11th annual Christmas Baking

Early in December Sylvie and I got together for our eleventh annual Christmas Baking. I can’t believe it’s been 11 years already!

We started the day off with a nice cup of tea and taking stock of the day

We decided to start by making Orange Cranberry Pistachio Fudge based on this recipe. We started by melting chocolate in sweetened condensed milk.

Once it was melted we stirred in chopped pistachios, dried cranberries, orange zest, and orange essence. Then we poured it into a pan and put it aside to set.

Our plan was to make two batches. While making the second batch, the condensed milk boiled a little longer than expected. So we decided to pivot and make a third batch of fudge, this one with roasted walnuts and semi-sweet chocolate. It turned out really good! And now we had LOTS of fudge.

Once the fudge was cooling, we transitioned to the crafting portion of the day: needlepoint felting. We were both very excited to get started on our projects. My goal was to make two snowgirl ornaments for my friend Jessica’s daughters.

It’s still early in our needlepoint felting journey, which makes the projects a little more exciting and unpredictable. But so much fun.

And very rewarding when they finally come together.

It was a really fun day, and then we came home to a winter wonderland.