Have you stocked up on anything for holiday cooking/baking?
I came home from a shopping trip with 50# of flour and 25# of white sugar. Along with a good supply of nuts and chips and brown sugar. I've also got the big bottle of rum (for rum cake. No, really.)
When I mentioned to someone that I bought the 50# of flour, I was asked, "Will that last you a year?" And I said, "I'm hoping it will last until Christmas."
25# of the flour was bread flour, and that's usually how I buy it, until I run out and then I buy 5# or 10# bags until I get to buy another big bag. So I go through probably 100# of bread flour a year, I'd guess. And that doesn't include the variety flours that I add in. So I'm also using semolina, rye, wheat, and other things besides the bread flour. Some of this bag will probably go for some sweet breads, but otherwise it's mostly for our own use.
As far as the other 25#, that's for all the Christmas baking. And that's where much of the sugar will go, too. And I also make batches of nut brittles for the holidays, and that uses up a lot of sugar by the time I'm done.
Right now my pantry is bursting full, and it looks like I've gone a bit mad, but I figure that buying in bulk makes a lot of sense at this time of the year.
And no, DH and I are not going to eat our way into sugar comas for the New Year. Most of this goes for gifts.
So what have you stocked up on -- or what will you be buying soon?
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22 Comments:
Flour, sugar, nuts, fresh nutmeg, bittersweet chocolate, oil, red and green plastic plates (large ones for gifts), foil, plastic wrap. So far.......
Our pantry is screeming it's so full!
finsbigfan at 5:29PM on 12/06/08
Well, I did pick up 5-lbs of sugar and flour, vanilla, hazelnuts and wallnuts, parchment paper for next week's baking. And I'll pick up more ingredients as needed the next two weeks until I'm done. I don't have room to buy in bulk and couldn't carry it all in at once!
I love Christmas baking .. the house smells so great for three weeks and I can turn down the heat and save on heating oil : )
NanaJoie at 5:30PM on 12/06/08
Flour, sugar, butter, bitter and semi-sweet chocolate bars, chocolate chips, walnuts (cookies!, almonds (more cookies!), pecans (pecan tassies!), dried cranberries (holiday biscotti!), dried coconut (hello, macaroons!)....tis baking season! :)
Ande at 5:35PM on 12/06/08
Shrimp and Stoli
bessfour at 5:42PM on 12/06/08
Just bought:
25 lb. flour
10 lb. sugar
5 lb. brown sugar
3 lb. walnuts
2 lb. cocoa powder
Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips
2 lb. Pecans (after all I DID just move to ATL)
5 lb. Oatmeal
Huge bag of Craisins
God, I love Costco.
therealchiffonade at 5:51PM on 12/06/08
looks like I'm not the only one stocking up on baking supplies for the holidays! the cookie baking marathon starts tomorrow!
redhead at 6:04PM on 12/06/08
I have 5#s of butter in the freezer, 3 5# bags of flour and several (ok, like 10) bars and bags of different chocolates. The pantry has 2 more bags of flour, 4 cans of pumpkin and 2 of those big plastic bags of sugar with the zip tops. 10 really cute trays I got for a steal at the dollar store after Christmas last year along with some decorative cellophane bags that fit around the trays.
@currie~I worry about buying those big bags of flour. No weevils? And I actually never thought of Sam's for sugar. Duh...
I still have to get a million eggs and some nuts.
@Ande~macaroons?! Great idea!
Oh, and lemons for lemon bars.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 6:10PM on 12/06/08
Yeah, I'm afraid I'm with Nana--I worry about 'storage' problems and 'spoilage/infestation' when dealing with amounts of flour beyond what can fit comfortably in my refrigerator!
HeartofGlass at 6:26PM on 12/06/08
I have always put flour in the freezer when I first get it home, and I have never had any "critters" show up when I use the flour later. I don't keep it in the freezer more than a couple of days, and then I put the flour in an airtight container in a dark spot like in the back of the pantry. But I digress ...
You have all mentioned most of my usual stock up items, except for anise extract and anise seeds for the pizzels (sp?).
lindy123 at 6:50PM on 12/06/08
Nuts, Flour, Sugar, and Chocolate
Brownie at 6:55PM on 12/06/08
I cant wait until Christmas no longer coincides with exams. Next year I'll be baking up a storm.
