If you don’t mind, I think I’ll post the dessert to our late winter picnic first.

We just got back from a fencing tournament and our good friends’ house, and I am really tired, not to mention I know I’m losing an hour of sleep tonight because of Daylight Saving, and that makes me even more tired (Darn you, Benjamin Franklin!), so I didn’t feel like trying to remember what I did to make those chicken hand pies. At least not tonight.

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After much baking, and deliberation, a winner has been chosen for the Challenge Dairy Shortbread Challenge! A panel of judges, which included a chef, chose the Bleu Cheese Currant Shortbread Rounds! So, congratulations, Kristen! Well done! I had not even considered anyone would enter with a savory recipe. This one was sweet, and savory, and sweet again. It was very inventive, and quite delicious. This little swirls of flavor would make an easy and elegant little appetizer.

If you have not already looked all the entries, though, please click on all of them in the comments section and take a look. All were delicious, and finding a winner was very difficult.

I’d also like to thank Challenge Dairy who has sponsored this contest, and who will be giving Kristen a year’s supply of Challenge Dairy Butter.  If you didn’t win, don’t worry, you can still go to their website to print off coupons.

And now, on to these chewy ginger molasses cookies. Awhile back, Brooke gave me a plate of gingerbread men. I think they were meant for my family or something, but all I remember was that I ate almost every single one.

They had this hidden flavor I couldn’t put my finger on. So I had to keep tasting them. Again. And again.

When I finally realized the flavor was orange zest, I had to eat a few more, just to be certain.

Coming up with a chewy cookie when you don’t use shortening is very difficult, as far as I am concerned, so I usually don’t take chances. That’s why I generally take a chewy cookie recipe, that is already tried and true, and then make it my own. Though these are pretty different from Martha Stewart’s Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies, I used that recipe as a guide.

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Aren’t you glad you came to my blog today??? This is my post for the Baker’s Dozen Ultimate Cookie Exchange! Yea!!!! Some other bloggers and I are sharing cookie recipes today, and all of them can be seen by clicking here. Be sure to check them out, since many of them will be having giveaways—including me!

Let’s get to that first, shall we???  One lucky reader will not have to lift a finger to enjoy some scrumptious cookies for the next couple of months.  Platine Cookies of Los Angeles has offered to award one very lucky reader a three month subscription to the Cookie of the Month Club (I am seriously tempted to enter the giveaway under an alias).

The Chef and owner, Jamie Cantor (her name is Jamie, so she’s already cool, as far as I’m concerned) started Platine Cookies awhile back, and her cookies and bakery have been mentioned in People Magazine, Vogue, LA newspapers, and all over the web.

Her cookies are all natural, and perfectly wonderful, so if you want to win some, click over to PlatineCookies.com, decide which cookies look the most delicious to you, and tell us about them in the comments section.  Only one entry per person please.  I will choose a random winner on Monday morning, December 14.

If you don’t win, that’s totally fine, since I will have their link over there in the sidebar for whenever you get a craving and need to order some.

In the meantime, if you’d like to whip something up on your own, try out my recipe for the cookies in the picture.  They were pleasantly addictive.

vanillekipferl

To be honest, I have no idea how to pronounce these. You’d think, since I have some German heritage, I might actually know a tiny bit of German, but I don’t.

I decided to make these back in the summer when I was rereading my favorite book, The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson (Oh yes, this is my favorite book now). The main character’s mother makes the Kipferl to celebrate something really special, and since the author gave such a delicious narrative of the process of making them, I knew I needed to make them, too.

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French crullers are probably one of my favorite kinds of doughnuts. They aren’t too sweet, and have a texture and flavor all their own—eggy and light on the inside and sweet and crispy on the outside.

It had never occurred to me that I could make my own until last summer I came across an old Martha Stewart Living that gave instructions on how to make them. I don’t recall the recipe they used exactly, but I do remember they used a pâte à choux—that wonderful, easy to make, easy to use French pastry dough—and piped it onto little squares of parchment paper with a large star tip, then lowered it slowly into the hot oil.

For my own version, I basically did the same. They were exceptionally easy, and were a great variation of texture and flavor from the other doughnuts.

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That pumpkin torte I made the other day was really delicious, so I thought I should fry some of the batter for our little party.

