Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Christmas 2010 sweets


Darienne

Recommended Posts

This looks Yummy Kerry -

Your's is smoother than this batch Bob - it crystallized a bit on me. Hubby found your container the other day that I had been hiding for more pictures - snarfed it down and loved it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just found out that my blood sugar is too high, so I tried to make Christmas things that I don't really like all that well. :laugh:

I don't eat jelly, so the first order of business was to defrost the cherries I picked last spring--made 2 batches of plain cherry and one batch using a container of vanilla sugar. Then, a couple batches of canned lemon curd, and lemon orange curd. (U GA recipe, USDA approved. Except I used real lemon juice, NOT Real-lemon.)

A friend gave me a jar of roasted garlic/white wine/balsamic vinegar jelly, which is just great as a pan sauce for chops or chicken, so I made a couple batches of that. (Food network recipe--makes a very stiff jelly--I think I will try using only one pack of pectin next time.)

Then, 2 double batches of Aunt Rosie's peanut brittle--the thick, foamy kind. I love this, but I managed not to even taste it!! Yay for me!!

Finally--I made possum poop. Put a pound of whole almonds in a heavy pan, and cover with cinnamon sugar. Heat and stir until the sugar melts and glazes the almonds. If you have ever seen evidence that a possum has been eating persimmons, you know what these almonds look like. :laugh:

sparrowgrass
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally--I made possum poop. Put a pound of whole almonds in a heavy pan, and cover with cinnamon sugar. Heat and stir until the sugar melts and glazes the almonds. If you have ever seen evidence that a possum has been eating persimmons, you know what these almonds look like. :laugh:

Is this a family name for the confection? I googled same and ended up only with recipes to cook possum. We don't have possums up here. As for your description of same: more information than needed... :raz:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I baked, and baked, etc., I made "sugarplums" but not everything was photographed. I made two types of oatmeal cookies, corn flake cookies, Toll House cookies, coconut haystacks (vanilla and cocoa) and cranberry toffee cookies.

Today I have nothing to do until it is time to leave for dinner (invited to neighbor's home).

Cookie line up:

Cocoa/pecan/mint

cocoa:pecan: mint cookies.jpg

Vanilla Pecan crinkles

Vanilla Pecan crinkles.jpg

Caramel Pecan

Caramel pecan cookies.jpg

Cocoa Almond

Cocoa almond cookies.jpg

Cocoa P-nut butter chip

Cocoa:P-nut butter chip cookies.JPG

Ginger Toffee meltaways

Ginger:toffee meltaways.jpg

Sugarplums- Apricot/Almond/Ginger w/Black pepper

Sugarplums closeup 1.jpg

Sugarplums 4 closeup.jpg

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, for someone who hates cookies (if you do... my sarcasm detector was inconclusive :P) you sure turn out some good ones! They look so good - you can tell they're homemade but they don't look "homemade", if you know what I mean :)

Oh thank you! I truly do hate baking cookies. It's tedious to me for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scotty-Your tart is beautiful! For some reason, I can never get the rows to line up correctly...

I'm in the process of making Struffoli right now, but I've never made it before so I'm not sure how successful it will be.

If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry? ~Author Unknown

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh thank you. I actually think it's all in the same sized cuts and fruit. Yes it sounds a little OCD but I sort them all out and keep the bigger ones. The trimmings from the outside of the strawberries and the smaller raspberries are frozen for sorbets, purees, whatever. You'll notice, all the same size. And it helped I was trying to impress a girl :wub:

Sleep, bike, cook, feed, repeat...

Chef Facebook HQ Menlo Park, CA

My eGullet Foodblog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pears in red wine:

15 pears, peeled and cored

2 bottles of red wine

2 large oranges, sliced

2 lemons, sliced

2 cinnamon sticks

6 cardamom pods

brown sugar ... erm ... about 'that' much

Place all in a large pan and simmer until the pears are soft. Spoon the pears into warm jars along with a slice of orange and lemon then pour over the (now) mulled wine after passing through a strainer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Beautiful cookies! I made the World Peace Cookies to go in my cookie trays for my staff, but I decided they were too good and ate them myself. What can I say, I just didn't take seriously how good a recipe it was until I tried it for myself! I did end up making a second batch and bringing them into work a week later...but not too many of them actually made them into the building, as they are fabulous with coffee as a breakfast on the go!

If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry? ~Author Unknown

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For my office, I took in a monster tray with three types of goodies:

  • Martha Stewart's chocolate crackle cookies. (I linked to this version rather than Martha's website, as the version on her website is a little different than the one from her cookie book that I use.)
  • A new recipe for iced lime-pistachio Christmas tree cutouts that I got out of one of this year's "Holiday cookie" magazines. (I won't be adding this to my regular lineup. It's not bad, but not worth all the fussy effort, IMO.)
  • Turtle pretzel rods. I dip half a pretzel rod in melted caramel, and roll in a mixture of chopped peanuts, milk chocolate, and butterscotch bits. Decidedly homely, but very tasty. They're the ones everyone in the office lusts after.

I exchanged gifts with a couple of co-workers. For these, I included several candies I made (and maybe a tray of cookies for their families, as well.) These included:

In addition to these, for the cookie trays I took to may family events and gave as gifts to some neighbors, I made New Zealand Holly Cookies, as these are the "must have" cookies for my family.

I also made some cherry almond scones to have for breakfast on Christmas morning.

* I asked for, and received, Kerry's DVD on tempering chocolate last Christmas, and watched it before I started candy making this year. I was inordinately proud of the shiny, snappy chocolate on my truffles and toffee this year. (Although some of the pieces did have some pretty ugly feet --- but I saved the less-than-beautiful ones for my family, who consider an extra bit of chocolate to be a feature rather than a defect.)

This was also my first time making caramels --- and the recipe above was very easy, and the caramels were incredibly good. I don't think the dark chocolate was the best match for the peanut caramels I made, though. Next time I'll try milk chocolate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...