Every year Christmas celebrating seems to start earlier and earlier. This year at my local Walgreens there was Halloween candy on one side and Christmas on the other, in September. Some people are sticklers about no Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving, some not until December, and then there are those who get excited when the first Christmas song on the radio comes on. Now some do go a little overboard. There are my neighbors who put up Christmas lights in October. Though I just really like to think of the lights as extra illumination to help with the Neighborhood Crime Watch, and not to think of them as Christmas lights until the end of November.

I think the reason why people rush into the holiday season and start wanting to decorate in August is because for most people the holidays are a happy time. They want that recaptured. And I guess the figure the quicker they start to celebrate it, the better.

My friend C doesn’t really start getting into the holidays early, but she does usually start thinking about what cookie she will make for cookie exchange. She consults me every year as to what she will be making. She likes simple, as she is not a big baker (and yet still my friend ). This year she said she wanted to do a chocolate chip cookie but make it more holiday-ish with peppermint or something. So here is what I did with that. No these aren’t reinventing the wheel by any means. But they are chocolate and mint and really, those are flavors you can’t go wrong with.

So if you are annoyed by your neighbors and all there early Christmas decorating, just figure that they are trying to be in a better mood. A happier neighbor makes for a happier neighborhood.

Peppermint Crunch-Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
7 ounces milk chocolate chips
7 ounces Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a bowl by hand), beat together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla on medium speed just until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated, then stir in the flour mixture followed by the chocolate and peppermint chips.
On a lightly floured work surface, divide the dough into quarters. Shape each quarter into a log about 9 inches long. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, preferably for 24 hours (do this part for real please).
Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Slice the logs into disks ¾ inch thick and place the disks 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. If the chips crumble out (and they will), simply push them back in, they reshape nicely.
Bake, rotating the baking sheets midway through baking, until the cookies are very lightly browned in the centers, about 10 minutes. If you like soft chocolate chip cookies, as I do, err on the side of underbaking.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets until firm enough to handle, then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack.
Adapted from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz

So most of the people reading my blog today weren’t reading it back when it started, because, well, no one was. But sadly because of that some really great recipes get looked over. One of them is my Egg Nog Cake with Bourbon-Cream Cheese Frosting that I roll out each year for the holidays. I originally made and posted about it way back in December of 2006, so we are going way back in the Way Back Machine (if you are old, you might get the reference and how it relates to me). It’s become a tradition to make every year, and is requested often.

Egg nog was on sale this week and so I picked up some. Truthfully, I am not really an egg nog girl. I don’t drink it to drink it, but I do like the flavor it produces in desserts (well, most, not all). And in this cake you don’t really notice it all that much. You do however notice the frosting. My bff asked me “how did you get the frosting to taste like bourbon?” Simple silly, I added bourbon. If you aren’t too much of a bourbon fan you can drop back to 2 TBSP but really, I like it to have a little punch…it’s the holidays after all.

Now I know most of you are frantically cooking and baking right now and can’t be bothered with the idea of holiday parties and what not at this point in time. But when the time does come you are really going to want to make this. I normally just frost the top of this cake due to my lack of decorating skills, but the frosting recipe is for the full cake. Throw on some red and green sprinkles and you scream festive.

What about you? Are you a fan of egg nog? If not, egg nog desserts or lattes?

Egg Nog Cake with Bourbon-Cream Cheese Frosting

3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup egg nog
1 TBSP butter
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until very thick; the batter should fall from the beaters in a thick ribbon. Beat in the vanilla.
While you’re beating the eggs and sugar, heat the egg nog and butter in a small saucepan to just simmering. Add the hot egg nog to the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream as you continue beating.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until they’re just combined.
Pour the batter into a lightly greased 9 inch cake round. Bake for 50 minutes, or until the cake is a deep golden brown and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan.

Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting
3 1/2 TBSP bourbon (it’s one of the mini bottles)
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4cup butter, at room temperature
4-5 cups powdered sugar (will depend on how thick you like your frosting)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until soft.
Add the powdered sugar and beat to combine.
Add the bourbon and beat to combine.

Source: Inspired by Hot Milk Cake in the King Arthur’s Flour Baker’s Companion All Purpose Baking Cookbook

I get my fair share of free cookbooks from publishers. If I really like the book, I feature it here on the blog. More often than not, those books are not really baking/dessert books, though usually have both in them. So I get especially excited when someone offers to send me an actual baking/dessert book. So when Houghton Mifflin Harcourt asked if I wanted a copy of The Gourmet Cookie Book* I was all over it. My original intent was to give it to my mother after I was done with it. But after having it now, I had to go buy my mom her own copy for Christmas (don’t worry, I didn’t spill the beans…she never reads my blog ).

The book highlights what they feel was the best cookie of that year, starting in 1941 and making and baking its way up to Gourmet’s sad demise in 2009. I was a bit overwhelmed with my choices. I thought about choosing my birthday year, only to realize I didn’t have the main ingredient. So I did what I sometimes do to cookbooks, I just opened a page and that is what I made. I hit 1999 (Prince would be so proud). There pictured were beige cookies. Damn it! Beige again. I hate taking pictures of beige food. So I figure I would make them but not put them on the blog. Fine.