I honestly have no idea how people make cake doughnuts in a ring shape, so these were made into little doughnut holes, which actually worked perfectly at our doughnut party because they kept the kids happy while we worked on rolling out, filling, and frosting the other ones.

In the picture, I sprinkled them with powdered sugar, but in the recipe I’ll give you instructions to make a glaze, which makes everything taste better.

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Well, I’d just like to mention what fun I had with Trick-or-Eat, and hope you all did, too.

Sometimes I miss the place where I grew up so badly it physically hurts.  At times, I feel exiled, doomed to visit there for short stints at a time, only to be shipped back, all to soon, to wherever I am living.

In the fall, when things are most beautiful in New England, I feel the stab most acutely, and do my best to enjoy the season where I am.  This year, I think God has sent me a gift—cut me a break in light of the chaos in my life: the leaves in Utah have been almost as beautiful as they are in Massachusetts.

But, oh, how I miss the cranberry bogs, the smell of burning pine, the endless tangles of bittersweet, 18th Century houses.  And long drives on lazy Saturdays through winding back roads that lead to the ocean.

I can’t think of a better way to drown out homesickness than with a warm, custard filled, chocolate glazed doughnut?  Can you?

So I made some, and named them after my home.

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Welcome to Sophistimom’s Trick-Or-Eat post. Today, nine favorite food, craft & lifestyle bloggers await behind nine haunted houses with an array of holiday treats created just for you. At the end of this post, you will find two of these mystery houses. To join in the holiday fun, simply click on one of the buttons and you’ll be linked to the next home on the block. You can also discover all of the Trick-Or-Eat contributors and find direct links to their posts at www.Trick-Or-Eat.com. Happy Halloweening!

You came to the right house! Come on in, we’re having a doughnut party!

In New England, where I come from, only friendly spirits roam our antique houses’ halls. Pierre of Kitchen Scraps did a lovely job on my house, didn’t he? It’s a Cape Cod with nothing spooky or creepy—just the way I like to celebrate Halloween. I love the way he made the windows glow! If I could live in any house, I would dream up something like this.

While you’re stopping by for Trick-or-Eat, help yourself to this recipe for pear beignets with cardamom crème anglaise. They are worth dying for—well, maybe not, but definitely worth smelling your whole house up with deep frying oil. When I knew I’d be making them, I invited friends over and tried out four other recipes for doughnuts. We had glazed French cruellers, Pumpkin Poppers, Citrus Twists, and Vanilla Bean Boston Creams! Come back everyday this week when I will post each of the recipes.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the Trick-or-Eat fun!

Be sure to read to the bottom of the post, to follow all nine trick-or-eat blogs!

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Ah, yes, the end of pumpkin week. Sorry to ditch you yesterday, but I couldn’t cut this cake open to photograph it until this morning.

I made it a few days ago, but didn’t serve it until today when my friend threw a bridal shower for her little sister (our former babysitter, actually). When we ate it after it had sat in the fridge for a few days, it was still good, though the frosting was not as fresh (still delicious, though).

I think you’re really going to like it. This cake is just so dense and so moist and so versatile, you’ll be making it again and again. I am even planning on using this recipe for a pumpkin cake doughnut when I do doughnut week soon.

Also, the frosting is the best thing I have ever made, which is probably because it’s a recipe my friend Deborah shared with me. She’s a cake decorator extraordinaire. Go see for yourself. Click here for her blog.

Anyway, the frosting is amazingly easy, and completely dreamy. I think that’s what I should name it: dreamy brown sugar frosting.

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Oops, I was so tired I almost forgot to post something tonight! Here’s a little something I whipped up today that I was pretty happy with, though I might try it out again a little later and change some things. If that’s the case, and you plan on making it sometime, print it off on the day you make it—just in case I tweak the recipe a bit.

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When my friend’s son tried these, he couldn’t stop talking about them all the way to his karate class. I hope you all like them too.

While we’re creating apple recipes, I couldn’t be more excited, or surprised, about winning zoebake’s contest. Zoe is a cook book author, and an extremely talented baker. She and Aunt Else’s had a giveaway last week, and I won an aebleskiver pan. I can’t wait to use it, and come up with new recipes to post on sophistimom.

Be sure to go and visit their sites to find out more about them.  Click here for Zoe’s, and click here for Aunte Else’s.

Thank you, Aunt Else’s and thank you, Zoe!!

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