Testing Christmas Cookie Recipes

Christmas may be two months away but it's time for me to finalize recipes for my Christmas Cookie class. I want to do two classes this year: one featuring classic Christmas cookie recipes like sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies and spritz cookies; the other featuring a cookie assortment suitable for giving which will include different flavors and techniques. Here's some photos of what I'm working on.

Madelines. This is a delicate French cookie that has the texture of a poundcake. I flavored this with vanilla bean paste. It uses a special pan that results in the finished cookie looking like a shell. I'm going to try a couple more version using lemon or orange zest and extract.

Ribbon Cookies. I like these because they look like bacon. You start off with one dough that is divided into three parts. Each part is then flavored and layered in a loaf pan. After chilling overnight, the dough is sliced very thin and baked. They are yummy!

P.S. My baking is a lot better than my photography!

Bacon Chocolate Bar

I am a firm believer in the "everything is better with bacon" and was excited to checkout Mo's Bacon Bar. It's a milk chocolate bar with applewood smoked bacon and alderwood smoked sea salt.

Since no one at home was brave enough to try it with me I decided to take it to the office ... the guys there will eat just about anything. Not the case.

We waited until mid afternoon to break into the bar ... no one thought chocolate, bacon and morning coffee was a good combination. The first bite was weird ... there was the chocolate taste, then the saltiness and finally dried bits of bacon. The second bite was better but overall it wasn't the fantastic experience we expected.

I'm not giving up ... I think one of these days the state fair will come up with the perfect combination.

Baked Mac and Pimento Cheese

I'm a big fan of the blog of Cream Puffs in Venice. The writer, "Cream Puff", does an amazing job photographing the fruits of her labor and sometimes she also includes pictures of her progress with the recipe.

Here's a photo of my own ... I made it about a month ago ... I was practicing the baked mac and pimento cheese for the Childhood Favorites For Your Adult Palette cooking class later this month.

Whaddaya think? It was as yummy as it looked (even if I do say so myself).