Looking for an easy, elegant dessert to serve on New Year’s Eve? Look no further!

Poaching is a great way to use fruit when it’s either off-season and less than perfect, or just a bit under ripe. The fruit is cooked in a flavorful liquid – usually wine – that is sweetened with sugar and/or honey, and flavored with any number of ingredients. This cooking process sweetens and softens the fruit, so you’re actually quite a bit better off starting with firm and under-ripe! This is a great base recipe, but feel free to experiment with it. You’ll find flavor combinations to try at the end of the recipe- or just run wild with your own imagination! Poached fruit is great when served as slices on top of cheesecakes (or other desserts), on ice cream… served in halves or as whole fruit. A whole poached pear, perched in a martini glass and drizzled with a little chocolate is a statement kind of dessert! This recipe is from my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker.

Poached Pears

4 Large, firm pears
3 cups fruity red wine (We used Winehaven’s “Sangria” for this)
Sugar 3/4 – 1 cup 175-250 ml
Flavoring items of choice *

Peel the pears, leaving the stems on – it’s prettier that way.

In a medium saucepan, combine your wine with sugar, bring to a boil. Cook, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Turn the heat down to low, add flavoring items of choice. At this point, it’s a good idea to taste the syrup to make sure that the liquid is sweet enough for your taste.

Add the pears to the pot. If they float, laying a small, heat proof dish on top to weigh them down works well. Cover the pot and allow the fruit to cook through to desired softness – this may happen in 10 minutes, it may take 40-60 minutes. Just poke it every once in awhile to see how it’s doing.

Once pears cooked through, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cool, move to fridge to chill for at least an hour.

When ready to serve, remove pears from poaching liquid. To make a sauce to serve with the pears, return the poaching liquid to the stove top, simmer until reduced in volume and thickened.

* Flavoring items of choice: Vanilla beans (cut in half, lengthwise), whole cloves, zest/juice of citrus fruits, tea bags, cinnamon sticks, mint leaves, rosemary… whatever you feel like using! I recommend not using too many different flavors – I like to let the flavor of the fruit shine through. For this recipe, we used one vanilla bean, and the peels of two clementine oranges.

* Liquid variations: Wine – red, white, rose, champagne, mead – any type that you like drinking. Favorite spirits, such as rum, whisky, and brandy can also be used. Fruit juice or water can be added for extra flavor, or to cut too-strong flavors.

Interested in boozy culinary experiments? You’ll LOVE my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker! Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more. To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here, or digital edition here.

Apple crisp was the dish that I was first known for, back when I was a kid. I substituted my favorite granola cereal for the rolled oats that most recipes called for… and a favorite was born! As an adult, I’m a big fan of the combination of apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, and apple brandy – as you may have noticed by now. (Mmmm Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake!) The Apple Brandy gives a little extra something to this dish, an added warmth and complexity. It tastes like the holidays!. This apple crisp is the perfect way to end a crisp, cool day of apple picking with your special someone. Apple Crisp was definitely one of the things that immediately came to mind, when I found out about my gluten allergy – so of course, I had to make a GF version. This won’t be for everyone – I realize that some people have issues with oats – but it’ll hit the spot for those who CAN have oats.

Also, bonus: Because the topping is oats based anyway, NON-gf people not only don’t take it as “GF”, but find it tastes better than with regular flour!

Gluten Free Brandied Apple Crisp

1 cup Sugar
1 cup GF Oat Flour
3 cups GF Granola*
1 cup Butter, melted
7-8 Large, tart apples
1/3 cup Apple brandy
1/2 cup Brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Walnuts or almonds, optional

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 9″ square baking dish, set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, and granola. Add melted butter, stir until well incorporated. Everything should be wet, but crumbly.

Peel (if you want – I don’t usually), core, and chop the apples. Toss apple chunks with the apple

brandy. Separately, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts – if using. Add to the bowl of apples, toss until apples are evenly coated.

Spread apple mixture evenly over the bottom of the baking dish. Top with an even layer of the granola mixture, patting down lightly. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until topping is lightly browned, and apples are tender. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

* If you prefer, rolled oats can be substituted for the same amount of granola.

