notes, quotes & anecdotes of a year fast passing

December 27, 2010

Dear elizpaige,

I have been trying to master the art of macaroon making for years. Time and time again, I have failed. Once, however, They ended up coming out as these interesting cookies that were like…coconut merengues. Is that how you spell that word? You know, the kind that melt in your mouth. Anyway, they were delicious and they ended up being a huge hit at the party I brought them to, and when I was asked for the recipe, I had to admit that they were a big fat mistake and supposed to be macaroons. Yikes, a little off track. I was wondering if you could make macaroons on your delightful blog and show me how, with the pictures. Pretty please?


Macaroonless Manchester Molly

—

Dear Macaroonless,

You’re in luck, my friend! Right before Thanksgiving, I had a hankering for the coconutty treat and featured it here on my blog.  Here ya go: coconut macaroons.  Don’t forget, EVERYONE loved the chocolate drizzled ones, so go the extra step and add some elegance. Good luck whipping up a batch and let me know how it goes!

A note for everyone else out there: I’m starting to have some chef’s block (almost like writer’s block) and am looking for some dish ideas to feature on my blog.  If there’s anything you’re curious about making or a favorite dish you think I should try, LET ME KNOW!

In the meantime, everyone should check out molly’s blog, tales of a twenty-something, for some fantastic, funny and fabulous insight on music, friends, fashion, life and other good things. she has been featured in marie claire, has been hilarious for as long as i have known her and has a unique and fun way of looking at things and an even better way of putting that view into words. enjoy — you’ll thank me later :)

happy creating,

eliz

see, if i had planned better, i think the final installment of my christmas cupcake trio should have been a peppermint chocolate something or other. but instead, i was inspired by warmer weather and ended up making a piña colada cupcake instead. now that this blizzardy weather is upon us, though, i suggest you use these cupcakes as a vacation to a warmer state of mind.

i have to say that if i made them again, i think i’d go half milk/half pineapple juice, because the pineapple flavor just wasn’t strong enough for me. but the frosting? omgosh. there are no words. it’s the best frosting ever created. i added coconut extract to make it coconutty, but it’s like.. a marshmallow. so light and fluffy and amazing. and it’s from cooking light and isn’t made with any fat (ie: no butter, oil, shortening). it’s still made of sugar, so that’s not to say that there aren’t calories. but i’m also considering trying to make it with splenda next time. even so, it makes tons and is amazing amazing amazing.

so, without further ado, here’s a vacation to the tropics.

for the cupcakes:

2 1/3 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1 1/3 cup sugar or splenda

1 cup skim milk (or go 1/2 cup skim, 1/2 cup pineapple juice)

3 eggs, separated

1 cup crushed pineapple drained

for the frosting and garnish:

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

dash of salt

3 large egg whites

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

1/4 cup of crushed pineapple, drained (for garnish)

collection done? good. let’s get onto the doing.

prep yourself by doing the following: (1) preheat oven to 375. (2) line cupcake tins. (3) separate eggs.

in a large bowl, cream together the splenda, butter and egg yolks. set that aside. now, in another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. combine the flour mixture into the first bowl and mix well.

add the crushed pineapple and fold in the egg whites. don’t mix too much unless you want brickcakes.

fill up the muffin tins and pop them into the 375-degree, preheated oven (25 minutes for regular cupcakes; 12 minutes for minis). they’re done when a toothpick comes out clean and as always, let them cool for five-ish minutes in the tin before you let them cool completely, outside of it and then get to frosting.

to prep the world’s best frosting, separate your yolks from your whites (toss the yolks and set the whites aside). also, get a little bit of water simmering in the bottom of a double boiler. take as much crushed pineapple as you can spare (anywhere from 3 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup) and dry it with a paper towel and keep it drying and spread out on a plate. save this for the garnish!

in the top of the double boiler, combine the sugar, water, cream of tartar, salt and egg whites.

take a handmixer (TRUST ME, a whisk and elbow grease don’t work) and mix at a high speed. the mixture has to reach at least 160 degrees to make sure the eggs are cooked (it might go up to that temperature and then drop again a little bit, the more air is mixed in). keep mixing until peaks hold by themselves.

fold in the vanilla and coconut extracts, but don’t mix too roughly and let all the air out. put the frosting in a piping bag. before i decided i’d also garnish with the pineapple, i added a swirl of yellow food coloring. unnecessary. stick with the white - way prettier and goes more with the coconut flavor.

add a little dab of the crushed coconut to the top and enjoy the little taste of vacation!

