Looking for a few ideas for homemade stocking stuffers? You’ve come to the right place. Here is the first of a few, my twist on your standard holiday roasted nuts. Mine have maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon and as a twist, chipotle powder and sea salt so there is a nice savory and spicy kick. Any nuts will do, but I’ve found I really like the combination of cashews, pecans and almonds. Recipe makes about 4 “stocking stuffer” appropriate sized portions. Yum!
Thought I would make another Thanksgiving-appropriate, yet “Handheld” and easy to share trat, in case anyone is looking for ideas for the big Turkey Day coming up in a few weeks. These Maple Pecan Shortbread bars are very much like Pecan Pie (with a whole lot of maple!) yet double as “blondies” in essence. They hold up nicely in the fridge for at least 4-5 days (if they last that long) and can be eaten “on the go” … or stick one in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, top with ice cream, and your back to eating pie. No matter what the question, pie is always the answer.
This is a bit of a twist on a Pecan Pie. It has the same sort of filling (melted butter, eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar), but instead of using pecans, I used toasted hazelnuts and I added a twist: I steeped some fresh rosemary (from my ever dwindling herbs in my porch garden — the next frost and they will all be gone) in the melted butter for 20 minutes, to give it an interesting, and in my opinion, lovely harvest flavor. I suppose that you could use other nuts as well — cashews maybe? — if you weren’t up for using hazelnuts but still wanted something different than your standard pecan pie. Serve at room temp, maybe with a bit of whipped cream to cut the richness.
OK, these are awesomely delicious. And time consuming. I’m not sure I would have made them had I really realized that they are more or less a 5 step process (make dough, make rounds/dip, bake, caramel, chocolate decoration). Actually, who am I kidding … lots of my cookies take this long. They are worth it though.
Before someone asks me, what Hazelnut Croquant is, I’ll just tell you: In a nutshell (no pun intended) it’s like a nut brittle that is than smashed to pieces. Candied nuts, chopped fine. You can do it with any nut sort, but in Germany, they sell pre-packaged hazelnut croquant, so instead of making my own, I went with that. I know, cheater. If you don’t want to go through the effort of making croquant, finely chopped nuts will do. If you use peanuts, these will be little “turtles” (chocolate, peanuts, caramel).
Back from my travels / vacation and somehow it has dramatically become autumn here in New England. Not complaining as fall is my favorite season. And with that, it’s time for autumn flavors. And it’s Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, so even more of an excuse to have these flavors. Maple. Cranberry. Pecan. These cookies *might* actually be healthy for you, though lots of sugar and butter. Not too sweet, very soft. Quite lovely. And perfect for fall.