Flavor Ideas:

- While I love this with apple brandy.. try rum, whisky, or whatever else you like. Non-cream liqueurs work best.

- For a non alcoholic version, swap apple juice or apple cider

- Add sweetened dried cranberries instead of – or in addition to – the nuts.

- For a “Candy Apple” crisp, use sour apple schnapps for the flavoring, add a layer of ½ – 1 cup chopped Kraft caramels on top of the apple layer, before coating with the streusel topping.

Interested in boozy culinary experiments? You’ll LOVE my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker! Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more. To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here, or digital edition here.

Growing up, haystack cookies (or, as we referred to them… “worm cookies”!) were a common offering at special occasions. Around the holidays, these were served right alongside other staple favorites, such as Confetti Bars and my beloved Noelles. Like Noelles, it’s another childhood favorite that I saw fit to mess with: While the original was great, the addition of cream liqueur takes it to a whole new level. Not so much in a *literally* intoxicating way, mind you – but the cream liqueur brings with it a complexity of flavor that the childhood favorite was lacking. These are particularly fabulous with the “Baja” line of cream tequila liqueurs. I love it with Baja Rosa (Strawberry) and Baja Luna (Black Raspberry), but try it with any cream liqueur – Irish cream, Castries peanut creme, Godiva…yum! These are easy, fast, no-bake.. and OH so addictive! Don’t want the kids to miss out? Simply swap milk for the cream liqueur, and add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Boozy Chocolate Haystack Cookies

3 cups Rolled Oats
1 cup Coconut
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Cream liqueur of choice
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Cocoa

In a large bowl, combine oats and coconut, set aside. Prepare 2 cookie sheets – or a counter top – with parchment or waxed paper.

Combine sugar, liqueur, butter, and cocoa together in a medium saucepan. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat.

Pour hot mixture over coconut and oats, stir to coat everything evenly. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared pans or counter top, allow to cool fully – cookies will harden and “set up” as they cool. Store in an airtight container – these will keep a long time, assuming they go uneaten that long!

Makes at least 24 cookies

Interested in boozy culinary experiments? You’ll LOVE my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker! Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more. To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here, or digital edition here.

Cream puffs / profiteroles are a great “fancy” dessert option. Not only are they insanely easy to make, they take very little in the way of ingredients, and can be customized many ways.

Cream puffs start out with the batter – Pâte à choux, or “choux pastry”. It’s a basic recipe that’s used to make everything from cream puffs and eclairs to cruellers and churros. It doesn’t contain any leavening ingredients (yeast, baking powder, baking soda, etc), instead relying on its high moisture content to puff during baking. Baked at a high temperature, the water becomes steam and creates large air pockets in the final product. Fill them however you want – with pastry cream, pudding, mousse – and there you go. Fancy dessert!

If you want to up the badass factor though, consider assembling cream puffs into a croquembouche. A croquembouche is a spectacular dessert. It’s traditionally served at weddings in various European cities, but is also becoming a popular alternative to wedding cakes here in North America. It’s also great for holiday dinners, or fancier potlucks. A bit of a disclaimer here: This is an easy recipe to make, however, it’s also sort of dangerous. I won’t kid you, there is nothing worse than a hot sugar burn. If you drop the sugar onto skin, it will burn, it will stick, and it will HURT! Please exercise caution when dealing with the caramel in this recipe. If you do make this for a group, and you do manage to burn yourself in the process.. I promise the reception it will receive – and the amount of brownie points you’ll gain – will be worth it. Be careful anyways, though. The recipes below – the cream puff dough, filling, and caramel to assemble the croquembouche – are all from my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. Used together, you can make a croquembouche from scratch, start to finish. HOWEVER, I realize this may be more ambitious than everyone has time or energy for. So… a couple suggestions if you need to “cheat” it:

1. Use instant pudding, Cool Whip, or another pre-made filling to fill the homemade cream puffs… or

2. Buy pre made cream puffs, proceed directly to the croquembouche recipe at the bottom.

Personally, I think it’s fun to do the start-to-finish thing… and gives you huge bragging rights. Also, it’s not difficult at all, or even all THAT time consuming. The pastry cream can be made ahead, and the puffs themselves work up really quickly.