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

this post made me realize that sometimes, the titles of my blogs are way too long. sorry, i couldn’t think of anything better.

anyways, merry christmas! i hope everyone gets to spend a relaxing day full of people they love. i, personally, am all decked out in my reindeer pajamas still (at lunchtime) and am going to get my nona soon so we can have a scrumptious dinner prepared by my pops. i’m also going to make a very festive playlist so my mom and i can sing at the top of our lungs on the ride to nona’s.

to continue on my festive christmas cupcake trio, i introduce a martha recipe for gingerbread cupcakes with butter glaze. the cupcakes were my taste testers’ (read: parents’) favorite and i didn’t want to put a lot of frosting on to take away from the spice-filled, fragrant cake.  i made a light butter glaze and felt like it didn’t even need another coat. sprinkling it with powdered sugar seemed festive, wintry and light.

for the cupcakes:

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup water

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 stick butter (room temperature)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup molasses

2 eggs

for the glaze and garnish:

2 cups powdered sugar

6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

2 Tablespoons skim milk

another 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar (for dusting)

done with the collecting? (i know it’s a lot of spices, but thanks to my dad’s stocked spice cabinet, i didn’t even need to get anything at the grocery store!) let’s move onto the doing.

for your prep work, first preheat the oven to 350 degrees. next, line your muffin tins with cupcake liners. lastly, in a small saucepan, bring one cup of water to a boil and pour that into a small bowl. combine the water with your baking soda and mix until it dissolves (immediately - it’ll fizz and then give it a quick swirl) and then set it aside for later.

i love this picture - it shows all the spices like a little painter’s palette. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg), salt and baking powder. once they’re well blended and mixed, set the big bowl aside.

in a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).  then, beat in the molasses and the baking soda/water mixture.

once everything else is mixed, beat in the eggs. make sure everything is well mixed but not over mixed.

fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full and pop them into the 350-degree, preheated oven. regular-sized muffin tins (28 minutes) or mini muffin tins (13 minutes) or adjust the time until a toothpick comes out clean.

let them cool in the tin for at least five minutes before putting them on a cooling rack or plate for another 30-45 minutes before frosting.

in a medium bowl, place the confectioner’s sugar and set it aside.  at the same time, melt the butter in a small saucepan. don’t let it brown - as soon as it’s melted, pour it into the bowl, over the sugar.

add the milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth. then, you want to work quickly before the butter starts to harden again.

dip the top of the cupcakes, one at a time, into the glaze and then flip them back over to let them dry for at least 30 minutes. while the glaze is still tacky, dust lightly with powdered sugar through a sifter.

so flavorful and a fun twist on a traditional christmas cookie. enjoy!

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

for some reason, eggnog always reminds me of my papa’s bagpipe christmas parties and sitting on santa’s lap. i think it’s the first time i had ever heard of it (not shocking for a four year old) and sort of hated it. over the years, i’ve learned to appreciate the beverage in non-alcoholic form during the holidays.

it’s so rich and over the top (even when it’s light!), but in moderation and in december, it’s fantastic. eggnog lattes? straight eggnog? eggnog ice cream? i’ll take it all. now, i’m adding eggnog cupcakes to that list!

this recipe started out as a vegan cupcake, but they were all sold out of silk soy eggnog and i preferred to use butter over shortening in my frosting, so it’s decidedly non-vegan, but pretty darn close! i think the cupcake doesn’t taste extremely eggnoggy but the frosting screams it, so it’s a nice balance and not overkill.

for the cupcakes:

2 teaspoons rum extract

1 cup eggnog

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of nutmeg

1 cup sugar or splenda

1 1/3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

for the frosting:

1/4 cup butter, softened
3 Tablespoons eggnog
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon extra nutmeg + 1 teaspoon extra cinnamon

to start, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tins with cupcake liners. i chose to make mini cupcakes, since i was making a little christmas assortment and wanted people to be able to try a bunch without feeling super guilty.

