Holiday Recipe Recap

The holidays are all about deciding how exactly is the best way to cram untold loads of butter and sugar into one's body. Below, I have reviewed a few of the ways Matt and I have chosen to do so. Attempt at your own risk.

Chocolate Chip Nutella Candy Cane Cookies from Oh Joy!

These were fun to make, particularly because they necessitated us buying Nutella (2 for one special? OK!) and crushing up candy canes with a rolling pin (a really good holiday stress reliever). Unlike my joke that the dust from candy canes is probably what elves snort instead of cocaine (badum-ching!) these were pretty darn good! That is, after the first batch where I forgot to add half the flour ....

We also made a few batches of regular chocolate chip cookies for Matt - he's a purist.

Peanut Butter Cup Bars by Key Ingredient

These were exceptional ... IF you can get over the sight of mixing cups upon cups of powdered sugar into boiling, bubbling melted butter. Which I can. What a trooper. These taste like Reese's cups, only better. If you mix in some dark chocolate for the topping, you're really swinging for the trees. 

Cookie Dough Truffles (last made here, originally from Eat. Drink. Smile)

Yummy, from here.

These were a huge hit when I posted about them last time, and they're still delicious. I forgot the mini chocolate chips this year, but with the heavy duty chocolate coating, it was no real loss. These are adorable and taste just like cookie dough, without the salmonella.

And finally, lest you think I'm a domestic goddess, I'll share with you one utter failure.

Peppermint Ice Cream Punch from Better Homes and Gardens

I can't really attribute this mess of a cocktail to BHG because I didn't really use their recipe. Instead, like a fool, I believed the pinner before me who wrote "Peppermint Punch: Add peppermint ice cream to ginger ale and Bailey's. Stir with a peppermint stick. This sounds amazing!"  Uh, NOT amazing. Yes, chemistry friends, ginger ale + milk + alcohol = curdled cocktail. There was some gagging in the house. To be fair, if you just stir it up a bunch the weird curdled milk texture goes away and the mixture tastes good. But as the crisis was occurring I remember (drunkenly) screaming to Matt "Get me the Pinterest!" The lovely man that he is, he whipped out his iPhone, called up Pinterest and found me the recipe. When we navigated over to BGH, we find that the cocktail is meant to consist of eggnog, peppermint ice cream and ginger ale. I'm not sure how much better that would be, but the moral of the story (well, there are two) is: never trust your fellow pinners and Baileys and peppermint ice cream doesn't need anything else. Duh.

What are you baking or drinking? Or drinking while baking, either works.