A very Merry Christmas full of happiness and joy from Courtney Bakes! Wishing a very safe holiday season to you and yours, with all the best for the New Year!
(The original Starbucks version)
I don’t even remember what initially attracted me to them: the presentation, the cranberries, or perhaps just the promise of a baked ‘bliss’:). Either way, I was hooked after my first bite. Described on the Starbucks website as: ‘A blondie cake base, topped with sweet cream cheese icing and tart dried cranberries, garnished with white orange drizzle.’ You expect the base to be solid but it really just melts in your mouth, it is definitely a weakness when I enter a Starbucks this time of year!
Last year I made the bars with no issue and they turned out deliciously! This year, I decided to attempt making them in my ‘perfect brownie pan’ figuring that they would be super easy to divide if they were precut. Well, this was definitely a mistake. I would assume this is why the pan is not called ‘the perfect square pan’. Brownies, as we all know, are extremely dense and cook differently then a normal sqaure recipe. But on a side note, even as I’m typing this, I’m realizing that blondies are just white chocolate brownies so that explanation doesn’t even make sense. I have yet to use the pan for an actual brownie recipe so I’m sure that will be the next step in this investigation. Anyway, getting back on track, I had a real problem with the bars cooking properly in the pan. I had to over cook them to make sure that they were baked and was disappointed with the result. On a positive note I took my ‘ruined’ batch to work and they were received extremely well! So all was not lost. My family voted these as a new addition to our holiday traditions, so maybe all that Starbucks marketing does work? Hmm…
Last year I discovered another delicious recipe that was brimming with my favorite Christmas staples: Stollen. One of the 4 followers of my blog (Thanks Guys!:) may remember that I posted a teaser November 5th of my ingredients steeping as prep for this recipe (Which I should note my Sister commented ‘Probably would look better once it’s been used’. It made me laugh, it may have only looked appealing to a baker!). But I didn’t really go into detail.
Stollen is a traditional German Christmas bread (Although it’s wiki entry describes it more as a bread-like fruitcake to help provide some insight into the actual texture) full of candied fruit, candied peel, various nuts, and raisins. For my version, I chose to use a mix from a school recipe that was used the first time I was introduced to this yummy treat: candied fruit & peel, walnuts, almonds, and sultana raisins. Then I ‘winged’ the rest of the recipe. I allowed the fruit and nut mixture to sit in a quantity of rum for about a month and a half before using it. One Chef I learned from would start this steeping process for Stollen and Fruit cake 6 months before making the actual recipe! Now that’s what I call being organized about your prep work.
Traditionally, Stollen is sprinkled with icing sugar. A variation I was taught in school really takes Stollen to a new level of decadence. We would coat the cooked loaf with butter and then cover it with icing sugar. This was repeated twice. Alternatively, we sliced the loaf into pieces and dunked each piece individually in butter and then icing sugar twice. Any of the options are good: sprinkling, coating the whole loaf, or each piece individually. Stollen would even taste good without a garnish at all!
Stollen also sometimes has another ingredient: marzipan. Rolled up inside the bread, marzipan really adds to the flavor of the bread. Last year, I tried a recipe that I found on the internet and left the marzipan out. I didn’t think anyone would notice and I didn’t want to track the marzipan down. My Mother tried one bite and commented that the bread would taste really good with marzipan: all without knowing that this is a regularly used ingredient!! So, lesson learned: this year I put marzipan inside the loaves. On a side note, if you are planning on making Stollen with marzipan pick it up when you see it. My usual supplier was completely out (‘Tis the season for it to sell out I have to admit) and I had to do a fair bit of running around to get some.
As I’ve mentioned previously in this blog: I am addicted to bread. We will return to this thought in a moment. My Mom participates in an annual cookie exchange every Christmas season. Each participant is responsible for bringing 7 dozen cookies to swap with the other attendees. There has been some delicious bounty brought back from these evenings over the years which has definitely set the bar high.
This year, my Mom requested that I make a recipe that I had first tried out in the fall. Italian Lemon drop cookies or Anginetti are a traditional Italian cookie that I tasted a couple of years ago. Traditionally lemon flavored, these cookies are tender to the bite but still have a bread-like consistency to them (Thus the opening line of this post). The cookie itself is not overly sweet or 
flavored, that’s where the icing steps in. The icing brings an edge of sweetness and extra lemon flavor that really ties the whole cookie together. But I was hesitant if I should post my thoughts on this during the Christmas season. This hesitation was put to rest after discovering on the internet that this Italian cookie is often served during the Christmas season, and the summer, and family gatherings… Well you catch my drift: these cookies are a good idea all year round.
