Apple Strudel with Cranberry Sauce

Finally and sadly the holidays have passed.  Tonight is a last hurrah, the grand finale.  We'll celebrate New Years with a beer and a midnight kiss before we crash into bed.  Then the long winter starts and five months later the sunshine begins.  I always have such mixed feelings about the start of the new year, anticipation and restlessness, and a sense of dread of the impending diet restrictions.  It's all fair though, since I have eaten without thought these last few weeks, and most definitely gained a few pounds.  It's time to clean up our diets and focus on getting back to health (and not carrying those pounds into bathing suit season).

This strudel served us well at our last Christmas dinner.  I thought the strudel needed to be baked just before it was eaten to keep it crispy, but the recipe said to let it cool completely before serving, so I baked it several hours before it was served.  Unfortunately I was right and the crust did not stay crisp, the layers were soft and soggy, totally disappointing.  The apples seemed a tad under baked and the phyllo layers a little over baked.  The cranberry sauce however was perfectly awesome.  It had a wonderful fruity light flavour that was both sweet and tart enough.

Baking notes:
-I left out the raisins, and added only 1 Tbsp of kirsch to the apple filling.
-I baked the strudel for 25 minutes total, covering it with tinfoil after 15 minutes.
-As you can see I forgot/didn't cover the dessert with powdered sugar.

The recipe for Apple Strudel with Cranberry Sauce can be found on the epicurious website.

58/569

Chocolate Tart with Candied Cranberries

Merry Christmas! The holiday has come and gone, and I hope yours was every bit as magical as you expected. We're not quite done our celebrating, we've got one more family dinner tomorrow night, and it's my favourite: ham!  This dessert here capped off a delicious turkey dinner, unfortunately not so deliciously.  In fact this was a recipe fail.  First of all, I'm sick of cranberries, I feel like there have been an awful lot of them lately. (This is the fifth cranberry recipe from this book in one year).  Secondly, this method of baking the cranberries left them a little bitter.  But that wasn't my least favourite part.  It might be my own fault that I disliked this recipe so much, because even though the recipe specifically stated that no chocolate with a cocoa content higher than 61% was to be used, I thought I knew better.  I subbed out half the chocolate for an 80% dark chocolate and it left the filling very bitter.  I didn't have the creme de cassis (black currant liqueur) called for either, and used an orange liqueur instead.  It was bitter and overpowering, and not very good.  It got left on a lot of plates.  Fail. Not the way I wanted to end a great Christmas meal.

Baking notes:
-I used the wrong type of chocolate and liqueur in the filling.  Next time, follow the directions!
-I bake the cranberries hours before I put them on top of the filling because I was short on time.  I'm not sure what the difference was, maybe some of the berries weren't as candied as they could be.

57/569

The recipe for Chocolate Tart with Candied Cranberries can be found on the epicurious website.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

I started this cookie post on the right day, Tuesday, exactly one week before Christmas.  As you can tell it's Friday now, and the only reason I even have time to post is because I'm laid up in bed with a terrible cough and a fever of 101.3.  Not perfect timing for being sick if you ask me.  As is my usual, I got sick on my weekend, which is entirely irritating on it's own, since we had mega plans this weekend, Christmas gift deliveries, a birthday party, The Hobbit watching, and a wine and cheese party on Saturday.  Not only that, but I have Christmas gifts to buy and make, and it seems that today I'm not going anywhere at all.  My to-do list is getting compressed, but luckily this is one thing I can do from bed.

Peppermint is so perfect this time of year, I'm making everything with it!  I've done cupcakes, and chocolate bark, hot chocolate and now cookies.  They're crunchy and sweet and very cute to boot.  However, when you bit into them the filling squished out all over your hands, making them tricky to eat.  I liked them enough, but I wouldn't be bothered to make them again.

Baking notes:
-I made a half batch of cookies, we had about three dozen in the house already.
-The recipe is simple and quick, enjoy.

56/569

The recipe for Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies can be found on the epicurious website.

Cranberry-Glazed Orange Layer Cake

 It was my birthday a few days ago, I turned twenty-two.  I felt/feel old.  Oh how I will hate myself for saying that in eight years when I turn 30, or in ten years when I finish this project and I turn 32.  Thirty-two, can you believe it?!  I can't even imagine 23! My family and friends made my day very special and spoiled me absolutely rotten.  Some people think it is wrong to make your own birthday cake, but I argue it couldn't be more right for me! I love baking, and the only birthday cake I get full control over is my own.  I actually made this cake for my family and chocolate peppermint cupcakes for my friends.  Every last bit got eaten, for realz.

I knew that some of the cakes in this book were going to be harder to make than others, not technically, but convincing the birthday person that I should make them as birthday cakes.  Chocolate, peanut butter, anything with coffee or candy, or vanilla are easy sells, everyone wants those. But the folks I know don't seem to love citrus cakes.  I knew if I wanted to bake these, they'd be on my own time, so I chose a seasonal citrus cake for my own birthday.  It's an adult cake for sure.  It's not very sweet, cranberry and orange are the main flavours and I could not sell my little brother on a slice, but all the adults I shared it with loved it.  LOVED it!  The cake was not very pretty (though I've definitely made worse), but the flavours were spot on.  Light cake, zingy cranberries and a sweet brown sugar frosting.  I would eat a slice of this again!

Baking notes:
-I couldn't find orange extract in my little town, so instead I doubled the orange zest.  The flavour came through brilliantly.
-I baked the cakes in three 8 inch pans, which worked really well and kept the cakes from drying out.  I also didn't bake them for 35 minutes (I forgot to record how long I did bake them), I kept a close eye on them and took them out exactly when they were done.
-Other than that I followed the recipe closely and had great results.

