a collection of things i make with my hands
Christmas is almost here! Which means it’s time to reveal our 2017 Christmas cookie design! I was so excited when I found out the US Postal Service released The Snowy Day stamps this year, so when it was time to design our cookies, I couldn’t think of a better theme than the classic children’s book. So, without further ado, here is our take on The Snowy Day Christmas cookies. (more…)
I’m calling this “Samoa inspired ice cream” because I can’t tell you it tastes exactly like biting into a Samoa girl scout cookie. But all the elements are there and it tastes amazing.
I wasn’t necessarily going to do a post about this ice cream right away. I made the first batch about a month ago, and when my mom tasted it, she INSISTED that I blog about it right away because it’s just that good and because the first batch ran out.
I’m not going to lie to you. This recipe is not hard, but there are kind of a lot of steps. But these steps are easily broken up over a couple of days, or do what I did and take a Saturday at home and do a little bit throughout the day. Most of the work isn’t really hands-on, but you need a lot of time to cool the custard and bake some up some shortbread. But it’s so worth the time. This might be my new favorite ice cream of all time.
Lately I’ve had a serious hankering for biscotti. It just hit me out of the blue and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Yesterday I finally had time to make some.
I’ve made a number of different biscotti recipes before, and while I’ve liked all of them, the one whose texture charms me the most is this one, a cardamom biscotti from Martha Stewart.
Unlike most biscotti recipes, which are made only with flour, or with a combination of flour and cornmeal, these are made with ground almonds in addition to the flour. While I love that cardamom biscotti recipe, it wasn’t exactly what I was yearning for. So I decided to make something different, but keep the ground almonds in there for texture.
I had some hazelnuts in my pantry, so I thought the nutty combination would hit the spot nicely. I swapped out regular all-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour, cut the sugar back a bit and threw in a little bit of cocoa powder to compliment the hazelnuts.
Well, that’s a mouthful! In the best kind of way. I just made these and they are ridiculously good, so I just had to share.
If you are absolutely done making Christmas cookies this year (and really, I won’t blame you. It’s only 5 days away!!) these would also make excellent cookies for a New Year’s party.
What I love about these cookies is that they’re still festive while being significantly different (and much less sweet) than most Christmas cookies. (more…)