This was my very first attempt at making a cool looking ginger bread house. I’ve made ones before but this was the first time making my own ginger bread pieces for the house. To make the pieces I went to a website and got the dimensions of the building pieces.  I used a ruler to so that every line was even. What I should have done was cut out a downloaded pattern that was free on the Internet. My measuring didn’t turn out to be that great and it helps to have some grid patterned paper when making the building pieces.

Another thing I learned about making ginger bread pieces is to decorate them first and let them dry. It’s much easier that way because trying to frost some ginger bread standing up on it’s side is quite hard. After you decorate the pieces then assemble them. If I did it that way I could have spread out the tasks a little more and not have to get the whole building decorated in one night. When I do that, I just feel rushed and my work turns out kind of sloppy like you can see it in the picture. Oh well, I think one of the greatest ways to learn in life is to make mistakes. Then you know exactly what to do the next time the right away. Or you could just follow the instructions step by step and not have to worry about any of that.

Shingles – Wheat Chex

Rocks – Rock Candy

Window Shutters – Pretzel Rods

House Paint – Royal Icing

Windows – Icing

For the ginger bread recipe and royal icing I used the recipes found at this site. You can also find a very complete detailed list of instructions here.

Notes:

1. When making gingerbread houses, you don’t need to buy a ton of candy. A piping bag and icing can cover a lot of decorating grounds.

2. To fill a piping bag use a tall glass tumbler. Cut a hole open at the bottom of the tip and place and place the tip in the bag. Make sure the bag covers the whole entire glass and then put the icing in it.

3. Merigune powder can be found at craft stores like Michaels’s.

I’m going to miss my Nikon D60 camera for awhile. It has to go and visit the Nikon doctors. My camera is giving me some error message that says Error: Please release shutter speed button and try again. So, I do that and the error won’t go away. I have to get my camera sent out as fast as I can, because I’d like to get it back before we go to Jamaica. I’m really glad that I still have my little olympus point and shoot camera. Even though it doesn’t take the best pictures it will have to do for now. Hope you’ll don’t mind.

Are you an egg nog fan? I am.  I tried making my own last year and didn’t like it. It was too much of a hassle to make and I prefer buying the stuff in the store. Cass Clay makes a really good light egg nog so you don’t feel guilty drinking the stuff.  I’ve been meaning to make egg nog cupcakes, pancakes, french toast etc… Every weekend I’ve been making cookies and this last weekend I made these egg nog cookies. I hardly got to eat one of them because Ben liked them so much.

Ingredients from Your Cup of Cake

Cookies:
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Eggnog Glaze:
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons eggnog

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C)
2. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Cream sugar and butter until light
4. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth.
5. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined.
6. Do not over mix
7. Spoon onto un-greased cookie sheets or parchment paper and make the dough balls rather small, they will spread generously in the oven.
8. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg.
9. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until the edges barely start to brown.
10.  While cookies are in the oven, make the eggnog glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar with 3 T eggnog.
11.  Gaze your cookies warm or cooled and top with cinnamon.

It’s that time of year again. Time to hang up all the Christmas lights, and put up the Christmas tree, buy presents for loved ones and friends.  We were thankful for nice weather here and was able to do that when it was 45 degrees outside. My family is kind of boring about the Christmas gifts and all they ever want are gift cards. There’s nothing really wrong with that because you end up getting what you want. I’ve told my family this before but that’s all they want still. Oh well. Why can’t they ever want something fun like a new set of pots and pans, bake ware, spoons and spatulas, a diamond ring… etc.??

My favorite part about Christmas is baking cookies. Last year, I purchased a tiny catalog and it had probably 50 different cookie recipes in it to try. I think I baked about 10 of the recipes in that book. Since pinterest came around, I’ve been finding lots of cookie recipes to try on that website. This was one of them. I love those little peppermint Hershey kisses and when I saw this recipe, I wanted to make them right away. I didn’t have a bag of the kisses lying around at the time, until this weekend. The recipe says to wait 2 – 3 minutes before the cookies have cooled to place the peppermint kisses on them, but if you put them on right away and eat them they become all melted and gooey. I kind of like that. That’s why some of the peppermint kisses in the picture look like they’ve collapsed.