notice my NEW muffin tin and NEW cupcake liners? thanks hannukah harry! (aka mom and dad) :)

in a larger bowl, whisk together nutmeg, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

divide the batter into the muffin tins (of course i chose to do this with a mini ice cream/cookie scoop so they were pretty even and mess-free) and bake in the 350 degree, preheated oven for 18 minutes (regular cupcakes) or 9 minutes (mini cupcakes).  let the cupcakes cool in the tin for five minutes before allowing them to cool on a rack for 30 minutes before frosting.

while they’re cooling, start on the frosting… in a medium bowl, cream together the softened butter, eggnog, nutmeg and sugar. (if it’s not forming peaks, add a little extra sugar, but it’s not a very stiff frosting, so don’t expect it to do too much)

i learned a fun trick on another blog for filling frosting bags: put the bag, tip first, into a tall, narrow cup or glass and drape the top around the rim of the glass. it’s like having an extra set of hands when you’re trying to fill the bag!

spread or pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and sift the remaining nutmeg/cinnamon mixture on the top for garnish.

enjoy this holiday cheer and stay tuned for the rest of my christmas cupcake trio!

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

i’ve been using this recipe for at least two years, and truth be told, i don’t know if i’ve ever been able to make it quite as perfectly as the first time. each time, i try something a little different, but it’s never really an improvement. i’m sticking closer to the original this time.

it was adapted from a hungry girl recipe and i swear it tastes creamier and better than panera’s baked potato soup (my favorite offering from the restaurant), but it’s SO much lower in fat and calories than their version. i don’t think it tastes like it’s missing a thing, though.

it’s SO filling and a mug of it can easily be a filling dinner for me.  i think it’s just perrrfect for winter.

ingredients:

3 cups fat-free chicken broth

1 cup skim milk

2 large russet potatoes

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sweet onion, diced

1/4 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese

dollop of reduced fat or fat free sour cream

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

pinch of salt and pepper

first, use a fork to poke holes in the potatoes and wrap in a slightly dampened paper towel. nuke them for 4-5 minutes each, or until they’re softened. when they’re not too hot to touch, split them open and scoop out the insides with a spoon. put the guts in a bowl and mash. set that aside.

dice up the onion and mince the garlic. then, take a medium to large pot and spray it with nonstick spray. bring it to a medium to high heat and add the onions and garlic. let them sit for four or five minutes or until the onions start to get clearer and soft.

add the chicken broth and milk and stir. then, add the flour little by little and continue whisking it until it’s dissolved. then, add the potato mash and keep stirring that, too, until it’s all blended together.

add the rest of your ingredients to the pot, now: cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder. i know the bacon bits are in this picture, too, but TRUST ME, you don’t want to do this. the bacon flavor takes over the whole soup. also, it turns it a pink-ish color. i also have tried to use turkey bacon, but it just gets soggy. i’ve learned my lesson and probably would just add a sprinkle of bacon as a garnish if you are set on having it be a part of your soup.

anyways, mix it up and let it simmer - it really thickens up the longer you let it sit. it is also GREAT as leftovers. i’ve never frozen it before, so i wouldn’t make a HUGE batch, but it’s so easy, so it’s not a bad idea to make it frequently, either :)

mmmm! grab a spoon and enjoy.

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

one thing that my favorite food blogs have taught me is that it’s allll in the presentation. once i knew i was going to make cookie baggies for coworkers for the holidays, i knew i wanted them to be dolled up in a festive and creative manner. for not a ton of money, i gathered all the supplies i’d need for gift tags and baggies to provide a little home for my holiday cookie collection.

what i used for 30 gifts:

wilton party baggies ($2.99)

three rolls of snowman and snowflake ribbon (on SALE! $2.38 total)

white poster board ($0.99)

foam snowflake stickers ($1.00 and i only used 1/3 of them, so really $0.33)

curling ribbon (had it)

scissors (had it)

markers (had it)

three hole punch (had it)

so allll of that cost me less than $8. YAY!

i cut up the poster board into 30 fairly uniformly sized tags and punched a hole in the top left corner of each. then i stuck the snowflake sticker on and wrote my little (extremely unoriginal) holiday greeting on each of them. before i knew it, i had 30 gift tags:

i didn’t want to personalize the gift tags in case i forgot people or someone wasn’t around for the end of the week and i couldn’t give a gift, etc. all cookie packages were created equal.

