Decorated Cookies

I've been on a cookie decorating roll of late. They just make such excellent gifts.

Wedding gifts, for instance.

 

 

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.

Easy orange marmalade

4 lbs oranges*
5.5 cups granulated sugar
5.5 cups brown sugar
juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Boil oranges, in enough water to allow them to float away from the bottom in pan, for two hours.
2. Remove from the water, wipe off, and allow to cool until they can be safely handled.
3. Cut each orange in half, remove seeds, and squeeze the juice into a saucepan. (This is simply to keep the juice from squirting all over your cutting board! If the flesh is still firm, you can just chop it.)
4. Finely slice the rind and roughly chop the pulp.
5. Add orange solids, sugars, lemon juice and vanilla to the orange juice.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Run about half the mixture through a blender at this point if you want fewer peel shreds, and return to the saucepan.
8. Bring back to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
9. The jam is ready to can. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

* I've tried this recipe with grapefruit and orange, and I suspect that lime would work equally well. To cut the bitterness of the grapefruit, I added a teaspoon of baking soda with the sugar. Another way to decrease the bitterness is to separate the membranes from the citrus fruit before chopping, tie them in cheesecloth (for the pectin) and remove the pouch from the marmalade before canning. I'm looking forward to combining orange and lime for a combo marmalade.

If-Shepherds-Had-Sweet-Potatoes Pie

1 frozen pie crust
1 large sweet potato
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb ground beef
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
3 slices bacon, chopped
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 can (8 oz) low-sodium tomato sauce

1. Bake pie crust according to package directions.
2. Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork.
3. Bake the sweet potato at 350° for 45-55 minutes.
   
4. When the potato is cool enough to handle, peel.
5. Add butter and salt, and mash.
6. Spread half the mashed sweet potatoes in the pie crust, and set aside.
7. Brown beef and remove from pan.
8. Add carrots and parsnips to the pan and saute for 5 minutes.
9. Add bacon and onions. Saute until onions are translucent.
10. Add beef and Worcestershire sauce and bring up to heat.
11. Add tomato sauce, and bring up to heat.
12. Place meat mixture on top of the sweet potato layer.
13. Top with the remaining sweet potatoes.
14. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are browned.

This was a hit at a recent pie potluck.

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.

Mint syrup

1 bunch fresh mint (4-5 tbsp leaves)
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar

1. Mix all three ingredients in a saucepan.
2. Simmer over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Set aside for 1-2 hours.
4. Strain out the leaves.
5. Store the syrup in the refrigerator

This is divine added to fresh lemonade or club soda in the hot summer months.