Daring Bakers: Gingerbread House - Happy Holidays!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I have long wanted to try to make a homemade Gingerbread House and my six year old and I had already determined that THIS was the year we were going to do it. We've been planning and plotting since, well, pretty much since Halloween and hadn't gotten around to doing too much about it. When this month's Daring Bakers' challenge was announced I was so happy and relieved - especially since it has been a while since I've been able to get my act together enough to participate.

We stayed pretty traditional in our house shape (though we did want to try this Manor House version) mainly because I wanted to make two small houses - one I could attempt to decorate, and one I could just let my boys have their fun with - not that my decorating job was much better - LOL!

I hope everyone's holiday season has been all they hoped it could be and then some. We are hanging in there on the homefront here - just trying to wait out this third trimester and get as close to our March 1 due date as possible. Honestly, for the most part, it has been pretty good so far... which half the time makes me feel like I'm waiting for the axe to fall. The other half of the time, I just try to stay positive and think good thoughts!

Thank you again and again and again for coming back here and checking up on us - I truly do appreciate it so much! I hope that as the holidays wind down I'll have the chance to start finding some time to relax and catch up on visiting and catching up on my blogging friends lives. In the meantime, please know I am thinking of you and hoping for the very best for you all!

TWD: Pecan Chocolate Mini Pies

Tuesdays with Dorie this week is brought to us by Beth at Someone's in the Kitchen with Brina. She chose Dorie's "My Favorite Pecan Pie" recipe - for which I am grateful since it was one of the recipes I had earmarked for my choice (back when I thought I would be choosing close to the Thanksgiving holiday instead of last Easter).

I love pecan pie, but often, as Dorie describes herself in the notes before the recipe, pecan pie can often be so cloyingly sweet that a few bites is more than I can handle. I actually made this recipe two times over the holidays - once at Thanksgiving at my parents' home where I made the 'plain' version with really no changes - I just left out the espresso powder, chocolate and cinnamon per Dorie's alternate instructions. If you are looking for a really great, simple and not too sweet straight-up pecan pie then this one is a real winner. I did take some really terrible pictures with my Dad's camera - just bad lighting and unfamiliar equipment, etc etc - but it didn't matter since I never had a chance to get the pictures off the camera.

Since I had really wanted to try Dorie's version (or at least closer to it) with the chocolate though, I decided to just rectify the situation by making the pie again. We are staying home alone this week for the holidays though - just the hubs, me and the two little hooligans I call my sons. Therefore, there was no need to make an entire pie. I made one-third of the recipe, with a few little tweaks here and there (I left in a little more chocolate, vanilla and pecans - just because) and made 4 really adorable 4.5-inch mini pies in little aluminum pie tins I picked up at a local restaurant supply store. I like making the individual portions and serving everyone their own little cute pie sometimes, so these come in handy.

The only other change I had to make to the recipe as far as that goes was in the actual baking times, which was understandably cut in to a much smaller time amount. Once I get all my changes written down and figured out, I promise to share them soon!

Though I have now made Dorie's pie crust recipe several times, it just doesn't quite replace my favorite (1/2 shortening 1/2 butter style recipe) so I went with that this time as well. Mainly, the reason I use that recipe is because it gives me the ability to 'style' the dough a bit more than I ever seem capable of with Dorie's dough - probably just me though.

We really enjoyed our mini pies and I really loved them with the chocolate and cinnamon added in. Really it just depends on your mood I think because this recipe is a real winner either way.

These also made a nice little dessert that I'm saving for dessert tonight -

since today (December 22nd) marks my 11th wedding anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to my husband, Dusty - never a dull moment!

TWD: Cocoa Volcano Cookies

Tuesdays with Dorie this week is hosted by MacDuff at Lonely Sidecar who chose the Cafe Volcano Cookies. As you can tell by the title, I made a substitute right off the bat with the recipe and used cocoa powder (2 Tablespoons Dutch processed) in place of the espresso in the cookies.

Dorie's description, which I haven't got in front of me while I type this, is something to the effect of shiny, puffed, craggy, crunchy cookies. I definitely hit on all those textures here so I would have to say I consider these a success. I do think that my cookies were slightly over baked though at the 20 minute mark, but that is an issue with my oven and not the recipe. Next time I will probably just take the cookies out of the oven sooner and hope they end up with a little more chew than super crunch.

I do have to say however that my boys loved these cookies (I did too, but my boys were really into these). I liked that they were easy to toss together and didn't take a lot of time or ingredients. I also liked the mixture of nuts and actually added in a few pecans as well because I didn't have enough walnuts.

