Happy Holidays and Recipe # 52 - Pfeffernüsse

I did it! Fifty-two new recipes in 2010... well technically fifty-three. Woooooooooo gooooo me!

I'm pretty excited about this one. My husband's family is of German/Scandinavian decent and I wanted to make a holiday cookie this year that reflected that. Luckily for me, my favorite blogger posted many cookie recipes for December, one of which was Pfeffernüsse. It's a spice cookie that is like all the wonderful scents of the holidays made edible. I was also excited to use cardamom for the first time. This cookie is easy to make and I liked that I could make the dough a day ahead to spread out my holiday baking.The recipe can be found here: Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker.

Recipe #51 - Sweetheart Chocolate Mousse

Hello! It's a lazy Sunday in our house. We took the pooch for a walk, then walked to the grocery. I decided I wanted a decadent dessert to finish off the weekend. My thought was that it would almost take away the sting of having to go back to work tomorrow. Just nine business days of work and then I have a wonderful ten calendar days off to finish the year! Woo! 

Recipe #50 - Rugelach

Recipe number fifty. Can you believe it? It's been such an eventful year AND I've baked 50 new recipes that I've never made before. Just two to go! Go me!

This recipe came from my favorite blog, Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker. I'm sure I've mention Mr. Bullock-Prado's blog before. If you're not following it, you should be. Her writing is fantastic and her instruction just as wonderful. On her blog, she is celebrating Cookiemas, which I must wholeheartedly endorse. It's better than any holiday ever. EVER!

So with that, I give you rugelach.The only deviation from the provided recipe I took was in the jelly/jam flavors. One of my favorite places in the world is Stonewall Kitchen. They are based out of Maine but have expanded all over New England and Maryland. I made the rugelach with their Cinnamon Apple Jelly and pistachios and then also with their Wild Maine Blueberry Jam (we gave little jars of this as part of our welcome gift for our out of town wedding guests).

Recipe # 49 - Brickle Bundt Cake

Hey! The computer is back! We picked it up on Thursday and man, did I miss it!

So, moving on, this morning I baked a Brickle Bundt cake for T's brother's birthday. Pretty simple recipe. It's something his brother had mentioned a couple of times. Their mom used to make and T's brother really liked it, so I thought I'd try it out to surprise him!