next up, i gathered all the contents of my cookie baggies. not that you haven’t heard them enough, but just as a refresher, this year’s offerings were: peppermint bark, snowball cookies, hot chocolate cookies and iced sugar cookies (stars and candy canes).

good variety, something for everyone, yadda yadda. everyone’s favorites seemed to be the super-classic sugar cookies! according to my critic brad, most people load up poorly-crafted sugar cookies with tons of icing, but my cookies were good and could have stood on their own and the light amount of icing/glaze was a perfect, sweet touch.

each bag got a healthy sampling based on the batches that i made: two hot chocolates, one snowball, one peppermint bark, one of each sugar cookie. all the odds and ends extras went on my new snowman plate (once again, THANKS MAMA!) as the refill plate.

then, i tied the bag tightly with curling ribbon and attached the gift tag. i didn’t double knot or anything, though, because i wanted the bags to be resealable, more or less, in case my giftees didn’t want to eat half a dozen cookies in one fell swoop. i know firsthand that when these little guys are double and triple knotted, it doesn’t end well for anyone.

on top of that, i put one of my three festive ribbons - snowmen or snowflakes - and before you knew it, i had a fun gift to hand out!

i threw them all in a basket that was left over from a gift to the department that had been sitting on my desk and as an after thought, hung the candy canes left over from my peppermint bark.

after that, i slapped on my biggest christmas elf smile i could find (“i just like to smile. smiling’s my favorite!” -buddy the elf) and passed out my presents to a very eager crowd.

happy holidays, everyone!

to complete my holiday cookie collection for office gifts this year, i decided to go with the classic: sugar cookies. i opted for stars and candy canes, semi-non-denominational, but still kind of christmasy.

i had high hopes of adding snowmen to the mix and this whole elaborate decorating plan, but i was crunched for time and i went for the two smaller cookies, instead. i also minimized my decorations to just two icing colors (red and green), which ended up more of a pink and green, so they were more lilly pulitzer than christmas. but if you know me, then you know i’m totally fine with that.

after this, i’ll show you how i packaged up all the cookies, because this whole endeavor made me a christmas elf until 12:30 a.m. on a work night. if i didn’t love spreading christmas cheer so much, i’d be super grumpy about that.

for the cookies:

for the icing:

ingredients:

(for the cookies: makes almost SIX DOZEN. feel free to minimize.)

1 1/2 cups (three sticks) butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

(for the icing: enough to cover all the cookies and add a drizzle.)

2 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

5 teaspoons milk

5 teaspoons light corn syrup

2 teaspoons almond extract

assorted food coloring

done with the [more complicated than usual] collecting? good. onto the doing.

cream together the butter and sugar. once they’re fluffy, add the eggs and vanilla and mix them all together.

in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder until they’re well-mixed. slowly add the dry ingredients to the other mixing bowl. this became too dense for me to mix anymore (and my bowl wasn’t nearly large enough. noticing a trend? i need to invest in some bigger mixing bowls!), so in a lesson i learned from the snowball cookies, i took the dough out onto a lightly-floured wax paper surface and kneaded it to make sure everything was completely mixed.

then form a ball and put the dough into the refrigerator for anywhere from an hour to a day. i was strapped for time, so i chose the 45 minute option.

also, while the dough is in the fridge, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

i don’t have the hugest counter, so i chose to quarter the dough and work with it a little at a time. the dough that i wasn’t working with went back in the fridge to make sure it didn’t get too melty.

anyways… lightly flour (that’s my favorite phrase this entry) a rolling pin (another item i don’t own but borrowed from my mom — THANKS MAMA!) and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out the shapes. the dough rises a decent amount in the oven, so don’t make the dough TOO thick.

i love how the shapes i chose fit so well on the sheet of dough like little tessellations of each other - made for much more efficient cookie-cuttering.

bake them for six minutes each sheet, let them set for about five minutes and then put them on the wire cooling racks to cool for about an hour. i swear, was a machine with these cookies. i had a whole assembly line and rotation, one pan in, one pan out, dough cutting, rotating every six minutes. i wasted no time. and that is why i should work on the north pole.

let them cool COMPLETELY before you start icing them. so, to be extra productive, make your icing while they’re cooling.

