Another Easter Treat! In essence these are just sugar cookies, but in my continued quest of flavor experiments, they are made with honey and culinary lavender extract. Very spring like. Also, I used India Tree “Nature’s Colors” Sanding Sugars which use things like beet juice instead of artificial colors.
I recently purchased the Huckleberry cookbook (yes, I am a cookbook junkie) and while I rarely make recipes in their entirety without modifications, I am trying out some of the recipes for the first time. Up first from Huckleberry was this Maple Bacon Biscuit recipe. It happens to also be on the theme of maple syrup (see previous post) and … well, bacon is bacon, and bacon is good. While I these were spectacular straight out of the oven (with a bit of butter) and I m sure that they would also pair well with soup or bisque, I decided to make an egg and bacon breakfast sandwich which was fantastic.
Switching gears from some of my Easter baking to another Springtime ritual here in New England: Maple Syrup. Seriously one of the best things on the planet. And no, not the fake stuff that is made from corn syrup but the real maple syrup that comes from trees and all. Last weekend was Maine Maple Sunday (always the 4th Sunday in March, right around when the trees should be tapped) and many of the producers had open houses. No, I don’t live in Maine, but close enough (not to mention family lives there, and many friends) so I got to thinking that I should commemorate this year’s “harvest” somehow. These lovely, crispy, nutty, maple-y cookies did the trick. Enjoy!
The first things that I will say about this project is that it is time consuming, somewhat frustrating and at some point, you will be asking yourself why the heck you are doing it. But then the presentation wins out because they are very pretty. And tasty. Here is the deal … and I am mentioning this right away so you can plan for it … first you need to painstakingly poke holes and drain a dozen eggs of their content. This took me an hour (even though I have done this before and thus have “had practice”). Then you have to “wash” the insides of the eggs by soaking them in water and wiping them and shaking them somewhat dry. Once you’ve done all that, the actual making of the cake batter and filling them with a piping bag, and then baking seems minor. At any rate, it seemed like it was an all day affair. Was it worth it? Yeah, the “cupcakes” (which you can also just make regular cupcakes out of, of course) were yummy, the presentation is fun and I like them. So there.
Easter is still a few weeks away, but I’ve decided to start making a few things early this year, in hopes of inspiring friends to do some baking this spring. It’s also the first day of Spring today, though the weather outside would not indicate that. Anyway, Easter and Spring … birds and nests and easter eggs. Cookies.