Spiced Pecans

As usual, Alton can do some interesting things with straight-forward recipes. This recipe is no different. Alton's love for cumin shows in this recipe as he's added. And, as far as I'm concerned, to it's detriment. I do like the addition of cayenne. But, I really could not detect any hint of the orange. And the cinnamon wasn't as bright as I thought it should be. Mostly, these were sweet and salty with a hint of heat.

When I make these again (which I will for another recipe that utilizes them) I will play a bit with the spices. And the cumin will go. I'm just not a fan.






Recipe Link

Jam Sammies

In "The Cookie Clause" episode of Good Eats, the topic is sugar cookies. Alton Brown notes that this is a sort of multipurpose recipe.

The thing about Christmas cookies is you want to come up with just one kind of batter that can make a whole bunch of cookies, okay?

That way you can roll 'em and cut 'em, or make little balls, drop cookies, icebox cookies, make 'em a log and then saw 'em into pieces. And the most versatile cookie dough I know of is sugar cookie dough.

I pondered whether or not I should post these. Technically, they are not listed as an 'official' Good Eats recipe. That being said, I followed the official recipe and only veered by adding the jam filling and sandwiching two cookies together.

For the jam filling, I found a new jam I'd not seen before at Costco: Cherry-Raspberry-Rhubarb. I took a cup of the jam and reduced it for about 20 minutes. I that ran it through a strainer and let it cool.  And there you go.

Classic Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are a staple of holiday baking. And, since I'm attempting most all of the Good Eats recipes I decided to add Alton Brown's sugar cookies to my 12 Cookies of Christmas list. Having made these in the past and not being a huge fan of how they turned out I made one small change. I took the sugar and ran it through the food processor. The superfine sugar made the cookies much more tender.

The royal icing also had a modification. The icing ended up being too thick to do much of anything with. I couldn't spread it or pipe it. I added a small amount of milk and that made all the difference. Also, while AB suggests using powdered food coloring, I could find none. At least not locally. But, Wintons has a set of gel colors that worked out quite well.

I do need to add a few more cookie cutters to the mix to get some variation. Not pictured are: Christmas Trees, sleigh, reindeer, man, woman, snowman







Recipe Link - cookies

Recipe Link - royal icing

Chocolate-Peppermint Pinwheels

This Alton Brown's variation on his own All-In-One sugar cookie dough. I love the idea behind these cookies but I don't think they've turned out right yet. The very first year I made these cookies I had so pulverized the candy canes that when the cookies cooled they were hard as a rock.

This year's mistake was to change the chocolate. I felt that the unsweetened chocolate gave an ever so slight bitter taste to the cookies. I figured I'd change it up a bit and use semi-sweet chocolate instead. The problem with that is the semi-sweet chocolate was not quite chocolate-y enough so the peppermint overpowers the chocolate flavor. Back to the drawing board.

Recipe Link

Ginger Snaps

I really had intended to do a Twelve Cookies of Christmas list, but got a late start. Looks like it'll be more of a Half Dozen Cookies of Christmas instead.  I wanted to add something new to the Christmas cookie list this year. so I decided to give Alton Brown's Ginger Snaps a go.

These are crisp on the outside and slightly chewy in the center with a nice bit of  heat and have little bits of candied ginger in them.

I think they are a little on the small side, though. Next time I will try to make them a bit bigger and see how they turn out.

Recipe Link