071412 Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Peanut butter and chocolate are always a great combination, and so it's no surprise that this recipe was sensationally yummy! However, I have made a similar recipe starting from a brownie mix...much easier, faster, and the end results is pretty close. The recipe is pretty easy to assemble;the peanut butter filling is delicious and a keeper for future recipes (like chocolate cupcake filling).

071412 Lemon-Apricot Sandwiches

This dough is very delicious - nice tart lemon zing!! I used a 1.25" round cutter and thought that was too small (the recipe called for a 1.125" round cutter). The cookies are a good bite size tea sandwich and go very well with tea or coffee. Since the cookies are thin, you need to keep an eye on them in the over (burn fast). I didn't freeze the dough as recommended and I thought the cookies came out fine. I thought the jam through the sieve was too thin and ended up using the jam straight out of the jar.

070112 Chocolate-Almond-Marsala Cookies

This recipe was very easy to make;patting it into a log was effortless provided adequate flour was used. Regrettably, I opted out the orange peel,which I think would have provided a whole new dimension to the cookie flavor. I'll definitely have to repeat this recipe w/ the orange peel. However, the cookies were delightful w/o the orange and had a nice chocolate-almond combination. The aroma in the kitchen due to the Marsala and chocolate was quite pleasant.