Christmas Cake & Ice Cream

With just a week left until Christmas, it's time to choose your dessert recipes and head to the grocery store. I'm going to recommend making something that looks fancy but isn't that difficult to make at all! A roulade!

A roulade is simply a thin sponge cake, rolled up with a buttercream filling. You can add any flavoring to the buttercream to change it up for the seasons. Instead of making a peppermint or chocolate roulade, I decided to pair my cake with an incredibly flavorful ice cream!

I'm happy to be working with one of my favorite hometown brands - Perry's Ice Cream - and bring you their amazing new Winter flavor! A few weeks ago, I received a package containing their traditional Fall flavor, Pumpkin Pie, and this new one, Gingerbread cookie. I was a little leery at first, I'm not a huge gingerbread fan, but one bite had me converted. Even the boyfriend took me up on the offer to try some and he wound up making a good dent in the container.

This ice cream is surprisingly complex. The gingerbread ice cream base is dotted with cookies and filled with ribbons of vanilla icing. I only wish that they sent me just one container, because I will inevitably eat both containers myself.

To make the roulade cake, I enlisted the boyfriend to help me. He generally avoids baking with me, it's not his thing, but this was my lucky day! After prepping all of the ingredients, the cake came together very fast. After cooling, filling and rolling, this cake really topped off our evening. It would make for an impressive and delicious addition to your holiday table!

Disclaimer: I received a box full of Perry's Ice Creams Fall/Winter flavors to try out. I have not received any other compensation for this post and all opinions are my own. I am so happy to partner with small, local companies and share them with the world. I grew up with Perry's and it continues to remind me of home.

One Year Ago: Wilde Cookies - A list of all the cookies I've made here at WITK!
Two Years Ago: Cranberry-Orange Soda
Three Years Ago: Eggnog Mallomars
Four Years Ago: Thai Chicken Curry
Five Years Ago: Chorizo & Vegetable Soup

Merry Christmas!

Hope your day is merry and bright!!!

I've noticed I have quite a few food themed Christmas ornaments...

Bright Lights, Pretty City

There are three times to visit New York City.  1. Springtime, when everything is new and green.  2. Fall, as the leaves are changing and the crisp air invites you to take a long walk. 3. Christmastime. It's like the entire city wraps itself up in bows and lights.

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Holiday Gift Guide - Stocking Stuffers

We're only a few days until Christmas. Hopefully you've made all your big purchases, wrapped those presents and just have a few things left on your to do list. But have you remembered to fill those stockings yet? Personally I like a stocking full of candy and beauty products. (Hey Santa - gummy life savers and Sugar Fresh lip balm please!)

Whatever your favorite person likes in their stocking, be sure to drop a chocolate orange in the toe!

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1. Williams-Sonoma Toffee South Poles
2. Doodle Salt & Pepper Shakers
3. Vanilla Beans
4. LorAnn Oils - Super Strength Candy oils
5. Mini Ice Cream Sandwich Press
6. AmeriColor Soft Gel Colors
7. Starbucks Vanilla Syrup
8. Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Bark Hot Chocolate
9. Peppermint crunch sprinkles
10. Chocolate Orange

Christmas Fudge

We're in the home stretch of the holiday season and it's time to bombard you with a few more festive recipes!  I think we're just about two weeks away from not wanting to see anything peppermint, pumpkin or cranberry related for another year. Until that time comes I'm going to revel in those flavors! Get ready for a holiday countdown of flavor!

Up first is some pretty amazing and easy peppermint and chocolate Christmas fudge.  It's not the holiday season to me until I order my first peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks.  This fudge is like a condensed, one inch square version of that drink.

I've made a few different varieties of fudge and I think I prefer this method to the classic boiled sugar method. No candy thermometer, no pot and no careful crystallization required. Just microwave, stir and pour. It's incredibly creamy and smooth. I made this batch of fudge for the boyfriends holiday office party and apparently it was gone in no time! I know I had a few pieces for myself.

One Year Ago: Eggnog Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Coconut Brownies

Three Years Ago: Dark Chocolate Hearts

Easy Christmas Fudge

A Wilde Original

1 (14-oz) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup vanilla chips
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 cup candy canes, crushed

Line an 8-inch pan with wax paper.

Combine 9 tablespoons (7 ounces) sweetened condensed milk with chocolate chips and cocoa powder.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.  Pour into the prepared pan and smooth out.  Place in the fridge while you prepare the peppermint  layer.

Combine remaining sweetened condensed milk with vanilla chips.  Microwave for 1 minute, stir until mostly melted.  Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract and stir until smooth.  Pour over chocolate layer and smooth out.  Sprinkle with crushed candy canes and gently press in.  Place in the fridge for 2 hours to harden.

Cut slab of fudge into 25 squares.

Cookie Week - Amazing oatmeal cookies

I thought I would end cookie week with something slightly healthy. We're not talking applesauce and yogurt replacing all the butter.  No no no, it's not that time of year.  Yet.  I'm talking about healthy and delicious additions to these cookies.

Cooke Week - Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I can't have a cookie week without including peanut butter and chocolate. It is one of my most favorite flavor combinations ever. When my mom and I made cookies for Christmas, I would inevitably pick at least two or three PB&C recipes for us to make. Then I would promptly eat all of them. I can't make peanut butter blossoms because I will wind up downing the entire batch.

