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.
cookies
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.
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. 🙂
I don’t do a lot of baking for Halloween. I *like* Halloween, and if I had more occasion to do so, I’d come up with some creepy ideas for sweet snacks, but as one can’t hand out homemade cookies to trick-or-treaters, I usually just limit my baking to one thing. This year, it’s these sandwich cookies. I used one of those imprinting rolling pins which didn’t work particularly well, but c’est la vie. Next time I will skip the baking powder in the dough. They taste great though.
PS: I think that the skulls look a little like Star Wars Storm Troopers, but I might just be imagining things.
Cardamom Fig Jam and Orange Fig Jam
One of the great things about late summer and early autumn in my foodie world is figs. I get giddy for those figgies! And, to make them last longer, I often make jam out of figs, which can be used for both sweet or savory things, added to stews or even stir fries, but don’t count out making Fig Newtons! This year, I’ve made two sorts: Cardamom Fig and Orange Fig. Distinctly different but equally lovely.











