Only a few days to Christmas, so grab the spices, flour and eggs and get moving. You don't need to spend hours in the kitchen if you are organized. Look through your favorite recipes, make up the shopping list, do the shopping and you are ready to start. The most time-consuming part of baking is measuring everything out. After that it only takes a few minutes to prepare. With the modern equipment of today- the good mixers, grinders and food processors - baking takes considerably less time. Don't wait until the last minute to get started to avoid panic; bake as much as you can ahead of time. Then store your delicacies in the freezer and have them ready to serve when you need them all during the holiday season.

If you haven't started the Christmas cake, you still have time to get started. You should allow at least ten days for the flavors to mature and for the cake to reach its peak by feeding it with brandy or whisky. You can supply the cake with the brandy or whisky every couple of days. If you are making an alcohol-free cake, you can substitute the alcohol with the same amount of orange or apple juice.

A wonderful make-ahead are muffins. These can be frozen, reheated and served for breakfast or late brunch during the holidays. Cranberries add a great flavor to muffins. Fruit loaves are also a great to make ahead and freeze. You can add cranberries, apples, bananas or raisins and cinnamon to cakes to vary the flavor.

If you are dreaming of German Christmas Stolle or Italian delicacies, and other rich sweet breads, it might be a better idea to buy these and have them on hand. Although these are delicious, they require a bit of time and the results are not always what one wishes. Find a good delicatessen and buy them there. German Christmas Stolle can be frozen, but they do tend to get a bit dry, so be sure you wrap them in foil. Heat the Christmas Stolle a little before serving, slice it and spread a little butter on the slices. If you make your own Christmas Stolle, add a little quark to the mixture or marzipan to ensure a moist, sweet bread.

If you are watching the calories, your diet or concerned about your health, try some of these substitutes to help reduce the fat in our baking. Watch your fats. Saturated fat is found mostly in animal products e.g. butter as well as in coconut and palm oils.

Substitute the same amount of applesauce as the recipe calls for butter. If a recipe calls for 1/2 Cup (1 dl) of butter, replace it with 1/2 cup (1 dl) of applesauce.

If you like the taste of butter, you can reduce the amount of butter in the recipe to half and substitute the rest with applesauce.

Prune puree as well as other fruit purees also work well. Read the labels when buying fruit puree, as they are not always made of pure fruit.

When you substitute a thick fruit puree, replace 1/2 Cup (1 dl) of butter with 1/3 cup (2/3 dl) of puree.

If you want to make your own fruit puree, try this:

Preparing Fruit Puree

Sort, stem and wash ripe fruit or thaw frozen, unsweetened fruit; crush fruit thoroughly; measure crushed fruit.

Add 1 cup (2 dl) boiling water to each 4 cups (1 liter) crushed fruit and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer to soften - about 5 minutes for soft fruits, about 10 minutes for firm fruits like cherries and grapes. Press through a sieve. For a thick puree, simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and you have the desired thickness you want.

Whatever you decide to bake this holiday season, start baking!

Article by: www.eclecticcooking.com . Do you know how to cook a juicy salmon? How to avoid crying when cutting onions? How to prevent avocados from turning black?  Visit The Eclectic Cooking website, portal to gourmet cooking and nutrition featuring freelance writers, chefs, and authors. Free weekly newsletter subscription: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text35211 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it