Pumpkin Decorator Cookies

These soft cookies yield to the tooth, but are still solid enough to decorate. Yum! They do spread, so they're not right for cutters that require definition. Circles are ideal.

3 cups flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup unflavored vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger for 20 seconds, set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg yolks one at a time. Mix in pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined.
3. Roll, cut and bake in preheated oven 11 - 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peppermint Delight

Chocolate Graham Crust

1 10-oz box chocolate teddy grahams
2 tbsp sugar
1 stick butter, melted

Peppermint Ice Cream Filling

8 oz red-and-white striped peppermint candies or candy canes
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 cups chilled whipping cream

Ganache Topping 

1 cups chilled whipping cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips

Garnish

1/2 cup whipping cream
Mini candy canes or mint sprigs

Steps

1. Prepare the crust
1. Finely grind cookies and sugar in processor.
2. Add melted butter and blend with a fork until crumbs begin to stick together.
3. Press crumbs firmly onto bottom of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides.
4. Place in freezer.
2. Prepare the filling

1. Grind half the candies finely and set aside. (If you have some stale candy canes, this is where you want them.)
2. Grind the other half of the candies roughly, leaving some small pieces.
3. Whisk the yolks, sugar and water in a medium metal bowl to blend.
4. Set the bowl over saucepan of rapidly simmering water. Do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water). Whisk constantly until your candy thermometer registers 170°F, about 10 minutes.
5. Remove bowl from over water, and immediately add the finely ground candy.
6. Whisk until the candy is melted.
7. Let the mixture stand until cool, whisking occasionally. (About 5 minutes.)
8. Mix in the remaining candy and the peppermint extract. This batch of candy will not melt.
9. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream to stiff peaks.
10. Fold the cream into the yolk mixture.
3. Spoon the filling into the crust and spread into an even layer to the edges of the pan.

4. Wipe off the sides of the pan.
5. Cover and freeze at least 6 hours.
6. Prepare the topping.
1. Bring cream and corn syrup to a simmer in a heavy saucepan.
2. Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips.
3. Whisk until smooth.
4. Cool until just lukewarm and slightly thickened, whisking occasionally. This takes about 20 minutes.
7. Pour the topping over the frozen filling.
8. Tap the pan on a counter to dislodge air bubbles and even the surface of the ganache.
9. Freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.
10. Keep the cake frozen until serving. It melts!*
11. Garnish

1. Whip cream to stiff peaks.
2. Fit a pastry bag with a star tip and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake.
3. Decorate with candy canes, mint sprigs and/or remaining cream.

This recipe is the All-American Peppermint Stick Torte with Fudge Topping from Epicurious. I made enough modifications to the original recipe not to want to store all changes in notes on the Epicurious site.

I recommend starting this two days before you expect to serve it. Prepare the crust and the filling on the first day. On the second day, take care of the ganache. Freezing overnight makes life easier.

*You can garnish the cake before you remove the springform pan side. That's what I do if I'll be transporting the cake. It needs to be in a cooler, on ice.

Dangerously easy baked apple dumplings

2 small apples (Macintosh works well)
1 package crescent rolls
4 tbsp butter
6 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 pinches nutmeg
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and butter an 8x8 baking dish.
2. Peel and core the apples.
3. Open up the crescent rolls into four rectangles. Pinch the seams together with wet fingers to seal. Pinch two sets of rectangles together. You should end up with two pastry squares, each made from four triangles, as in the diagram.
4. Place a cored apple in the center of each pastry square.
5. Fill each hollow core with 1 tbsp butter, 2 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg. Don't worry if anything spills onto the pastry.
6. Sprinkle 1 tsp brown sugar on the pastry at the base of each apple.
7. Pull the pastry corners up and seal the apple in.
8. Place the dumplings in the prepared dish. Add the butter, apple juice, vanilla, and remaining 2 tsp sugar to the dish.
9. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

This recipe is portioned for two, simply because my little ones don't care for cooked fruit. It scales easily though, and makes for a huge portion! You should probably halve the servings. I invented this on Thanksgiving, when I was craving pie, but couldn't rationalize baking a full-size for just me while my husband was overseas.

Cranberry sauce

12 oz cranberries
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1 cardamom pod
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. Wash the cranberries and discard any spoiled ones.
2. Tie the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in a cheesecloth pouch. This makes it much easier to fish them out of the sauce!
3. Bring spices, orange juice and sugar to a boil. The longer you simmer, the stronger the spice flavour will be, so use your own judgment.
4. Add cranberries and boil until they pop, which takes about 10 minutes.
5. Discard the spices.
6. Allow to cool one hour, and serve. The sauce will thicken.

This is a fantastic recipe for holiday canning, and makes a unique, affordable Christmas gift. Process for 15 minutes if you're using the hot water method. Note that this recipe leaves you with a pretty strong cinnamon flavour, so you could use half a stick if you'd like a more balanced spice flavour.

Miniature gingerbread houses

Printout of Miniature Gingerbread House Template
Cereal box or other stiff easy-to-cut paper for templates
6 3/4 cups all purpose flour
5 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup molasses

3 tbsp meringue powder
4 cups confectioner's sugar
7 tbsp water

Day 1: Prepare dough

1. Sift flour, spices, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.
2. Beat the shortening until fluffy, scraping down the sides.
3. Add the sugar and beat to blend. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat again.
   