let it be known that i used the wrong measuring spoon, so mine was probably more liquidy than the recipe called for - still tastes good and gets the job done, but it wouldn’t have worked as well if i was looking for a more definitive design instead of my abstract artwork. the correct recipe is posted above.

it really is so easy to make and QUICK, too. the only thing that took a long time was waiting for them to dry. but it’s all relative, it probably only took half an hour or so for the first layer to dry. i should have waited a little longer to package them after the drizzle, but oh well.

anyways - whisk together the milk and confectioner’s sugar until it’s smooth. then add in the almond extract and corn syrup (thanks, karen, for saving me a trip to the grocery store and having this on hand!).

this is such a traditional sugar cookie glaze and such a familiar taste to the little sugar cookies with rainbow nonpareils on them. i could never put my finger on the taste but it was definitely the almond extract. mystery solved!

if you want to do different colors, divide the icing up now. the way i decided to go was: dip in the white icing, let the cookies drip dry and then let them dry on wax paper. once those are dry, drizzle the colors on top.

the cookies on the left and in the foreground are still wet — super shiny and tacky to touch, but the ones in the top right are dry. much more of a matte finish.

(see? told you i was a cookie machine.)

i added the food coloring and then mixed it all together, using a knife to drizzle over the cookies to get the look i was going for. more or less… actually, more like a messy version of what i was going for.

then i got fancy and added some green and then decided that my time as an artist was over. i let them dry and then started to package them up. lucky for me, i was left with a jackson pollack on the wax paper! sheesh. what a beauty.

and that, my friends, is how i made my holiday cookie collection complete. such a process, but well worth it. coming up next: packaging :)

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

saw these on baked bree (i mean of course. what don’t i want to copy of hers?!) a while back and knew that i wanted to add them to my repertoire. they’re so cute and whimsical and perfect for the winter, not just the holidays. i mean really, what’s more perfect than staying inside with sweats, a blanket, a good movie and hot chocolate in the winter? now imagine all that goodness wrapped in a little cookie.

one little note of caution, though. i made some mistakes with these cookies. you know that saying, “do as i say, not as i do?” well do that. i’m going to tell you the things i’d do differently and i highly, highly recommend that you take me up on those suggestions. because of some miscues, i think my cookies were too sweet and a little undercooked (at least the first few batches).

anywho, if i have the patience to make these semi-labor-intensive cookies again, i’m going to make said adjustments and hopefully have a hit on my hands. but trust me, they’re not bad right now - still going to give them out for gifts! they’re just a liiiittle sweet for my oh-so-sensitive (sarcasm) palate.

two sticks (1 cup) of butter (room temperature)

1 cup sugar

two eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 1/4 cups flour

four packages hot chocolate mix (fat free)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup mini chocolate chips

2 cups mini marshmallows

done with the chocolately collection? good. let’s move onto the doing.

((in my original recipe, i also used brown sugar. since i think they were too sweet, though, i’m nixing that. ignore it in the pictures!))

in a large (larger than you’d think) mixing bowl, mix together the sugar and the butter. i did not put this in a big enough bowl, but then thankfully my dad gave me a much bigger bowl… 10 minutes before i was done with my recipe.

in another bowl (not so big), mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, salt and hot chocolate packets. whisk them until they’re blended and put them aside.

back in the first bowl, mix the eggs and vanilla until everything is well blended. then, slowly start to add the dry mixture. this is going to become so tough and dense, so after a while you might want to nix the hand mixer and opt to mix with a wooden spoon or reconsider how badly you really do need a kitchen aid.

(you should also nix the hand mixer so you don’t get yelled at* by your dad because he can smell the mixer burning out from down the hall. whoops.)

after that’s all mixed, add your chocolate chips. i put FAR too many in my batch. see, the original recipe bree posted included THREE CUPS of chocolate chips (one milk, one dark, one white), and in her revised recipe, she called for just one cup of mini chocolate chips. well, i got the memo on the minis, just not on the one cup. SOOO… i used the whole bag and wish i hadn’t!

throw the dough in the fridge for 30-60 minutes and while it’s chillin’, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

i used my handy-dandy, perfectly-sized, only-$2.99, new wilton small cookie scoop to dish out the dough. i put some of nona’s hannukah money to good use! put those onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes. after those 10, take them out and push about five mini marshmallows into the top. then, put them back into the oven for another three minutes.

