Tag Archive for: Christmas

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

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I have always wondered about figgy pudding- what is it?  I do very much like the line in the Christmas carol about it, demanding figgy pudding is just kind of funny to me.  So, of course, I googled it, and while I don’t think it will make it into the holiday repertoire of traditions, it does sound interesting.

Figgy Pudding

Ingredients:

16 ounces dried figs
1 3/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a a medium saucepan, heat milk and chopped figs over medium-low heat but do NOT bring to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally. The the milk will soften the figs.  In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.  In a large bowl, beat eggs one minute on high. Reduce speed to low and add butter, bread crumbs, orange peel, and warm fig mixture.  Slowly incorporate flour mixture. Beat until just blended.  Pour the mix into the greased bundt pan. Level top as much as possible. Cover the mold with a piece of aluminum foil greased on one side, greased side down.  Place the mold in a roasting pan and place on oven rack. fIll with hot tap water 2 inches up the side of the mold. Bake for 2 hours or until the pudding is firm and it is pulling away from the side of the bundt pan.  Remove the pudding from the water bath. Remove the foil and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmolding. Invert bundt pan onto a serving plate and remove mold. It should come away easily.   Serve with a hard sauce.

A Lesson in Chocolate

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This past Saturday, we were invited to a friend’s house for a chocolate-making lesson, which might be the best kind of lesson ever.   Chefs Mark Gray and David Vagasky have started Cacao’s Artisan Chocolate in Charleston (www.cacaoscharleston.com), and their chocolate is really, really amazing.  They sell their chocolates in Southern Season in both Charleston and Chapel Hill, as well as online.

We had the best time learning all about chocolate (you should never refrigerate it) and tasting many different flavors of truffles, chocolate caramels, chocolate strawberries, etc.  The sugar high was pretty epic. Walker was at the other end of the counter, right by the chefs, and much to his delight and my half-hearted dismay, he ate his weight in samples.  At one point, Chef Gray gave him a piece and said, “It will melt in your mouth.”  Walker ate the piece, and with delighted surprise, he exclaimed, “It melted in my mouth, it really melted in my mouth- right then!”

So, if you are looking for a super special and delicious gift, look no further than Cacao Chocolate- just divine.

Peppermint Kiss Cookies

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My sister-in-law is an excellent baker.  She makes the best chocolate chip cookies, brownies, etc, and she is incredibly generous with her baking.  I am not sure where she finds the time as she is also a lawyer.  We went to an oyster roast this past weekend with her and my brother, and she brought for the hosts a mason jar filled with peppermint brownies on the bottom and ginger snaps on top all tied with a pretty ribbon and hand made note card.  I brought nothing (except Michelob Ultra Light in my purse because I knew that they would only have dark fancy beer to drink- pretty classy of me).  Anyway- they were giving us a ride home before they were headed to another party where she had another mason jar filled with treats, and fortunately, they were both tired, so at the last minute decided not to go to the other party, and we got the mason jar!  So, one I should be better about hostess gifts and two, I looked up some ideas for baked gifts, and these peppermint kiss cookies (from www.raininghotcoupons.com) looked like they would be great.

Peppermint Kiss Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1 cup softened Butter
1 tsp Peppermint Extract
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
3 cup Flour
3 Candy Canes
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup chopped Candy Cane Hershey Kisses
Sugar (to roll cookies in)
36 unwrapped Candy Cane Hershey Kisses

Directions:

Place candy canes in food processor and pulse until they are completely crushed.
Make sure you have room in your refrigerator or freezer for your cookie sheet.
Combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg in large bowl.
Beat until fluffy at medium speed.
Combine flour, crushed candy canes, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture and beat until well blended (mixture will be kind of dry).
Stir in chopped kisses.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in granulated sugar.
Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes in 350 oven until firm up and set.
Remove from oven and immediately press a Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each cookie.
Place cookie sheet into the freezer or refrigerator to keep kisses from melting.