This year, I bought xantham gun to try vegetarian marshmallows for work.
renzata at 7:26PM on 12/06/08
xanthan gum, that is.
renzata at 7:26PM on 12/06/08
I've never made marshmallows. Are they really that good?
Oh wait. Ill start a thread.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 8:36PM on 12/06/08
nuts, butter, vanilla, and chocolate chips. does anyone have any comments one way or the other about penzey's double strength vanilla? cooks illustrated tasting panel didn't care for it, which made me run right out and buy a bottle {this is the same panel that, after all, turned up their noses at barilla pasta in favor of ronzoni!} i haven't used it yet.
cybercita at 8:42PM on 12/06/08
@carol, I haven't had a problem (yet) with the big bags of flour from Sam's, and I've been buying this way for several years. I divide the flour into two canisters that go in the spare fridge, and a third one that goes into the kitchen cabinet. Honestly, I go through that 25# bag in probably the same amount of time I go through a 5# bag of AP flour that I use for other baking.
After a bug infestation, I've learned to keep items in separate sealed containers, or at least grouped in containers of like items. So I've got one container with dried beans, for example. Not that I expect the beans to get buggy, but if something else does, I'd rather have everything else sealed away.
The one thing I remember being infestested with bugs most often in my mother's kitchen was the Bisquick. You always had to check that box before you used it, because if something was going to be moving around, that's where it was going to be.
When I got bugs last time, it was from a bag of organic seeds, which makes sense since they don't use pesticides.
@Cybercita, I've tried Penzey's double-strength vanilla, and I liked it, but never bought it again, which is a little weird, since I'm a vanilla junkie. Maybe it's just that I like trying different brands...Anyway, I don't know if I'd say it was twice as strong as regular, but it was stronger. I usually just double the amount in recipes, if I'm looking for more vanilla flavor.
dbcurrie at 9:08PM on 12/06/08
There is enough butter in my fridge and freezer to make Paula Deen proud.
Besides that, there's all the usual things, most of which everybody else has already mentioned...although there does seem to be an awful lot of chips - different chocolates, peanut butter, mint, butterscotch, cinnamon,etc.....
kimberlymac at 9:45PM on 12/06/08
I bought in October 40 lbs of flour, 3 bottles of vanilla, costco vanilla beans, choc chips in 3 kinds, all kinds of nuts. all kinds of sugar and enough baking powder to make the titanic rise.
JerzeeTomato at 11:20PM on 12/06/08
I decided to make tea breads (in mini loaf pans) for Christmas gifts for co-workers, so cherries, nuts, cranberries, dried apricots to work with oranges and lemons from my backyard. Also I'm going to make a golden fruitcake so stocked up on the dried apricots, candied pineapple and a ton of candied cherries.
Today stocked up on flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cream cheese....I wil usually bake at least 12 types of cookies for cookie trays.
What I had a real bad time with is finding Brach's chocolate stars that I wanted to use instead of kisses for my peanut butter kiss cookies. No where in my town has them. They are a fav with all my nieces and nephews. Are they even made any more???
lamora at 12:01AM on 12/07/08
@lamora
I can't find candied pineapple around here this year, but I have no idea if we're out of the chocolate stars too. I had to make my Christmas cakes without pineapple which was kind of sad...so I added extra brandy, which tastes nothing like pineapple, but eh, it's the holidays.
Baking chocolate was on a major discount so I might have gotten a bit carried away buying twenty five bars, but eh, chocolate keeps.
Goodythecook at 12:22AM on 12/07/08
I'd stoked up way before Thanksgiving on: flour, butter, sugar, chocolate chips and all kinds of nuts. I also have blueberries, mashed bananas and roasted & mashed butternut squash in the freezer for tea breads.
brooke29 at 12:34AM on 12/07/08
Let's all repeat 3 times:
We are not obsessed.
We are not obsessed.
We are not obsessed.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 12:34AM on 12/07/08
lots of hazelnuts. lots of cinnamon. lots and lots of unsalted butter. and even more wheat pastry flour. i'm a baking machine!!!
-- Ashley
makemethod.vox.com
makemethod at 5:19PM on 12/07/08