Candy Cane Biscotti

A favorite in our house is biscotti. Probably because we love coffee and its sooooo tastey dipped in coffee. This is a very simple treat, it would make a great little side to coffee after dinner for your next small get toghether. Or my friend is packing it up and taking it on the road with her as she leaves tomorrow to head to her Thanksgiving destination. With Thanksgiving so late this year I am feeling very behind and December is a mighty busy month for us this year. I guess I best get moving on things!!

Candy Cane Biscotti

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
3 1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Chocolate for melting
Crushed candy canes


Preheat your oven to 375°F and grease or line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In your stand mixer, mix together the oil, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. In a separate bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Slowly add the flour to your egg mixture until a heavy dough is formed.

Half your dough and form a roll almost the length of your cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/2 inch thick. I found this easiest if my hands were just slightly damp and I flattened with the palm of my hand.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Once its cool to the touch slice into 1/2 pieces and place back on the cookie sheets cut side up. Back again for 6-10 minutes then flip and bake again.

Once cooled dip 1/2 of each biscotti into the chocolate and top with the crushed candy cane.

Gingersnap cookie sandwich with cream cheese frosting center

Ok so the title is a little long but these cookies are amazing!! And I know for a fact because, I talked to him myself, that Santa wants a lot of these during his Christmas expedition. Speaking of Christmas its my babies first!! I am so filled with excitement and sadness since her birthday is just 5 days later and she won't be a baby but a toddler (insert sad face here), I am all ready to start the family traditions and since this is her first I guess this year we are figuring out what those are gonna be and I am thinking these cookies made the list for sure!!


Gingersnap cookies (you need an even number of cookies)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening
1/4 molasses
1 egg
sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl mix together the  flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and set aside. In your stand mixer beat the sugar and shortening on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and molasses then slowly add the flour mixture.

Once well mixed make 1 inch balls with the dough and roll in the extra sugar. Place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 12 minutes. Let cool briefly on the cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack.


Cream Cheese filling
2 8oz packages of room temperature cream cheese
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla


Beat cream cheese until soft and add the sugar and vanilla. Beat until you are happy with the smoothness.

Place some filling on the bottom of a cookie and top with another! These are great just like this but to add some fun to them I dipped them in white chocolate and decorated them.

TIP**
Make these cookie early! Say if you need them at night make them that morning. The cookie its self with get all chewy from the cream cheese filling!

Make sure you store these cookies in the refrigerator.

Strawberry cream puffs

So I last posted a fabulous German Chocolate cake that I made for dessert night. My husband made cream puffs! These airy little things are filled with my absolute favorite thing....home made strawberry whipped cream! I seriously could just sit with the whole bowl and eat it all by its self!

What you need (puffs from Chow.com)

Puffs
8 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs at room temperature.


What to do
Heat oven to 425° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Heat butter, milk, 1/2 cup water, sugar, and salt in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat until the butter has melted and there is a slight boil. Reduce to low and add all of the flour, stir well until fully incorporated. Cook and stir constantly until the dough forms a smooth single ball. about 5 minutes.

Transfer to your mixing bowl and let cool for 5 minutes. Beat each egg one at a time, making sure its well mixed with each egg. Do this process until the mixture is smooth and sticky, about 4 minutes.

Transfer dough to a large zip lock bag or a pipping bag. Pipe 12 small round mounds on your baking sheet about 2 inches wide spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Dip your finger in some water and smooth the top of each mound. Place the baking sheet in the oven and reduce the heat to 350° and bake for 45-50 minutes. Do not open the door at all until at least the 45 minutes has passed. Cool on a wire rack and poke a small hole with a tooth pick in each one to let the steam out.

Cream
1 pint heavy whipping cream
Strawberry preserves (amount done by your taste)
1 teaspoon sugar

Whip cream in your stand mixer on high speed until soft peaks. Lower your speed and add your preserves until you are happy with flavor and texture.

Cut tops off of puffs and pipe in cream top with other puff half and dust with powdered sugar.

German Chocolate Cake

So this is my first ever layered cake!! And I must say I am very proud of myself. I first looked at the recipe and was like "Omg this is going to be hard". To my surprise it wasn't! I made it for a dessert night that I had with some friends we all brought a yummy dessert and pigged out in our pjs you must do it sometime!!


I think even just the cake part with out the German filling is a great chocolate cake base so light and fluffy!

German Chocolate Cake (Found at Country Living)


Cake
1/2 cups boiling water
4oz German's chocolate by Bakers chopped
2 cups flour
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup softened unsalted butter
4 eggs separated
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Filling
1 cup sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Favorite Chocolate frosting ( I cheated and used a store bought one)


Directions
Preheat oven to 350° and grease and flour 3 cake pans and set aside. In heat proof bowl pour boiling water over chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. In a medium bowl combined the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In your stand mixer beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy about 2 minutes. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time until well incorporated. Put speed on low and mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla.  Add flour mixture by thirds  alternating with the buttermilk ending with the flour, Set to the side. In another bowl beat egg whites until soft peaks, fold 1/2 cup of egg whites gently into the chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining egg whites

Divide batter evenly between cake pans and bake for 30-35 min. Let cool in pan for 15 min then remove and cool on wire wrack until completely cool.

While cooling in the pans mix your sugar, evaporated milk, butter, egg yolks and vanilla in a medium sauce pan and cook over medium heat constantly stirring for about 10 minutes until thickened. Stir in your coconut and pecans and transfer to a bowl. Stirring occasionally let cool to room temperature and then assemble your cake.

One layer of cake topped with 1/3 filling, cake, 1/3 filling / cake. Lightly cover whole cake in a layer of frosting and top with left over filling.