Note: This toffee recipe recreation was originally published on Eat Boutique. If there’s one thing I’ve gleaned from paging through Liz Gutman and Jen King’s high calorie cookbook it’s that candy making is supposed to be fun. Bright colors, smiley faces and quirky images abound in The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook. My favorite image, a little turtle that declares, “nom!” appropriately graces the header of the edible turtles section. It would seem that he wholeheartedly approves of the pecan feet of his inanimate brethren and namesakes. What’s not to love?

While sass and science are both given equal playing time, the candy cookbook is not entirely fun and games, it’s a real candy education. What I really enjoyed about this book is that it’s actually set-up to resemble the visually appealing textbooks of our childhood. That means it includes an extremely thorough introduction that covers everything from tools to dipping and even troubleshooting the oh-so intimidating act of tempering temperamental chocolate. Also, I’m pretty sure I want to frame the sugar stages images that grace page 52. I’ve never seen soft ball, firm ball, and hard ball actually represented in such an approachable manner before.

Each individual recipe carefully crafted from the imagination of this Brooklyn-based duo alerts you immediately to any special equipment you will need to gather via a pretty pink callout box. More complicated actions such as assembling cherry cordials and making molded truffles are visually explained in step-by-step images. Any nerves you may harbor about trying a new recipe are quickly put to rest thanks to Liz and Jen’s upbeat attitude and instructions.

I ended up tackling the Tropical Toffee that boasts a sizable dose of rum, crunchy macadamia nuts, sweet chocolate and a pretty dusting of coconut flakes. This addictive candy is a unique twist on traditional nut brittles, and the coconut gives it a decidedly holiday appropriate appeal. Get it? It’s snowing on my candy! Since the holiday season is kicking off in a big way this week I think that If I were going to pair this treat with a festive tune it would have to be Bing Crosby’s version of Mele Kalikimaka. So I’d suggest queuing up your favorite playlist and offering a pretty wrapped box of this toffee to your favorite holiday hostess with the mostess.

Tropical Toffee
Originally published in The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the baking sheet
4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup light rum
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups roasted, salted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped or crushed
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes

Generously butter the baking sheet and set it aside on a heatproof surface.

Combine the sugar, 1 pound butter, corn syrup, rum, vanilla, and sea salt in a medium-size (4-quart) saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Insert the candy thermometer.

Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring constantly with the spatula, until the mixture reaches 300ºF/150º (hard crack stage), about 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, and add the baking soda and macadamia nuts, stirring vigorously (but carefully) to incorporate.

Pour the mixture out onto the prepared baking sheet, and spread it evenly with the heatproof spatula. When the toffee is firm but still warm sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and spread them into a thin layer. Then dust the chocolate with toasted unsweetened coconut flakes. (Erin’s Note: I ran my coconut through the food processor for 30 seconds or so to create a finer flake). Allow the toffee to cool completely, about 2 hours, then break it into bite-size pieces.

Store the toffee, layered with parchment or wax paper, in an airtight container at room temperate for up to 1 week. It will last for 2 to 3 weeks when stored in the refrigerator; just allow it to come to room temperature before serving (the flavor isn’t as nice when it’s cold).

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Tropical Toffee

These are actually my new go-to Christmas cookies. I’ve lost count of how many batches I’ve made. Last year I got obsessed baking everything under the sun with pistachios including this insanely good Pistachio Brittle. Then I found a recipe for pretty green Pistachio Cookies. Super cute, right? Also, insanely delicious. However, the recipe I found urged you to use a sugar cookie mix to make the cookies and that’s really not my style. Especially when there are all of seven ingredients in a traditional sugar cookie and they take maybe 5 minutes to whip up.

So I simply substituted a cookie mix for my favorite chewy sugar cookie recipe.  A package of pistachio pudding gives this dough a nice light green tint, but if you want to really amp up the festive hue then I suggest adding in a few additional drops of green food coloring. The contrast between the minty colored cookie and the bright gem tones of the cranberries is really lovely. Plus they taste ridiculously good. Santa will definitely not be gifting you with any naughty coal in your stocking if you leave a plate of these nifty treats out for him and his eight tiny reindeer.

