Spiced Christmas Cookies & Peach Jam

When making my Christmas box goodies, I made a boo boo with the gingerbread men. For the gingerbread men, I intended to use the Bourke Street Bakery recipe.  A slight problem arose when I tried to watch TV while making the dough at the same time.  I misread the ingredients and added white sugar instead of brown sugar to the dough - oops.

What to do? I didn't want to waste all that dough, so I rolled it out, cut out Christmas shaped cookies from it and baked them. I then decorated them with rolled fondant patterned using an embossing mat, which I stuck onto the cookies by brushing the cookie surface with warmed apricot jam before applying the fondant. A winner! People loved these, even though they were the accidental cookies.

My goodie boxes also featured peach jam made using Maggie Beer's recipe that I have made before, using skin and all.  Because I was giving away the jam as presents, I dressed them up with labels and paper tied with string:

I think it looks cute, although it was fiddly to do.

Have you had any recent baking mistakes that you were able to come back from? If so, what happened and how did you fix it? I'd live to hear your stories.

FFWD Card Exchange - Snickerdoodles

Happy Boxing Day!  I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas day celebrating with family and friends.

Today's French Friday with Dorie is special - not only is it the last FFWD for 2014, but it is also our Card Cookie Exchange Day.  For our card exchange this year, Doristas also exchanged a cookie or cocktail recipe, which other Doristas could make.  I have really enjoyed the card exchange - below is my collection of cards so far:    

I chose to make Snickerdoodles, from a recipe supplied by Tricia.  I chose these because I have never made Snickerdoodles before, and I loved the name.  (We do not have Snickerdoodles in Australia.)

Snickerdoodles are buttery cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar.  They are crisp on the edges but soft in the middle.  While my Snickerdoodles did not turn out textbook pretty, they smelt fabulous in the oven and they sure tasted amazing.  I ate two straight off the bat and had to put the rest away before I ate any more.  This cookie recipe is a definite keeper!

Tricia's recipe for Snickerdoodles comes from Lee Bailey's Country Desserts.  (Wow, just look at the cover for this book - I want a slice of whatever that cake is on the cover.) The recipe is as follows:

2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Whisk together flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt and sift again.

In separate bowl or stand mixer, cream together butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, mixing well after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients in four parts, mixing well after each addition. Cover and chill for at least an hour.  (In my case, it should have been longer - the cookies spread like wildfire in the oven.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/ gas mark 6. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place the balls two inches apart on cookie sheet that has been greased or lined with baling paper.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes until cookies are done, but still soft. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Makes 3 dozen.

To see what the other Doristas made, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.

I leave you with an image of the magnificent Christmas tree in the foyer of my building at work:

This tree is so beautiful that people walk in from off the street just to see it, and take photos with their children posing in front of it.  (They also come to admire the magnificent heritage foyer itself.) 

The last word comes from this sign in the window of Gewurzhaus in the Block Arcade:

 

Merry Christmas and Gingerbread Men

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope that you have a fantastic day with family and friends.

As part of the December baking whirl, I made gingerbread men, pictured at the top of this post.  I used this recipe from Margaret Fulton.  To decorate, I used cinnamon chips for the eyes, chocolate chips for the buttons and a sliver of glace cherries for the mouth.  Simple, but oh so cute.

For everyone who asked about my icing the Dan Lepard caramel fruit cake, here it is:

Simple but effective.  And for those who were wondering what the inside is like, here is a peek inside (it also tastes scrumptious): 

I will be celebrating Christmas quietly with my family.  How will you be celebrating Christmas Day?

WWDH - Hokkien noodles with sesame chicken

For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, Margaret chose Donna's hokkien noodles with sesame chicken from Fresh Food Fast.  You can see a list of ingredients here.

This was a great choice - exactly the kind of thing that I like to eat. I substituted the miso paste for tahini, which gave the dish a lovely nutty flavour. It was also quicker to make than my Asian greens from last week!  I would definitely make this again.

To see what Margaret, Chaya and Sarah thought of this dish, visit their websites.

TWD - Gingerbread Buche de Noel

For Tuesdays with Dorie this week, we have a festive recipe from Baking Chez Moi - a Gingerbread Buche de Noel.  Don't you think it's pretty?  It looks like a snowy log out in the field - or at least an artistic impression of one.  I made this recipe for my team Christmas party - I was happy to have a special occasion to present it.

This recipe has numerous steps.  I made the cake one night, and the pecan praline, filling and frosting the next, along with assembly.

 

Although there were a number of steps to make this cake, none of them were difficult.  I have made roll cakes before, but I liked Dorie's tip about using a ruler and paper to get the roll a bit tighter.

 

The base cake is a gingerbread sponge roll.  It is filled with a cream cheese, butter and pecan praline mixture, then topped with a marshmallow frosting and chopped pecan praline.  You can find the recipe online here.

 

I took the tip from some other Doristas to only make half the frosting, and that was plenty.  The frosting was very addictive, as was the pecan praline, which proved very simple to make.

 

Overall, I understand that this cake was a hit. I certainly enjoyed it.

 

To see how the other Doristas went with this cake, go to the LYL section of the TWD website.

 

Merry Christmas to all.

Marble Fudge - kinda

This was meant to be marble fudge, made using a recipe from the December 2014 edition of Taste magazine.  Here is a photo of what is ought to look like. Umm, mine doesn't really look like that at all.

The fudge is made using the microwave method, which I have never used before and am not a fan of.  I think it is harder to gauge when your fudge is right than on the stove top.  My fudge is brown with some reddish bits rather than red and white swirled.  Ahem.

However, if you put all of that aside, this fudge tasted really good - like old fashioned Russian caramels.  A colleague of mine was in raptures over it and asked for the recipe.

Accordingly, if you want to give this a go, the recipe is as follows:

1 x 395g can condensed milk
1 cup sugar
125g chopped butter
2 tablespoons glucose syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g white chocolate melts
liquid red food colouring

Put the condensed milk, sugar, butter, glucose syrup  and vanilla into a microwave dish, and microwave on medium for 8 minutes, whisking every 2 minutes.  Microwave for another 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring with a wooden spoon every minute.  Mix in the white chocolate melts until melted.  Swirl through a drop of red food colouring.  Pour into a lined 20cm square cake tin, and cool at room temperature until set.  (The recipe says to refrigerate it, but that just makes it brittle.)

Maple Cinnamon Spiced Nuts

A fast and tasty treat for Christmas party nibbles is this recipe from Table for Two for Maple Cinnamon Spiced Nuts.

I Googled relentlessly to find a recipe for spiced nuts that was spicy but not too hot, as last year, comments were passed on the heat in my spiced nuts, which took some by surprise.

As it happened, these fit the bill, and the recipients of my gift parcels declared these nuts good.

This is a recipe I'd definitely use again.