Nuts for Christmas

I'm so clever.

This year I was really stuck on what to get my aunt and my nanny. So I defaulted to what I do best- food. My sister had made them both candied nuts in the past, so I figured that was a good place to start. My mom has a collection of recipes for this sort of thing, but I wanted to try something new. I settled on a recipe for lemon pepper nuts and cinnamon sugar nuts. I altered them both slightly and settled on these combinations:

Lemon Pepper on the left, Cinnamon Sugar on the right

My mom tends to have every nut under the sun on hand, which was real convenient for this recipe. I settled on this combination:

Peanuts, almonds, walnuts, and I even shelled a bunch of pistachios. 

To coat the nuts, I beat an egg white with a tablespoon of water until it was frothy. I'm not sure if I beat it quite long enough, but it seemed to work fine.

Next, I melted butter and brushed a cookie sheet with it. 

I preheated the oven to somewhere around 350 (I don't remember the exact temp, sorry!). I then set the timer for an hour and fifteen minutes. Yeah - that long. Every twenty minutes or so I checked them and moved them around so the sugar didn't burn and the nuts didn't combine into one sugary mess. After an hour and fifteen the cinnamon sugar were done.

The lemon pepper nuts took another twenty minutes or so. I think it had something to do with the lack of brown sugar. But eventually they came out nice and crispy:

My nanny and my aunt were both pretty happy to get them yesterday. I think I liked the lemon pepper ones the best. The cinnamon sugar ones weren't quite up to snuff, so I definitely think I'm going to keep trying different recipes

I also made my relatives some of this "Christmas Crack." too. Which I think went over the best. It was kind of a last minute thing so I didn't document it. It's often made with matzoh during Passover (ie. I've been familiar with it since I joined my best friend's Jewish family in the 7th grade). I definitely recommend it for any occasion.

I also have an old-school Betty Crocker cookie recipe on the way, so stay tuned, and Merry Christmas! 

Magic Mallow Bars

I've had a thing for rice crispie treats since I was a senior in high school. In those days we often added food coloring, or used different cereal (ie. cinnamon toast crunch). My friend's mom used to get mad when we made them, they're so irresistible. Since then, I've graduated to inhaling the cocoa puff treats our dining hall at Pitt used to make and adding everything to them from peanut butter to Nutella to marshmellow fluff. 

I read Avery's blog an awful lot, and when she posted this recipe for kitchen sink crispie treats, I knew it was for me. My friend Candice needed a gift for a co-worker, so I jumped at the chance to give these a try. 

The kitchen sink ingredients:

We chopped up the peanut butter cups. And neither Candice or I cut off a finger ;)

I've never made these before by microwaving the marshmallows (I've always melted the butter on the stove, then added the marshmallows). I think this way was easier though.

Puffed up 'mallows:

Then I just dumped everything in and mixed. It got real sticky, real fast, but that was expected. I poured the mixture into a 9 x 9 glass dish covered in tin foil and then sprayed with Pam, for easier removal. Then Candice melted more chocolate and we drizzled it over the treats. I had Christmas sprinkles from the dollar aisle at Target that seemed that the perfect final addition:

I didn't taste test them myself, but I heard they were gone pretty quickly. 

White Chocolate, Macadamia Nut, Caramel Cream Cookies

Finals week knocked me over, I'm not going to lie. It feels like it's been forever since I last posted! Cooking has been going down, both documented and undocumented. Nick and I have had some baking fests and Kyle and I baked up storms of Christmas cookies. More details on those to come, though. Today's post is about my first attempt at making Kyle and my favorite cookie, white chocolate macadamia nut.

I found this recipe via foodgawker (of course). I knew macadamia nuts were expensive, but daaayum. Totally worth it though. 

Unfortunately I haven't been the best at documenting lately. I've also been doing this completely by my ipod, so please excuse the even-more-than-usual-less-than-professional pictures. 

I ground up the nuts with my underused nut grinder. It made the pieces really small though, so I don't think I would use it again in the future. 

The recipe called for two teaspoons of milk, which I didn't have (I've been on an almond milk/banana smoothie kick lately, ie. I can't seem to keep milk in my apartment). Instead, I cut the butter by two tablespoons, and added a quarter cup of caramel cream.

The recipe for the cream came from this cookie recipe. Spoiler Alert: Kyle and I made these cookies last weekend, so I knew I couldn't go wrong adding it. It is the epitome of spatula-licking good. Note: if you're trying to make this cream yourself, I couldn't get the sugar to melt on it's own like the recipe says it will, so i added a little bit of cream earlier on. Clearly, it turned it just fine.Also, do NOT take your eyes off the pot once you turn it on high- it boils up almost immediately.

Dough:

It was awkwardly thin, so I popped it in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. Then it was perfect scooping consistency.

I was really pleased with how they turned out. I actually ate a bunch of them (if you've been keeping up with this blog, you'll know that I usually eat more of the dough/batter than I do of the finished product of anything I bake).

They were part of Kyle's Christmas present, and I think he was pleased as well :)

More recipes from the last few weeks to come!