Pâte à choux (cream puff dough)

1 cup Water
1/2 cup Butter
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Flour
3 Large eggs
2 Egg whites

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking sheet. It’s very important to not grease the pan – it will cause the pastries to flatten!

Combine water, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium sauce pan, heat to a boil. Remove from heat, add flour, stirring until well incorporated.

Reduce heat to medium, return saucepan to stove top. Cook for another minute or so, until the dough comes together, leaving the sides of the pan. Transfer dough to the bowl of your mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat the dough for a minute or so to allow it to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, beat together eggs and egg whites in a small bowl. With the mixer set to medium, add egg mixture to dough a little at a time, allowing eggs to fully incorporate into the dough before adding more. It may look like a separating mess, but I promise it will come together!

When all of the eggs are incorporated and the dough is smooth and shiny, it’s ready to pipe! It’ll be soft and a bit sticky, but more or less be able to hold it’s shape.

Using spoons or a pastry bags, make tablespoon-sized mounds of batter, leaving 2″ of space between each. Use a moistened finger to pat down any peaks of dough that may form as you finish piping each.

Bake for 12 minutes, then -WITHOUT opening the oven door – turn the temperature down to 350°F (180°C) and bake for another 25 minutes. Crack the oven door open a few inches, turn the heat off, and allow the puffs to cool in the oven for 30 minutes. This step allows the insides to dry out, providing a stronger structure to prevent collapse.

Fill a pastry bag with your choice of pastry cream, pudding, or mousse. Once puffs are completely cool, jam the tip of the pastry bag into the side of a puff, and fill!

If you’re not planning to make a croquembouche, dust with powdered sugar, drizzle with chocolate, and/or serve with fresh fruit or berries.

Boozy Pastry Cream

To make this recipe alcohol free, substitute 1/2 cup half and half for the 1/2 cup of liqueur, add 1-2 tsp of Vanilla (or other flavor) extract.

3 Large egg yolks
1/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp Flour
1/2 cup Cream liqueur of choice.
1/2 cup Milk
2 Tbsp Butter

Whisk yolks together with sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Add flour, whisk until incorporated and smooth. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring liqueur and milk to a light boil.

Measure about 1/4 cup (50 ml)of the hot milk liquid, and stream slowly into egg mixture while whisking. Continue streaming liquid and whisking until it is completely incorporated, and mixture is smooth. Repeat with another 1/4 cup (50 ml) of hot liquid.

Remove saucepan from heat, pour egg mixture into milk mixture, whisking constantly. Once fully incorporated and smooth, return to heat. Turn heat down to low. Continue whisking mixture constantly, cooking until mixture is very thick. Remove from heat, whisk in butter until fully incorporated and smooth.

Cover with plastic wrap, chill until needed.

Croquembouche 2-3 batches of profiteroles, chilled 2 1/2 cups Sugar 2/3 cup Water In a medium saucepan combine sugar and water, bringing to a boil over high heat. As soon as sugar begins to change color – about 300°F (150°C) – remove pan from heat. Set pan in a larger pan of warm water, on heat proof surface. This will slow the cooking, but keep the caramel warm enough to work with. Work quickly to assemble your croquembouche. I like to freestyle it, not bothering with a form, but your mileage may vary. Feel free to use a styrofoam cone – like a craft store Christmas tree form – covered in parchment paper if you’d like. Carefully dip a profiterole into the hot caramel, place on serving plate. Repeat with 15-20 more puffs to form a large circle. Make a second row on top of it, using less puffs and attaching them slightly to the inside of the first row. Continue making gradually smaller rings, until closing off the top with a single profiterole.

Depending on how generous you are with the dipping, you may want to make a second batch of caramel at some point.

When your tower is assembled, drizzle caramel or melted chocolate all over it, dust with powdered sugar, and/or garnish with decorative items such as candied flowers, nuts, etc.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can try making a web of sugar strands around it. Cut the very end off a wire whisk, or use 2-3 forks held together. Dip the tines of the forks / whisk into the remaining hot caramel, and use a swift motion to spin trails of caramel around the croquembouche. You can spin as much or as little sugar as you’d like, to achieve your desired effect.