I was tempted from my first taste to try different flavor combinations with the Anginetti batter. The first possibilities that came to mind were lime, and raspberry. So, this time, I decided to make the classic lemon for my Mom and experiment a little with lime for me (Due to my failure in finding raspberry extract. Call me crazy but I swear I’ve seen it before!).
I was extremely pleased with the way that my lime variation turned out! So flavorful and just really good : I would definitely make them again. All I did was just switch out the portions that I had used in lemon for that of lime. I also liked that the cookies can be easily distinguished by the flecks of lime peel in the cookie. You could also tint the lime icing pale green to make them easy to differentiate from their lemon counterparts on a serving tray.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the sweet treats you can really enjoy around this time of year. Very few people feel the need to reach for a frosty glass of egg nog in the middle of June or have a really strong craving for a gingerbread man in March. There’s just something about the Christmas season that makes everything taste better. My theory is it’s a mix of Christmas tunes, time spent with family and friends, and the general Christmas spirit. But back to the sweet treats I mentioned before.
A couple of years ago I discovered Mint Meltaways . A small, chocolate chip shaped, minty, and sprinkle covered goody. They can only be found at Christmas and I’ve been told that my supplier regularly sells out during the holiday season. So what is so special about them? Besides melting in your mouth (I know, the name may have given this away earlier) these mints are a delicate and ‘soft’ mint. Now, what do I mean by that? (Off on a tangent for a moment, bear with me) There is an ice cream shop nearby that sells a safari hat loaded with around 15 scoops (ashamed to say that I don’t remember the exact amount) of ice cream. My boyfriend is always very quick to say that he’s happy with an any mixture of flavors in the hat but the golden rule is no mint . 
Now, I am a major fan of mint chocolate chip but I do agree that mint is an extremely over powering flavor. So what was this analogy all for? You may find in your own baking experience that mint is not always welcomed with open arms. But that is something that makes Melt Meltaways so great: they’re a soft mint. They still have that minty flavor but they won’t dominate 14 other balls of ice cream or your guests pallets.
As soon as I tasted this delicious treats: I knew that I had to find a recipe that would make others love them as much as I did. I felt they would get lost in a cake, not be the focus on a square, so what did that leave me with? Cookies. And what works better with mint then chocolate. So without further ado, as this blog post has turned into a mini novel, my chocolate Mint Meltaways cookies.
Chewy, chocolaty, and with just a hint of mint. These literally just melt in your mouth! The Christmas colors on the mints help tie the cookie into the season and the soft mint will have your guests having visions of sugar plums and candy canes floating through their heads…:)
I kicked it off December 1st making a cookie that has been trendy for the last couple of years: the linzer cookie. (The trend being determined by being unable to open any baking magazine or book and not see this beauty.)
After some quick online inquiry research, it seems that linzer cookies are derived from the linzertorte which is a famous cake originating in Austria. The linzertorte is made up of the same basic ingredients as its cookie counterpart: jam, a nut based batter, etc. I looked at a couple of different recipes and was interested to see that some variations called for almonds, walnuts, or hazelnuts. For my recipe I decided to use hazelnuts.
Sandwich cookies have never been a Christmas (Or regular season) staple in my home. The reason? Well, probably because of the length of time required to make them. A little insight into all the steps: make dough, chill dough, roll dough, cut tops, roll dough, cut more tops, roll dough, cut bottoms, roll dough, cut bottoms, roll dough, cut random needed sides, bake, sprinkle tops with icing sugar, spread jam on bottom cookie, and then sandwich all of the sides. But with all that being said: the results are worth it! I love how whimsical and pretty these turned out. The ground hazelnuts really add an unexpected twist to the flavor of the cookie and they are so soft and tender: not to mention the yummy raspberry jam in the middle. If you’d like a crisper cookie you would need to make them the day you serve them (Leave yourself plenty of time!!) or for a softer cookie you can make them in advance. Trust me, either way the taste is something to experience.
Now, as I said that this blog would also have some examples of kitchen disasters: I’ll post my first one here. To garnish the cookie tops, I put icing sugar into a hand held strai
ner and gently moved it over the cookies. Note the use of the word: gentle. I think the mishap happened because I first put too much icing sugar in the strainer. The second, have you ever had that moment (most likely with ketchup) when you have the thought: ‘Why isn’t this coming out?’ Well we all know what the next step is: massive amounts of ketchup on your burger. And it was no different with the icing sugar: there didn’t seem to be enough coming out so I shook until ‘POOF’! My garnish looked more like icing. Here is a picture. I don’t think they look bad, I just prefer the look of the cookies that are lightly dusted.
