Paleo Holiday Baking: A Few of My Favorite Things

Editor’s note: it is the month of December and for many bloggers it is the season of “Blogmas”. It is a marathon of posting every day for the month of December, often with a holiday theme. For some crazy reason I have dived into this as motivation to clear out some drafts and repost some posts from the last 6 years with a refresh. And maybe a few new stories! These are still two of my favorite treats to bake during the holiday season.

It’s Saturday and instead of snowshoeing somewhere beautiful …

…I’m inside cleaning my house (oh, the dust, dishes and dirt) so I can decorate for Christmas. There may even be some holiday music in the background…and a stack of movies to get me through the weekend. What, you didn’t know Die Hard was a Christmas movie? And yes, that is a VHS tape of A Christmas Story for which I still have a VHS player. How else do I watch all my Disney movies and 20th Anniversary edition of Grease? And maaaaaybeeee all those recorded tapes from when HBO and Showtime had free weekends. Just maybe.

I am also working on getting some baking done before the holiday parties start this week! The first one is Monday with the Winter Social for Washington Hikers and Climbers. I can’t believe how big this group has grown (81,000+) and I get to help manage it. It’s a love/hate relationship, actually, but the fact there are some pretty amazing outdoors lovers in it makes all the head shaking worth it. I’m excited to meet in person some of the great people I moderate the group with!

Anyway, back to the goodies. These have been my favorite treats to make ever since going paleo and they please everyone I share them with, including my vegan loved ones (Mine eat honey, which is not technically vegan. You can read why and learn some swaps in this post.)

Ginger Almond Biscotti

The first is Ginger Almond Biscotti from Running To The Kitchen. I am usually not interested in making something that takes more than one time in the oven but I was looking for a treat to go with my Paleo Hot Cocoa and these fit the bill wonderfully. They are also durable enough to last a trip in the backpack!

There is a little work to make the dough and then shape it into a rectangle log shape on the silpat sheet. I double the ginger and add at least a 1/2 cup of cocoa nibs.

After the first round of baking, just enough to set the cookie dough and allow for cutting, it sits aside to cool.

Then, you slice them up into the recognizable sticks we see on the counter at Starbucks. If you use a pizza cutter like I do, make sure to press lightly or you end up with the disaster I mention in Garlic Cilantro Crackers.

From here you arrange them on their sides to bake again.

A little tall for canning jars, I wrap these up in pretty brown paper bags like these. All tied up with string. You will find the recipe here.

Mexican Chocolate Macaroons

The second cookie I love to share is these Mexican Chocolate Macaroons from The Urban Poser in a guest post on Against All Grain. These are so easy, all you do is mix all the ingredients up in one bowl and use a tablespoon to scoop out onto parchment paper.

I dip mine in Enjoy mini chocolate chips melted in a double boiler.

I hand them out in glass canning jars or other cute ones I have saved up during the year. Well, at least the cookies I manage not to eat the same day I make them. You will find the recipe here.

Well, I better get back to decking the halls and all that good stuff. I hope that December finds you in anticipation of all the joy the season can bring. Even when I am not feeling that enthusiastic, making gifts gets me in the mood!

I have shared my summer Eagle Cap Wilderness backpack trip, go check out and make plans to go next year!