Pistachio-Cranberry Christmas Cookies
Makes 30 cookies
Loosely based on the Cran-Pistachio cookie recipe

1 cup butter, unsalted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3.4 oz package Pistachio Pudding mix
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour (Note: the dough will be VERY stiff kind of like play-doh)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chocolate chips
Optional: Substitute out 1/2 cup of chocolate chips for 1/2 cup of chopped pistachio nuts.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, dry pudding mix, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and combine. Pour in the cranberries and chocolate chips and process until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter. The dough will be VERY stiff.

Using a 1 1/2 ounce (3 tablespoon) sized cookie scoop shape the cookies and place them on a greased cookies sheet (or preferably use a silpat). Using the flattened bottom of a measuring cup or drinking glass gently press the cookies to flatten them slightly. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned. Allow the cookies to settle on the baking sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Pistachio-Cranberry Christmas Cookies

Well I did it. Just barely and there actually were a few cat pictures used as filler but I still officially posted to my blog every single day during the month of November. Mission NaBloPoMo accomplished! Would I ever do this again? No. Never! But I’m glad that I did and I think going forward I will appreciate the few entries that I do manage to compose each month just a little bit more. If you missed out on my frantic ramblings over the past few weeks I think the highlights would have to be:

• My Cocktail Party Playlist
• The Recipes I Really Make
• Leftover Veggie Tray Soup
• French Macaron Class at Create-a-Cook
• Pumpkin Old Fashioned

PS: Thank you to Nicole from Pinch My Salt, Alejandra from Always Order Dessert, Rebecca of Grongar Blog, Karen at Mignardise, Pam from Cave Cibum, and Adrienne of Hungry Bruno for the support. I would have quit during the first few days without you all. — xoxo

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Quest Complete: NaBloPoMo 2012

Have you heard about Simple? Simple is a really cool new bank replacement. CK and I officially switched all of our really horrible old banking accounts over to Simple completely in August (after being on the waiting list for a Beta invite since June of 2010) and haven’t regretted it for a moment. We both absolutely love it. What’s so different about Simple you may be wondering?

Well for one, they’re entirely focused on customer service. Ever tried to get someone at your bank to help you? Did you feel good afterwards? I’m guessing probably not. I’ve had several of the most pleasant customer experiences of my life with these folks, both over the telephone as well as online, with representatives that were both witty and knowledgable. If I ever have a question about anything on my account I can simply start a conversation on their web interface and someone gets back to me usually within an hour. For real.

What’s really cool about Simple though is their spending tracking and analytics. You can easily tag, search, and filter your purchases in a number of user friendly ways. Plus Simple actually learns your tags so you don’t have to keep tagging items each time you stumble into Whole Foods. Perhaps the scariest tag for me to review from time to time is the coffee tag. Yikes! You can check out my monthly coffee expenses in the graph below. Now the truth really comes out. But it’s OK. We should know these things! Not just think about them fearfully in the abstract.

But my favorite feature of all are the goals. You see, in Simple you only have one account instead of a separate savings and checking. In order to put money aside you create what are known as goals. Goals allow you to assign your money to different “buckets.” These funds then are removed from your “Safe to Spend” balance. This means that with a quick glance you always know exactly how much money you have left in your account and how much is already earmarked for other things such as rent or savings for Christmas presents. This feature finally allows you to truly organize and actually follow that dusty budget you have saved in an Excel spreadsheet somewhere deep and dark on your harddrive.

There are also goals that can be created with a specific deadline. When you create one of these types of goals Simple automatically calculates how much money needs to be withdrawn from your Safe to Spend bucket daily and places it into your long term savings goal. One of the items I have scheduled is allocated to the future iPhone that I assume will be released next September. So every day Simple adds a little more to that fund and whenever that magical Apple event does take place I’ll already have my money saved and ready to blow.

