Mexican Chocolate Christmas Trees

My favorite Chef and dear friend Karen and I recently made over eight dozen cookies to send to the troops in Afghanistan. One of my favorites we made was these Mexican Chocolate Christmas Trees. They are essentially a shortbread cookie but with all the decadence of chocolate. Adding cinnamon, chili powder and pepper make these cookies spicy, giving them a rich and deep flavor.

I have to admit I have been baking more cookies than even the cookie monster can eat and there are a few tricks I have picked up along the way. One, always use room temperature ingredients unless otherwise specified! When you use room temperature butter and eggs you can really see the difference in your batter. It is also generally good to chill your dough before baking as it will hold better shape when baking. I also like to use good quality butter & eggs as they can really add a lot of flavor!

Mexican Chocolate Christmas Trees

1 1/2 cups room temperature butter

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 room temperature eggs, beaten

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups cocoa

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs one by one and beat until fluffy. Mix dry ingredients together and add creamed mixture. Beat until combine. Divide dough into three balls, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and cut into desired shape. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until firm. Cool & enjoy!!!

Apple Pie Moonshine

I love homemade gifts for Christmas. There is nothing worse than wasting money on a thoughtless gift that no one wants, but what does everyone love? Booze. I've been gifted Apple Pie Moonshine on several occasions and this simple and sweet mix is a pleasing treat on the holidays, when lets be real we could all use a little more booze. I used my favorite orchard Solebury Orchards in New Hope, who are famous for their Honey Crisp Apples. This hooch is easy to whip up and is crazy delicious. This recipe makes a BUNCH (4+/- gallons) and can be done on the cheap if your on a budget, for me it was around 60 bucks for ever thing but I already had the jars and cinnamon. You can also easily half this recipe. 

Apple Pie Moonshine

1 gallon apple cider

1 gallon apple juice

2 cups white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

8 cinnamon sticks

1 liter bottle of 190 proof moonshine or grain alcohol (I used EverClear)

In a large stock pot, combine all ingredients, except for grain alcohol, and bring to a boil. Add alcohol and pour into desired containers. I used 4oz ball jars and three large glass bottles. Add cinnamon stick to each container. You can drink this right away but it tastes best after 6 weeks.  

Gingersnap Whoopie Pies with Cranberry Orange Ganache

I recently moved out of Philadelphia and back to my family's bed & breakfast the Bridgeton House on the Delaware in Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania. Our 1836 Inn overlooks the Delaware River and is riddled with my childhood memories. I remember all the incarnations of the Inn's kitchen and I always loved sitting at the counter, watching the chef prepare breakfast, but mostly I was in it for the cakes & cookies. 

Today was the first day I had free reign of the kitchen and prepared breakfast for the guests. While mastering my omelet game & making pumpkin cornbread waffles, I made a simple cranberry orange compote. After breakfast was all said and done it was time to make cookies for tea time (my dream). I decided to make a simple ginger snap but also wanted to get rid of my excess cranberry sauce. After baking off the snaps, I decided to take the compote add a little sugar and cream cheese and make a filling for whoopie pies! The color alone is super fun and they taste even better.  

Gingersnap Whoopie Pies with Cranberry Orange Ganache 

Gingersnaps

makes about 4 dozen cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

3 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/3 cup unsulphured molasses

Method

Combine dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Slowly add the egg and molasses and beat until combined, scraping the edges of the bowl often. Slowly add dry ingredients and scrape sides of bowl until mixed. Transfer dough into plastic wrap and refrigerate for and hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350. With a small ice cream scoop or spoon, roll into 1 inch balls. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until deep brown. Sprinkle with Turbinado suagr for a festive pop.

Cranberry Orange Ganache

3 cups Fresh Cranberries

1 or 1/2 cup Maple Syrup

Zest of 1 Orange

1/2 cup Cream Cheese

In a sauce pan over medium heat, add cranberries and simmer until berries burst and release juices(5-10 minutes). Add zest and syrup to taste and let cool. In a mixing bowl, add the cranberry mixture and cream cheese and combine. 

 

Assembly 

Take two like sized ginger snaps and place about a tablespoon of the ganache in the center. Press together and practice serious self control in trying not to eat them all!

Momma's Fall Stew

As a child in my hometown of Upper Black Eddy, the smell of wood smoke filled the air as the weather turned bitterly cold and like always, as the season change, so do my cravings, and theres nothing like my mom's cooking. My all time favorite meal she makes is her fall stew. I would come home cold and hungry after school and a big bowl of stew would always set me right. Obviously this dish is super sentimental for me but it is also a big hit with my friends. It is a very basic and simple stew but has great depth of flavor is easy to whip up and perfect for cold weather. I hope this becomes a favorite in your family too.

