The Tough Cookie's Holiday Favorites and Some News!

Hi guys! I’ve got some great news I’d like to share with you today! And a few of last year’s favorite holiday recipes!

But let’s start with the good news, shall we?

As of last Wednesday, I make money writing about food. As in: someone actually pays me to develop recipes for food, take pictures of food and write about food! I’m soooo stoked about it! I mean, this means I’m a writer, right? I’m not just a translator anymore, I actually write things myself!

So awesome!

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Kenji Lopez-Alt, the managing culinary director at Serious Eats! And I’m suuuure you know exactly who I’m talking about… I mean, the culinary director at Serious Eats! In case you don’t know, Serious Eats is huge! And Kenji is a wizard in the kitchen! Do you know about that little vodka-pie-crust trick? Where you add vodka to pie crust to make it flaky? Well, Kenji came up with that! Like I said: kitchen wizard…

Anyway, I bet you’re wondering what I’ve been writing for Serious Eats. So check out my first post for them! The recipe is crazy! I made a delicious Chocolate Meringue Cake filled with Whipped Cream and Raspberries. It was soooooo good! I’ll post some photos of it on my blog in a few days, but for now I guess a link will just have to do. The photos are a bit different from what you might expect from me, because Serious Eats only uses horizontally orientated photos, and Kenji also asked me not to use so much exclamation points when writing for Serious Eats. Apparently I do that a lot!

(And yes, I totally do that, of course…)

!!!

My second post for Serious Eats (because I’ll be posting for them once a week!) was a massive one! I basically crammed my entire ‘Battle of the Buttercreams’ series into one little (well, large) post. It was great though! Ever since I did my Battle of the Buttercreams about a year ago I’ve picked up so many tips and tricks. Don’t worry, I’ll post them here as well, but for now, just follow this link!

Also, I really wanted to share some of my favorite holiday recipes with you. I like these recipes a lot! Either because they’re super easy and you can whip up something delicious in less than fifteen/twenty/thirty minutes or because they’re so difficult yet so good you really only want to make them once a year, for Christmas.

Let’s start with that gorgeous cake up there! It’s a Caramel Apple Peanut Butter Loaf Cake with Salted Peanuts and a Caramel Drizzle. Sounds good? That’s because it is! It’s ridiculous! <– there I go again with the exclamation points…

Or give this amaaaaazing Christmas Cloud Cake a go. It’s basically a moist, dark chocolate cake, filled with a whipped ganache filling and frosted with Italian meringue made with candy canes! I think it makes a great Christmas cake, because the dark cake layers topped with the fluffy frosting really remind me of snowy nights and warm blankets and Christmas trees.

Could it be the candy canes?

Last year, this Tiramisu Cheesecake was definitely a Christmas favorite! There’s Kahlua in it, so if you like booze, this is your go-to cake…

By the way, my mom and I both preferred it without the cocoa powder on top, because the cocoa powder tends to overpower the flavor of the coffee and Kahlua. Oh, and make sure not to step on it! I actually managed to do that last year.

Airhead…

Anyway, if you’ve got a few hours, try your hand at this ridiculous Christmas dessert. If you like chestnut, this is for you! It’s my Chocolate Chestnut Tasting Plate. There are quite a few elements on the plate, but hey, it’s only Christmas once a year, right? And this dessert will definitely impress!

It’s consists of three mini desserts: a chestnut cream rose with whipped cream (the easy part), double chocolate ice cream with chunks of dark chocolate (also fairly easy to make) and a chocolate and chestnut mousse cake dusted with cocoa powder (time to channel your inner kitchen wizard). If you’re feeling adventurous, go for it!

Or hey, if you’re not feeling very adventurous, make this Three-Colored Chocolate Mousse. It’s an impressive dessert, but very easy to make. Sure, you need to make three different chocolate mousses – and I suggest using a scale for this – but in the end it’s a very easy process. And don’t they look great?

I love layered desserts…

Anyway, don’t feel like making a cake or complicated desserts? Make these Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies instead! They’re super delicious and really easy to make, even when it’s just not your day…

These Molasses Cookies with a Salted Caramel Drizzle are definitely worth making too! They’re super soft, spicy and very, very big! Not that I’m complaining…

How many did I eat last Christmas Eve? Seven, eight? I can’t remember…

If you’re looking for something light and crisp, make these Chocolate Swirl Meringues with a Hint of Cinnamon. Besides cinnamon and cocoa powder, I also add a tiny bit of molasses to the meringue, which gives the meringues a gorgeous toasty flavor.

These also make a great homemade Christmas gift!

As would these! This Chocolate Coated Honeycomb can be whipped up in less than twenty minutes and the best thing about it is that you can’t mess it up! Even if you’re not good at making pretty things, honeycomb always looks pretty! You can even smash it with a rolling pin!