4. Add eggs one at a time and beat to mix, scraping the sides after each additio.
5. Add molasses and beat on high speed until well blended.
6. My mixer is not big enough for the entire batch of dough, so at this point I pour out half the liquid into a small bowl for later.
   
7. Switch to a flat mixer attachment and add half the dry ingredients in 3 additions, beating at low speed until dough forms.
8. Pour the dough into a bowl, and repeat step 7 with the remaining ingredients.
9. Return both sections of dough to the mixer and combine the halves on slow for a minute.
10. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, wrap individually in plastic and refrigerate overnight.
    

Day 2: Roll and bake

1. Tape the printed template onto a piece of cereal box or other stiff paper, and cut out the four pieces. (Consider making multiple templates of each in case you need backups.)
   
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Roll out 1 dough piece at a time between sheets of parchment paper to 1/8 to 1/4-inch thickness. If parchment wrinkles, peel it off, smooth the wrinkle, and reposition parchment over the dough.
4. Leave the parchment paper on the rolled dough.
5. Place a template on the parchment paper. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough in the shape of the template, slicing through the parchment paper. Leave at least 1/2 inch between the pieces. Be sure that you have two front/back walls, two sides, and two roof pieces for every base. If you're willing to sacrifice some dough, use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut squares of dough large enough to place a template inside instead. You'll cut out the shapes after baking.
   
6. Peel off the parchment paper outline and remove the extra dough. You can combine the extras to re-roll.
7. Place a cookie sheet, upside down, over the pieces on the bottom sheet of parchment paper, and flip the whole thing over. Remove the whole sheet of parchment paper, and spread the pieces out, leaving at least 1/2 inch between them. To make step 9 easier, consider baking small batches of about 12 pieces.
   
8. Bake the pieces for 9-11 minutes, until dry looking, firm to touch in center and just beginning to darken around edges.
9. While the pieces are still warm, place the templates back on them, and use a sharp knife to trim them to size. You'll need to work fast. There's no need to trim the circular bases.
10. Transfer to a cooling rack.
11. Once completely cooled, store in airtight containers, using parchment paper to separate layers and minimize cracking. (You may want to consider making some extra pieces as insurance against accidents.)
12. Any leftover dough can be refrigerated and used with cookie cutters. This dough makes perfect gingerbread men!
    

Day 3: Assemble houses

1. Prepare royal icing. Mix meringue powder, confectioner's sugar and water in a stand mixer on medium for 5 minutes. Add water if the icing is too thick or not sticky. Keep the icing covered with Saran wrap when not in use, with the Saran wrap touching its surface. This stuff hardens in contact with air.
2. Spoon royal icing into a disposable piping bag, shake down, and snip the tip.
3. For each house, assemble one base, two side walls, two front/back walls, and two roof pieces.
4. Apply a thin thread of icing to the bottom of a wall, and press into place.
5. Using the icing as glue, secure the other wall pieces to each other and the base.
6. Pipe icing around three edges on one side and secure a roof piece in place.
7. Pipe icing along all four remaining edges and attach the last roof piece.
8. Go back over the joints with lines of icing. You can use a wet finger to smooth away any messes, although if you'd got kids decorating these, they won't care in the least.
   

Day 4: Decorate

I decorate these houses with my kids, so I want them to be well set before I start decorating. However, you'll probably get a much neater result by doing some initial decorating on the flat pieces before you assemble the houses.

Use royal icing as glue, and attach raisins, currants and candies of all sorts. You can also brush on corn syrup to get sprinkles, nonpareils or shredded coconut to stick. Use your imagination! These houses are the perfect size for gummy bear resident. If you want Christmas trees, consider rolling super easy mints into cone shapes and dotting with coloured royal icing.

The dough recipe is shamelessly borrowed from Epicurious.com (although I added some spices). I use Wilton's royal icing recipe. The template and assembly instructions are mine.

If you decide to design your own template, take into account the additional 1/8 to 1/4 inch width of the gingerbread pieces. My initial attempt at these houses left me with roof pieces that weren't quite wide enough!

Super easy mints

3 oz cream cheese
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
3 drops green or red food colouring
4 to 4.5 cups confectioners sugar
granulated sugar for dredging

1. Put the cream cheese, peppermint extract and food colouring in the bowl of your mixer and mix, scraping the sides, until smooth.
2. Add the confectioners sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing in each portion thoroughly. If the mixture is not stiff with 4 cups of sugar, add another 1/2 cup.
3. Mix for 2 minutes, until well combined.
4. Scoop out 1/2-teaspoon portions and roll into balls.
5. Dredge each ball in granulated sugar.

These mints require refrigeration, and are good for up to two weeks. Keep this recipe a secret, and your neighbours will think you slaved over these melt-in-your-mouth treats.

Eggnog breakfast: Pancakes and waffles

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1 cup egg nog
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsp butter, melted
Pam or other oil spray

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients, except the Pam.
3. Add the dry mixture to the liquid and stir until just combined.
4. For waffles: Follow your waffle iron's manufacturer's instructions.
5. For pancakes: Heat your skillet and spray with Pam. Drop the batter, 1/4 cup at time on the skillet. Allow plenty of room for it to spread. Flip when bubbles break on the surface, and cook for another minute.
6. Serve with maple syrup or chocolate sauce.
   

These pancakes and waffles aren't for everyone, but we love eggnog at our house, and this is a delicious way to share that holiday flavour with the kids.