Cookies, nougat, truffles and more: bake and wrap for brilliant, personalised presents
My grandma Ptak, who lived in the heart of Illinois, would make no less than a dozen varieties of cookies every Christmas for giving out as gifts. Chocolate crinkles, plantation creams, peanut butter balls, Toll House chocolate chip cookies, kolackies, red and green anise candy, gingerbread men, the list goes on. She had five sons and they all had their favourites. When my father moved to California she still sent them by post every year in a gigantic box. My father carried on the tradition and made his favourite, the apricot and walnut-filled cream cheese kolacky, the sole cultural link to our Polish heritage.
Baking and preserving during the holidays for gift-giving is one of my most cherished memories of California life. We would usually choose one day close to Christmas to shop for all of the special ingredients, one day for all the baking and one day for the packaging. Preserving would most likely have been done earlier and stored, so this got brought out too. Getting up just as the day breaks, we would put the kettle on to make coffee, tea and hot chocolate before setting to work.
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