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Sweet Snacks

Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Rosemary Apricot Pinecones, with Toasted Pinenuts

This is a new type of Christmas Cookie. You see, every year, I experiment with one sort. Sometimes they are a success, sometimes not. And sometimes, while I love the cookies themselves, they are too much of a pain in the neck to make +/- 300 of them, so they don’t get included the next year. This year, I decided to go with a distinctly non-German type recipe — if anything, these Rosemary Apricot Pinecone, with Toasted Pinenuts, almost have a Mediterranean feel to them. They are not too sweet and definitely have a rosemary finish. Most of the sweetness does come from the apricot jam. While the verdict is out on whether they will become part of my regular rotation, they are quite lovely.
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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Nougatkipferl (Nougat Crescents)
(New Recipe: December 2017)

Nougatkipferl have never been my favorite of my Christmas Cookies to make. There are a number of things wrong with the recipe that I have been using for years, not the least of which is that nougat is really hard to find in the US. Substituting Nutella has usually worked, however this year, Nutella’s ingredient / composition changed somewhat (to much controversy, actually), and that made it more difficult to bake with. So, after a fail or two with the dough, I started from scratch and came up with this recipe. It has a little bit of corn syrup in it, which is not my favorite thing, but seemed to help with the dough’s consistency when I was rolling it out.
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Cookies, Desserts, Sweet Snacks

Chocolate-dipped Butterfinger Brownies

I have a lot of brownie recipes up here on this here page, because even “from scratch” brownies are so darn easy to make. So when I saw these “Butterfinger Bits’ (which I had never actually seen before last week when they jumped off the shelf at Target), I thought that they would make a nice marriage for these brownies. Delish!
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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Chocolate Dipped Squirrels, with Harvest Nuts

I was in the mood to continue the “Harvest” trend here on this here website, but somehow, I am not overly pleased with these cookies. They taste really nice — chocolate-dipped chocolate sugar cookies, with just the right amount of toasted pecans, but somehow, these little squirrels don’t look right to me. Next time, maybe I’ll have the little critters holding a nut, and maybe even paint eyes on them. At any rate, still wanted to post them here. Enjoy.
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Cookies, Sweet Snacks

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Jumbles

Brown Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Jumbles … it’s quite a mouthful to say, actually. But I promise that they are harvest-y and sweet and possibly even nutritious. Sure there is butter and sugar, but the oatmeal and pumpkin puree outbalance the other stuff, right? I’ll just keep saying that and eventually I’ll convince myself. 🙂
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