The Festive Side of Cookies

Family gatherings, school parties, celebrations with friends: There isn't a single occasion in autumn and winter that isn't made sweeter and more memorable by freshly baked treats. And there are no treats more delightful or varied than cookies.

Now, maybe you associate cookies with lunchboxes and everyday snacks. Nothing wrong with that! But there's a whole world of cookies—from French macarons to skewered cookie kebabs--that are fun, festive, and even glamorous enough to take pride of place at a holiday party… or to elicit admiring gasps at a cookie swap.

Baker's Profile

Krystina Castella

For cookbook author and kitchen impresario Krystina Castella, whipping up a batch of cookies—or baking cupcakes or cakes—isn't an end in itself. No, the fun really starts after the pans come out of the oven and Krystina gets to work frosting, embellishing, coloring, and constructing. The results may be whimsical or breathtakingly beautiful, but they're always as amazing to behold as they are delicious.

In the News

Start Your Holidays with C&H's 1001 Cookie Starter

C&H Sugar has a sweet shortcut to holiday baking: our 1001 Cookie Starter recipe. All you need are five ingredients you already have in your kitchen—flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter— to build a scrumptious foundation. Add just a few more ingredients and you'll have several cookie jars' worth of cookies for snacking, serving, and giving.

Introducing Agave Nectar: A New Way to Sweeten!

What's sweet and versatile but doesn't come in a bag or box? The newest addition to C&H® Sugar's product line: C&H Organic Agave Nectar! It's the delicious liquid sweetener you squeeze into your favorite recipes for beverages, baked goods, and savory dishes.

We're celebrating agave's arrival with new recipes that take full advantage of agave nectar's unique properties—like delectably moist Carrot Cake Agave Muffins and sweet and tangy Agave Lime Marinade—and with insights from bakers who share with us their enthusiasm for agave. We're convinced you'll be as excited about agave as we are!

Baker's Profile

Ellen Jackson

The recipe for Ellen Jackson's professional life might read something like this: Take one undergraduate English major; form into a six-year publishing career in New York City. Add a degree from the New England Culinary Institute and season with a baking demonstration by renowned pastry chef and cookbook author Emily Luchetti. Roll out into 12 years as a professional pastry chef in restaurants from New Orleans to Portland, Oregon.

And then the recipe gets really interesting.

In the News

Turning a Bake Sale into a "Piece of Cake"

Here's an easy two-question quiz: Do you enjoy baking? Do you want to eliminate childhood hunger in America?
Shauna Sever—who blogs about baking and family life at Piece of Cake—eagerly answered "yes" to both questions, and her positive attitude led her to help organize a very special event: this year's National Food Bloggers Bake Sale, which raised $22,000 for Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale (GABS).

The Four-Ingredient Solution

When you're pressed for time, nothing's more daunting than a long list of ingredients in a recipe. But what if we told you that you can make easy, yummy desserts with just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry or refrigerator?

It's true—and we have the proof right here! It takes only four or five ingredients (tops!) to make all the desserts we're spotlighting this season… and most of those ingredients are items we bet you already have on hand. We were privileged to have the help of baking expert Abigail Johnson Dodge, whose new cookbook, Desserts 4 Today, includes 125 easy-to-make recipes with just four ingredients each.

Baker's Profile

Abby Dodge

Cookbook author and pastry chef Abby Johnson Dodge has quite a culinary résumé. She studied at La Varenne, the famous cooking school in Paris, and later worked under superstar French chefs Michel Guerard and Guy Savoy, specializing in pastry. She's a contributing editor to Fine Cooking magazine and founded the magazine's test kitchen. And she's written about baking and cooking for more than three dozen special-interest publications.

But those credentials tell just one side of the Abby Dodge story. As the video tutorial on her website, abbydodge.com, demonstrates, she's utterly down to earth and approachable, with a playful sense of humor that comes across in her motto: "Baking the world a better place, one recipe at a time."

In the News

Love to Bake? Enter a State Fair Contest!

Is your pantry always stocked with baking ingredients? Do you get inspired to create original recipes? Are you a fan of TV shows about competing chefs and bakers?
If you answered "yes" to those questions, why not test your skills in a state fair baking contest?

Vegetables for Dessert

No, we're not getting an early jump on April Fools' Day. And we aren't advocating raw celery sticks as a finale to a special meal! We're talking instead about discovering delicious ways to incorporate vegetables into every course of every meal: for health, for flavor, and for variety.

Of course, if you've ever baked carrot cake or zucchini bread, you already know that vegetables aren't just for salad. But have you ever considered making sweet treats from sweet potatoes, beets, or avocados? Follow us as we gather a basket of garden produce and head straight to the oven!

Baker's Profile

Claudia Ossa

Claudia Ossa describes herself as a "real foodie." She's passionate about everything that relates to food—preparing it, sharing it, eating it. Although she has traveled abroad in search of the next great bite, it's back home in the San Francisco Bay Area where she puts her passion into practice.

After a stint in culinary school, Claudia supplemented her kitchen know-how by watching the informative and humorous Alton Brown on Food Network. She must have picked up some of Brown's familiar enthusiasm and antics, too: Her warm manner is nothing short of infectious.

In the News

No Kid Hungry: Join Us and Take the Pledge.

As many of our readers know, we at C&H Sugar are big supporters of Share Our Strength® and its goal of ending childhood hunger in America by 2015. We believe it's unacceptable that one in four children in our country does not have regular access to good, healthful food. Naturally, we wanted to tell you about a new opportunity to get involved in this important effort: Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry™ Campaign.