2019 Holiday Cookie Box

I don't know about you, but I am utterly exhausted from all the holiday candy making and baking.  I blame this year's shortened time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas.   For four weeks straight I was either making pounds and pounds of cashew toffee or various holiday cookies.  It was a frenzy of activity so you can't blame me for relishing some down time until 2020.

Here's what I gifted to my friends:

Chocolate Crinkle (America's Test Kitchen) - a classic that is always a crowd pleaser

Zimtsterne (The Daring Gourmet) - gluten free and dairy free

Ginger Molasses (Amanda Frederickson) - mine came out flatter than hers, but they still taste great!

Walnut Snowballs (America's Test Kitchen) - my all-time favorite Christmas cookie

Brownies (Bravetart) - the BEST recipe hands down and a guarantee of the shiny top crust

Pinwheel Icebox (America's Test Kitchen) - slice and bake are super easy and convenient

Clotted Cream Shortbread (Rodda's) - the best shortbread that holds it's shape beautifully

Paper Mart boxes.

Season's Treatings to All!!!

Pinwheel Icebox Cookies

Every holiday season I love to bake a variety of cookies to give as gifts to friends and family.  Baking is what you'd call my love language.  Certain cookies are on repeat every year, e.g., walnut snowballs and chocolate crinkles, because they are holiday classics and always delicious.  

This year the time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas was so short, compared to years past, that I searched for recipes that could be made well in advance.  No point slaving away in the kitchen all at once when I could spread the work out, right?   

I was inspired to make these Pinwheel Icebox Cookies when I saw a picture of similar cookies on Baked By Rachel's Instagram account.  Cook's Illustrated has a great recipe for vanilla icebox cookies which I adapted slightly.  Trust me, it wasn't as complicated as it might sound.  I basically just took half the dough and colored it red, then I layered the two colors and rolled them up in to a long log.  A final roll in some red and green nonpareils was all that was needed.  A chill in the fridge and then just slice and bake.  As Ina Garten would say, "how easy is that?"

 

Lemon-Ginger Icebox Cake & a Giveaway

When BelGioioso asked me if I wanted to create a recipe for a traditional dessert "with a twist" using their mascarpone cheese I was more than happy to accept the challenge.   The first thing that came to mind was an icebox cake made with lemon and ginger.  This dessert is not only easy to assemble but also really light and refreshing.  I highly recommend you give it a try.  You can find the recipe on culture's website.  

As an added bonus BelGioioso was generous enough to host a giveaway to my blog readers.   One lucky person will win a gift package with an assortment of their cheeses.  I speak from experience when I say they all taste delicious!

Here are the giveaway rules:

1) Only open to residents with a mailing address in the continental US (i.e., no Alaska or Hawaii addresses.)

2) Leave a comment to this blog post.  You must include your email address in the comment in order to be entered.   Sorry, but that's the only way I'll be able to contact the winner. 

3) Only one entry per email address.  

4) Giveaway ends on Thursday December 11 at 11:59PM PST.  Winner will be selected from all eligible entries on Friday December 12.

UPDATE: The randomly selected winner from the eligible entries was Comment #1.  I'll be emailing you directly for your information.  Thanks again everyone for participating! 

Meyer Lemon Icebox Cheesecake

Spring is finally in the air!  I shouldn't complain because here in San Francisco we haven't had anywhere near the snow and rain storms that the East Coast has experienced.  But still, you better believe I'm loving the sunny weather we've seen over the last few days.  I hope it's here to stay.

What better way to celebrate than with a dessert that's light, refreshing and citrus-y?  I'm a sucker for anything lemon so I've been hankering to make this Lemon Icebox Cheesecake from Cook's Country for quite some time.   My version uses delicious meyer lemons, my favorite variety.

I've made CC's icebox cheesecake for this blog before, but the addition of lemon was the main draw and this recipe is bursting with it.  From the use of lemon sandwich cookies in the crust, rather than the typical graham crackers, to a homemade lemon curd mixed in to the filling and decorated on top.  Get ready to pucker up and celebrate the season!    

Chocolate Eclair Cake

I live in constant fear that my gas oven will die on me.  It's happened before and for a baking fanatic like me it was my worst nightmare realized.  If you saw my oven for yourself you'd sympathize.  So can you blame me for always being on the lookout for no-bake desserts? 

My sister sent me this recipe for a chocolate eclair cake from Cook's Country a while back.   I'd never heard of it before but apparently it was quite well-known.   The no-fuss version is to layer a mixture of instant vanilla pudding and Cool-Whip between graham crackers, top the whole thing with ready-made chocolate frosting and refrigerate for a few hours.  Cook's Country amped it up big time by making everything, but the graham crackers, from scratch.

The flavors of the cake were great but I wish the graham crackers had held up their shape more, especially when it came time to slice.  Not sure how the folks at Cook's Country were able to get such nice, clean cuts because my crackers were kind of mushy.  Maybe next time I won't let the cake chill overnight; perhaps a few hours will suffice.