CK and I also both have a bit of a silly goal that we’re splitting the difference on. A few weeks ago we saw this $80 bottle of  Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon at the liquor store and given our affinity for Manhattans we thought this would be a killer ingredient to try. Instead of impulse shopping the bottle on the spot though we decided to both create a goal in our respective accounts splitting the difference and will have just the right amount a few days before Christmas. Santa is going to be a very happy camper on Christmas Eve!

Simple is still invite only but I have five invitations if anyone would like one. First come, first serve. You can leave me a comment below, email me, or send a message on twitter. Whatever works for you. Sorry folks that’s all the invites I have but you can join their waiting list by going to simple.com.

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Saving for Fancy Christmas Bourbon with Bank Simple

Tonight’s post is inspired by my friend Kathy Drake. Kathy and I grew up together and originally bonded over the fact that we both wore the same lavender jacket to our kindergarten class. When we were in high school we also worked together at Dunkin Donuts and slung bagels and coffee like pros. Anyway, tonight she posted a picture of a Leg Lamp cookie cutter she received as a gift and I instantly wanted one. Then I started wondering what other wacky cookie cutters might be currently kicking around on the web. In a few weeks we’ll all be thoroughly sick of stars, snowmen, and Christmas trees and hopefully you’ll remember this post and get inspired all over again.

The Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story – you won’t shoot your eye out with this, kid but you could make some seriously nostalgic baked goods.

How cute is that polar bear?! A little basic white icing, maybe some coconut and you’ve got a great excuse to eat your way through the next snow day.

Sorry, had to give a shootout to my home state. Depending on the season that cookie could be spread with white, black, green, or even brown icing. I suppose only people from Maine will probably understand that I’m referencing “mud season” and “black fly” season via the colors brown and black.

That key is just cool. I’d make them pink. Naturally.

Skeleton Gingerbread Man will put a smile on all your hipster friends overly bearded faces.

Simon the Cat is just fantastic. He reminds me of Dexter. Here’s a link to my favorite Simon episode.

President Lincoln! Or edible Daniel Day-Lewis — whatever you prefer.

Everyone is obsessed with mustaches. I really don’t get the appeal but I’m sharing these with you anyway.

Here be dragons! How amazing is this cutter? Bake a batch of these and sneak some Smaug cookies into a late night showing of The Hobbit next month. You’re welcome!

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

9 Quirky Cookie Cutters

Every so often my friend Maggie will let me create something for her beautiful website, Eat Boutique, and it always completely freaks me out. Have you ever visited?  Every lovely individual who posts over there is incredibly amazing at styling and taking food photos and I’m so not even remotely in their same league, but I try really hard when I’m scheduled to bake and create. Most recently I was asked to take a look at The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook. It’s seriously adorable and would make a great holiday gift. You can check out my thoughts on it as well as enter to win a copy of your own right over here.

I ended up making Tropical Toffee from the cookbook for Eat Boutique and it is crazy addictive and a total home run, but the first recipe I made…well…I kind of screwed it up. Which makes me laugh because it’s probably the easiest recipe in the book. As soon as I happened upon the Peanut Butter Pinwheels page I knew that was what I wanted to make. I’m a huge caramel creams fan and I thought these looked similar only sort of inside out and stuffed with peanut butter. Yum!

So I dutifully baked a potato. Yes, this candy, much like needhams, contains a big mashed up starchy potato. Then I slowly added confectioners’ sugar and more confectioners’ sugar and more, and more, and more. Then I was getting really close to running out of sugar which I needed to roll out the candy.

Unfortunately, the day I was home making the pinwheels CK had the car and I couldn’t get to the store. So I made a decision to stop mixing and just chill the dough even though I knew it wasn’t quite stuff enough. Then I rolled out the candy a little too thick and finally I ended up with these crazy looking homemade oblongs that tasted like Candy Land exploded in your mouth but looked like they were made by a six-year-old. So if you do make this recipe, and you should (please don’t let my images dissuade you) make sure you have enough confectioners’ sugar on hand and maybe another person to help you mix the dough because your hand is going to truly feel like it will fall off.

