Maple Iced Spice Cookies

I was fortunate enough to have a day off this week, so along with spring cleaning, I decided to try another new recipe from The Naturally Good Cook.  So far every recipe I have tried from this book has been delicious!  And, I still have a bit of cooking maple syrup to use up.

First, I blended 2 Tbsp of water with a peeled and chopped knob of ginger.

I squeezed and strained this mixture and set it aside.

Next, I mixed together 4 cups of flour with

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground cloves

As well as 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper.  We'll see how this affects the flavor, it's probably used as source of heat from the spice.

In another bowl I beat 1 cup of butter with 1 cup of sugar.

Next I added 1/3 cup of molasses

1/2 cup of maple syrup (Grade B)

and the ginger liquid.

I added the dry to the wet and beat to combine.

I used my cookie scoop to make uniform balls and I baked them in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.

While these baked, I made some icing to put on top of the cookies.  I beat together 2 cups of powdered sugar with a tsp of vanilla and some apple cider until it was a glazing consistency.

Once the cookies were cooled I dipped, and set aside.

Holy mother of God, these came out so good!  I hope you enjoyed this post, and please, eat responsibly.

Biscotti

I love biscotti.  I don't even need coffee to dip it into.  I love how crunchy it is, and I especially love the traditional anise and almond flavors that are so popular.  But, what I love most about biscotti is that it is essentially a twice baked cookie.

Biscotti means "twice baked," in fact, so what I decided to do was make white chocolate macadamia nut biscotti, because who doesn't love white chocolate macadamia nut cookies?  I looked up a few recipes online, and the main difference between regular cookies and biscotti is one stick of butter.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Beat together 1 stick of room temperature butter with 3/4 cup of white sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt.

Add 2 eggs one at a time and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Next combine 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 2 cups of flour.

Now for the bits.  Combine 1/2 a bag of white chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of chopped macadamia nuts.

I lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and formed the dough into a log.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Once these are out of the oven they need to cool for 30 minutes.  Slice diagonally and bake again for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Or dark brown, whoops.

Once these are baked a second time you can dip them in chocolate or leave them be.  I left them be.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, I'm hoping to do more new recipes, I know I have been doing repeats (if they taste good, I make them often).

Enjoy!

One of the Most Wonderful Times of the Year

So, again, this is late, but I did make my Carbomb Cupcakes yet again!  This time for a Warhammer Tournament I was participating in on St. Patty's Day.  I do love the magical liquid that it Guinness, and this year I decided to make my frosting from scratch, using cream cheese as the base.  These were very much appreciated, and nearly all were eaten!

You have all seen my recipe for these delicious cupcakes, but for those of you who are visiting for the first time, you can see my original post here!  I'll just show you some highlights of this year's batch.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun St Patrick's Day.  Enjoy!