The recipe for Cranberry-Glazed Orange Layer Cake can be found on the epicurious website.

55/569

Classic Christmas Cutout Cookies

Next week will already mark the last installment of our Christmas cookie series.  I've got to say: I'm totally bummed!  I've loved my weekly timeline for baking (even if it usually gets up late). I'm guessing I'll continue at this pace, but with treats abound, as they are at this time of year, who can really say?  This cookie recipe came at a truly appropriate time, with cookie decorating being the thing to do at this time of year.  We've got plans for next week, but I considered this a trial run.  Unfortunately these cookies aren't as good as my go to recipe.  I find the flavour a bit boring and bland.  There isn't really much else to say.  The texture is nice, the process was easy, but I've had better.

Baking notes:
-I made a half batch of this recipe, since I knew we weren't going to be decorating.
-To roll out the dough after a night in the fridge I let it sit on the counter for 20 minutes.  Even then it just cracked under my rolling pin (which I hate!) so I kneaded it a few times into a softer ball and rolled it out liberally sprinkled with flour.
-I had to watch the cookies closely as they baked, turning the pan halfway through.  And took them out as soon as there was a hint of brown around the edges.

The recipe for Classic Christmas Cutout Cookies can not be found online.

54/569

Homemade Marshmallows

Homemade marshmallows are a beast.  Not a year goes by where I don't make at least one batch, often multiple, but as much of a pain in the ass as they are, they are totally worth it.  They are supremely sticky and marshmallow ends up everywhere, but the delicate, springy, soft marshmallows with their weird and wacky flavours melt beautifully into a cup of hot chocolate, which is my favourite way to eat them.  In the summer I stick to vanilla (it goes best with smores), but in the winter I hand out individually packaged hot chocolate with little peppermint marshmallows (I've even been known to make eggnog flavoured marshmallows!).  It's the light peppermint that kills me, it's so festive and decadent, and peppermint and chocolate are two of my favourite things, especially when they are together.

Marshmallows are not hard to make by any means, the trickiest bit is having all the tools on hand to make them.  A candy thermometer is a must, and a stand mixer is mandatory as well.  Other than that, follow directions and keep your fingers off the marshmallows, or you'll have long thin strands of marshmallow all over your kitchen.  (Guilty!)

Baking notes:
-The only thing I did differently was add a 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract along with the vanilla.  Subtle, but noticeable.

The recipe for Homemade Marshmallows can be found on the epicurious website.

53/569

Almond Thumbprints

I make thumbprint cookies every year.  I don't have a clue why, they're not Christmas-y at all.  But Christmas has me craving cookies, and so I do.  Every year I'm disappointed by thumbprint cookies that are dry and bland, with  jam filling that bubbles out and around, they always leave much to be desired.  Once again this year I tried a new recipe, this time from my book.  And what do you know? I finally found a great recipe! They're easy, buttery, very sweet and extremely delicious.  I totally loved them, and so did everyone who tried them!  As a bonus I got to use up two languishing jars of jam in my fridge, a cranberry-strawberry and a four-plum.

P.s. You might think this picture looks awfully similar to my last post, but when your Christmas tree takes up two-thirds of your living room...

Baking notes:
-I didn't have enough almonds, so I toasted some walnuts to go with them.  In all I had just short of a cup of nuts, so I added about an extra 1/4 cup of flour.  (You could totally use hazelnuts and fill the centers with nutella, my mouth waters just thinking about it!)
-To make the indentations I used the small end of a wooden spoon and then used my fingers to make the holes bigger while keeping the sides intact.  When I pulled them out halfway through baking I used the spoon again to make another hole.  In the end the cookies held a lot of jam, which my thinking tells me is way better.
-I found the cookies super simple to make.  Yes, there were a few extra steps, but I think they were definitely worth it.

The recipe for Almond Thumbprints can be found on the epicurious website.

52/569

Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark

Whoa.  The Christmas train is fast approaching the station and I'm hanging onto my hat as the winds blast by.  The stockings are hung, the tree is aglow, the advent calendar is started and I've made my inaugural batch of Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies, things are officially on countdown.  One of my favourite things about Christmas is the total unabashed enthusiasm for the kitchen I feel at this time.  Every gift I give is another excuse to spend time in my kitchen, and loading the oven up with cookies makes you normal, not crazy at this time of year.  So while my recipe binder spits out recipes like receipts on boxing day, I'm just (very happily) baking to keep up with demand.

Week ten in the Christmas cookie series brings us this layered peppermint crunch bark.  Now, I knew I'd like this recipe, it's chocolate bark for pity's sake, but I had no idea how over the moon I'd be.  From my first sample to the subsequent ten bites I shoved in my mouth, I just couldn't stop!  This isn't your ordinary chocolate bark, that is for sure.  A base white chocolate layer is sprinkled with finely crushed peppermint candies (candy canes!) and then topped with a soft semi-sweet chocolate layer.  After it cools the final layer of crunchy white chocolate and crushed candies are added and the whole bar chills until hardened.  When you take a bite there is crunch, a soft crunch from the white chocolate and a hard crunch from the candy.  But it's the smooth chocolate layer that oozes in between it all that sets this bar at a gold level.  I promise you won't get away with just one bite, you'll be in love just like the 157 other people who reviewed the recipe.

Baking notes:
-I made a half batch, 17 oz of white chocolate costs a lot $$$! (like $8 for me)
-I used 6 candy canes to make 3 oz and bashed them around.  I don't like large chunks of candy canes, so I broke mine down a lot.

The recipe for Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark can be found on the epicurious website.

51/569