cookie calendar - day 1: double chocolate cookies

I met Kat through a monthly baking challenge that she and my friend Stuart (@cakeyboi) started up earlier this year, Treat Petite. I've taken part in a couple of these challenges already and they are lots of fun!

Kat is an awesome baker so I'm very excited to kick off this year's Cookie Advent Calendar with her Double Chocolate Cookies.

Double chocolate! Yes, that bears repeating.

I can definitely see why Kat gets a lot of requests for these cookies. They are thick and chucky and the recipe looks very easy...so let's get baking!

birthday cupcakes: chocolate Nutella cupcakes

Both my brother-in-law, Dave, and my sister-in-law, Alex, answered with an emphatic "chocolate" when I asked them what flavour they wanted their birthday cupcakes to be.

After a little more thought, Alex added that she wouldn't mind Nutella cupcakes either. Since I was delivering the cupcakes to both of them on the same weekend, I decided to cheat a little and bake them both chocolate Nutella cupcakes. 

I never ended up eating any of these cupcakes, although I did have a few mini bites made with the leftover batter. I did, however, get lots of comments from the ones that did get to eat the cupcakes so I have a fairly good idea of how they turned out.

birthday cupcakes: Crown Royal whiskey cupcakes (aka Boozy Cupcakes)

I never gave my father-in-law a chance to choose his birthday cupcake flavour - it was always going to be Crown Royal cupcakes.

You see, many years ago, when Paul and I were still dating, I gave a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian whiskey to his dad for Christmas after Paul told me it was his favourite. The tradition was born. Ever since, I have gifted Paul's dad with a bottle of Crown Royal every Christmas.

Many bottles of Crown Royal later, I didn't hesitate that this would be the flavour to kick off my birthday cupcake series.

pink pepper hot chocolate

The Missing Ingredient Challenge: pink peppercorns

Pink peppercorns look like regular peppercorns and have a peppery flavour, but are not actually related to regular peppercorns. These pinkish-red dried berries can often be found in gourmet stores or bulk food stores (where I found my supply) and are sometimes even found mixed in with regular peppercorns. When Erin from www.foodiepages.ca asked me to use pink peppercorn in my next post for the "The Missing Ingredient" series I was a little nervous - this was something I had never really even heard of before! I mean, I remember seeing a few pink/reddish peppercorns in my pepper mill, but I was supposed to create something with them?

I experimented with a few different tastes by taking recipes I've used before and substituting pink peppercorns into them as the main flavour. This one ended up as one of our favourites – it’s a savoury twist to the always popular hot chocolate.

cookie calendar - day 23: chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies

For our Christmas getogethers, I wanted to bake a cookie that incorporated peppermint, since that's one of the flavours that makes me think immediately of Christmas (eggnog and gingerbread being the other two). A friend recently shared a great orange mocha crinkle cookie recipe with me so I tinkered with it to turn it into a peppermint treat just in time for the holidays.

On their own, the cookies have a very subtle chocolate and peppermint taste, but when you add the chocolate drizzle, the peppermint taste gets a little more intense. If you want something light for a coffee break, then feel free to omit the chocolate topping.

cookie calendar - day 18: dark chocolate sables with sea salt and chili

One of the best things about learning to be better cooks in the kitchen is that Paul and I have been eating a whole lot healthier these days than we were even a year ago (with much more trips to the market and WAY less take-out). And we're continually learning and making better choices, which is helped along by all the great information we get online and in our cookbooks.

So I was really happy to meet Roxanna, whose blog, WholesomeHedonist, is all about making better, healthier choices. Of course, healthy does not mean boring - just check out the name of the cookies she submitted for the Cookie Advent Calendar!

Here's a quick bio about Roxanna:

Roxanna Kassam Kara is a former processed food marketer who runs WholesomeHedonist.com, a site that demystifies marketing claims, helps people navigate the supermarket and features yummy natural food ideas.  She spends her spare time with her husband and toddler, whom she would refer to as El Guapo and Hefe on her blog if only they would let her. You can follow her on Twitter at here or on Pinterest here.

