Runs on Coffee and Cream

It's officially Christmas season! I'm so excited for the holidays this year. I mean, it's a little weird because of the pandemic and not being able to see others. But, I feel like our family is complete this year - we have our two children and Emma is already pumped for "Kissmis". It makes my heart so full. 

I also made fruitcake cookies for Adam since he's a big fan of them. I could do without them.


I consumed a decent amount of eggnog - plain and in coffee.


I squeezed in quite a few Christmas movies, but I had the most fun watching Home Alone and tweeting along with Rosa.


I spent a night watching Christmas movies and wrapping gifts. All of Adam's gifts got wrapped in this amazing Star Wars paper.


Animal Crossing: New Leaf was very festive this month. I'm so in love with the snow and colourful lights in the trees. I tried to play as much as I could. And as usual, Seymore always found a way to snuggle with me while I played.


How was December for you? Did you have a good holiday?
xo Jen

Gingerbread Biscotti:
2 cups and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
7 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons molasses
1 cup white chocolate chips


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease baking sheet.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
3. In a different bowl, whisk together sugars, butter, eggs, vanilla, and molasses.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the the dry mixture. Add in white chocolate chips and combine.
5. On a floured surface, take half the dough and form it into a flattened brick. I try my best to flatten all the sides of the dough. I aim for a brick about 10" x 4" and an inch thick. Place this log on the baking sheet and do the same with the other half of dough.
6. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes. Place the biscotti bricks on a cutting board, and using a serrated knife, cut them into slices, approximately an inch thick, maybe a bit less.
7. Place the biscotti back on the baking sheet, cut side down. Bake for another 10 minutes. Flip each biscotti over so the other cut side is faced down. Bake for a final 8 minutes (or until golden brown). Let cool on a wire rack.


There was definitely a learning curve when I first started making biscotti. My first batch turned out more like scones. It was difficult finding an easy enough recipe and figuring out how to work the dough but after a couple of batches and recipes, I believe I've finally got it down.

Do you have a favourite biscotti recipe? I know not everyone is a fan of these crunchy cookies, but we enjoy them in this household.

xo Jen

You can find my other ginger recipes here:
Ginger Cookies
Gingerbread Cupcakes

It's no secret that I'm a cat lady. I have two furbabies that I love more than I thought possible. Being a cat lady is like being apart of some not-so-secret club. If you meet a fellow cat lady it's like you're instant BFFs. You tell stories about your cats; the cute stories and the ones where your cat is being a total jerk. The reality is, once you're a cat lady, you're one for life.

I've been on a ginger recipe kick since I purchased a container of molasses recently. I had my parents up to visit a couple of weeks ago so I thought gingerbread cupcakes would be a fun and festive treat to make.

As usual, I manipulated a boxed cake mix for this recipe. It was super easy and the cupcakes, even without frosting, are so moist and yummy! I feel like if I threw some chocolate chips in the batter, it'd be a tasty muffin.


Gingerbread Cupcakes:
1 box of yellow or golden cake mix
1 cup water
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or oil if you like)
1/4 cup molasses
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place cupcake liners in your muffin tray.
2. Mix all your ingredients together in a mixing bowl using a hand mixer. Mix for approximately 2 minutes.
3. Using a spoon or ladle, add cupcake batter to cupcake liners. Fill liners approximately 3/4 full.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until top is springy to the touch.
5. Let cupcakes cool completely.

Frosting:
Cream cheese frosting is sometimes recommended for gingerbread cakes but we're not huge fans of cream cheese frosting in our house so I stuck with buttercream.

I made a basic cinnamon buttercream using 1/2 cup butter, 4 cups of icing sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and teaspoons of water as needed to get the right consistency. I blend my buttercream in my stand-up mixer to prevent my hand mixer from over-heating.

I absolutely love how the cupcakes turned out. The cake itself has a bit of spice to it which is nice. I'm a fan of spicy gingerbread. But the sweet frosting definitely helps with the spice. I added white decorative sugar to the tops to add a bit of sparkle.