The only other change to this recipe I made was just to give myself a little bit of insurance with the egg whites. I whisked them slightly in the pan before adding anything else, adding about 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar to help stabilize them. I did this for two reasons - my egg whites were several days old and had been hanging out in the refrigerator and it has also been snowing here quite a bit, which usually means that anything I try with egg whites is doomed to failure. Since the texture of my cookies turned out perfectly (other than the over baking) I don't regret taking out that bit of insurance.

I've got a feeling from the P&Q on the Tuesdays with Dorie blog that there will be many fun versions of these cookies around today, so be sure to check the blogroll and see what the other bakers have come up with.

Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies

To say it is absolutely the worst kept secret ever that I am a fan of chocolate would be the most obvious statement I could make. It should come as no surprise whatsoever then that ever since Jenny at Picky Palate shared a recipe for Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies back at the beginning of November I haven't been able to get them out of my mind. My only problem has been actually remembering to grab some candy bars at the store. For some reason, I could never remember until I was already back in the truck and on the way home. As you can imagine, since I'm into the homestretch of this pregnancy, and always have to overly energetic, wild little boys with me, the idea of taking them back to the store just for candy bars - no matter how bad I wanted to try making those cookies!

When I was at the store earlier this week and in the checkout line I happened to glance over and notice the candy bars and finally grabbed them! I didn't have the recipe in front of me and couldn't remember how many I was supposed to get, so I grabbed four of them (they were 2/$1 anyway, so not too bad).

I got home and looked over the recipe more thoroughly, and since I know I can never leave well enough alone, I just had to fiddle with the recipe a bit. I'm sure that Jenny's version is perfectly fantastic, but for my purposes I knew I had something slightly different in mind. If you look at Jenny's cookies they look thicker and slightly fluffier. When I thought of these cookies all I could think about was having lots of spots of melty, chewy candy bar in the cookie, in addition to just a few melty spots of chocolate. Overall I wanted a chewier cookie and thought that incorporating as much candy bar into the cookie as possible would get the result I wanted, while still giving me a huge hit of chocolate flavor in the cookie.

So, while Jenny's cookies look to be a lighter textured version, have no doubt that I made my version a little thinner, chewier and chock full of melted and gooey candy in the cookie. I did taste the cookie dough when I had only added two of the candy bars and thought that the Butterfinger flavor wasn't as pronounced as I wanted it to be, so throwing caution to the wind I went ahead and added double the amount originally called for. To offset that a bit I cut the amount of chocolate chips I added to the dough in half from the original recipe. I also increased the amount of vanilla extract and salt (and used fine sea salt) added to the recipe to just boost those flavors a bit more. The only other change I made was to increase the amount of cocoa powder slightly and used a Dutch processed cocoa - mainly because that is what I prefer and have on hand.

So, whichever way you like them, my thanks go out to Jenny for a wonderful recipe that gave me a great time playing around with - without failing miserably on me because I fiddled so much! Please be sure to check out Jenny's original post for her version as well.

Chocolate Fudge Butterfinger Cookies

Adapted from Picky Palate

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar


3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed


2 large eggs


1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


1 3/4 cups flour


1 1/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch processed


2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

4 Full size Butterfinger Candy Bars

¾ cup good-quality chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats (like silpat). Set aside.

Remove the Butterfinger Candy Bars from their wrappers and place in a large plastic zip top bag. Using a rolling pin gently smash and crush the candy bars by tapping them in the bag until broken up into pieces of all sizes – you want some crushed and some bigger pieces to remain (largest pieces about the size of large chocolate chips). Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and sea salt until well combined. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, preferably with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating for 1 minute until well incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the flour-cocoa mixture a little at a time to the butter mixture on the lowest speed until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Still on the lowest speed add in the Butterfinger pieces and the chocolate chips and stir together until well incorporated.

Scoop cookies onto prepared baking sheets into about 1-inch sized balls (a small cookie scoop is perfect for this – they will be about the size of a generously rounded teaspoon).

Place the baking sheets, one at a time, in the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes until just set, but still soft in the center. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Makes 60 cookies

TWD: Sables - Two Ways - Nibby Almond or Orange

Almond Sables with Hand Roasted Cocoa Nibs

Tuesdays with Dorie this week is hosted by Bungalow Barbara who chose the Sables. These are a classic French cookie and the name comes from the French word for "sand" which refers to their texture - which is a crumble in the mouth kind of texture.

