It's (well was) Purim Time!

Ok, so this is a very late post, but these were still very delicious!

Last year I made a delightful little post about the holiday Purim, and a very special confection that is served.  Hamentaschen or Hamantaschen are a triangle shaped cookie said to represent the pocket, hat or ear (depending on who you ask) of Haman, the villain of Purim.  This cookie is eaten in effigy of him because he was oh so wicked.  This year I wanted to make something special, something I am shocked that I haven't tried yet.  Hamantaschen with Nutella.

If you have never had this stuff before, I feel so badly for you.  This is Peanut Butter in Europe, and it is fan-freaking-tastic.

So, this year, I tried out a new recipe from here.

I beat two eggs until they were light yellow.

Next I beat in 3/4 of a cup of white sugar, 1/2 cup of oil and instead of 1 1/2 Tbsp of Cognac, I used a special liqueur.

This is a delicious Hazelnut liqueur called Frangelico.  It comes in a very distinct looking bottle.  I used this because I wanted to have an extra bit of hazelnut flavor in these cookies.

Once these are combined I gradually beat in 2 tsps of baking powder and 3 1/4 cups of flour.

After a while the mixer wasn't cutting it so I had to use my hands to bring the dough together.

Once combines I rolled out the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper and rolled it into a cylinder.

I wrapped it up and refrigerated it overnight.

The next day I took out the cylinder and set the oven for 350 degrees.

Because this dough was so dry, I used some water to knead the dough.  This did the trick!

I rolled it out and cut out circles using a juice cup.

Next I added the Nutella, and folded the cookies into triangles.

Bake for 15 minutes

And presto!  Tasty cookies.  Happy Belated Purim, and Enjoy!

Snow Day

As many of you in the North East are aware, we had a blizzard.  An estimated 24 inches was supposed to fall in just a few hours.  Naturally, after school was cancelled, and I had an entire day to do...whatever.

What can one do on a snow day?  Here are a few things I did.

Knit.

(A sweater I've been working on)

Play video games.

(An image from Skyrim.  My Orc is a badass.)

And bake of course.  Here are some of the goodies I made today.

Sugar cookies for a coworker's birthday.

(Actually, I made these less than 24 hours before work was cancelled, still counts, right?)

Nigella's chocolate banana bread as cup cakes.

And regular banana bread.

Some things I should have worked on:

1) Writing my music analysis paper
2) Wedding centerpieces
3) Practice piano and guitar
4) Clean the house
5) Shovel the driveway

Oh well, I have to work on my priorities.

I hope everyone had a safe and warm snow day!

Maple Ginger Cookies

This week, I decided to make another cookie from The Naturally Good Cook.  Another Maple based desert, but this time with a spicy twist.  At first glance of this recipe, I thought it would have a more prominent maple element, but I was mistaken.

First beat together 1 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of molasses and 1/3 cup grade B maple syrup

and 1/4 cup of vegetable/canola oil.

Once this is combined, beat in 1 egg.

In a separate bowl, mix up 2 1/2 cups flour with 1 tsp baking soda, 3 tsps cinnamon, 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper.

That's a lot of spice for a cookie.

Slowly beat in the flour mixture.

Next, chop up 1 1/2 cups candied ginger.  I got mine from the Asian supermarket near my house.

Mix in the chopped ginger.

Next I used my cookie scoop to make them into uniform balls and I rolled them in sugar.  I didn't have sanding sugar which is what the recipe called for, but I figured that despite that they'd still be good.  I also flattened the cookies slightly before putting them in the oven.

Bake for 13 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

These look like your basic ginger snaps, but with chunks of ginger in them.

How were they?

Not nearly as spicy as anticipated, but tasty nevertheless!

Yet another successful recipe from an awesome book!

Enjoy!