Holiday Baking Plan: Recipes & Free Baking Schedule

Sharing some of my favorite Christmas and Holiday Baking Recipes, as well as a free Holiday Baking Plan printable to help you get organized for this baking season. 

When do you start your holiday baking?

Do you wait until after Thanksgiving?

Do you have a regular Christmas baking schedule?

Since we do a decorating blitz the day after Thanksgiving, while my kiddos are home from school, we always need a few treats to nibble on during the decorating festivities. So, I will plan to bake a couple dozen of each person’s favorite the week before Thanksgiving…which means I’ll be in full baking mode in 3 short weeks.

This realization made me sit down and get my holiday baking plan in order; what will I be baking? when will I be baking? what do I need to do my baking?  And because it’s a great way to waste spend valuable time…I decided I needed a spiffy Holiday Baking Plan printable to make my organization just that much more special. ?

Am I the only one who does this? Who else can wile away too many hours just to make something look prettier than it needs to be?

While you may not be quite ready to start baking, it’s not too early to start your holiday baking plan! By spending a few minutes getting your baking plans in order now, you’ll be prepared for the baking frenzy to come.

In order to get ourselves properly prepared, let’s figure out what we need. First order of business is gather all of our recipes and ingredients for our favorite Christmas cookies or holiday desserts. We all have our favorites (see below) but I’ve often wondered:

What is the most popular Christmas dessert?

• as you would expect, much depends on where you live but on most lists the most popular holiday desserts are cookies, fruitcakes, gingerbread, candy canes, chocolate bark and truffles. All delicious yumminess perfect for any holiday table. Below I have included many of our favorites and while we love chocolate bark and truffles, we typically make those for Valentines Day so they’re not on the holiday baking schedule, but you can grab those recipes here – Chocolate Truffles and Chocolate Bark

If you want to use my spiffy Christmas Baking Schedule, you can download it here => Christmas baking schedule 1

Here’s a Recap of Some of Our Favorite Christmas Baking Recipes:

Some of these links may be affiliate links and I may earn a small commission off of the sale of these products, but the price you are charged is not affected. You can see my full disclosure policy here.

While these Chocolate Cranberry Tarts look so very special, they are really very easy to make. The shells and cranberry curd can be prepared days in advance and assembled at the last minute. And they are just so very festive! These treats will be served on Christmas Eve in our home.

Snow-Covered Coconut Christmas Trees are a basically a coconut macaroon, shaped like a Christmas tree.  They have a very small ingredient list…like 5 basic items (including the pinch of salt) and are a hit wherever we take them. But, if you do make, the edible glitter is a must.  It just takes them to a whole new level.

Now, these are one of my all-time cookie favorites! My mom started baking these several years ago and our Christmas Eve tradition of watching ‘A Christmas Story’ would not be complete without a plate of these Glazed Crisp Ginger Molasses Cookies…with a cup of milk of course. These delicious morsels are a must-have in my holiday baking plan.

Is it possible to bake Christmas cookies and NOT include sugar cookies? I’m pretty sure that would be against some Christmas law. Now, how you decorate them is completely a different story; there is no right way to decorate a sugar cookie.

No one is quite sure of the genesis of these Pennsylvania Dutch Cocoa Cookies.  All we know is that our Grandma, who was a world-class baker, made these every Christmas in addition to the 20 other cookie varieties she baked. They are the perfect combination of chewy interior and slightly crisp exterior…cookie blissdom as far as I’m concerned.

I am on record as being a little obsesses with all things rosemary; especially in baked goods. I love the unexpected, slightly piney hint it imparts. These Brown Butter Rosemary Cookies are perfect in so many ways…#1 Rosemary, #2 Brown Butter #3 Chopped Nuts. In writing this I realized I don’t have these on my ‘need to bake’ list…gotta run over and change that ASAP!

Ah, my White Fruitcake! If I’m honest, this fruitcake is kinda a big deal with people in the know. It is everything good about fruitcake and nothing bad.  You won’t find any unnatural colored, overly sweet, bright green cherries in this fruitcake. Instead, it is made with all-natural dried fruits and nuts (that have spent a good bit of time soaking in a brandy bath) and then is wrapped in brandy-soaked rags until it is gifted or served. It is all moistness and deliciousness and the mini-version makes great gifts.

These mincemeat mini-tarts…no only do I truly love mincemeat, but these cookies take me back to the baking days my girlfriend and I would share before she moved back to England. The memory of those lovely days is tied inextricably with these tarts.

Lightly Spiced and Slightly Sweet Linzer Cookies ware the perfect pairing for a decadent Pear Caramel Filling.

Have you started planning for the holidays? Do you have a Holiday Baking Plan? What are the ‘must-have’ cookies and treats on your ‘must bake’ list?

Bookmark this page or pin the following images to refer back to this collection of recipes and the Holiday Baking Plan printable.

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!