While generally this type of cookie isn't my favorite, I've been waiting and waiting for someone to choose these cookies. I could have made them in the mean time, but just never seemed to get around to it. Though I say they aren't necessarily my favorite type to eat (I'm more of a classic chocolate chip gal - unless we are talking World Peace Cookies that is!)

Orange Sables with Demerara Sugar

I decided to use some of the Playing Around options provided by Dorie and do two versions. For the first version I varied just a bit from the Lemon Sables variation and subbed the lemon zest with about 1 Tablespoon of orange zest. For the sugar coating on the outside of the cookies I used some good Demerara Sugar I had on hand, which is why the coating is so dark. I just love the extra crunch and flavor that raw sugars have!

For my second variation though I decided to play around on my own. I have some really incredible cocoa nibs that I've been wanting to use that I bought (and have been hoarding) at a local Italian grocer's here in Salt Lake called Caputo's. The cocoa nibs come from another local Utah company that I love, Amano Artisan Chocolates. For these cookies I used the Ocumare Hand Roasted Cocoa Nibs which are just ridiculously good. I also subbed out a portion of the flour in the cookies with Almond Flour I got from the wonderful folks over at Oh Nuts! (who have great deals on their nuts by the way - thankfully because I am just about out of the Almond Flour now!). To boost the almond flavor just a bit more I added some good pure almond extract to the dough as well. For a bit of a more festive look I coated the dough in some vibrant red sparkly sanding sugar I had on hand.

I really loved how these turned out. The almond flavor was detectable, but still subtle and didn't overpower the cocoa nibs. Likewise, the little spattering of cocoa nibs (which you could add more if you wanted, but I just wanted a few in there) didn't over power the almond either. It was sweet, sweet harmony.

Believe it or not, while my boys are always happy to have baked goods on hand, my husband often refrains - mainly because he wants to watch his weight I guess (he doesn't really need too, but I guess he thinks he does). Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I called all my boys into the kitchen for some cookies after we decorated our Christmas tree and lo and behold - he ate one, then another, then put another whole one in his mouth, then later came back for a couple more. He liked both versions quite a bit on their own merits, but it is always a real joy to me when there is something that really tempts him.

We will definitely be adding these cookies into our regular rotation and have lots more fun coming up with other variations. I also see these cookies in the near future for our holiday gift boxes to friends and family.

Be sure to check out the TWD blogroll for many more variations I'm sure!

Also, for some more really great cookie ideas you can visit my recent post about the group of local food bloggers I got together with for brunch this past weekend. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and lots of really great treats!

Please check back a little later this week for my next giveaway to celebrate the holiday season! You won't want to miss this one!

Holiday Cookie & Treat Swap plus Brunch!

Brioche French Toast at Wild Grape Bistro

This past Saturday a small group of local food bloggers, most of us who had already met a few times before, got together for brunch at the Wild Grape Bistro near downtown Salt Lake City. It was my second time at Wild Grape, but my first time for brunch. I don't know what it is about the idea of brunch, but I have to tell you, it is something I absolutely adore - probably over any other meal. Maybe it is the slightly decadent feeling I get since it isn't one of the 'everyday' type of meals, but always feels like a special occasion in and of itself.

The staff at Wild Grape couldn't have been more wonderful and friendly to us if they had tried. They were so gracious and accommodating to our little group and I am so very grateful to them for letting us hold our Holiday Cookie & Treat Swap at their restaurant. I feel terrible that the name of our particular waiter now escapes me, because I would love nothing more than to mention how perfectly wonderful he was! Anyway, he knows who he is and I hope they enjoyed the plate of cookies and treats we left for the staff to enjoy. If you haven't been to Wild Grape yet, you really should. The food is delicious and the staff is always delightful - I really couldn't imagine having had a better experience!

I was really excited when Wild Grape treated us to their fresh Beignets with Chocolate Sauce and House-made Apple Butter as well - I had wanted to try these as well as the french toast and they made it so I didn't have to choose! The Beignets were absolutely delicious and still fresh and warm - heavenly!

My hubs was a sweetheart and came with me and our kids to the brunch, even though he had to leave for work as soon as he was done eating, and even sitting out in the warm truck with our 2 year old when he had fallen asleep right before we got there. He was such a good sport! He ordered the (shown above) Ham n' Cheese Sandwich which was Black Forrest Ham, Cheddar Cheese, Roasted Apple and Horseradish Mustard - delicious!

