linzer torte cookies

mama sheehan’s linzer torte cookies. aren’t they gorgeous?

watch out… i sense a craving coming on that will only be satisfied by baking a batch!

coconut macaroons

you know i like posting recipe fails here every now and then, so no one goes around thinking i actually know what i’m doing.

i love coconut and i love coconut macaroons. not the fancy colored french ones (okay, maybe i like those too…) but the ones that look like this. like chewy mounds of toasted coconut, often dipped in chocolate.

unfortunately, mine didn’t turn out like that. instead, they were more like coconut meringue kisses, which aren’t necessarily bad, they just weren’t what i was looking for. they were still gobbled up, though…

FAIL.

i’m not giving you the recipe, because why would you want it?!

maybe i’ll try another one sometime. i still have plenty of leftover coconut.

arborio rice pudding

yum, you guys.

i made this for dinner, but filed it under dessert because that’s probably when most normal people would eat it.

this is nothing like the nasty, jello-like rice pudding that comes in containers from the grocery store. you gotta try it.

start with 3 ounces of arborio rice. that’s the kind of rice you make risotto out of.

melt about a tablespoon of butter in a pan over low heat. stir in the rice and some orange peel and raisins (optional) and toast the rice.

measure out about a cup and a half of milk. stir in half a teaspoon of vanilla. add a little to the rice, and stir until it is absorbed.

then add a little more and repeat. more and repeat.

taste the rice and keep adding milk and cooking until it is nice and soft.

toward the end, you also want to add a pinch of salt, a little sugar, and cinnamon to taste. and i took out the orange peel to serve.

perfect comfort food dessert (or dinner when your man’s away…)

christmas jello mold

so what is christmas jello mold, anyway?

it’s my favorite super retro dessert/snack/side dish and it only comes out at christmas. you’re going to love this.

first, you need a mold. ask your mom – she may have one from back in the day – or you can use a bundt pan, or even a regular old square cake pan.

start by dissolving one packet of strawberry jello in one cup hot water.*

then mix in half a cup of pecan pieces, one mashed banana, and a packet of frozen (thawed) strawberries.

sounding weird? stay with me.

pour half the mixture into the mold, and let it set in the fridge for an hour.

when it’s hard, spoon in and spread out a thin layer of sour cream.

then, gently, spoon in the rest of the mixture, and put it back in the fridge until it hardens all the way.

to help release it from the mold, set in a little pan of warm water, and…

…FLIP!

all ready for your 50s-themed dinner party!

* this version reflects a correction. the original post said to prepare jello according to package instructions, which call for two cups of water.

christmas cookies

i made two different kinds of christmas cookies this year:

those are tart cherry jam thumbprints on the left, which i wasn’t super impressed with. they’re not very pretty, are they? mum said they looked homemade… as a compliment.

the others are chocolate chip gingersnaps. now those were an enormous hit. at the party, at work, at home… everywhere. everyone loved them. they will become a regular for me. and super easy, too! the combination of ginger and chocolate is so unexpected and works terrifically. (is that a word? it should be.)

pumpkin-chocolate chip bread pudding

i can’t believe that i haven’t posted this recipe yet, but when i went to look it up, i couldn’t find it! sorry i’ve been holding out on you!

this is one of my all-time favorite fall/winter/holiday desserts. no joke.

it’s so easy, you can’t screw it up if you try; you can make it ahead of time, and reheat as needed; everyone loves it, even leftover for breakfast (yup); it’s vegan; and it has CHOCOLATE!

you start with about 10 cups of cubed, stale bread. baguette is best, but you can really use anything – white, wheat, i’ve even used leftover oatmeal bread, or a mix of whatever is around. just avoid strong flavors like herbed, pumpernickel, rye, etc. if it’s not stale, spread it out on a cookie sheet and dry out in a 250 degree oven.

mix together:

1 cup coconut milk
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 – 1/2 cup brown sugar, based on taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves

and toss with the bread cubes in a big bowl until each is well coated. mix in 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, too.