Turkey Cupcakes

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I can’t believe it is Thanksgiving week already!!  We are headed up to the mountains tomorrow, and thanks to Mother Nature, it looks like it will be absolutely freezing up there with hopefully some snow.  My sister and her family are driving down from New York, and Walker can’t wait to see his cousins.  He is especially excited because we bought my two nieces Rainbow Looms as an early Christmas present and as a good way to take up a lot of time in the house when it is too cold to go outside.  Walker, as a ten year old boy, does not want a Rainbow Loom for himself, but he is super excited to play with his cousin’s new loom.  If you have not heard of a Rainbow Loom- it is the new fad way to make bracelets out of little rubber bands.  I am amazed at the huge amount of add ons that you can buy for your Rainbow Loom- loom cases, extra bands, carry cases to carry you loom case- it goes on and on.  In addition to the Rainbow Looms, I was digging around to find fun kitchen projects for the kids, and these Turkey cupcakes looked perfect. (Picture from FamilyFun Magazine and recipe from www.spoonful.com)

Turkey Cupcakes:

First, make cupcakes according to the directions of your favorite box brand and frost with chocolate icing.

Ingredients for Decorations:

3 oval shortbread cookies
6 to 10 candy corn pieces
White icing
Black decorators’ gel
Red fruit leather (fruit roll ups work well)

Directions:

Frost the cupcake, then press in a cookie head and 2 cookie wings.  Press in a row or two of candy corn tail feathers.  To make an eye, add a small dot of white icing to the head, then add a dot of black decorators’ gel for a pupil.  For a beak, cut the white tip from a piece of candy corn and press it in place.  To make the wattle, cut a 1-inch square of fruit leather. Roll it into a tube and stick it in place over the beak.

MMMM Eggnog

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So winter finally decided to visit Charleston, and it is now freezing!  I am sure the cold won’t last but while it does, what is better than eggnog and a fire?  Pretty sure it is at the top of the list.  It is great for parties, it is great for Sunday afternoon, and last night, it was great for Wednesday night.  And while I really do love eggnog, I find it to be a little like candy corns, I think it is probably best that they only come out at Halloween.  Eggnog is a Christmas thing, and that makes it even better.  Here is a great recipe for eggnog for the adults, and another on for the kids.

Eggnog (adult version)

Ingredients:

6 large eggs
3/4 cups vanilla sugar
1 quarts half and half (or light cream)
1 cup brandy
2 cups bourbon or dark rum
freshly grated nutmeg

Directions:

In large bowl, beat eggs until pale yellow and slightly frothy. Add sugar and half and half, and stir until well blended. Add brandy or bourbon (or dark rum) and stir. Transfer to large pitcher and chill until cold, at least 3 hours. Divide between 6 punch cups, garnish each with sprinkle of nutmeg, and serve.

Eggnog (for kids)

Ingredients:

3 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

freshly grated nutmeg

Directions:

Whisk together the milk, cream, sugar, and eggs in a medium-sized nonreactive saucepan.

Cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Do not let it boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Serve immediately, topped with freshly grated nutmeg to taste. Or you may refrigerate it, serve it cold, or reheat it before serving. If it thickens with refrigeration, simply thin with a little extra milk.

Lemonade and Gingerbread Angels

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I am trying so hard to get into the Christmas spirit!!  But when it is over 80 degrees, and Walker and two of his buddies have a ragingly successful lemonade stand in the middle of December, it just does not feel like Christmas.  So to combat the feelings of summer, I made gingerbread angels over the weekend.  They are so pretty, and now the house smells like cinnamon and nutmeg and all sorts of Christmasy smells, and it is back in the frigid 70s today, so a little less like summer.  I got a very cute picture of my angels pre decorations and wanted to get one post decorations, but Walker and his friends ate them too quickly.  I love this recipe because it is so easy, but the one trick I think is to make sure you roll out the dough thinly enough because the gingerbread definitely rises in the oven.