I probably went the most decadent of anyone at the brunch and went ahead and ordered the Brioche French Toast (first picture in the post) which is stuffed with Nutella and crusted with chopped hazelnuts, dusted with a generous amount of confectioners' sugar and served with a silky creme anglaise - yes, it was just as good as it sounds too!

I also can't resist an order of good breakfast potatoes - and I was just sure that Wild Grape would have really good ones - I wasn't disappointed!

Be sure to check out everyone else's links below to see not only their holiday treats, but what delicious dishes they ordered from Wild Grape as well - it was a time of gorgeous food and amazing company!

On to the Brunch and the Treats!

While I had the best of intentions to make something new and really spectacular, reality caught up with me this last week and there was just no time to get any kind of big cookie project together. I opted to make a standard favorite here at our house, the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie. I love to make a huge double batch of dough, shape the cookies and keep them in the freezer to bake off warm and heavenly chocolate chip cookies whenever the mood strikes us (which at our house equals out to at least a couple of times a week as an after school or movie night treat!).

Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod, who was kind enough to be drafted to help organize our little get together, made Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies. They were chocolatey and had a chewy kind of crunch from the melted candy on the outside of the cookie that was unique and wonderful. Maria is such a wonderful person and always so willing to help!

Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen was there sharing her wonderful wit and wisdom about blogging, photography, writing and food. It is always a pleasure to spend time with Kalyn - she is so generous with her knowledge and I always leave feeling like I have learned so much!

Dara of Cookin' Canuck came to brunch and is always so fun and happy that she is just a joy to be around! She was even able to get my overtly shy 6 year old to share some answers while he was hiding behind his DS games. Her cookies were these gorgeous Cinnamon and Almond Meringue Star Cookies which were delicious, as well as so pretty!

Tiffany of Food Finery joined us with her stunning and festive colorful Shortbread with Cranberries and Green Pumpkin Seeds - I just love Tiff - she always makes me smile and her cookies were so festive that my son just couldn't get his eyes off them!

Christina of Mele Cotte, was great to meet in person - she has such a fun personality. I know she had a busy day (and I think even a flight to catch!) but I'm so glad she was able to come and visit with us before heading back East. Though she didn't really have a workable kitchen anymore, Chris put together some gorgeous and delicious little Chocolate Mascarpone and Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache Mini Tarts to share.

Barbara of Barbara Bakes, who is a great friend and a perfectly lovely woman whom I am so grateful to have gotten to know in person, brought these perfectly delicious Pecan Squares to share - they have a delicious cookie base with a sweet pecan topping - like having a delicious piece of pecan pie - but only all the best parts and more of it! I can't wait to make these, but I don't think I'll share!

Becky of Vintage Mixer, who is just absolutely darling and just as personable in real life as she is on her blog, joined us and brought her lovely petite little Ginger Creams, which are a family favorite of hers.

Cristie of The Table Runner also came to brunch and also made a cherished recipe, this time from a friend of hers. I was so intrigued by her Cherry Chocolate Crisps (no surprise since they were sandwiched with chocolate!). Cristie is such a sweet lady and is super talented and always willing to share her talents and expertise as well.

Candace of A Little Blog, who happens to be Cristie's daughter, also joined us and my only regret is that I sat so far from her and her mom that I didn't get to spend more time with them! That is just something that we will have to rectify in the future at some more fun events! Candace used her mom's recipe and brought a fun twist on the chocolate chip cookie with her Sweet 'n Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Pretzels.

The Complete Meal: Vanilla Buttermilk Fresh Cheese

Recently, the wonderful and always brilliant Cath over at A Blithe Palate emailed and asked if I would like to participate in a new occasional event she was putting together. The idea was to take a cookbook and review several sections in the book that would basically put together an entire dinner from start to finish - appetizers, soups, entrees, sides, desserts, and so forth - effectively and simply, Cath is calling the event The Complete Meal. I thought it sounded like a wonderful idea and couldn't wait to jump on board.

The first book we are reviewing is the fairly new (it was only released at the beginning of November) The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor. The book really delivers too! There are lots and lots of fabulous and incredibly appetizing photos of the different dishes, steps, ideas, tips and southern life all throughout the book. I felt a bit like I was getting a southern vacation and just wanted to kick back and read their stories, memories and recipes. All in all I thought the book is very well done and has lots of great ideas.

Since I am kicking off the event this week, my course was to make an appetizer of some kind from the book. While there were several shrimp dishes that sounded delicious, while trying to decide what I was going to make there was one idea that I just couldn't get past - a section on Buttermilk Fresh Cheese and several (11 I think) ideas of what you could do with it.