PS: Want to really know how sad I am at styling photos? While the candy dish is quite pretty (thank you for the new pink Depression Glass piece, Gram!) The background fabric in this picture is my pillowcase. A ha ha ha … yeah you’re never going to read here again, are you?

Make me feel better. What weird props have you used in photographs on your blog?

Peanut Butter Pinwheels
Originally published in the Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook

1 medium-size (4 to 5 ounces/100 to 150 g) potato, baked, cooled, and skinned (Yukon or russet varieties work best; don’t use any “waxy” potatoes, like the small red ones—it won’t turn out right!)
2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 to 6 cups (525 to 775 g) confectioners’ sugar, plus about 1 cup for dusting
1 teaspoon (5 g) pure vanilla extract
Cold milk, for thinning the dough if needed
1 cup (75 g) unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)
1 cup (180 g) creamy commercial peanut butter, such as Skippy
1 teaspoon (4g) fine sea salt

In a medium-size bowl, gently mash the baked potato with a fork, just enough so that there aren’t any big lumps. Add the butter, 4 cups of the confectioners’ sugar, and the vanilla, and mix well with a rubber spatula until smooth. The dough should be very stiff and sticky, almost like Play-Doh. If it’s too thick, add a little cold milk; if it’s too thin, keep adding confectioners’ sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, until it reaches the correct consistency. Add the coconut, if you’re using it, and mix to combine.

Divide the potato dough in half and form it into 2 balls. Wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap, and allow them to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Remove the balls of dough from the refrigerator. Generously and evenly sprinkle confectioners’ sugar over the surface of the prepared cutting board.

Roll out one ball of the dough into a rough 12-inch circle that’s about 1/2-inch thick. Use the spatula to spread half of the peanut butter evenly over the surface. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of the sea salt evenly over the peanut butter, and starting at the edge closest to you, carefully roll up the dough into a log shape. Wrap the log in a piece of plastic wrap, or parchment or wax paper secured by twisting the ends together (this will help the log hold its shape). Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, assemble the second log.

Once the first log is firm enough to cut, use a sharp chef’s knife to slice it into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Wrap each piece in wax twisting paper. Repeat with the second log. Store the pinwheels, layered between parchment or wax paper, in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Peanut Butter Pinwheels

Is everyone still pinning obsessed? I know I’m not quite as addicted to Pinterest as I used to be but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t check in almost daily. That’s especially true as major holidays and events begin to loom on the horizon.

A good example of this new habit occurred recently was when I found myself obsessively pinning appetizer and cocktail ideas for CK’s birthday party last month. Of course now everything is all red and green, gold and silver, and ho ho ho covered for Christmas so that’s where I’ll be spending most of my time. I figure I’ll probably only ever make 2 or 3 things that get posted to my boards but, like gift giving in general, I suppose it’s the thought that counts.

Are you pinning for the holidays? Do we follow one another? If not, let’s connect. You can find my boards here or leave me a link to your creative finds in the comments.

Right now I really have my eye on these Red Velvet Crinkles and maybe a cute cork reindeer ornament.

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Let the Christmas Pinning Obsession Begin!

We successfully ate our way through Thanksgiving weekend although the way I feel tonight does not bode well for the dictionary definition of “successful” — to be more accurate I suppose you would probably need to say that we are stuffed to the gills and ready to be sold at auction to a portly couple sporting aprons and other Dickensian garb.

Also, although I have a strict one, possibly two, new ornaments a year rule somehow I ended up purchasing two additional items to hang on the tree. A pink popsicle which I suppose is warranted considering that I did publish a boozy popsicle book this year, but I think you would be hard pressed to figure out how to justify a frothy pink cupcake and how it relates to 2012. Those marshmallows in varying levels of toasted deliciousness are ridiculously cute though. I don’t regret them at all.

