I typically make Macaroons as part of my Christmas Cookie Collection, though really, they are not German per se, nor are they Christmas-y. They are delicious, of course, so I thought that I would do some experimenting on variations. I’ve already got a recipe for Chocolate hip Macaroon, so this time, I went with Coconut Butterscotch-Chip Macaroons — with teeny tiny butterscotch chips, which are a little bit hard to find. These are very sweet and rich, but definitely delicious.
Doing a little more experimenting with “upside down” desserts, this time plain old apples, but the batter also has toasted walnuts for a bit more flavor, and made in a bundt pan. I was actually afraid that this one wouldn’t release as well, and that I might have a disaster on my hands, but it inverted and released quite nicely and it tuned out ok. The cake itself isn’t as moist as I would like though, so might have to serve with some whipped cream. Just a little Sunday afternoon snack at coffee time.
As every year, here is the Valentine’s Day Cookie Collection. I might have gone a little overboard this year, with 5 varieties, but I had the time and energy for once so here we go. Happy Valentine’s Day!
The varieties are:
Oreo-style Sandwich Cookies
Raspberry Almond Linzer Cookies
Red Velvet Non-Pareil Cookies
Espresso Chocolate M&M Cookies and
Lemon-Hibiscus Swirl Cookies
The other day, I had the opportunity to try Big Spoon Roaster’s Tigerwalk Espresso Nut Butter (almonds and hazelnuts) and I was blown away. Really really delicious, and the perfect thing for making Gluten Free nutbutter cookies like these. They are GF and dairy free (they do have eggs, but no butter), and are simply delicious. They come together in a snap (no mixer needed) and this recipe can be halved as it makes quite a lot of cookies.
It’s been one of those weeks (and one of those months! I hate January!) that chocolate wasn’t an option this weekend, and the best option was for these Salted Caramel Pretzel Pecan Brownie Bites. They are cute, delicious and definitely filled the chocolate “void’ for the weekend. I make my brownies from scratch (not out of the box), but in a pinch, you could also do this recipe with a box mix. A very straight forward and simple recipe.