An unknown fact about me is that for the past year or so I've had this burgeoning curiosity about cheese making. As in, I reeeaaallly wanted to try it. I did try to make some mascarpone a few months ago - which failed miserably (I'm still not sure why - probably impatience on my part).

Anyway, I just kept coming back to the cheese recipe! The directions were simple. The ingredients were simple - just milk, buttermilk and flavoring - in my case the vanilla version with a little sugar added in. Mix and heat in a pot for a few minutes until it separates, strain into some cheese cloth, wring out the whey and within a few minutes - literally about 20 minutes start to finish - I had CHEESE! Crumbly, tender, flavorful and beautiful homemade fresh cheese! Seriously! Now, I don't know about you, but for me, it just doesn't get much cooler than that! I decided to use my cheese just like they suggest in the book, crumbled over some fruit. I would also like to try making it into a completely homemade cheeseball some time, which I think would really be a great treat.

Due to copyright I can't print the recipe here, but let me tell you, you need this book if you like simple fresh ideas, seafood, and Southern hospitality at all! I couldn't even share all the great versions and ideas they had for this cheese and I'm sure you could come up with dozens of more ideas on your own too.

Thanks again to Cath for putting together such a fun event! Be sure to head over to Peabody's blog for next week's course at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. There will be a course posted each Sunday from now through each section till The Complete Meal is achieved!

WINNER Hip Hostess Apron Giveaway

I'm so glad to announce the winner of The Hip Hostess apron giveaway!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:2Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations to sweet Amanda at Amanda's Cookin' who was chosen at Random.org - Thank you soooo much to everyone who entered the contest. Please don't forget that you still have till December 15th to get the 15% discount (Code: PHEMOM) off your Hip Hostess order!

My sincerest thanks again to the gals over at The Hip Hostess for their kindness with the giveaway and discount - if you haven't had a chance to check out their aprons and other lovely items, you really should!

Watch this coming Tuesday for my next giveaway!

TWD: Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies & GIVEAWAYS!

It has been for.ev.er since I got to make something for TWD. Sheesh. Admittedly, I haven't actually been baking or cooking much lately either - or what I have has been just the basics. I want to bake more, but while the spirit is willing, the body has been tired and weak. Today is officially the start of my third trimester so I'm trying to remember not to overdo anything either since I have no doubt overdoing it is part of what aggravated things during my last pregnancy.

As for this pregnancy, other than being nervous about what may or may not go wrong, things are going fairly well. I'm on track weight wise, etc etc etc so we're just happy to be plugging along. We're thoroughly grateful for that, so we'll just keep things going along those lines as best we can!

These molasses cookies, chosen a couple weeks ago by Pamela of Cookies with Boys were a breeze to make and were satisfactorily spicy and molasses-y, which I happen to love. I didn't bother with flattening them since I wanted them to stay thicker and chewier. The only change I made was to roll them in coarse raw sugar instead of regular sugar for that thicker sugar coating and crunchy, sparkly effect.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS!

Today of course also marks the first day of December. To celebrate one of my favorite months of the year I have a series of great giveaways planned this month, so please be sure to check back. To kick things off I wanted to feature a favorite source of gorgeous aprons that any kitchen lovin' gal would be supremely thrilled to receive as a gift this holiday season.

The Hip Hostess has graciously and generously agreed to offer up an apron of your choice to one lucky winner from their website (shown is their newest gorgeous addition - Melon Splash)!!

All you have to do to have a chance to win is leave a comment on this post saying which apron on their site you would choose if you win. The contest will run between now and Friday, December 4th at midnight (MST). The winner will be chosen using Random.org.

Just in case that isn't enough, The Hip Hostess is also offering 15% off orders through December 15th for my PheMOMenal readers! Just use the code PHEMOM (all caps) when you order!

For additional entries please do any or all of the following - please leave a separate comment for each item you do. If you already do any of these things, please just leave a comment letting me know.

1. Sign up to be on The Hip Hostess' Mailing List - you'll find out about sales, specials, etc, so if you are an apron lover like me (or know one) it is worth it!

2. Tweet this giveaway and let me know by including an @PheMom in the tweet - that way I get your twitter name so I can follow you in case I don't already!

3. Subscribe to PheMOMenon (in the sidebar)

4. Follow me on Twitter @PheMom

5. Become a follower of PheMOMenon (in the sidebar)

6. Add my new adorable blog button to your blog (isn't it ridiculously cute!) - you can grab the code right there in my sidebar.