(the original recipe called for only 9-11 minutes total and my cookies were a little undercooked, so go with the 13 minutes. trust me!)

slide the parchment off the cookie sheets, but keep the cookies on the parchment. let them cool a LOT before you try to slide them off or plate them because they’re pretty mushy and messy fresh out of the oven.

they’re super rich, so grab a glass of milk to wash them down and enjoy!

click here for a printable version of the (new & improved) recipe!

((side note: i wrote this entire blog and then deleted it, so forgive me if i left anything out. i probably remembered writing it the first time and forgot to do it the second go around.))

*also, my dad didn’t really yell at me. he just told me to stop using the mixer. yelling sounded better for blogging purposes, though. aight? aight.

my nona used to make these little russian tea cakes, as she calls them, but i only referred to them as snowballs.  they’re so light and buttery and crumbly and fantastic and when i decided to make holiday cookies this year, i knew this would be in the mix.

i’m really happy with how they came out and am even happier that i have to save them for gift baggies, or else i think i’d eat them all. they’re so tiny and easy lose count of how many you eat. mm mm mm!

ingredients (trust me, compared to my next recipe, this is a small list)

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped

2 cups white flour

done with the collecting? good. onto the doing!

take the room temperature butter and the sugar and cream together. then, add the water, vanilla and almond extracts (sorry i don’t have photos of those exciting steps).

take your walnuts and finely chop them — i was going to use a food processor, but apparently that was in the basement and a hassle to get out. i kind of liked chopping them, actually. i sadly felt quite accomplished when they were all done and the size i wanted. it’s the little things…

anyways, mix those into the butter/sugar/extracts/water mixture and then slowly add the flour. the dough will be pretty thick, so just mix as well as you can with the hand mixer and then dump it out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. get ready to knead!

knead the dough to combine all the ingredients REALLY well and then form it into a ball. wrap the ball in the parchment and refrigerate for 1-3 hours. whatever your schedule allows for. while the dough is in the fridge, preheat your oven to 375.

when it comes out and it’s chilled, break or cut off small pieces and roll the dough into one-inch balls. put them on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. wait for them to cool off completely and then roll them around in the powdered sugar to make the snowballs.

dust off the extra sugar and pass around the little pillows of heaven. so delicious, not too complicated to make. try them - you’ll thank me. well, really you should thank nona for introducing me to them and then thank me for introducing them to you.

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

i went to the mailbox the other day and found — to my horror, delight and surprise — a williams-sonoma catalog. trust me, i enjoy leafing through the pages, but it’s also torture to know that at this juncture in my life, there are few of their amazing kitchen essentials that i could actually afford.

right on the cover, though, was one of their holiday staples: peppermint bark. i looked at it, studied it, read the description and said to myself, “well this would be easy.”

once again touching on the financial woes of my current job, i want to spread some holiday cheer around the office without breaking the bank. so, i’ve decided to do little holiday cookie bags for everyone and call it a day. it’s really a win-win. i get to experiment with more recipes, you get to read about them and my co-workers get to taste-test.

so, the first in my collection of holiday treats is peppermint bark. this week, i’ll hopefully have enough time to add: hot chocolate cookies, snowballs and sugar cookies. keep your fingers crossed for me and hold me accountable!

two bags of chocolate chips (appx. four cups) (i used milk chocolate because in my circle of friends and family, that’s the more widely-appreciated chocolate type. if it was up to me, though, i would have used dark chocolate)

two bags of white chocolate discs (appx. four cups) (thanks to iron chef battle chocolate, i learned as i was falling asleep last night that white chocolate is not actually a chocolate because it contains no cocoa beans BUT it is made with cocoa butter)

four teaspoons peppermint extract

six candy canes

done with the minimal collecting, let’s move onto the doing!

first, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. on a side note, i think i’m going to start doing all my baking on parchment paper because i can’t seem to keep my pans as pretty as i want them to be with all the baking i’m doing.

anywho — now, take one bag of your darker chocolate (read: not white) and melt it in a double boiler. add in one teaspoon of peppermint extract, mix it well and then pour it onto the parchment and spread it around as thin as you can. do the same with the second bag of chocolate, as well.

