Gingerbread House

I always have high hopes for making an elaborate gingerbread house from scratch. I never actually do it. So this year I used a kit from Williams-Sonoma. It's a really good kit. Yes, the pieces are a bit clunkier than homemade pieces, but it's so much easier to unwrap them than it is to bake them. The pieces are printed with door and window outlines as well as the loop-y pattern on the roof. While I don't like that because it cramps my creativity, it also does keep me from going crazy with it and messing it up (or having that blank page freeze like when you start writing a paper) so that's probably for the best.

Mint Chip Meringues, Black Forest Cookies, and Sugar Cookies

My mom loves meringues and always asks me to make them. For some reason, I really don't enjoy making them, though. Probably the time and care that goes into them isn't offset by it being interesting for me to make. But I'll give it to her, they really are delicious--and homemade ones are so much better than store-bought.

Bourbon Balls and Gingersnaps

Both of these recipes come by way of "Baked Occassions," the Baked Brooklyn boys' newest cookbook. I love all their cookbooks and I hadn't had a chance to use this one yet. It's up to their usual high standard. (But it's more fun--it's organized by holiday. For example they, apparently, celebrate the Ides of March with Blood Orange Tiramisu. See? Fun!)

I digress.

Christmas Cookies, 2014

As usual Christmas in my house means an extraordinary amount of baking. This year, seeing as I am still breaking in the kitchen, I only made five cookies. And no cakes or chocolates. Since that was the case, I really tried to go nuts with the cookies. I'll talk about each varity in other posts, but here's a summary: gingersnaps, decorated sugar cookies, bourbon balls, mint chip meringues, and Black Forest cookies.

I thought those worked nicely together for gift boxes: one very chewy (the Black Forest cookies), one sort of chewy (the gingersnaps), two crumbly (the bourbon balls and the sugar cookies), and one crunchy and chewy at once (the meringues). Or put another way: one chocolate, one mint and chocolate, one spicy, one boozey, and one "plain"--I think you can figure out which is which yourself. Most importantly, I think they looked lovely in a gift box, what with the colors of the decorated sugar cookies and the meringues and the variegated brown hues of the other cookies. I'd be happy getting that as a gift!

Gluten-Free Battenberg Cake

I mentioned this a while ago. I told my cousin that, as her birthday present, I'd make her a birthday cake (it's so difficult to find good gluten free cakes that are fit for a birthday). Any cake you want, I said. She asked for the one type of cake I'd never even heard of: a Battenberg cake. Apparently it's a very common feature at afternoon tea. After some research I discovered that it's a less almond-y, checkerboard version of an Italian (or rather Italian-American) tricolor cake. They are traditionally pink and white, filled with a thin layer of apricot jam, and covered with untinted marzipan that is scored in a diamond pattern.

Thanksgiving Desserts (Number Three)

Alright, this is really just dessert number one--the apple crumble pie--again. But this time I decided it really needed ice cream. And not just any ice cream: homemade bourbon pecan ice cream!

Thanksgiving Desserts (Number Two)

I also made an excellent trifle because, well, I always make a trifle for Thanksgiving. This year I made a chocolate, chestnut, tiramisu trifle. Let me say that again: chocolate, chestnut, tiramisu trifle. Or as my mom called it, a trifle-misu. It was so good, it was ridiculous. It's layers of chocolate-chestnut mousse, Marsala mascarpone sabayon, and lady fingers soaked with espresso and amaretto and dusted with cocoa powder. The latter two layers are, basically, tiramisu. But with extra mascarpone to thicken up the sabayon and, of course, the chocolate-chestnut mousse between the layers. Also the layer of whipped cream and dusting of cocoa looks like a tiramisu but is more trifle like in flavor.