A few final thoughts for Valentine’s Day this year, and this one would be great for kids. Admittedly, these are really time consuming to make, but I made the graham cracker bears a few days in advance and just the cupcakes and frosting this morning. Obviously a play on the whole S’Mores thing (chocolate = the cupcakes, marshmallows = the frosting, graham crackers = the bears). Cute, eh?
Ever notice that most recipes only call for a cup of chocolate chips and you somehow end up with about 4 or 5 open bags of various kinds of chocolate chips — or any other “flavoring thing” like nuts or dried fruit for that matter? Well that was the case this week when I was looking for a cookie inspiration and so this is what I came up with. Mini chips (very meltable), crunchy toffee bits (for texture), sweet and tangy dried cranberries. Turned out quite yummy for a cookie on a whim. Now, pass the milk.
Continuing the Valentine’s Day theme … Two types of Christmas Cookies that I often make are both Snowball Cookies (aka Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies, they have lots of names) and my Walnuß Kardamom Schneebällchen (similar cookies as normal snowballs, but with Walnuts and Cardamom). Both are delicious, but these have a new twist: hidden inside are Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses (I used the dark chocolate ones because I like them better). Hence the name: Secret Kisses. Perfect for your special someone.
Not quite over my Meyer Lemon kick yet, so I thought that I would make these tartlets. The addition of the pistachios is unique, but I had run out of other nuts (initial thought had been cashews) but these turned out ok in the end. If I were to make them again, maybe I’d up the butter quotient in the tartlets though, because they were very crumbly taking them out of the tart pans. The quick curd was lovely though.
Switching gears to something sorts of Valentine’s Day like. I think that I say this every year, but I have a love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. Ok, it’s mostly a hate-hate because of the absurdity, the consumerism and contrived nature of it all. Love? Well the reason that I might like it a little is that it is an excuse in the middle of the winter to make lots of cookies, chocolates, truffles and the like. And what the heck, you might as well have a theme. So I figured I’d start now, in case anyone wants to use these recipes for their own creations.