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I love me a good project. If it involves lists, coloured file folders and clipboards, I’m in. Of course, the actual doing of the work never seems quite as exciting as the planning…except when it comes to holiday cookie baking.

There is nothing better in the world than holiday baking – I love waltzing around the kitchen, Christmas music playing in the background, surrounded by sticks of butter and chocolate and tins of brown sugar. That’s my idea of heaven. But even better than the baking is planning the baking - going through my stack of cookbooks and earmarking the recipes I’m going to make. I have a long list of requirements: they must be able to be made ahead, they must store well once baked (to give in cookie tins,) they must be a little bit different, and above all, they must be GOOD. Not treat-in-the-lunchbox good; not even eat-for-breakfast-tomorrow good. They must be constantly-on-your-mind, sneak-one-every-fifteen-minutes, dear-God-did-he-eat-the-last-ONE? good.

cookie calendar - day 17: minty Andes peppermint crunch dark chocolate chip cookies

Stephanie and I have a lot in common (besides our name) but she'll fill you in on that. We've moved our chats off of Twitter (after all, what can you really discuss in depth in 140 characters when you have so much to talk about?) and onto email and although she's SUPER busy, she was kind enough to do some baking for me and has shared this recipe with all of us.

What else can I add except that she's a lot of fun and her blog makes me hungry - really, really hungry!

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When Stephanie asked if I wanted to join her Cookie Advent Calendar for the holidays this year, I was delighted!  I was super excited and immediately started brainstorming different cookie combinations.  

But let me backtrack a little...  For those that don’t know me, I’m Stephanie from Munch I Munch.  Originally from New York/New Jersey, I recently moved to Salt Lake City UT.  I love to dabble with food around in my kitchen, but I especially love to eat out locally at home or while travelling.  There’s something quite satisfying about finding that hole in the wall place that serves amazing food.  ^_^

Stephanie and I bonded over our mutual love for food (we are food bloggers, aren’t we?), books (initially of the Tudor and Elizabethan era), and television shows (you guessed it, The Tudors as well as Game of Thrones) and of course, our perfectly awesome name.  ;)  

Now, onto the cookies!

cookie calendar - day 15: gluten-free chocolate peppermint cookies

You know how once in a while you and a co-worker manage to become friends, great friends, outside of the workplace. You no longer think of that person as someone who you work with, but someone you actually like hanging out with? That happened to me and Christina.

Although I was incredibly happy to leave my last job behind me, I do miss my daily chats and lunches with Christins, so I'm happy that we still manage to keep in touch even though our new workplaces are nowhere close to each other (we both quit our old jobs within a week of each other).

Besides being a great co-worker and friend, I have to say that Christina is an awesome baker. Like, really talented. This girl can decorate cupcakes/cakes sooooo much better than I can! In fact, I often try to derail her corporate career by encouraging her to open up her own bakery (LOL - I'm kind of a bad influence sometimes).

Even though she hasn't yet decided to take my career advice, I was really glad that Christina (and her sister) agreed to share a cookie recipe with me!

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Six years ago, Lil’ Sis (Loredana) was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Coming from a pasta and sweets crazy Italian family, having to cut the wheat and gluten from her diet sounded impossible. But Lil’ Sis’ entire family put on their glass-half-full lenses – this was a new opportunity for all of us to be introduced to the world of corn pasta, quinoa (mmm…yummy quinoa) and brown rice flour.

Fast forward to 2012 and gluten-free (GF) foods have come a looong way. Trust Lil’ Sis…she’s eaten some sad, tasteless bread and mixed-that-flour-with-this-other-flour for recipes in the last six years. 

Toping the GF food list is Cup 4 Cup flour. Honestly, this flour is the greatest thing since sliced gluten-free bread. This miracle flour does just what its name says – it replaces all-purpose flour “cup for cup.” Boom.

