Today we celebrated Jewish Christmas. We relaxed at home, went to the movies and then ate Mexican food (we usually eat Chinese). I decided this morning was the perfect time to try to replicate Mom’s Viennese Crescent Cookies as they’re often associated with Christmas. Viennese Crescent Cookies, or Vanillekipferl, are similar to sugar cookies and the most distinctive characteristic is their shape: they are formed into crescents. The cookies use ground nuts for flavor, either almonds and hazelnuts. Since my daughter loves nutella, I … [Read more...]
Hazelnut Financier
December 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
My Baking Skills class at the Institute for Culinary Education definitely widened my baking aperture. Before attending the class, cutting up a pre-made log of Tollhouse cookie dough and sticking it in the oven was my definition of baking. I never would’ve thought I’d be baking cakes I can’t even pronounce in English. One of my favorite items on our hit list is the Hazelnut Financier cake (pronounced fee-nahng-syehr). These are lovely French tea cakes, that also go by the name Friands, which aptly means "dainty" or "tasty." After becoming … [Read more...]
Holiday Gingerbread
December 21, 2011 By 20 Comments
Winter vacation isn’t complete without a family Gingerbread house construction. We love opening up the boxes, laying out all the candy pieces in an assembly line, and determining our creative design for the houses’ façade. We laugh while we sneak eat at least 1/3 of the candy pieces. We have a grand old time watching our houses transform from 2D pieces to festive 3D creations; the perfect window display against winter’s snowy backdrop. Gingerbread house made last year Gingerbread house made this year With all our focus on … [Read more...]
Holiday Carrot Pudding
December 19, 2011 By 2 Comments
Don’t you feel like you’re on a constant sugar rush the entire month of December? After all, it’s holiday time. We're all hyper-focused on those festive treats: cakes, cookies, candy, pies. Cookie recipes are swapped, sweet-toothed teacher gifts are distributed, candy canes are licked adnauseum. Poor veggies. They seem to always get the shaft. Well, who wants to talk about boiling broccoli or steaming asparagus when you can bake and design holiday shortbread cookies or make and break apart festive Peppermint Bark? Let’s face it, the … [Read more...]