Serve within 2 hours of making. It’s best to serve as soon as possible, as the caramel threads (if used) are very sensitive to moisture in the air – and in the dessert itself – and will melt.

Interested in boozy culinary experiments? You’ll LOVE my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker! Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more. To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here, or digital edition here.

This recipe is a holiday favorite around our house. It’s quick and easy enough for any day (especially if you skip the brie!), but the savory taste of the mushrooms and thyme… ahh. It’s just very warm and festive tasting. Be forewarned – doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling this recipe is a very wise idea – HIGHLY addictive! If you’re baking them for a party, be prepared that you – and anyone around – will not be able to resist these, straight from the oven. Also, “I’ll just try one..” doesn’t work.

In addition to being an excellent hot party food, these taste awesome as a cold breakfast or snack the next day.

Mushroom Turnovers

Dough:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1.5 cups flour

Filling:
8 oz baby bella mushroom slices
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup grated Asiago or Parmesan cheese

—

Small piece of Brie (Can use Mozzarella), cut into ½ x ½” x 1″ strips
1 egg
1 tsp water

Beat butter and cream cheese until well mixed and soft. Slowly add flour. Once all flour is added, turn out and knead until well incorporated and smooth. Form a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 30 mins.

In food processor (or by hand, ew) chop mushrooms, onion, and garlic together, until mushrooms and onions are small, fairly uniform sized bits. Put in frying pan with olive oil, and cook down until mushrooms are very soft – almost mushy. Add thyme and sea salt, remove from heat, and stir in the 1/4 cup cheese. Put aside and allow to cool a bit.

Preheat oven to 450.

Roll chilled dough out to about 1/4″ thick. Use a large glass or cookie cutter (about 3-4″ in diameter) to cut out rounds.

Put a scant Tbsp of filling in the center of each round, along with a strip of cheese. Whisk the egg and water in a mug, brush a small amount along ½ the edge of each round. Seal, using the egg mix like a glue. Arrange turnovers onto a baking sheet, pressing down firmly around the edges to seal completely.

Brush the tops of turnovers with egg wash, then pierce each with a fork a few times. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden.

Yesterday, I blogged my brand new, AMAZING recipe for Gluten-free fruitcake cookies. Today, I have a sister recipe to it! Forget everything you’ve heard about fruitcake, and about gluten free baking. This is a gorgeous, extremely tasty fruitcake that will be loved by all – fans of regular fruitcake, fruitcake haters, people with gluten allergies, and even those who aren’t restricted to gluten free. This cake has a wonderful texture – you’d never know it was gluten free. Trust me – I’m the BIGGEST snob about gluten free baked goods!

This cake, though? I’d eat this for breakfast, in addition to as a snack, or dessert. I’ll be making variations of this throughout the year, to satisfy any urge for baked goods. This is WAY too good to be designated JUST a holiday thing!

We used a mix of raisins, cranberries, cherries, apricots, and pineapple, but you can use a combination of whatever dried fruit you love. It is boozed up with Southern Comfort, which works SO well with the fruit flavors, in my opinion.

For a HUGE variety of dried fruits, there’s no beating Nuts Online. Apples, blackberries, cantaloupe – so much variety! Just go for the more natural, chewy type dried fruit. Banana chips, freeze dried, etc won’t work as well.

Gluten Free Fruitcake

2 3/4 cup mixed dried fruits *
2/3 cup Southern Comfort **
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour blend
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped pecans

A day or two before baking the fruitcake, chop dried fruits into pieces, mix in Southern Comfort, and cover.

When ready to make the fruitcake, Preheat oven to 325F. Spray an 8″ round cake pan (spring form pan works, also), and then line it with parchment paper. I like to cut a round just slightly bigger than the bottom diameter of the pan, centering it, and smoothing the edges slightly up the side of the pan, folding and easing as necessary. Then, I cut a “collar” of parchment, about 5″ x 28″. Fold that in half along the length, and then place that – folded side down – around the inside edge of the cake pan.

