The Christmas Cookie Extravaganza of 2012

When I was a young one, I distinctly remember helping my mother bake Christmas cookies.  We'd bake the family favorites - sugar cookies rolled around Hershey kisses or maraschino cherries, buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate), date bars, lemon bars, and a seemingly endless supply of butter cookies.  Those butter cookies were the star of the show, cut in a variety of holiday shapes and iced/sprinkled with care.  A few years, we even made divinity, a traditional Southern candy made with very hot sugar syrup and jello mix.  The divinity was quite memorable, since some of the sugar syrup leaped out of the bowl and onto my hand, instantly blistering skin and instilling in me a healthy respect for sugar work.  

I love the tradition of baking Christmas cookies with my mother.  Even though we've adjusted our routine, making smaller batches and swapping in new recipes for our older ones, it just doesn't feel like the holidays without a flurry of cookie baking and sharing.  

I've extended the tradition to include my coworkers, gifting them with boxes of each year's Christmas cookie offerings.  This year, I was responsible for choosing all of my family's holiday treats, and I wanted to include the familiar flavors of the season.  

Here's what we made...

Chewy Chocolate Mint Cookies

from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

This is their most recent cookbook, separated into sections by their 10 favorite ingredients.  While I've enjoyed their two previous books, this volume is definitely my favorite.  It has a whole section on pumpkin! And chocolate!

About the cookie:  Chewy texture, with a slightly crunchy exterior thanks to a roll in some granulated sugar.  Studded with chocolate chunks.  A rich dark chocolate and strong peppermint flavor

Ginger Rum Molasses Cookies (or Joe Froggers)

from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Their gingersnap recipe won out over the more crunchy version of David Leibovitz and the chocolate-gingerbread version of Martha Stewart.  I suspect the winning factor was the rum...

About the cookie:  Chewy, with a very mild crunch from the demarara sugar we dipped them in before baking.  Uses A LOT of molasses, so that's the major flavor you'll get from these, with a bit of gingerbread spice (ginger, clove, nutmeg....no cinnamon, which was interesting).  My mother claims to clearly taste the rum, but all I can taste is molasses.  Since we used dark rum, which has a strong molasses flavor, maybe we're both tasting the same thing.

Swedish Christmas Cookies

(aka Cardamom Shortbread Cookies)

from the Food Network Kitchens

Last year, we wanted to make traditional holiday cookies from around the world.  In our search for recipes, I stumbled across these shortbread cookies, laden with cardamom and lemon zest.  We didn't make them last year, but, oh boy, are we happy we did this year.  They're such a wonderful change from the other cookies and from more common butter cookies.

About the cookie:  Crumbly and tender shortbread cookies with the barest hint of crunch from the granulated sugar rolled around its edges (you could use colored sugar or chopped nuts to be more festive).  The smell of these cookies baking was marvelous, filling the house with a rich, exotic, spicy scent.  When you bite into one of these, you taste warm and comforting spice - that's the cardamom taking you to the fireside and filling you with warmth.  The lemon zest seems to get lost in the glory of cardamom, but I suspect it's supporting the cardamom's flavor more than I can taste. 

North-by-Far-East Brittle

(aka Spiced Pecan Chews)

from Sugar Baby: Confections, Candies, Cakes, and Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Sugar by Gesine Bullock-Prado

This book tempted me into the finicky land of playing with sugar.  While it has excellent explanations and creative (but do-able) recipes, I've run into problems with making some of the recipes.  I'm not sure if it is the recipe's fault or my own, but I followed this recipe and emerged with a not-so-brittle treat.  I love this cookbook, I'm just baffled about the results. 

About the cookie (err...candy?):  This candy was supposed to result in brittle, which means sheets of candy that snap and break easily into beautiful and irregular shards.  Even though I followed the recipe precisely, my product dried to a thick and chewy candy.  And by chewy, I mean this could sticks to and pulls on your teeth like those caramel apple lollipops you see around Halloween.  Since it was still quite tasty and I hated to see so much food go to waste, I decided to roll with my much chewier than brittle candy.   It's delicious, redolent with flavors of maple syrup, ras-al-hanout spice mix, and toasted pecan pieces.  A welcome change from the toffee so often seen around the holidays.  Eric and I combined our muscles to wrangle cut the "chews" into pieces as small as we could manage.  I'd like to try this recipe again, perhaps with a new and improved thermometer (though I genuinely thought my current thermometer--the third of its ilk in my home--was alright).

