[1] Dry Soda’s holiday packaging looks great in a stocking or on the bar (photo Dry Sparkling).

[2] Artisan hot sauce with great—not just hot—flavor (photo Horseshoe Brand).

[3] We love this limited edition of Lindt’s Lindor Truffles (photo Lindt USA).

Honey Gummies, made with honey instead of sugar or HFCS, are a step up (photo Lovely Candy).

Stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, small thank-you’s: Here are some favorites this holiday season, in alphabetical order.
 
 
1. DRY SODA: HOLIDAY FLAVORS IN HOLIDAY PACKAGING

Novices and experts alike have faced down a sheet of cookies with burnt bottoms, wondering whether to:

 
Recently, we heard of a much better solution: Use your microplane to shave or grate away the burned part!

And, we picked up a side tip from professional chef Gemma Stafford: This works on burned biscuits and scones too (duh to us!). Read the rest of her suggestions at BiggerBolderBaking.com.
 
 
7 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR COOKIES FROM BURNING

Cookies burn because they get too much heat from the bottom heating element in the oven. This is why a middle rack is always the best option.

There are a number of ways to protect the cookie bottoms.

1. Use a convection oven. If you have the option, the convection fan distributes the heat more evenly.

2. Use an oven thermometer. If your cookies often burn on the bottom, check the heat with an oven thermometer. It will tell you if your oven is calibrated properly. If not, adjust the baking temperature accordingly.

If you still have the oven manual, check for instructions on how to recalibrate.
 
Before The Cookies Go Into The Oven

3. Bake the cookies on the middle rack. The temperature is highest there, but the bottom of the pan is away from the bottom heating element.

When you need to bake two sheets at the same time, you can’t avoid the bottom rack. But pay special attention to those cookies, which will bake faster than the upper rack. You may need to remove them earlier.

4. Use a heavy, light-colored (silvery) aluminum cookie sheet, ideally with no rim. Dark cookie sheets promote browning; sheets with rims block the air circulation to the tops of the cookies, so the tops cook more slowly while the bottoms cook at a normal pace.

If it’s time to replace or add to your cookie sheets, consider an insulated cookie sheet. It’s built with a layer of air between the top and bottom, giving your cookies protection from the oven’s lower heating element. Farberware, Nordicware and other brands make them.

5. Use parchment paper. Lining the pan with parchment paper provides more insulation (and for delicate items like meringues and macarons, it helps with uniform baking).

6. Use a silicone liner. This is especially important if your cookie sheet is thin (another reason to pay a bit more for professional-quality bakeware). Otherwise, try this trick: Stack another thin cookie sheet under the sheet with the cookies, to provide more protection from the oven’s heating element.

[2] No one will ever know you scorched the bottoms (photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board).

[3] Whether delicate or robust (like chocolate chip), cookie bottoms can burn (photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board).

7. Set the timer for the lower end of the baking range. Check the cookies when it rings. If your cookies still need some baking time, stand watch over them and check them in another few minutes.
  

[2] Look for the box in the freezer section (photo Kraft Heinz).

This week we have a tie for Top Pick. Both sit in the freezer until you want them. And we want more and more of them.

1. NANCY’S PETITE STUFFED BAGELS

We received samples of Nancy’s Petite Stuffed Bagels right before Thanksgiving; and what a festive treat they were.

The bagels are stuffed with different flavors of cream cheese:

 
The bagels are kept frozen, then heated in the oven or microwave. We found microwaving worked just fine.

We enjoyed a mixed selection of them with our morning coffee or tea.

But these lovely bites will make a brunch or special-occasion breakfast all the more festive.

The marketing materials explain that the product was inspired by Nancy Mueller, a San Francisco hostess.

But surprise: The brand is owned by The Kraft Heinz Company, which produces the NANCY’S Frozen Appetizers & Entrées line.

This detail came as a surprise to us, because the product packaging and the bagels themselves seem more like a small brand labor of love than the product of a mega-manufacturer.

Bravo, Kraft Heinz. We plan to keep our freezer full of these little treats.

Petite Stuffed Bagels are available on nationwide at select grocers, at a suggested retail price of $6.99 for 16 bagels.

Each petite bagels delivers two big bites.

We have an admission: As a bagel lover who often eats a large bagel for breakfast, we are just as satisfied with one or two of Nancy’s Petite Stuffed Bagels.

You may be familiar with Bantam Bagels, the original mini stuffed bagel.

We enjoyed them for several years, fresh at their shop in Greenwich Village. But when the frozen version came out, for us it lost something in translation.

We found that microwaving produced chewy dough. While we didn’t test Bantam Bagels side by side with Nancy’s, we didn’t have this problem with the latter.

However: Bantam, we love your new Bantam Pancakes. They’re not flat, but rounded like the bagels to include a delicious filling.

The varieties include:

 
Now when you have a pancake craving, just pop one or two into the microwave.

There’s a store locator on the website, or buy them online.

They’re an innovative thank-you gifts for dinner, party or weekend hosts.

Note to our friends and family: We’d be happy if Santa brought us a few more boxes.

[4] Look for Bantam Pancakes in the freezer section.

[2] Clean the grinder regularly with bread or rice (photo courtesy Coffee & Tea Newsletter).

[3] Brush out fine grounds with a soft brush (photo courtesy Alibaba). You can also repurpose a clean makeup brush.

If you care enough about the freshness of your coffee to grind your own beans, you need give the grinder a regular cleaning.

Just as oils collect in the bottom of the coffee pot, they leave their oily residue in the well and on the blades of the grinder.

Over time, the oil becomes stale and affects the flavor of the coffee.

You may or may not notice oil on the lid or blades of the grinder. If you do, you know it’s time to act. But even if you don’t, plan to clean the grinder a few times a year. If you use the grinder daily, clean it once a month.

Here’s the technique from TODAY Home:

 
 
OTHER USES FOR A COFFEE GRINDER

 
In fact, if you have a second coffee grinder—an older one you haven’t tossed, for example—clean it thoroughly and use it for these non-coffee purposes.

Baking Christmas cookies is a tradition in many homes. While recipes abound, here’s a spin: cup cookies.

They’re notched to fit on a cup rim, an engaging way to serve a cookie with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or milk.

You can make your favorite recipe or use refrigerated cookie dough.

Treat the family, bring a batch to the workplace, give them as gifts: It adds fun to flavor.

 
Thanks to Pampered Chef for the inspiration!
 
 
RECIPE: CUP COOKIES

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MIX the sugar cookie dough with the flour in a medium bowl. Roll out the dough on a pastry mat to ¼” (6mm) thickness.

2. CUT out the stars, using a star-shaped cookie cutter, and transfer to a cookie sheet. Using the releasing end of a cake tester tool or a knife, create a notch halfway up the center of the star. (In the recent past, you could buy special cookie cutters that included the notch, but we haven’t been able to find them.)

[2] Peppermint hot chocolate with a sugar cookie star (photo © Pampered Chef).