Strain dried fruit mixture, leaving it in your sieve to drain while you prepare the rest of the cookie batter. Be sure to reserve the Southern Comfort / fruit syrup that strains out!

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg YOLKS (reserving the whites separately), vanilla, and zests, continue beating until eggs are fully incorporated and mixture is once again smooth and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the butter & sugar mixture, beat gently until well combined. Add milk, continuing to beat until well combined. Add in the strained fruits, mixing once more until well combined. Set aside.

In a – very clean – mixing bowl or stand mixer, whip the egg whites on high speed, until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped egg whites into the main batter, until all of the “white” disappears. Gently mix in the pecans, just until well distributed.

Pour cake batter into prepared cake pan, smooth around the pan to push the parchment paper “collar” against the sides of the pan. Gently bang the pan onto a flat surface a few times to knock out any air bubbles.

Bake for about an hour and a half – hour and 45 minutes, until a knife poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.

While cake is still hot, pour reserved Southern Comfort runoff evening over the top of the cake. Allow to cool fully before removing from pan.

* Although I’ve been a happy repeat customer for years, I am required by FTC law to disclose: Nuts Online actually gifted me a few ingredients for the development of some recipes several months ago. I would never in a million years recommend a company that I wasn’t thrilled with. It was my history as a BIG FAN of theirs, that prompted me to work with them in this manner in the first place. I receive no compensation for this endorsement – I just love em!

** If you’re not a fan of Southern Comfort, use Jack Daniels, Rum, or Brandy.

Interested in boozy culinary experiments? You’ll LOVE my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker! Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more. To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here, or digital edition here.

The fact that this recipe even exists… it’s sort of a miracle.

You see, I’m one of those people that hate fruitcake. It’s not that I buy into mass “ew!” hysteria (I love broccoli and Brussels sprouts, for instance!), it’s that I find glaceed / candied fruit to be one of the nastiest things on the planet. I mean, right up there with Velveeta. Gross. Then, there is the “gluten free” issue. As I mentioned in my recipe for an Easy way to make French Macarons, I am NOT a fan of anything that uses fake flours to make a regular recipe into a gluten free recipe. I’m a major “Gluten Free” Snob, and pretty much stick to treats that are inherently gluten free, such as coconut macaroons, Pavlova, and French Macarons. I’ve just always found anything made with the fake flours to be nasty, both in taste and texture. You may be asking yourself, right about now, WHY I created this recipe. Well, I’ll tell you – painkillers!

I really hate taking painkillers, as they make me feel really gross. I have to be in really rough shape to even consider it – and making tamales this weekend really beat me up. When I couldn’t move my arm/shoulder without screaming pain for a few hours, I finally caved in.

45 minutes later, I was sorta woozy and craving fruitcake. Yes, I know – I *HATE* the stuff.

So, I did what one would expect an ADD, creative baker with gluten allergies to do when high as a kite – I designed a gluten free recipe, and demanded nicely asked my husband to drive me shopping for the ingredients I would require.

I chopped the fruit and soaked them in booze overnight, looking forward to baking them the next day.

OH. WOW. These are amazing! I mean, amazing-amazing, not “amazing – for a gluten free cookie”. The substitution of dried fruits for glaceed, the Southern Comfort… it just created this vivid palette of flavor, which *completely* hid any gluten-free nastiness! With so much texture from the fruit and nuts, the cookies COMPLETELY lack any of the weird texture issues I have with normal gluten free cookies.

These were so fabulous, my not-stuck-in-gluten-free-hell husband LOVES them. A few days later, and I’m already putting on a second batch! So good!

We used a mix of raisins, cranberries, cherries, apricots, and pineapple, but you can use a combination of whatever dried fruit you love. Oh, and don’t worry about buying too much – not only will you want to put on another batch once you try these… but I’ll be posting a recipe for gluten free fruitcake tomorrow!

For a HUGE variety of dried fruits, there’s no beating Nuts Online. Apples, blackberries, cantaloupe – so much variety! Just go for the more natural, chewy type dried fruit. Banana chips, freeze dried, etc – they won’t work as well.

Gluten Free Fruit Cake Cookies Recipe
(This makes about 20-24 LARGE cookies… probably a good idea to double the recipe!)

