Holiday Snackable Bakes

Hello readers and happy happy! Hope your holidays have been fab and all of that. This is the final newsletter of 2023 (hard to believe, I know) and since NYE is just around the corner (aka next Sunday night) I thought I’d share some easy holiday recipes that I developed and demo’ed for . . . the Today Show!! Yes, lovely readers, I was on the show twice right before the holidays (you can watch me here and here) and I thought it might be fun to share the recipes I demo’ed on national TV . . . as one does.

TV is my everything (I mean I full disclosure: I’m a former actress (but don’t tell) so I was obviously over the moon to be on the country’s most popular morning show twice in one week. 

Moreover, because the segments were all about easy-peasy holiday treats I was 100% in my element. AND it didn’t hurt that I called Al Roker et al. “my peeps” and that Al was very much into it AND that I called marshmallows “marshies” - and again Al was into it. Moreover, Sheinelle said my holiday Rice Krispies Treats were some of the best she’s ever had so there’s that too (and the Today Show has a fantastic culinary director, Katie Stilo, who is a wonderful baker AND rice cereal treat-maker so if Sheinelle liked mine, that is saying A LOT. 

And speaking of Katie, one of the things that is so fantastic about demo’ing recipes on national TV, is that as a guest, you do not have to do a thing! When I do local TV, like in LA or NY or Chicago, I have to do everything - make all the desserts that I’ll be sharing with the hosts, bring all the ingredients to demo whatever it is I am demo’ing - I even have to bring flowers and a table cloth and pretty bowls etc. to spruce up the table on which I’ll be demo’ing! It is a you-know-what load of work - I won’t lie. But the Today show?? Totally a dream . . . now onto my fab-for-NYE Today Show recipes!

First up are my Oreo Truffles - the easy-peasy holiday (or anytime . . .) candy you did not know you were missing. Oreo cookies are ground up with softened cream cheese, rolled into balls and then dipped in white chocolate and - for the holidays - sprinkled with crushed candy canes (but plain old sprinkles would be great, too). You won’t believe how easy these are to make (and then pop one after the other into your mouth…Savannah loved them . . . ).

Next up is my Small(ish) Texas Peppermint Sheet Cake. I call it “small(ish)” because traditionally Texas sheet cakes are a large format situation, baked as they are in a half-sheet pan. This is one of the easiest and most scrumptious cake and frosting combos around, as it’s a thin, one-layer chocolate cake that is topped when warm with a hot, pourable fudgy chocolate frosting. I add a little peppermint extract into the mix to make the cake holiday-friendly, but you could 100% leave it (and the crushed candy cane atop the cake) out and you’d be left with an anytime cake (my fave kind).

My love of and obsession with Rice Krispies Treats is well-established. And making a holiday version on national TV was of course a dream come true. I call for mini-marshmallows in mine (they melt easier and faster than the big ones); and the secret ingredient in this recipe is sweetened condensed milk, a slightly nutty, caramel-y and very creamy ingredient that is an absolute game-changer as it makes for the softest and chewiest of RKTs. Holiday candy makes this, well, holiday- appropriate, but leave em’ out for regular old Tuesday treats. 

Last but not least, I made Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies for my Today peeps - and yes, Dylan and Sheinelle snacked on the raw cookie dough before the segment aired. Now, you might think you’ve hit the jackpot when you get a thick and chewy ginger cookie, but just wait until you get one with a little cocoa powder and chocolate chips thrown in for good measure. These feel like a dream come true around the winter holidays, but this is a cookie that tastes good year-round, what with its slightly spicy, gingery vibes from ground ginger as well as the crystallized stuff AND its melty pockets of chocolate. 

Let me close out this newsletter and bid my farewell to 2023 by saying a big THANK YOU to all of you for subscribing and for your feedback and suggestions. And if you like what you read here, and are dying for even more of me and my recipes and my (delightful?) newsy tidbits, please consider subscribing to my paid newsletter (where I spill all the tea about my new savory baking book hitting shelves in October of 2024).

Thank you and Happy New Year!