Christmas Foods FTW!

You know how when you watch the Food Network this time of the year, and they have promos that say "Season's Eatings?" I take that to heart. Archway Cookies (which briefly went out of business last year and scared the crap out of me) makes a Holiday Assortment every year, and they're usually the only way I can get pfefferneusse (sometimes I can find Stella D'oro, but they're not as good). I am a fan of Archway on Facebook, and they announced that the assortment was now available. Today I went to the only store that I have found them in, but they did not have them yet. They did have a Christmas food half aisle, and they had those giant Panettones and Jane Parker fruitcakes. I bought a dark fruitcake, and ohmygod is it delicious. I bought some egg nog too. I usually get Southern Comfort egg nog, but they didn't have that either, so I got some Lehigh Valley nog. I put some bourbon in it when I got home, which made it a little tastier. This store had these great marzipan-filled stollens last year, but not today. They had a lot left over last year, so I'm worried that they won't have them this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

But you're a baker! I hear you cry. You can make this stuff yourself! Yes, I can, but I've never had any luck with pfefferneusse. I make stollen at work, but I have grown disenchanted with the recipe I was using. I've been trying some new recipes out in the last couple of weeks, and the first one was actually pretty close to the one I got at the store. I'm going to try a few more; I have some old bakery formula books from the 40s and 50s that have stollen recipes in them that I need to reduce in size, which I'm afraid might make a difference. Plus they have weird stuff in them that would be hard to find these days (does anyone still use powdered ammonia?) I do make a good fruitcake (which I need to get started on, actually), but it takes awhile to absorb all the bourbon and cure. I DO have one that I made over a year ago. I was supposed to send it to my dad, but I never did. I really want to eat it but I would feel bad. I can't believe I haven't eaten it already. It taunts me everyday.