put that in the fridge for 20-30 minutes until it’s not glossy or shiny at all.  while the chocolate is setting, crush up 5-6 candy canes. no matter how you do this, it’ll probably be a mess.  my cousin melissa said she used a little mini mortar and pestle, but since i didn’t have that, i opted for a plastic bag and a potato masher. candy cane dust was flying everywhere, the bag ripped, but i got what i needed and worried about the mess later.

then, once the darker chocolate is set and the candy canes are crushed, go back to the double boiler and melt the white “chocolate.” i also did this one bag at a time and don’t forget to add a teaspoon of peppermint extract, as well.

as soon as you melt it, pour it over the darker chocolate and spread it around, just be careful! the hotter chocolate will start to re-melt the layer that has set already, so if you press to hard, you’ll make the pretty white layer all muddy looking.

while the top is still shiny and soft, sprinkle the candy cane pieces all over the top and press in where you have to, to make sure the larger chunks stay in place. then, put it in the fridge for anywhere from 2-12 hours.

the longer it’s in the fridge, the easier it is to crack. pick up the parchment (with the chocolate on top) and put it onto a cutting board. then, dig a knife in and it should start to crack. cut them up into “cookie-sized” pieces and enjoy the minty, festive treat!

click here for a printable version of the recipe!

i apologize that this is so late - i think hannukah might be done? i don’t really know, to be quite honest. i didn’t light a single candle, spin a single dreidel or open a single present this hannukah. i have been all over the place, with too much work and no time to go home to celebrate with my family, BUT i’m not complaining — i’ll have lots of time to celebrate when i go home next week :)

but anywho. thanks to a suggestion from the most loyal commenter out there, brian, of “please welcome your judges fame,” i decided to make some latkes and have my own little festival of lights to get in the spirit before the holiday passed me by.

i sort of avoided the whole reason that you make latkes to commemorate hannukah though — you’re supposed to fry them in OIL, since OIL is one of the little symbols of the holiday. but in the interest of being a TINY bit healthier, i created some baked latkes. of course they’re not as indulgent and delicious as the REAL thing, but you get the point and they’re not bad.

ingredients:

four medium sized russet potatoes (each potato yields about 4-5 small latkes, so plan your recipe accordingly)

one small sweet onion

2 Tablespoons of whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons of minced garlic (just got some in a squeeze bottle and OMGOSH it’s fantastic)

salt and pepper

(for topping: sour cream or apple sauce! — i feel like this is a debate for the ages, but as i am with most things, i’m totally diplomatic and fine with either option)

done with the collecting? good. onto the doing.

first, take two baking sheets and put them in a 450-degree oven. next, wash and peel your potatoes. while you’re at it, peel off the top layer(s) of the onion, too.

now, grate your potatoes with a fairly coarse-size grater. some people put their latkes in a food processor, but i think this gives them so much more texture! consider them… festive hashbrowns.

once you’re done grating, you’ll realize just how much water is in potatoes — first, grab a handful and squeeze over the sink to get out a lot of the water. then, put all the grated potatoes in a paper towel-lined bowl to try to squeeze out even more of the excess water.  i’ve heard that laying all the grated potatoes out on a dish cloth and rolling it tightly squeezes out a lot, too. i just didn’t want to get my dish cloths all gross since laundry isn’t my favorite activity.

do the same with the onion and then mix the two together in a bowl. the potatoes turned sort of pink, which weirded me out. almost like how an apple turns brown when it’s been uncovered in the air too long, this turned pink. i still don’t get it.

add all the other ingredients (slightly scrambled egg, salt, pepper, garlic, flour). mix together until all of the potatoes are coated.

now, take the HOT, HOT, HOT baking sheets out of the oven and spray them with nonstick cooking spray. then, spoon little mountains of potato mixture onto them, spaced out. flatten them out a bit, too.

bake these for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. then, remove from the oven and spray the “raw” side (the one facing up) with cooking spray and then flip them over and put back in the oven for another 8 minutes or until they’re golden brown.

eat them while they’re still hot and top them with either apple sauce, sour cream or eat them plain AND a word to the wise… when you reheat them, DO NOT do it in the microwave unless soggy latkes are your thing.  especially since these didn’t start off as the crispiest latkes because of their lack of frying, you should just reheat them in the oven at 350 for 7-10 minutes or something to prep them as leftovers.

enjoy and have a happy eight crazy nights!

click here for a printable version of the recipe!