And with that, week 51 brings us to Christmas weekend. This was a particularly hectic week given that lots of things had gotten put on hold due to the very unfortunate appearance of the flu. We usually send out Christmas cookies to families and friends for the holidays, but this year the cookies were more like New Year's cookies.
The first set of cookies was another set of the Ottolenghi gingerbread tiles. In addition to the round tiles, I'd gotten some springerle forms that had some more traditional Christmas motifs on them. So I was super excited to give it another go. Overall, they weren't bad, but I still struggled with the glaze a little.
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| Gingerbread tiles - springerle |
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| More gingerbread tiles |
Next up were some cashew puffies. This is one of my favorites from Rose Berenbaum's cookbook, and has made pretty frequent appearance in the cookie deliveries. If you are a cashew fan (I know there are some cashew haters out there) then this is your cookie. There isn't a lot of adornment to this cookie, but it sure goes well with a cup of black tea.
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| Cashew puffies |
I also made a repeat batch of the maple and star anise cookies. These were, quite frankly, such a hit with everyone that I'd shared them with previously that it seemed a no-brainer to add them into the mix for this year's delivery. A great recipe that travels well and packs a punch of flavor.
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Maple and star anise cookies
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Another repeat cookies were the classic pignoli cookies. These are one of my father's favorite cookies and fairly easy to put together. I also really love the flavor, which is reminiscent of the Italian bakeries back in Boston and New York. The only downside is that you really need quite a few pine nuts for the recipe and I never remember that so I never have enough pine nuts to make a double batch.
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| Pignoli cookies |
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| Raspberry rose and hibiscus rugelach |
Last up was a batch of raspberry rose rugelach from Cookie Love by Mindy Segal. When we lived in Chicago, it was a fun treat to stop by Hot Chocolate for a bite and I would inevitably leave with a box of cookies for later. Since just popping by the restaurant is no longer an easy task, I was really excited when her cookbook came out so that I could try and re-create some of those treats. I was intrigued by the raspberry rose rugelach because the filling also called for some raspberry lambic. After consultation with the lovely gentlemen at Elevated Liquors, I decided to sub the lambic with a limited release Raspberry Roselle from Fair State Brewery. The Roselle is a hibiscus sour that is one of my more favorite summer beers. I'd heard that the Raspberry Roselle was also top notch with a ton of juicy raspberry flavor. Well, it was a great decision. I put in a bit of vanilla, too, to try and balance out the various tart notes. I've decided that rugelach are my new obsession. The cream cheese dough is not that fussy and the whole cutting and rolling business is quite therapeutic.
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| Ham, leek, and gruyere pie |
In addition to the cookies, I also made a savory pie for Christmas eve dinner. The past several years, I've done beef Wellington, but it seemed a good year for a change-up. I opted for a ham, leek, and gruyere pie. There were some technical difficulties with the crust (far too stiff and dry, I think), so I had to call an audible and covert to a plate pie. This was the right call since the cheese and juices made for quite a bit of liquid filling that would have been difficult to finagle otherwise.
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