Desserts - - Page 3

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

Chew on This: Pistachio Rum Mini Bundt Cakes

In one of those epic which-ice-cream-to-buy battle of the minds, a friend recently called me an “old man” for wanting to choose pistachio. Is this warranted? I mean, I know it’s not chocolate chip cookie dough, but it’s not rum raisin either. So maybe pistachio isn’t the most cutting-edge of all dessert flavors, but it’s freaking delicious. I was stoked to discover this new recipe from Heather Goldberg and Jenny Engel of Spork Foods, who combine the nuttiest of nuts with lots of wintry spices, yes, a little bit of rum, but yay, no raisins, for what they call Pistachio Chewy Bites. Yes, please.

Mini Pistachio Chewy Bite Rum Bundt Cakes

Yields 12 personal bundt cakes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup un-sweetened almond milk plus 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 3/4 cups organic un-bleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar
1 tablespoon organic black strap molasses
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup neutral tasting oil (Safflower)
1/3 cup finely ground pistachios
3 Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites
1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
2 teaspoons un-sweetened almond milk

in Desserts / Rants & Raves / Recipe 0 comments

by snebbu

Cookies and…Beer? Flying Dog Holiday Collection

What’s the best drink to have with cookies? BEER. Why not, people? The holidays are coming; we’re celebrating getting fat and doing it with our families and friends. To support our mission, Flying Dog created The Holiday Collection: Four Otterbein’s Cookie Inspired Craft Beers. While I was hoping that the kit would come with Berger Cookies, the Otterbein’s cookies did not disappoint. But what about having them with beer? Well, luckily I’m here to do the hard work of tasting and drinking each beer and cookie. After our DIY beer pairing, we continued on with dessert, complements of Flying Dog. We judged the beers, the cookies, and then the pairing. Here we go!

in Desserts / Drinks / Holiday 0 comments

by BS

Apples and Honey Gets an Upgrade

If fall is in the air, it must be just about time to celebrate the New Year….not that New Year; the one with apples and honey.

This tasty union is a Rosh Hashanah tradition, symbolizing the hopes for a “sweet” New Year. Of course, at ES we like to do that with more than just a kids lunchbox-esque pack of sliced apples drizzled in goo. For this year”s updated Rosh Hashanah take, we”re looking at this honey-glazed Apple Financier Tart — an elevated, Francophile variation on an apple pie.

Pâtissier extraordinaire Francois Payard provided this recipe, in which the moisture of the mix and texture of the apples with the flavor of the browned butter take A&H to a new level.

Apple and Honey Financier Tart

in Desserts / Holiday 0 comments

by BS

The Aborted Launch of Astronaut Ice Cream

(Illustration by Leah Lin for Narratively)

Ever wonder if astronauts really eat astronaut ice cream?

Over at Narratively this week, we answer that pressing question, and much more, in our full week of stories all about ice cream.

The Aborted Launch and Meteoric Rise of Astronaut Ice Cream

A Child Screams for Ice Cream

The Ice Cream Man in the Summer of Sam

Tales of Ice Cream Dreams and Fro-Yo Fiends

The 300 Flavors in Jon Snyder’s Mind

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by BS

Bastille Day Indulging: Triple Chocolate Financiers

France may be long gone from the World Cup, but that doesn’t mean we have to stick to schnitzel (or whatever it is the Dutch/Argentinians eat) at our viewing parties this weekend. Bastille Day — everyone’s favorite excuse to overdo it on red wine and rich food — is coming up this Monday, which means it’s time to break out the good stuff.

In honor of France’s big day, Master pâtissier Francois Payard was nice enough to share this over-the-top indulgent recipe for his signature triple chocolate financiers.

You’ll need a financier pan for the recipe below (clearly you have one, right?) If not, good ol’ muffin tins will do just fine.