Sale & Easy Make-Ahead Goodies

Ann's holiday sale went wonderfully! I had a great time baking, and the goodies were a success.



I was really worried about making myself so tired baking that I wouldn't be able to spend much time at the sale, so I really spread out the preparations. The sale was Friday and Saturday, but I started preparing what I could on Tuesday. Tuesday I made the tart shells, frosting, and cinnamon pecans, then froze all three; Wednesday I baked the puff pastry with cream cheese and made some cinnamon almonds to mix with the pecans; Thursday I filled the tart shells with the cream cheese mixture, made the gingersnaps, and made and frosted the apple spice cake muffins. Each morning my dad piped some pepper jelly into the puff pastry shells and we put dried blueberries and dried kiwi on top of the cream cheese tarts. Saturday night I made some chocolate chip pumpkin spice muffins.



I decorated with greens, twinkle lights, doilies, kumquats, candied ginger, cranberries, and dried kiwi.

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CREAM CHEESE & PEPPER JELLY PASTRIES






Ingredients




1 full package of puff pastry
8 oz cream cheese
pepper jelly (you could also use just fruit jam)

Directions

Cut the pastry into 1 1/2-2 inch squares (a pizza  cutter works great).





Cut the cream cheese into about 1/2 inch cubes. Press the puff pastry into a greased mini-muffin tin and top each with a cream cheese cube.




Bake according to the directions on the puff pastry package. If you are making these ahead, refrigerate the baked pastries in a sealed container and add the pepper jelly soon before serving. Top each pastry with a dollop of pepper jelly (the amount depends on your taste), using a frosting bag with a large tip.  This makes about 36-50 pastries, depending on what size you cut them.








EXTRA-SPICY GINGERSNAPS

Adapted from the Food Network's Extra-Spicy Gingersnaps








1 c candied ginger (approximate)
3 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
8 TBS (1 stick) cool unsalted butter
1/2 c granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling
1 c light brown sugar, packed
1/3 c robust molasses
1/4 c egg whites (from about 2 eggs)