1 lb (About 3 cups) mixed dried fruit*
1 cup Southern Comfort **
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 cup gluten free all-purpose “flour”
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 lb. pecans, chopped

A day or two before baking the cookies, chop dried fruits into pieces, mix in Southern Comfort, and cover.

Preheat oven to 325F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, or coat well with baking spray. Strain dried fruit mixture, leaving it in your sieve to drain while you prepare the rest of the cookie batter.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and zests, continue beating until eggs are fully incorporated and mixture is once again smooth and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add most of it (reserve about 1/4 cup) to the butter & sugar mixture, beat gently until well combined.

Add strained fruit to the reserved flour mixture, toss well to coat the pieces (to separate them a bit). Add coated fruit and pecans to the cookie batter, mix well.

Use a tablespoon, cookie scoop, or small ice cream scoop to drop rounded spoonfuls of the batter onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool on sheets for 5 minutes or so, before gently transferring to baking racks to finish cooling.

Once cookies are cool, keep them stored in airtight containers. Much like actual fruitcake, these tend to get even better with age!

* Although I’ve been a happy repeat customer for years, I am required by FTC law to disclose: Nuts Online actually gifted me a few ingredients for the development of some recipes several months ago. I would never in a million years recommend a company that I wasn’t thrilled with. It was my history as a BIG FAN of theirs, that prompted me to work with them in this manner in the first place. I receive no compensation for this endorsement – I just love em!

** If you’re not a fan of Southern Comfort, use Jack Daniels, Rum, or Brandy. Also, add a pinch each of cloves and nutmeg – it’ll work fabulously with these other spirits.

Here’s another one of those recipes that is so minimalist in both ingredients and preparation, I’m a little embarrassed to post it. Much like my Honey Dill Dipping Sauce Recipe, it may be simple and easy, but it’s a hometown memory for me. I always enjoy exposing people to “new” ideas – even if only new to them! Clodhoppers are a very well known candy back home in Canada. One Winnipegger wanted to market his grandmother’s candy, got together with a childhood friend of his, and got to work. Within a few years, the candy was selling all over Canada.

The candy is apparently no longer made in Winnipeg, having been sold to a company on the West Coast – and I’ve since become allergic to gluten, rendering these treats toxic to me – but I’ll never forget em. Super, super addictive stuff.

Was thinking of them, the other day. I’ve never seen them here in the USA, so I decided to create a homemade version for my husband. The proportions turned out beautifully!

Clodhoppers have only 3 simple ingredients – white chocolate, cashews, and graham crackers – and they whip up in no time. Have bowls of this out at holiday parties, or package them up for a hostess gift, stocking stuffer, or “Thank you” that your friends and family will love!

Clodhoppers

Graham crackers
1 cup salted cashew pieces
11-12 oz bag GOOD white chocolate chips

Prepare a baking sheet or other flat surface with a large piece of parchment paper.

Smash up about a sleeve worth of graham crackers, into bite sized pieces. Measure two cups of the graham bits into a large bowl. I measured out chunks AND the fine particles, which makes the Clodhoppers as shown. For a “prettier” candy, don’t include the fine particles in your measurement. Add cashews, stir lightly to distribute.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips – I usually do 45 second increments, stirring in between each.

When chocolate is fully melted, pour over graham/cashew mixture, stir well to coat everything. Turn mixture out onto parchment paper, spreading mixture out to form bite sized chunks.

Cool until set, store in airtights bags / containers.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make peppermint patties… out of mashed potatoes. I thought it was the weirdest thing in the world, but they sure were tasty! I don’t know what got me thinking of this recently, but I decided to use that information, and come up with my own peppermint patties recipe. Knowing that I’d only need a small amount of potato, I got a bit lazy .. Err.. CREATIVE, and picked up a couple “sour cream and chive” baked potatoes at Wendy’s!

It only took a minute to scrape off the chives, and voila! Tons of time saved. Suck it, Martha Stewart!