Cookie Week - Gingerbread Mallomen

Happy Holidays! It's time once again for the Great Food Blogger Cookie swap! The cookie swap is organized by Lindsay, of Love & Olive Oil, and Julie, of The Little Kitchen and gives food bloggers a chance to swap cookies, share stories and help out. I'm so lucky to be a part of this little food blogging community of ours. 

Cookie Week - Red Velvet Brownies

Cookie week continues! Hopefully the boyfriends coworkers don't get too sick of cookies. I've been sending him to work with lots and lots of them. Well, most of them, these red velvet brownies didn't leave the house. Call me a sucker for cream cheese frosting, because you couldn't pry these from my hands.

Cookie Week - Almond Spiral Cookies

It's my favorite time of year and the best week to be here at WITK!  It's cookie week! I stocked up on butter, sugar and sprinkles and baked all weekend. When I was younger and still living at home, my mom, brother and I would spend an entire weekend making Christmas cookies. 

There were Russian tea cakes, butterscotch chip cookies, Mexican wedding cakes, cherry thumbprints, black forest drops, iced cut out cookies and so many more. I think we wound up with over a dozen different types of cookies each year. The cookies wound up on trays and dessert plates. They were taken to school and work. Everyone got to share the indulgence and we all wound up a few pounds heavier. 

Since I moved away from home over ten years ago now, I haven't really done a major cookie weekend. Even my mom has pared down her cookie baking because she retired last year. This year I decided to do a cookie baking weekend with the boyfriend and send all the treats to work with him!

Today we're starting off with a take on my classic almond sugar cookie. I went with a simple green and white color scheme because I had green sugar crystals in my pantry. Yeah, I'm real creative. Stay tuned all week for more cookies. So many cookies!

One Year Ago: Acorn Squash & Sausage Bake
Two Years Ago: Thai Chicken Curry
Three Years Ago: Dark Chocolate Hearts

Almond Spiral Cookies

A Wilde Original

1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
Green food coloring
1/4 cup green sanding sugar

In a large bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar and salt until smooth.  Add almond flour and almond extract and beat until combined.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the edges.  Add egg and combine.  Finally, add flour slowly until completely mixed.

Scrape half of the batter out of the bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap.  Fold over plastic wrap and roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness, about 6x10 inches.  Transfer to a baking sheet and chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.  To the remaining dough, add enough green food coloring to achieve your desired color. Mix until evenly colored. Scrape batter out of the bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap and roll out to 1/8-inch thickness, about the same size as the white dough. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Remove dough from the fridge and peel back plastic from the top of each piece of dough. Flip one piece onto the top of the other, gently press together.  Allow dough to warm slightly, until you can bend the dough.  Peel the top piece of plastic wrap from the dough.  Using the bottom piece of plastic wrap, begin rolling the dough into a 10-inch long cigar.  Be sure to press the dough together as you roll to make sure you have no gaps in the spiral.  Wrap the dough log in the plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Pour green sanding sugar onto a flat plate.  Remove dough log from the fridge and roll in sugar crystals, gently press into the dough. Re-wrap in the plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.  Once dough is solid, remove from the freezer and slice into 1/4-inch medallions.  Place on a parchment (or silpat) lined baking sheet and place in the fridge until the oven is heated.

Preheat oven to 350 F and bake cookies for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet on a wire rack.

Cranberry-Orange Mallomars

Happy Thanksgiving week! I'm so ready for the holiday season. During my unemployed hours I've been preparing lots and lots of recipes for you! I'm most excited to share this first cookie recipe of the season with you. This cranberry-orange mallomar is sweet and tart and tastes just like christmas!

Daring Bakers: Christmas Stollen

Merry Christmas or Happy Chinese food and movie day to everyone! I hope that your day is treating you well, no matter what you are up to. I’ve been enjoying my Buffalo Christmas this year, spending time with family and friends. In the spirit of spending time with the ones I love, I decided to complete my December Daring Baker’s challenge with my mom! We had a great time, made a huge mess and came out with an amazing dessert.

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge the Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

The original recipe called for lots of candied citrus peels and rum. Personally, I’m not really a rum person, and I didn’t feel like candying that much peel. I was feeling particularly lazy this Christmas. However I couldn’t be too lazy because this stollen has quite a few steps. I recommend getting a partner to help you with this recipe. This will help you make sure everything that needs to be added to the bread, actually is added to the bread. Also, you’ll have four different bowls of ingredients that need to be prepared before they are all combined.

We had a great time making this dessert. The best part of it was watching the bread grow. After we formed it into the wreath we watched it grow and grow (it’s alive!), then once it went into the oven it got even bigger. We decided to bring the monster to our family gathering on Christmas eve. After a little explanation the dessert started to disappear (it goes well with pizza and buffalo wings!). At the end of the evening there was some fighting over the remaining stollen, mostly because I suggested it would make an amazing French toast tomorrow morning.

Plan ahead and spend some time with someone special, baking this dessert. You’ll be enjoying it for days ahead. Make it into French toast, a bread pudding or just as toast with butter. If you coat it with sticks and sticks of butter and layers and layers of powdered sugar, then this dessert will last for weeks. (And also be buttery and delicious, BUTTER!)