Apple Cider Caramels

from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

From one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, this newly released cookbook is not only gorgeous, informative, and incredibly approachable, it's totally my new favorite cookbook.  It'll stay in the favorite category for, well, forever.  It's got everything, and Deb does her typical excellent job of breaking it down and making it work for everyone.  She previewed this recipe on her blog the day the book was released and I vowed to make them immediately.  Immediately came and went, but I still had to make them.  Cider and the promise of all the flavors of fall on your tongue?  How could I resist?

About the candy:  Deb's instructions are easy and clear to follow, but my caramels came out a bit harder than she intended.  Instead of cutting into pliable squares, they shattered along fault lines into pieces of their own choosing.  Oh well. I rolled with this as well.  They're insanely delicious, with a strong taste apple cider (make sure you use a good quality cider, like Trader Joe's!) and a delightful salty counterpoint from fleur de sel.   While these are rather hard in your hand, they soften up quite a bit in your mouth, becoming the stick-to-your-teeth-in-a-dangerous fashion for a bit before settling down to small pieces you can savor.

All these treats were wrapped in wax paper to keep them separate and carefully stowed inside of Martha Stewart's lovely cookie boxes.  They're the easiest and most lovely way I've found to package cookies for gifting.

So far, it seems that my coworkers love all their treats.  Most have declared the apple cider caramels their favorite, though Eric is quite enamored of the chewy chocolate mint cookies, especially once he realized they were chewy and not crispy, like the first cookie he'd sneaked for a taste (serves him right, stealing a cookie and snagging one of the few that didn't turn out properly!).  I'm hard pressed to choose a favorite, since my tastes change with my mood.  I can confidently say, though, that all three cookies are quite delicious in their unbaked form as well.

Oh, and one of the fantastic features of the cookies is how easy they are to make, compared to the usual production of butter cookies (mix dough, chill, roll out sheets, chill, cut shapes, chill, re-roll dough, chill, bake, cool, ice, cool).  My mother and I made all of the doughs the day before, allowing them to chill overnight.  We baked everything in a single day, which was fairly easy with the cardamom shortbreads being a slice-and-bake and the two other cookies being drop/roll into a ball cookies.  

And I promised to give major credit to Eric for his photography in some of these photos.  He was quite artistic in arranging the boxes and the cookie list.  He also snapped several action shots of the candy making process, but I didn't include them here (sorry!).  If he's not careful, he's going to become Hops' official photographer...

It finally feels like Christmas is coming!

What treats do you make for the holiday?

Do you have any family holiday traditions in the kitchen?

Surprised and Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Emotions and stomach contents skyrocketed during the dinner, which was quickly followed by the contented stupor of a meal well made and well devoured.  We gave thanks, we relaxed, and then we turned our collective minds and bellies towards Christmas.

My Thanksgiving was relatively small and simple.  With Eric's parents out of town, we only had one dinner to tackle, a fact my weak willpower appreciated tremendously.  It's impossible to fit two full delicious Thanksgiving dinners in your stomach in less than a day, regardless of how hard you try to prevent it. Trust me on this.  So, our group of five - me, Eric, my parents, and my uncle - set ourselves to the delightful task of tackling the dinner.  Turkey, mashed potatoes (courtesy of Eric, a self-proclaimed potato expert), gravy, peas, a simple sourdough stuffing (with celery, onions, and herbs), corn pudding (my tribute to Eric's family's feast), Molly Wizenberg's cranberry sauce (the reigning favorite), and three riffs on pumpkin pie.  We had to test different filling combinations...though results were inconclusive.  Meaning we simply must conduct more tests. Oh, the suffering!

I had planned on using the post-holiday time to finish some work and to catch up on blogging.  I have so many recipes to share with you, after all!  But life intervened, in the best possible way...

The first Christmas tree in Eric's new house

The night before Thanksgiving, Eric insisted we buy a Christmas tree for his house.  His first Christmas tree for his first house. So we found the perfect tree, carefully secured it in the car (pine needles everywhere. Ah, 'tis the season, right?), and set it up in a place of honor. We carefully wove lights through the tree, then hung a small collection of ornaments from his parents' house.  At Eric's urging, I grabbed the last box out of the ornament bin and opened it up, only to see it wasn't an ornament. It was a ring. A very sparkly, very beautiful ring. 

You see, I was surprised. Completely stunned and swept off my feet.  Eric knelt and proposed ever so sweetly. I said yes. I also said I do, just in case.