Malted Milk cookies taste like a chocolate milk shake. Once they come out of the oven they get all poofed up and flatten down really quickly after that. It’s almost kind of fun to watch them do that. And yes… I know what you’re thinking. You made another recipe from the Pioneer Woman? Yep, I did. It took me awhile to find malted milk powder too. This weekend, I’m going to make her cherry limade. I already warned ya, so beware.

These cookies are very thin but chewy. I plan on taking some for treat day tomorrow. I’m the only one who really bakes anything for treat day. Everybody brings something savory to eat like bacon, and more bacon. There’s nothing wrong with that though. I also plan on bringing bacon wrapped buffalo wings.

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup golden brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 whole eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup (rounded) malted milk powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
One 12-ounce bag milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream the butter, then add both sugars and cream until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat slightly, then add the vanilla and beat until combined. Add the malted milk powder and beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture, beating gently until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir in gently.

Drop by teaspoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) on an ungreased baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between the cookies (they spread out quite a bit). Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. The cookies will be very flat and very chewy. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan with a spatula.

Optional: Allow to cool completely, then use 2 cookies to make an ice cream sandwich. Add sprinkles to the sides of the ice cream, then wrap individually in plastic wrap.

Fig newtons have more of a cake like exterior and the ones I made were more like a cookie. They were still good, but not as good as the ones that you get in the store. Even the fig newton bars that Little Debbie puts out on the shelves has a cake like exterior to them. These didn’t, and I was kind of bummed about that. Will have to find a better recipe for these, cause I just love fig newtons.  The page where I found the recipe for these at, even looked like the store bought fig newtons so maybe something went wrong when I made them, who knows?

I didn’t use fresh figs for this and used a store bought jam, that I purchased from Stone Wall Kitchen called Fig and Walnut Butter. It did it’s job well. I had purchased some fresh figs and had used them all up by the time I made these. Bummer.

Ingredients from Our Italian Kitchen.

Dough
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest
1 large egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
2 lbs fresh figs
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of half a lemon

1. Cream the butter, sugar and zest in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, for 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl.

2. Beat in the egg white and vanilla.

3. Next, add the flour and beat on low speed until the dough comes together.

4. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight (the longer the better). I took mine out after about an hour and a half and it was way too soft.

5. While the dough is chilling, cut the figs in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. In a medium sauce pan, combine figs, sugar, and lemon juice. Mash mixture a few times with a potato masher or fork.

6. Cook mixture over medium-high heat until bubbling and sugar has dissolved; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, until it has reduced by about one-third and is beginning to gel. Set aside until completely cool.

7. Place racks in middle and lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

8. Here’s the tricky part, at least, it was for me. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12 x 16 rectangle. Cut into 4 equal strips, each 12 x 4 inches. Spoon a line of filling down the center of each strip. I had a little too much dough for the amount of filling and since I’d rather have super stuffed fig newtons, I threw some jam in the excess dough. Fold the dough over the filling and pinch the edges together. Using a serrated knife, slice each log on the diagonal into 10 cookies. Place each cookie on the parchment-lined baking sheets, seam side down.

9. Bake, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, for 12-15 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack.

I’m so sad Alton Brown will no longer be airing anymore episodes after this season is over with. He had the best show and I always liked how he used science to explain the art of baking cookies or how some cooking process worked. My favorite episode has to be when he had to make cookies for his sister and ended up making 3 different kinds. This is our favorite. The Chewy. It takes a couple of batches to bake in the oven, to figure out how to get them just right. We like ours kind of under cooked. They turn out to be really chewy then. Put some ice cream in the middle of it and you’ve got yourself a sandwhich.

This will probably be the last fattening recipe I post for awhile. I will try to find some light baking recipes via Cooking Light. The doc said I have to lower my blood pressure because and gave me 2 options. 1, go off your medication that caused you to have high blood pressure or 2 keep your medication and lose weight. What the heck? I chose option 2. I hate dieting, I really, really do.

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Ingredients from Alton Brown

8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ounce whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate. Pour the butter into your stand mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.

Using the paper plate as a slide, gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to “stir” and add the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.

Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a cooling rack and wait at least 5 minutes before devouring.

