macaroons -

by snebbu

Cookies Gone Wild! Top 10 Christmas Cookie Recipes

Christmas is around the corner. I know I’m counting down…yes…4 days of work left until break. Co-workers are coming in with their trays of Christmas cookies to share and we all poke around to see if our favorites are there and leave the lame ones to go stale. We spend hours upon hours creating tons of cookies to share with our friends and loved ones and there are always rejects left behind. What if tradition was thrown out the window and you could make any kind of Christmas cookies you wanted? Leave the plain butter cookies and the raisins and fruit filled cookies behind this year and try out our top ten Christmas cookies. Enjoy…

10. Peanut Butter Oreo Truffles

These are so easy and so tasty. You can through them in your Christmas tin and all of the sudden, these will be all your friends are talking about. You can make them in dark, milk, or white chocolate and can even add coloring to suit your season of choice.

RECIPE: Endless Simmer

9. Coconut Macaroons

My fiance makes bakery-quality macaroons. Seriously – best I ever had. But these take a very close second. Macaroons are not often thought of as a Christmas cookie, but they are too damn good not take a spot on the dessert table after Christmas dinner!

RECIPE: Barefeet in the Kitchen

8. Red Velvet Cookies

Red Velvet is not necessarily a “Christmas Seasonal,” but I think these will easily earn a place in the cookie tin. Especially with that cream cheese filling…

RECIPE: Amy Bites

7. Salted Caramel Clusters

Okay…they are not technically cookies. But they look so easy to make and even easier to eat.

RECIPE: The Small Things Blog

by BS

Drinking the Season: 7 Holiday Cocktail Recipes

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, you know what ES has up our virtual sleeves for you…a holiday cocktail! Or seven!

OK, fine, we don’t actually have a Kwanzaa cocktail (Sandra Lee…where aaaaare you on this one?) but from peppermint to gingerbread, there’s something on this holiday cocktail list everyone can get behind.

1. Seven Layer Cookie

3/4 oz. Godiva® Liqueur
3/4 oz. Coconut rum
1/2 oz. Butterscotch Schnapps
1/2 oz. Partida Anejo Tequila
1/4 oz. Frangelico
1/2 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream®
1/2 oz. Amaretto

Garnish rim of a martini glass with crushed cookie crumbs. Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into martini glass.

2. Wine Me Up Santa

From: W Retreat & Spa, Vieques Island

1 750ml bottle red table wine
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon whole cloves
¾ teaspoon whole pink peppercorns
2oz honey
2oz vodka
1oz triple sec
.5oz soy lecithin
Cinnamon powder

Warm all ingredients except soy lecithin in a saucepan at a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not allow the temperature to exceed 140°F / 60°C (If mixture starts to boil, lower the heat.) Seal and chill. Take ¼ of your mixture and use an electric hand blender to mix in soy lecithin to create an airy topping. Pour in liquid mixture to fill half of a glass mug or teacup, top with mulled wine, air, and lightly dust the top with cinnamon.

3. Chocolate Peppermint Cookie

3/4 oz. Partida Blanco Tequila
1 oz. Peppermint Schnapps
3/4 oz. Godiva® Liqueur
1-1/2 oz. Cream

Rim martini glass with chocolate syrup and crushed candy canes. Shake ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into martini glass.

in Drinks / Holiday / Recipe 0 comments

by unsightly

Artsy Photo of the Day

What to fill these with?

in Desserts / Photos 0 comments

by BS

This is What Brunch at Per Se Looks Like

Per Se may be the best restaurant in New York, but it’s also a food blogger’s nightmare: no photos allowed!?! ES Spy Sara Huneke discovered a secret: opt for their $200 brunch instead of dinner, and you’ll have enough natural light flowing in to surreptitiously take drool-worthy smartphone shots.

Red wine-braised heirloom onions, arrowleaf spinach, broccolini, cauliflower, Meyer lemon and preserved horseradish.

Glazed white asparagus, yellow cling peaches, Belgian endive, Pearson Farm’s pecans, sorrel and Australian black winter truffle.

in Featured / Photos / Restaurants 3 comments

by hungry monster

Smackaroons: Coconut Crème Kiss Filled Macaroons

Hi! It’s Renee again from Attack of the Hungry Monster. Also, it’s macaroon time. But these macaroons have a secret. While not obvious to the untrained eye (my eye is trained in chocolate, in case you are wondering), it is most definitely a coconut crème Hershey’s kiss!

I decided to call these smackaroons because they are kisses (*smack*) stuffed inside coconut macaroon cookies. I really need to trademark that.

Here’s how they came about: I am a bargain shopper through and through. No discounted item goes unnoticed by me. I hit that Target clearance weekly like I’m storing a bunker…full of discount clothing and old Easter candy.

So, after Easter when I came across these bad boys, I knew where they’d end up.

in Desserts / Featured / Recipe 4 comments

by BS

Beyond Chocolate: Why Americans Do Get Fat in France

I just returned from 10 days in Paris and Brittany, France, where my girlfriend and I had a highly delicious time combining refined French cuisine with old-fashioned American overindulgence. They may say French women don’t get fat, but Americans on vacation in France most decidedly do. I mean, there’s a cheese course option at every meal. What can you do?

While desserts aren’t generally my favorite, it was food in that category that we found the most to write home about.

There were plenty of traditional sweets options at Mathray and Robert’s Pain de Sucre in the Marais, but we were most intrigued by their nouveau marshmallows, heavily infused with flavors like saffron (left) and whiskey (right).

Their classic macaroons also have a new school twist, with flavors like cool mint, salted caramel, and passion fruit-chocolate.

in Desserts / Food Travel / Photos 2 comments

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– You guys and gals seem to commisserate with Alex’s five stages of a bad meal. Lora:

Totally cracking up over this. I have a similar post (still unposted!) about the incredibly frustrating process of making French Macaroons. Great minds think alike

Yes! Let us know when that’s up, Lora. Have we started a new food meme? Five Stages of…

– Thanks everyone for EVEN MORE suggestions on America’s best new sandwiches. Heather:

in Sandwich 0 comments