This afternoon CK and I took a ride across “the bridge” into Boston to show visiting family around a little bit. If you aren’t from here then you probably don’t know this but people who live in Boston and people who live on the other side of the Charles River (for example in Cambridge) don’t really find it necessary to visit the “other side” if you don’t absolutely need to. That means I can’t remember the last time I saw things like the GIGANTIC Christmas trees in Faneuil Hall. It’s pretty silly that we rarely check out so many of these cute events or sites just because we live in the area. I should make more of an effort. Christmas time in the city really is lovely.

Meanwhile, back at home, I’ve somehow managed to put up our much more modest Christmas tree before December 1st thanks to the lovely folks at Wilson Farm who make it impossible to not want to go home with one of their supremely fragrant trees.

And now I’m sitting here with a cuddly cat in the dark enjoying the aforementioned tree thoroughly while watching The March Girls at Christmas and hoping that maybe, just this once, Jo March could marry Laurie. It doesn’t seem as though that will happen though as even in this modern day retelling, where Jo is a celebrity ghost tweeter, (I kid you not) there is a very nice Mr. Bhaer who is an editor that has his eyes on Jo and her novel. We’ll see though…

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

An Early Start to Christmas

For years my grandparents would have their nightly cocktail hour, with my grandfather making his customary “manhattan” cocktail. While the cocktails were tasty (not to mention always doubles and extremely strong), eventually I learned that his recipe, containing such ingredients as Seagram’s VO and a splash of Southern Comfort, wasn’t in the vein of your “traditional” Manhattan. Once Erin and I made this discovery, we began a quest for the best Manhattan Recipe.

Many recipes online went back and forth with various differing ingredients – Rye Whiskey vs Bourbon, Cherry vs Lemon garnish. We tried many variations, but ultimately focused on a Bourbon base with a Cherry twist.

We began experimenting with different Bourbons and Vermouths (always sweet, per the “classic” recipe). We had narrowed our recipe to a basic combination of Maker’s Mark (considered by many recipes to be “the” Bourbon to use) and a Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth. We were pretty happy with the combination, but not necessarily loving the overall flavor. This all changed one night in San Francisco.

During our time in San Francisco, COCO500, a small neighborhood restaurant became one of our most visited haunts. The Fried Green Beans, Polenta, and Panna Cotta were some of my favorite items to order, and Erin and I often spent our meals at the bar chatting with the fantastic bar manager Elaine. One night we finally asked Elaine for a sweet Manhattan, and wouldn’t you know it that drink was the best one we’d ever had. After some prodding, we were finally able to get the names of all the great “secret ingredients,” and we’ve been using them ever since.

Recently we’ve tweaked a few things again – trading out the Angostura Bitters for Peychaud’s Aromatic Cocktail Bitters, and moving up the Four Roses ladder to the more flavorful Small Batch variety and we now have a Manhattan that we love to drink when the weekend rolls around.

The Sweet Manhattan

2 oz Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon
1/2 oz Dolin Sweet Vermouth
4 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
1/2 Tbsp Luxardo Cherry Syrup
2 Luxardo Cherries, to garnish

Stir Bourbon, Vermouth, Bitters, and Cherry Syrup with ice, and strain into a Double Old Fashioned glass with Large Ice Cube (made with a Tovolo King Cube Tray). Garnish with Cherries.

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

CK Makes: The Sweet Manhattan

Congratulations to Carolyn! Carolyn was “lucky number 13″ in the Robinhood Meetinghouse Biscuit giveaway. Her winning comment referenced a famous Maine vacation spot:

Meanwhile, thank you to everyone for participating and be sure to stay tuned! There are always more giveaways in the works. In addition, if you haven’t already done so, please consider becoming a fan of Erin Cooks on Facebook and you can always follow my random ramblings on Twitter via @GirlieErin.

Originally posted on Erin Cooks

Robinhood Meetinghouse Biscuits Winner