This past scorching hot summer, Big Sis (Christina) discovered her passion for baking. Perfect timing. And there are only three things she loves more: Juventus, her Lil’ Sis and Christmas. So she took this recipe and together with (Kitchen Sergeant) Lil’ Sis made it gluten-free-a-rific.

cookie calendar - day 14: double chocolate cookies

Paul first made these cookies a few years ago and I'm glad he doesn't make them too often since I can't stop eating these! They are super-soft, chewy and full of rich, chocolate flavour - all the things I love about cookies. Normally, I'm not a fan of white chocolate, but in these cookies, they definitely work.

We usually make a double-batch of these cookies. They're quite large, but they go quickly, I promise!

cookie calendar - day 11: white chocolate and macadamia cookies

I honestly don't remember when I first stumbled onto Nicole's lovely blog, Miss Friday's Feast, but I was instantly hooked. I think one of the things that drew me to it was Nicole was also a new food blogger, so it was interesting to see how she approached blogging and setting up her recipes.

I also love that she's not based in North America, as it's great to connect with bloggers from other places to get new recipes and insights into other food cultures.

When I invited Nicole to take part in the Cookie Advent Calendar, she mentioned that she's definitely more into savory than sweet, which is usually how my preference as well, but somehow, Nicole was nice enough to come up with amazing recipe to share with me (how did she know I LOVE macadamia nuts?!)

Enjoy!

You can connect with Nicole by visiting:
Blog: http://missfridaysfeast.blogspot.co.uk/
Twitter: @nicolelwaterman

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/missfridaysfeast?ref=hl
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109699706279544217748/posts

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For those of you who don’t know me I’m Nicole; writer and creator of the food blog Miss Friday’s Feast, bringing you all the latest culinary creations from my tiny kitchen in my corner of the globe. Nothing makes me happier than good food. Wait, scrap that, nothing makes me happier than good food at Christmas.

Does the world really need another cookie recipe? Yes! And when Steph asked me to join in with her Christmas Cookie Calendar I was chuffed, if not a little apprehensive. If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know sweets are not my forte. But alas, tis the season of good will and all, so I decided to get my apron all covered in flour and see what I could come up with.

cookie calendar - day 1: peanut-butter stuffed chocolate cookies

I was introduced to Kathryne and her blog, Food Musings, because we're both Canadian Beef Ambassadors. I finally got to meet the bubbly Canadian at the recent ShesConnected Conference here in Toronto back in September where we chatted beef, got false eyelashes and bonded over a beer and cheese tasting.

Just a quick glance at Kathryne's blog tells you what a force of energy she is. Not only does she blog and tweet, she also runs her own media consulting company called The Media Chef! She's definitely fully immersed in the food industry, so I was really happy when she agreed to share this delicious recipe with me for my Cookie Advent Calendar.

I haven't had a chance to make these yet, but Kathryne assures me the cookies taste just like chocolate peanut butter cups, so they are definitely on my list of must-tries!

Enjoy!

You can connect with Kathryne by visiting:
Website: www.foodmusings.ca and www.boomchicaboom.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Food-Musings/258568288878
Twitter: @foodmusings

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My cooking style is very conceptual. When I am in my own kitchen, I will read over a recipe and then kind of wing it. Knowing what foods pair, blend, enhance and contrast each other is a skill that I have unintentionally honed over the years. Baking on the other hand, is not a natural talent for me. I was an avid home economist student and even thought that this would be my career, so I know that baking is more like a science experiment where elements must interact and react in a certain fashion.

There are two men in my family who are great bakers. My husband Doug will whip up a batch of amazing cookies some evening, just because he has a hankering for something sweet. His Mom is a fabulous baker too, so this trait in genetic, I suppose.

cocoa meringue bites

As we get closer to December, I've been doing a lot more baking than usual. Partly because I've been trying new recipes ahead of the busy holiday baking blitz, but also because I wanted to try some new cookie recipes for my upcoming Cookie Advent Calendar.