Ingredients from Joy the Baker

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup store-bought dulce de leche, plus more for filling

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the upper third of the oven.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until just softened and broken up a bit.  Add the 3/4 cup dulce de leche, brown sugar and granulated sugar.  Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients all at once.  Mix only until the flour is just incorporated.  You may need to finish off the mixing with a big spatula.

Spoon the dough onto the lined baking sheets using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie.  The dough will be soft and this might be a bit messy.  Leave 2 inches of space between each cookie for the baking spread.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes.  The cookies will be honey brown with a light crust, but still very soft when they come out of the oven.  Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing to cool.

Once the cookies are cooled completely, spread them with dulce de leche and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt if you like.  Keep well wrapped for up to four days.

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Dulce de Leche is so good, even the dog was trying to get at it.

I found a can of this sweet goodness in the ethnic foods aisle at the grocery store this weekend. It sure beats boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk in the crock pot for 8 hours or boiling some milk on the stove for an hour and 30 minutes. This is MUCH quicker and tastes delicious.

I also found out today that my oven cooks unevenly. It took about 4 different batches to get these right, and I still don’t think they came out right. Some of the edges of the cookies got a little dark. Mine don’t look like the color of some of the blogs I’ve seen, whom have also made these too. Dare I say, maybe there’s too much butter in this batter? Maybe, I’ll play around with the batter and tweak it a bit to make these cookies a little bit thicker so that they’re not so thin looking. If you love dulce de leche like I do, then you’ll LOVE these cookies. The batter was delicious on it’s own. I couldn’t stop eating it.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons heavy cream
7 ounces good white chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur (recommended: Baileys)
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
6 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, chopped

Directions

Place the cream in a heat-proof bowl, and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Cook until heated through. Using a wire whisk, slowly stir the white chocolate into the warm cream until completely melted. Whisk in the liqueur and vanilla. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until pliable but firm enough to scoop.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

With 2 teaspoons or a 1 1/4-inch ice cream scoop, make dollops of the chocolate mixture and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, until firm enough to roll into rough spheres.

Place the chopped hazelnuts on a sheet pan and place them in the oven for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Melt the bittersweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water.

Drizzle the melted bittersweet chocolate over 10 of the truffles. Roll the remaining truffles in the chopped nuts. Chill until ready to serve.

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Need something to bring as a hostess gift to a New Year’s Eve party? These truffles are pretty and elegant looking and to top that all off they’re spiked with some Irish Bailey’s liquor. Yum!  I added some pretty blue sprinkles and dipped them in another layer of white chocolate.  These almost look like little snow balls. Truffle fight anyone?

I’ve seen a lot of people making some kind of chocolate truffles lately, and they aren’t the very expensive mushrooms. You could also make these Oreo Balls too. Everybody that I offered them to, enjoyed them.

This has been some Christmas. We had to watch my mom’s 2 dogs on top of our 2 puppies. They’re a little bit older dogs and didn’t really feel like playing with our new puppies. Like this one. He didn’t want to have anything to do with them. He showed his teeth quite a few times, and the growling got old really fast. He’s still cute though, right?

I think maybe next year, I might go out of town too, so that I don’t have to watch 4 dogs at once. I’ll leave Ben to watch them all.

Right now, I’m wishing it was Monday morning, so that we can go and drop my Mom’s 2 dogs off at her house. Just one more day to deal with it. Tonight, I’m going to enjoy a fuzzy navel drink (peach schnaps and orange juice) and some of these yummy, very festive Holiday treats.

I don’t believe you need a recipe for these. It’s on the back of  a Rice  Crispy box and add in some festive Holiday M & M’s.

Merry Christmas! I’ve had a lot of time on my hands this week, so I thought, I’d practice my piping skills on these snowflake cookies. I went to Michael’s and found a set of snowflake sugar cookie cutters. I also picked up some blue sprinkles and these little tiny white pearl sprinkles. I thought they turned out pretty good, although, I should have picked up the bigger white pearl sprinkles.

Royal icing tastes good when it isn’t as hard as a rock. It’s also easy to make too and Royal icing almost makes sugar cookies look like they’re glowing.  Here is the recipe for Royal icing.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups of Powdered sugar

3 egg whites

1 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tarter.

1. In a mixer blend egg  whites until foamy and add cream of tarter. Mix until the batter has stiff peaks. Gradually add powdered sugar into egg whites.  The icing should be  white shiny color.