CAKEBRAIN'S CHRISTMAS COOKIE BOXES: ROUND 1

here's what the first batch of christmas cookie boxes looks like inside

Ahhh...'tis the season to be weary.

clockwise from top left: world peace, vanilla butter, green tea christmas trees, bah humbug black sesame butter sables, cocoa nib & pecan, chocolate chunk oatmeal

I've completed and delivered my first batch of Christmas Cookie Boxes. I have 4 pounds of butter left in the refrigerator and I have been having second thoughts about some of those cookies. I noticed a particularly nice variation on Tartelette's blog using Medrich's Nibby Pecan Cookie recipe using pistachios and have decided to make the remaining boxes with pistachios instead. This is also a time-saver because I don't have any pecans in the pantry and I don't want to run out to the crowded market to fetch some! I have lots of pistachios left from my Pistachio Macarons adventure.

my favourite in decending order: green tea christmas trees, bah humbugs, vanilla butter, cocoa nib & pecan, chocolate chunk oatmeal, world peace

In Alice Medrich's bible of chocolate recipes and all things chocolate, Bitter Sweet, I noticed an interesting recipe that will use some of my cocoa nibs and whole almonds. It's for a wafer-thin biscotti-like cookie that isn't so sweet. It looks so yummy that I'll have to include it in my next boxes (I hope!) For the second round or cookies, I'm including the snowflake cutouts, the cocoa nib & pistachio cookies and the almond & cocoa nib wafers. I'm currently up to my armpits in royal icing (which I don't particularly like, but it's pretty on cookies). Icing consisitency is so important; otherwise the cookies will look pretty darned messy...and I have made quite a mess with some of these snowflakes! Bebe's been happy though because she gets to eat the rejects.

ah. fini