I pulled these meringues out of a baking cookbook that I've never used before (I seem to have a lot of cookbooks that fall into that category). They were super-easy to make, although I have modified the recipe a little for my own tastes.

After posting a photo of these meringue bites on Twitter, I ended up in the midst of a debate (with some really amazing bakers) on whether or not meringues (and macarons) should be classified as "cookies". I have never thought of meringues as cookies, but then again, I had never thought of bar desserts (ie. brownies, lemon bars) as cookies either and apparently they are. That's what I love about this whole food blogging adventure - I'm learning so much every day!

In any case, I think of these meringue bites more of a dessert (or confection) than a cookie. Especially because I think they would make a lovely base for a dessert - either crumbled up with some ice cream or (if you flatten them out before baking) as a base for some jam and whipped cream.

Whether you eat these plain like a cookie (like we have been) or use them as part of a more fancy dessert, they're delicious and very easy to make.

mint-filled brownie cupcakes

Paul is a huge fan of chocolate-mint flavoured anything, so when I saw this recipe for mint-filled brownie cupcakes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook,  I knew I had to give them a try.

 
The ingredients list is nice and short and the recipe is very easy to follow - perfect for a beginner baker. The hardest part was keeping Paul from eating all the mini peppermint patties!

I even tried piping for the first time ever! What do you think? I had planned on piping names and words on all of them using melted white chocolate but some of the cupcakes didn't turn out completely flat. So for the uneven ones, I covered the little mounds with vanilla frosting. I'm not so happy with the vanilla ones - definitely need more practice, but I'm really proud of the ones with writing on them!

Oh, the reason some of them didn't come out of the oven "completely even"? Apparently, if you don't really bury that peppemint patty - this happens! Haha!

My only recommendation? Make a few batches - these moist, fudgy cupcakes go pretty quickly!

red velvet cake balls

Paul had mentioned seeing  a cool contraption (I can't remember the name now) on TV a few weeks ago that made it easy to create little round balls of cake, making cake pops super easy to make. Of course, cake pops are all the rage these days, even Starbucks carries some of them. I couldn't justify buying something from an infomercial but a couple of weeks ago this babycakes gadget, the babycakes cake pop maker, went on sale at Canadian Tire for $23.99 (regularly it's $39.99). It promised to create a dozen cake pops in minutes! Minutes!!! I couldn't resist and dragged Paul to three different stores to find one (apparently, they sold out pretty quickly - I guess every wants to make cake pops).

It works on the same principal as common waffle irons and George Foreman grill, so it didn't seem that difficult to use and it even comes with a few basic recipes to get you started. It creates mini cake balls and once you glaze and stick lollipop sticks into them you get cake pops! Easy peasy.

I flipped through the instruction booklet and decided to try making the red velvet cake pops. The recipe was easy to follow and I actually had all the ingredients handy, except for buttermilk (but they included a substitute for that).

The only thing I always forget is how messy red food colouring can be. My kitchen looked like a crime scene by the time I was halfway through preparing the batter. Apparently, me alone in the kitchen can be just as messy as Paul and me in the kitchen together....(shhh, don't tell Paul I admitted to that!)

There was enough batter to make about three and half dozen cake balls and since the cake pop maker makes a dozen balls at time, I had roughly three chances to get it right.

My first batch was, um, a little underwhelming. The instructions kept warning to be careful not to overfill the cake ball well and that you only needed a tablespoon of batter. So I piped in about a tablespoon of batter and ended up with little mushroom caps of cake. Haha. They tasted great, but obviously, wasn't as round as I would have liked.

So, for my second batch, I filled the well completely with batter and voila - red velvet cake balls!  :)

Since they were just for us, I didn't bother with the lollipop sticks. I glazed some of them, but wasn't happy with the results. So I coated the rest with icing sugar and they turned out really nice. I love that I could turn out dozens of these in a really short amount of time - even without the sticks, I had adorable cake balls that were really yummy and would be a hit at my next pot luck or family getogether.