BY BEA BRIGGS This is an excellent flexible recipe. It was given to me by my friend Leila. She had given me a large pot of it right after our first child was born and as exhausted new parents, what a delight it was to open the fridge & find these leftovers. I treasure the scribbled recipe she gave me & I have continued the tradition of giving this to new parents, friends in need & neighbors. But it feeds a crowd of about 6 hungry people, usually with leftovers, so it is great when ever the seasons change!

Momma's Fall Stew

3 pound Brisket (or chuck roast)

6 cups water

1 bottle red wine

1 can tomatoes(12 oz) ( sauce, puree, paste or can )

3-4 onions roughly, chopped

5-6 cloves garlic, chopped

4-6 carrots, chopped into 2 inch discs

1 pound mushrooms(button), quartered

4-6 red potatoes quartered (if small leave whole, be sure all are the same size so they cook evenly)

3 tablespoons Olive Oil

Salt, pepper, herbes, bay leaf, to taste

METHOD

In a large pot with lid, over medium high heat, add olive oil. Salt & pepper meat well on both sides. Sear in pot, on both sides & remove from pot. Add chopped onions & garlic to the pot & saute until golden. Return meat back to pot and add water, wine and tomatoes, being sure that the meat is covered. Add bay leaf & favorite herbs such as  herbes de provence e or a basil/oregano mix. Season wtih salt pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low simmer. You can also put in oven at 350, if your pot is oven proof. Cook for one hour. Remove meat & slice into 1/4 inch long slices. Return meat to pot and add carrots, mushrooms & potatoes. Cover and cook for an additional hour on low heat. Taste and add more salt & pepper, if needed.

Momma's notes

As you can tell this is a very flexible recipe. The measurements are not exact, if you like more wine, I have added a whole bottle, sometimes I have used just water & tomato sauce. Other times water, wine & a little tomato. So what ever you have on hand will make the liquid ( I have even used V-8 juice). The acid in the wine & tomato helps break down the meat. You just want the meat to be covered by liquid. This was traditionally made with 1st cut brisket, which has more fat running through it & made a nice roast out of a cheaper piece of meat. If you like carrots more than mushrooms add more, ditto with potatoes. This is a pretty fail proof recipe, so after you make it a few times you get it. Use what you have & like. It gets better each day, as the flavors work. I like to serve it with green beans or sautéed kale and don't forget the sour cream!

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Carrot Butter Cream

I have such wonderful memories of Halloween. My entire neighborhood would always celebrate it. They would come out to see what the kids were wearing and hand out candy. My crew and i trick or treated till we were upwards of 17, simply because everyone was so accustom to the tradition, and still wanted candy. My family always carved a silly pumpkin, ate toasted pumpkin seeds, and my sister and I would lay out all our candy, organize it and plan trades. It was serious business. 

However these days there are some scary things hiding in our unassuming fun sized candy. Dyes, petroleum and modified ingredients lurk around every wrapper and the halloween baked goods are often filled with red dye #40, which is banned in europe because of its strong ties with cancer and hyperactivity. Scary stuff. 

When I wanted to do a fun halloween cupcake for the kids I take care of, I knew I wanted to do it from scratch and skip the dyes and unknown chemicals in most store-bought baking mixes. I knew I wanted to try to do a play on black and orange but wasn't sure of how I could incorporate the bright orange color into the icing without using any food dyes, which yes, are filled with these toxic colored chemicals. Hmm whats orange in nature? carrots! no kid will want to have grated carrot in their icing, no how could I incorporate it? Carrot Juice! Sweet and easy to find or make I had found my 'dye'. Chocolate is already relatively black but i made it extra dark and used the good stuff, extra dark cocoa powder. So skip the chemicals and start from scratch this halloween. 

Spooky Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Carrot Butter Cream

Cupcake

3/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. in a mixing bowl shift together all ingredients. in a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. add eggs one by one. add vanilla. combine dry ingredients slowly and add the sour cream. pour into 12 pre lined cupcake molds, about 3/4 full and bake for about 20 minutes. 

Carrot Butter Cream

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter, at room temperature 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoons whipping cream

2 tablespoons carrot juice

Beat confectioners sugar & butter until combine, at least 5 minutes. add remaining ingredients and beat for an additional minute. When cupcakes are cool from the oven, ice the cakes with about 2 tablespoons of frosting.