2011 Holiday Goodie Box

 Pretty freaking adorable, huh?

It's been awhile since I've made Christmas cookies.  Last month, I brought treat boxes with me to a Christmas gift exchange and one of my girlfriends said "You didn't make us cookies last year!... Or the year before!"  I know... I know... but, shit... it's hard work!  So, I figured I'd make it up to them and make them LOTS of goodies this year (so maybe I can take a break again for the next 2 years, or even 5).  In the boxes were: pistachio macarons, cinnamon sugar butter cookies, mini heart shaped apple pies, chocolate hazelnut cookies, a red velvet cupcake and soft ginger cookies.

I've made almost all of those cookies/treats before, except for the mini pies.  It was my first time making pie dough from scratch and I used Martha's pate brisee (pie dough) recipe.  It was super flaky and buttery.  Working with the dough was very easy and I had no problems making it by hand, without a food processor, but I did get a food processor for Christmas (after I made all these freaking mini pies) and made pie dough with it for Christmas day.  I would still consider both ways equally as easy but the food processor is just faster.

For the pie filling, I made a stove top apple filling first.  I based my recipe on this one.  I added twice the amount of cinnamon and my little pies took approximately 15 to 18 minutes to bake until golden brown.  I think that someone could easily make a bunch of these guys and throw them in the freezer.  When you get the craving for some pie a la mode, warm one (or four) in the oven and serve with vanilla ice cream!

To create the packages, I went to Smart and Final and got a bunch of take out boxes (the sort of flat and rectangular kind).  To keep everything cozy inside so that things could stay separate and not crack or break, I used jumbo cupcake liners, which I found at Safeway and Michael's.

Goodie box tied with a red ribbon and adorned with a homemade tag, ready to go.

I'm a little late, but I hope everyone had happy holidays and an even happier new year!

Peanut Butter Silk Pie

Before we left for Hawaii, I promised Phil that I'd make him any dessert he liked when we got back. He chose this recipe for Peanut Butter Silk Pie.

I had a number of other things to do today, so I didn't make my own graham cracker crust as originally planned. My good friends, the Keebler Elves, helped me out with that. All I did was brush a little beaten egg onto the crust and stuck in the oven for about 8 minutes to make it crispy and golden.

The recipe calls for a layer of fudge on the bottom, so I got a chance to bust out my new candy thermometer. I've never made fudge before and I didn't want to "fudge it up" (that one's for you Lisha) so I watched that thermometer like a hawk. Making the fudge was pretty easy so you might see more fudge recipes in the future. But it looked like the fudge layer was a little too thick and dense, which later caused problems when I cut into the pie.

The recipe told me to mix the all the filling ingredients at once. Next time, I would beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth, then add the sugar, vanilla and milk. This time, what I got were lots of little cream cheese lumps.

I finished the pie with dollops of what I had left of the Cool Whip (piped from a ziplock bag and a star piping tip) and shavings of chocolate.