pour into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish and gently pack down.

bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes until it smells amazing and the top is a little brown.

oh man, i want some right now. with bourbon whipped cream.

chocolate-lined pecan pie

i must have seen this idea somewhere, but i don’t remember where, so i just tried to wing it. the filling is a combination of two recipes i found. the “lining” is from my head.

first, make a pie crust and “blind bake” it halfway. (about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. note: if you’re blind baking, you generally use pie weights. i don’t have any, so i just pricked the dough all over with a fork. it worked fine.)

or buy one.

then i melted two ounces of chocolate with one tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of corn syrup, half a teaspoon of vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

i used the back of a spoon to spread this into a thin layer onto the crust after it had cooled for 15 or so minutes.

you have to be a little gentle, but it works!

the filling is three eggs (beaten), 1 cup corn syrup (i used light – dark is probably better), 1/2 brown sugar (again, i used light, dark is probably better), 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 8 ounces of pecan halves. to make up for the two lights, i also added a 1/4 cup of molasses.

pour into crust when the lining has firmed up.

now, bake for about 40 minutes at 350. i was told the filling will still wiggle like it’s uncooked, but will harden as it cools.

HOWEVER, upon cutting it the next day, i found that while the top half was nice and hard-chewy like it should be, the bottom half was still saucy! boo!

one suggestion was that i really should not have used “light” corn syrup. who knows. people loved it. there was licking of plates.

caramel apples

caramel apples are underrated. i always kind of forget about them, then i have one and remember they are a brilliant concoction.

i should have made my own caramel blah blah blah, but i didn’t. i used that whole foods caramel apple dip.

the secret is that it’s pretty loose, so you have to stick ’em in the fridge right away and leave them there until you eat them.

also, i recommend using a chop stick handle. nothing else i’ve found is sturdy enough.

i’m also dainty and lady-like and cut mine into pieces. (before attacking what was left on the stick…!)

also, two words: coarse salt.

late night apple crisp

last night, he had an emergency late night craving for apple crisp, and i was happy to oblige.

after all, it’s just a matter of chopping some apples, adding salt, cinnamon, a tiny sprinkle of sugar, and some vanilla… and mixing a tablespoon of butter with a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of oatmeal.

top apples with crisp-topping and bake at 375 until the top is golden, it smells amazing, and he can’t wait any longer.

what better way to finish up the last couple hours of homework?

chocolate-covered pretzel ice cream

since i got the kinks worked out of the ice cream-making process, i have started to get fancy. custards, infused milk, xantham gum… and crazy flavors.

salty and sweet has always been my favorite flavor combination (in everything except cocktails, i suppose…) and chocolate or yogurt covered pretzels are one of my desert island foods. so why not take them to the ice cream machine?

i went back and forth about how best to do it – vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered pretzel pieces? peanut butter ice cream with chocolate covered pretzels? – and finally settled on chocolate ice cream with yogurt covered pretzel pieces.

i supposed you could use plain pretzel pieces, but i decided they might get soggy in the ice cream without that protective yogurt covering.

so first, i made a super-rich chocolate ice cream base. adding instant coffee to a chocolate recipe is an old barefoot contessa secret (and i’m sure many others, too) to make the chocolate chocolatier, so i used two parts cocoa and one part instant coffee.

the recipe also called for half white sugar and half brown sugar, and i halved the amounts because no one likes too-sweet.

and because i had some around, i used half heavy cream and half milk.

i just have to show you this picture because i am so impressed that i took it and poured at the same time:

(the machine is spinning, you just can’t tell.)

in this batch, i used half a teaspoon of xantham gum, which was about an 1/8 of a teaspoon more than we used in previous tests, and to be honest, it was a little too much.

during the churning process, the ice cream got so thick that it almost stopped moving.

fortunately, the end result didn’t suffer, except that the pretzel pieces might not have been as uniformly distributed as i might have wanted.

serve with a pretzel garnish!