Ah yes, still in the lead up to Valentine’s Day (I promise to change topics before next Sunday!) and the final of the cookies that I will be making this year for VDay. I found these cute “Conversation Heart” cookie cutters and decided to put them to the test. The cookies themselves weren’t all that interesting, so I decided to “glitter-ify” them with very nice results.
I preface this post that I am laughing at the absurdity of myself. And you should be laughing at me becuase I am silly. Fair deal?
A couple of hours ago, I had this craving for french fries. I had to walk over to the post office anyway, so I grabbed a couple of russett potatoes at the shop. So far, so good. Because a couple of my friends have recently started experimenting with those spiral cutters, I decided to pull mine out as well. I’d bought one on a whim 3 or 4 years ago, but it has only seen the light of day about a dozen times (there are only so many zoodles that one can make!). Anyhoo, I preheated the oven, spiralized (is that a word?) my taters and went to find a bit of oil. No olive oil. No veggie oil. Seriously? Need to be better about checking staple ingredients. But I do have rendered duck fat in the fridge (as only Kat would), and some bacon fat too. And butter, though that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.
Here we are, continuing the lead up to Valentine’s Day. Every year I seem to make some of these heart-shaped Linzer cookies; each year a new flavor. Everyone seems to love them (har har — love… Valentine’s Day…) and they are easy to make. This year, in addition to my usual Vanilla and Raspberry “standard” Linzer Cookie, I decided to do something a little more unique: Cardamom and Passion Fruit Linzers. While not overwhelming in the cardamom department (which is good, because it can be very overwhelming), it has a nice hint of the spice. The passion fruit jam that I found is excellent. Pleased with the results!
I have a love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. Hate because it’s a silly, made up, consumerism “holiday”. Love because it is really just another excuse to have a theme in my baking for a few weeks (chocolates, cookies, sweets, desserts…). At any rate, we’re getting closer to the Big V Day, so it was a good excuse to use one of my cookie stamps, and to make these Maple Cashew Butter Cookies. Very addictive and my flat smells amazing. Also, these cookies are a great alternative for those people with a peanut allergy. Cashew butter could also be substituted with creamy Almond Butter.