These cupcakes would be a hit for any holiday event! I will definitely make these again.

Are you a big fan of gingerbead?
xo Jen

You can find my other ginger recipe here:
Ginger Cookies

 






I hope you had wonderful holidays and were spoiled with love, food, and gifts!
xo Jen

I believe that sugar cookies are a staple at Christmas time. I associate sugar cookies with this time of year because of when my Mom baked them before Christmas, me and my brothers got to decorate them with sprinkles and candied silver balls.

This year I planned on making sugar Spritz cookies with my cookie press. I was excited to use the tree and wreath disc and frost them and add sprinkles afterwards. Well, the dough was not working with me. It was getting stuck in the cookie press and it wasn't coming out properly and sticking to the pan.

My solution? Roll the dough out and use cookie cutters! This way I could decorate them the regular way.


I followed the recipe in my Cuisinart Cookie Press Booklet:

Sugar Cookies

3 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Put the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into a small mixing bowl and combine.
3. In a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer), combine the butter and sugars. Using beaters or paddle, mix until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and then eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined.
4. This is when you would filled the cookie press. So let's skip this step.
5. Roll dough out on floured surface and use your cookie cutters!
6. Decorate cookies on ungreased baking pan. Bake in oven for about 12 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges.

  

The cookies turned out super fluffy! Probably because the recipe was for puffy Spritz cookies, not flat, rolled out sugar cookies. But it doesn't matter because they taste delicious! And I love how they look. I ended up using some leftover green icing from our gingerbread house kit for some of the cookies. They almost look too good to eat.

Now let me show you a cookie fail. I present to you the Joker:

During the holidays I'm all about baking treats and surrounding myself with cozy things - candles, mugs of hot beverages, blankets, and a couple of cats. Christmas time is the beginning of my nesting season.

These are a few things I'd like to have around the house during this time:

1. Twisted Peppermint Candle from Bath and Body Works - This is by far my favourite scent at Bath and Body Works. It is the perfect peppermint scent and perfect for Christmas time.




5. Hot Chocolate - I have hot chocolate often during the cold months. I also enjoy some in my coffee. But these recipes sounds like such a fun way to try something new!

Recently I had an extensive conversation with some of the IGGPPC staff about pie and our love for pie. Ontario doesn't really have pie restaurants or shops. Some restaurants serve different types of pie as part of their dessert selection but none are really known for pie. This makes me sad and makes me want to open up my own Pie Hole!

Of course after our conversation I had to make a pie. So I used what I had on hand... graham cracker crumbs, butter, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and leftover caramel sauce.

I made my graham cracker crust and let it cool. Once it cooled down a bit and hardened, I added caramel sauce and attempted to spread it over the crust (I say attempted since it was so thick!).



Next, I made my apple filling.... peeled and cut apples, water, sugar, and a bit of corn starch to thicken it up. Then I sprinkled some cinnamon and nutmeg in the apple mixture as it softened.



Once it was done, I poured the apple mixture into the pie crust and let it cool for a few hours.



It was SO good and definitely fulfilled my pie craving!

I also made up some cookies recently for Adam. Again, I used what I had on hand and tried to make them Christmas-y. I came up with White Chocolate-Cranberry-Oatmeal cookies (get it? red and white?!?). They turned out super soft and I may be addicted to them...



I have two days off starting tomorrow so I'm going to make up some more Christmas cookies. I have lots of ideas, but we'll see how much I actually get done!
xo Jen

I've been adding items to my Etsy shop fairly consistently since the beginning of September. I wanted to make sure that it was stocked for the holiday season. But now that it's December, it's hard to say how many more holiday gifts will be purchased since so many buyers are from outside of Canada and I can no longer guarantee delivery by December 24th.






I've also started cutting out some new tote bags. As I finish them, I'll be adding them to Etsy over the next couple of weeks. I also have some pillowcases to be added to the shop. You can keep updated on when I add new listings to my Etsy shop through my Facebook page.



It's been a great holiday season on Etsy so far! Thank you to everyone who has placed an order with me <3
xo Jen