Gingerbread Men (or Angels)

Cream:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses

Sift:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Add dry ingredients to the butter- sugar mixture alternately with about 1/4- 1/2 cup water, or enough to be able to roll out the dough.  Cut into shapes for a house or into gingerbread men and bake on double waxed paper.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Gingerbread House Party

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We went to my sister’s gingerbread house party in New York last weekend, and Walker was so disappointed that he couldn’t take his gingerbread house on the plane home, we decided to have a gingerbread house party as well.  Thanks to my mother’s genius when she was making houses for my sister’s party, she made five extra, because who doesn’t need extra gingerbread houses lying around?  There were so many great things about this party.  The first was that the only thing I had to do was buy the candy.  I can do that.  I can do that well.  The only problem there is making sure all of the candy actually gets home.  Here is the candy set up.

The second great thing about this party was the three families we had come over to help us decorate the houses.  Two of the families are very old friends of mine who I have know since I was born practically, and we all three went from 1st through 12th grade together, and that includes boarding school in Connecticut.  We had grown up decorating gingerbread houses together as children, and it was so much fun to watch our own children start this tradition for themselves.

The third thing I loved about this party was where my sweet old dog, Nemo, positioned himself.  Now, since I didn’t actually have to do anything for this party other than buy the candy, and since I am currently at my real job without my mother’s recipe book in front of me, I can’t post at this time the recipe for gingerbread houses, but I will do an update this afternoon when I get home.

I might be biased, but I think these four gingerbread houses are the best gingerbread houses ever to be built.  It is such a fun Christmas activity to do with children, and so much fun to eat after!

Update: Of course my wonderful mother sent me the recipe as soon as she read this!!

Gingerbread House/Men

 Cream:
¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup dark molasses

 Sift:
3 ½ cups unbleached flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda

Add dry ingredients to the butter- sugar mixture alternately withabout ¼ – ½ cup water, or enough to be able to roll out the dough. Cut into shapes for a house or into Gingerbread men and bake on doubled, or even tripled layers of waxed paper. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

Icing Cement

Mix 3 egg whites at room temperature until they are very peaked and dry. Slowly add one box of powdered sugar.

Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake

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I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  I am still so full, but it was all worth it.  I remade a lot of recipes that I have put on this blog this past week for family members that I have not seen in a while.  We started off on Wednesday night, having my parents, all of my siblings and nieces over for dinner.  Corby served up his now-famous BBQ with coleslaw and a potato and bacon hash that was out of this world.  I made a salad and used the Pimento Cheese pop-overs instead of croutons.  Since we were having BBQ, my brother and his wife brought Bourbon Banana Pudding- I don’t have the recipe yet, but apparently it is from Joy of Cooking, and it was so so so good.

The next day,  I made the Prosciutto Cheese Straws for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner snack- fantastic and a huge hit with my brother and father, and for Thanksgiving Day dessert, I made the Chocolate Bread Pudding that was the Le Creuset recipe contest winner, and it was just as good as I remembered it!  We also got an Apple Crisp from The Co-Op on Sullivan’s Island (www.thecoopsullivans.com).  The Co-Op is a great little grocery/deli that serves up great sandwiches and amazing homemade desserts- definitely check it out!

So despite the fact that it is 80 in Charleston today, I am now gearing up for Christmas- how is that possible!!!  We are headed to NYC this weekend for a visit, and I am so excited to get some cold weather to get into the Christmas spirit.  We are also going to my sister’s annual gingerbread house building party on Sunday, before we head home, which we have not been to in a long time and should be so fun!  To also help get into the Christmas mode, here is a recipe I love from Christmas with Southern Living from back in 2005- Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake- enjoy!

Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 6 large eggs
  • 3 cups sifted cake flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup eggnog
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons brandy (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Powdered sugar
  • 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon whipping cream

Preparation

  • Generously grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan; set aside.
  • Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears.
  • Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with 1 cup eggnog, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla and, if desired, brandy.
  • Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Stir cinnamon and the next 3 ingredients into the remaining batter. Spoon spice batter over plain batter. Swirl batters together, using a knife.
  • Bake at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.
  • Place cake on a cake plate; dust with powdered sugar.
  • Combine 1 cup powdered sugar and whipping cream, stirring until smooth. Drizzle glaze over the cake