And then I ate one. Oh my. These cookies come from Skibo Castle (in Scotland…my dad would be so proud) and have just a hint of ginger that you don’t even notice it is ginger. The people I had try these loved the flavor but no one could pick out what it was. I actually love when that happens. No overpowering ginger flavor here. They are a super thin shortbread that is topped with a topping that almost ends up like half icing, half candy. I love it. I want to top many more things with it.

I quickly forgave the beige color and decided that regardless people needed to make these.  I think they would make a great cookie to take to cookie exchange, I can pretty much guarantee that no one else will have them. And as far as the book goes, you probably want to pick that up as well.

*My copy of The Gourmet Cookie was given to me for free by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt but the opinions are all mine.

Skibo Castle Ginger Crunch

Makes about 5 dozen
For shortbread base:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 TBSP granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick (8 TBSP) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For topping:
3/4 stick (6 TBSP) unsalted butter
1 TBSP Lyle’s Golden Syrup (British cane sugar syrup)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan.
Make shortbread base:
Sift together dry ingredients and blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press evenly into bottom of pan (base will be thin). Bake in middle of oven until golden and crisp, 20 to 25 minutes.
Make topping just before shortbread is done:
Melt butter in a small saucepan and whisk in remaining ingredients until smooth. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring, 30 seconds.
Pour topping:
Remove shortbread from oven and pour topping over, tilting pan to cover shortbread evenly. Cool in pan on a rack, then cut into small rectangles (8 rows lengthwise and 8 crosswise).

Source: The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe from Each Year 1941-2009

So most people know that I cook for Canadian Thanksgiving and then go out for American. But sadly I miss out on the best part of Thanksgiving when I do that….the leftovers. I will be honest and say I really don’t get all that excited about Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t like turkey warm at all. What I actually want is a turkey sandwich. But not just any one, I want one with stuffing and cranberry sauce in it as well.

So when Sam’s Club* asked if I would be interested in highlighting Thanksgiving dinner items, I asked them if I could just skip to the left overs. Which lucky for me they said sure. They are nice that way. I also told them that I would want to make a recipe for my readers, so could I mess with some of the stuff, and they again said sure.

Since there is only one person (and one dog) that eats turkey in this household I set out looking for a smaller turkey or just a breast. I found a nice, small sized Butterball turkey breast that was already cooked. Which was perfect, as I was using it for sandwiches. Though I must admit that if I was not doing turkey, I was so going to make the Jack Daniel’s Pork Loin (which I’m so going back for). Sam’s Club also offers a variety of Fresh Gourmet Side Dishes, with everything from Green Bean Casserole to Lobster Bisque. But for my sandwich I needed the Stuffing and the Cranberry Orange Relish. The really awesome thing about the Cranberry Orange Relish is that there is actual mandarin orange slices in there, not just the flavor. Made for a nice surprise as I was eating my sandwich. Which I put on just a half of one of the ginormous hoagie rolls I got there as well. I see a bread pudding made of hoagie rolls in my future.

And last but not least I went traditional. Pumpkin Pie. I do love it so. And they make an almost 4 pound pumpkin pie for under $7. You can’t really beat that people. Since I figure I can clear half a pumpkin pie in a day , I needed to get creative with what to do with the rest of the pie. And though I fully support pie for breakfast, I decided to cleverly disguise it as real breakfast. If you consider donuts real breakfast, which I do.

So I scooped out some pie filling, mixed it with heavy whipping cream, made some donut holes, dipped in glaze and filled with the pie filling. Um, yeah. I should have been doing this years ago. Years ago people! Oh my. Wear your stretchy pants.

So if you want an easy, econmical (my entire meal was under $40) and stress free holiday, head on over to Sam’s Club to make your life a little more tasty and easier.  Also, they offer a Red Velvet Cheesecake that I tried when I was out in Arkansas visiting Sam’s Club. Go find that. Seriously. Awesome. It’s in the freezer section.

*As always, I was compensated for this post, was given a Sam’s Club membership, and a gift card to purchase the food that is in the post.

Pumpkin Pie Filled Glazed Donut Holes

3/4 cup scalded milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup unsalted
2 eggs, beaten
Oil for deep frying

For glaze:
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
6 tablespoons milk
For filling:
2 cups fully baked pumpkin pie (just scoop out the filling, no crust)
4 TBSP heavy whipping cream

In a medium bowl, stir together the scalded milk, sugar, and salt. Set aside to cool until tepid. If using nutmeg, stir it into the flour, and add 2 cups of the mixture to the milk, and beat until well blended.
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Stir into the milk and flour mixture, and then mix in the butter and eggs. Mix in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time. When dough is firm enough, turn it out onto a floured surface, and knead for 3 to 4 minutes. Place into an oiled bowl, cover and allow dough to rise until doubled in bulk. This should take 30 to 45 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch in thickness. Cut into donut hole size with a circle cutter. Set aside to rise for 30 to 40 minutes, or until light.
Heat one inch of oil in a deep heavy frying pan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Fry donuts a few at a time. Cook on each side until golden brown, and then remove to drain on paper towels. Glaze while warm, or just sprinkle with sugar.
To make the glaze, stir together the confectioners’ sugar and 6 tablespoons milk until smooth. Dip warm donuts into glaze, and set aside to cool.
To make the filling simply mix the cream and pie filling together in a bowl. Put into a piping bag. Using a small tip (so that it will poke into the donut but big enough for filling to come out) pipe filling into center of donut hole.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com