Knowing that my husband hasn’t been fond of peppermint patties – but was willing to have his opinion changed over homemade ones! – I picked up some good dark chocolate to dip these in. You can dip them in whatever chocolate you want – chocolate chips, a few good chocolate bars, or baking chocolate. Also, feel free to play with the flavoring in this! If you’re not a fan of mint, ANY extract can be used! Add a little food coloring, and you can make an assortment of cherry, orange, maple… whatever fillings you can imagine!

This recipe works up quickly. It only takes about 5 minutes to mix it up, another 5 or so to roll/flatten, and probably 10-15 to dip them. SO worth it.

Enjoy!

Homemade Peppermint Patties Recipe

2 russet potatoes
2 Tbsp butter, softened
Pinch of salt
6+ cups powdered sugar (icing sugar, confectioner’s sugar)
1-2 tsp peppermint extract
~ 12 oz chocolate of choice

Bake potatoes until soft all the way through. (Or cheat and buy baked potatoes from Wendy’s!. )

Cut potatoes in half, scoop the insides into a mixing bowl, being careful not to include any of the skin. Add butter and salt, mash as well as you can – you want it as smooth as possible!

Carefully stir in 1 cup of powdered sugar – the mixture will go VERY liquid, don’t worry when this happens!

If there are any lumps in the mixture at this point, run it through a wire sieve, mashing the mixture as you go. Discard any lumps that you can’t force through.

Stir in peppermint extract (1 tsp for mildly minty, up to 2 tsp for “in your face” minty!) until well incorporated. Gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar, stirring until it forms a thick dough. (You may need more than 6 cups, depending on how wet your potatoes were!). Knead the dough a couple times, until it forms a smooth ball.

Pinch off bits of the dough that are big enough to make balls that are about 1″ in diameter. Roll each bit into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Place disks on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Once all of the dough is made into disks, place cookie sheet into a freezer for at least 2 hours.

When you’re ready to dip the mints:

Chop up the chocolate into little pieces, place in a glass bowl, and melt them. I like to microwave them in 30 second intervals (stirring after each), because I can’t be bothered with a double boiler.

When chocolate is fully melted and smooth, remove cookie sheet from the freezer and dip them one at a time.

I placed a disk on a fork (on it, not speared with it!), and gently turned it over a few times in the chocolate. With the mint on the flat surface of the fork, I gently knocked the fork against the bowl a few times to get rid of excess chocolate.

For a smooth top, carefully slide the mint off of the fork, and onto foil or parchment paper. For the more textured top, flip the mint upside down, and use the fork to swirl chocolate on any “bald” spots.

Let mints cool until chocolate is hardened, then enjoy!

If you’re looking for a little pre-Thanksgiving dinner treat, a hostess gift to bring along with you, an after dinner sweet…. or just want to get your chocolate on – here’s a great recipe for you! These truffles are based on our famous Chai cake flavor. The warmth of the spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg – pair fabulously with creamy milk chocolate, for a super satisfying sugar rush. Truffles are easy to make – much easier than their retail cachet would have you think! Even a novice cook can turn these babies out, with very little effort, stress, or cost.

While chocolate chips may be a highly unusual medium for truffle making, they are easy to find, and lack the sticker shock that comes with the more traditional chocolate options. Anyone can make these truffles at home, with common ingredients, for only about $4.00/30 truffles!!

Chai Truffles

10-11 oz bag good quality milk chocolate chips
½ cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp instant tea powder
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Cocoa to roll them in

Place chocolate chips into a glass mixing bowl, and put aside.

In a small saucepan, combine heavy whipping cream, tea powder, and spices. Heat to a boil, remove from heat.

Pour hot cream mixture into bowl of chocolate chips. Let sit for 3-5 minutes. Starting in the middle of the bowl, slowly start stirring the chocolate and cream until all of the chocolate is melted and the cream has disappeared into it – it should be smooth.

Cover with plastic wrap, preferably resting right on top of the surface – this prevents a skin from forming while it cools. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour or two, until it’s pretty solid. Once solid, scoop out small amounts (a teaspoon or two), and roll them into balls. Try to handle the chocolate as quickly as possible, or it will melt.

Once all of the ganache is rolled into balls: wash and dry hands, then roll ganache centers in cocoa, or whichever other truffle coating(s) you’d like. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.