So the rest of our holiday was spent popping open bottles of champagne, sharing our news with family and friends, and reveling in the thought of a lifetime together.  I can't wait!

Mimosas to celebrate the following morning!

I promise to restrain myself on talking about
wedding plans here...until I get to the cake tastings.
You deserve all the details.
I'll just flaunt my new mug, then...

Also, somewhat understandably, I've developed quite a strong attachment to this particular Christmas tree. Do you think I can plant it and hope it will grow?  If not, my wonderfully clever friend suggested some crafty ways to save at least part of our tree, which I will do immediately.

So, my dear friends, I shall return with recipes galore in the very near future. I'm still catching up on that pre-Thanksgiving to-do list, as well as gearing up for Christmas and New Year's festivities! It's the best time of the year to share some love from the kitchen! And the bar!  Cheers!

holiday happenings & future plans

Lots to catch up on, so I'll try to give the abbreviated version!

One...I received one of my Christmas gifts early this year. Two weeks before Christmas, Eric surprised me with a gorgeous silver bracelet, complete with a few sparkly diamonds!!!! I was so stunned and touched by his gift! I absolutely had no idea what he was getting me for Christmas, but I really didn't expect this bracelet! Also, I immediately was afraid that I'd somehow lose or break this beautiful gift, but I've already worn it twice and will wear it so many more time (just not to work....). It makes me smile every time I think about it :) Nice work, Eric! hehehe!

Two...I passed my qualifier!!!!!! Hooray! I am finally free from that horrible monster that's plagued me for the past year! Now I have to do some serious catching up to get back into the lab and work towards producing publications and a thesis. It'll be somewhere between 2-4 years, I'm guessing, before I can hope for my degree and be free of grad school. Those years will be almost entirely lab work or writing.  I'm going to enjoy the qualifier-free life for a bit.  Maybe read papers every day or try to keep writing scientific stuff (like writing my literature review or something). Baby steps will still take me forward!

Three...I had an incredible Christmas break with my family and friends! I love spending time with my family and felt particularly fortunate that Eric was able to share some time with them. I wish I didn't have to go back to Cincy already. And I wanted to get a lot more baking done, but c'est la vie!

Four...I am finally getting over my head cold/sinus infection from before Christmas - hooray! I can breathe again! My poor head, however, is hurting with congestion. Hopefully I can get rid of this entirely and stay free from my usual winter illnesses, because I want to start training to run a 10k or a half marathon sometime later this year. Not because I like running! I want to prove to myself that I have the dedication, the determination, and the discipline to do this. And I want to stay healthy and, well, trim and in shape. And I don't want to be left behind by Eric as he's getting back into consistent serious running form! While I'll never be as fast as him or able to run as far, I still want to be able to go out running with him (on separate routes, at different paces) on the weekends.

Five...I have been to Red Carpet twice since I passed my qualifier! After 2-3 months of abstaining from this delightful Monday night ritual, I finally was able to join Eric and Manning for some much needed PBR and wings. Ohhhhh man, I needed their wings! And I even got my parents to come along one time! I think they had a blast!

Six...Some birthday's and holiday's are coming up (Eric's Bday, Megan's Bday, my dad's Bday, Moe's Bday, Valentine's Day) and I am already excited to start figuring out what I want to do for them!!!! Without this qualifier looming over me, I can dedicate time to my friends and family again!

Seven...I'm going to do a lot of informational reading about cooking, brewing, and photography. I claim these are among my hobbies, but I haven't actually read the books I bought about them (oops) nor have I actually delved into brewing and photography. I do cook and bake a lot (though much less in the past few months because of the qualifier), but I want to expand my culinary repetoire and knowledge.

Eight...It's almost New Year's! While I usually get somewhat stressed by figuring out what's going on for New Year's Eve (mainly because I freak out about having to drive somewhere for a party and I hate anyone driving that night), I look forward to having a new year/clean slate thing. I think it's because I love to plan...and the new year is ripe for planning all sorts of things. Right now, I'm making:

a workout plan (through the end of March),

a budget (well, updating the old one),

plans for upcoming bdays/holidays, plans to stay in touch with friends (yeah, I'm actually making a calender to ensure I call or write more often than I have),

plans for my project at school,

and, maybe, just maybe, some mini-vacations to visit friends or get away for a weekend


I hope you have the most wonderful new year, filled with happiness and love!!!!