Non-traditional holiday dessert

Thanksgiving 2018

This year, we didn't have a traditional family Thanksgiving and we celebrated Christmas early with only one of my siblings since my sisters weren't able to come home this year.  Just the 5 of us were in Palm Desert for Thanksgiving.  While we had a wonderful day and made some new family memories (including turducken which we will definitely repeat!), the kids were disappointed not to be with cousins and extended family.

Our dessert choices reflected our non-traditional year . . . no-one really wanted apple pie or pumpkin pie so I made this gingerbread pumpkin dessert and Big made a new recipe - a lemon lava cake.  Big loves lemon desserts, is really into baking lately, and came up with this idea.  We read several recipes online before determining that we didn't want one that was mostly white chocolate.  A lot of these take a chocolate lava cake and use white chocolate and lemon instead.  What we came up with turned out delicious . . . especially with some of our orange cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving dinner on top!  In the future, we thought of incorporating fresh blueberries or a blueberry sauce as well.

Recipe notes:  You can make your own lemon curd, or buy it.  We used the Trader Joe's one.  These amounts are little funky because I was converting from metric weights.

Lemon Lava Cakes (makes 6)
from Seasons and Suppers blog

7 T unsalted butter, softened (plus more for greasing the ramekins)
5 T white sugar (plus 1 T for dusting the ramekins)
2 eggs
2 T whole milk
1 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cup + 1 T all-purpose flour
6 T lemon curd

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Butter six ramekins and coat them with white sugar.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Lightly beat the eggs and gradually add them to the bowl, beating all the time.  Add the milk and lemon zest.  Add the flour and incorporate well.

Fill each ramekin about 1/3 full of the batter.  Using a spoon, make a little well in the middle by pushing the batter away from the middle to the sides.  Place about 1 T of the lemon curd in the well you made, then cover the curd with more batter until the ramekin is 2/3 - 3/4 full. Repeat with remaining ramekins and place filled ramekins on a baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and the cakes spring back when touched.  When you remove them from the oven, immediately run a knife around the edges of the ramekins before turning them out on to plates.  Serve right away.

Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

I meant to go backwards and post about our fall . . . along with some good recipes I've made . . . but sometimes going back is too hard.  So onward to the "most wonderful time of the year"!  I'm getting ready to bake this week and wanted to share this one from the Julienne cookbook that I really enjoyed last Christmas.  Before the recipe, here are some of our holiday antics (so far).

Christmas themed "Escape Game" -we made it!

Last year's preschool craft, measured to last year's height

Tree lighting fancy dinner with just our little

Christmas Carol performance - dressed to go onstage!

Decorating the tree

Sister love by the Christmas tree

Secrets with Santa

Journey to Bethlehem

Cooking with our friends from Hawaii who came to visit!

Peppermint Shortbread Cookies (makes 3-4 dozen)
From “Celebrating with Julienne”

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 T (packed) golden brown sugar
1 extra large egg
1.5 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
2 oz bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao or more), chopped

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg, peppermint extract, and vanilla.  Add the flour and salt and mix until a soft dough forms.  Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a 1.5 inch diameter log about 4 inches long.  It works best to roll it on plastic wrap.  Then, wrap hte log with plastic and enclose completely.  Repeat with the remaining dough, forming 3 logs total. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cut the logs crosswise into slices approximately 1/4 inch thick.  Arrange dough rounds on baking sheets and bake until light brown around the edges, about 5 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and dip half of each cookie in the melted chocolate.  Let the chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.