033113 Prune Rugelach

This was the first time I made any rugelach recipes.....and it was wonderful!! Quite a bit of work, but the cookies are well worth the effort!! You have to plan ahead for these cookies since the prunes have to soak in the brandy overnight, along with chilling the cream cheese dough. Lots of small bowls to be assembled with the various sprinklings - it was fun to make and the cookies are very yummy!! I'll have to make these again when my sisters are in town!!

033113 Umbrella Sugar Cookies

As you can see, I used bunny cut-outs instead of umbrellas - more fitting since today is Easter. The recipe has a nice lemon zing and the royal icing adds a bit of sweetness -actually, a little too much sweetness. Next time, I'll cut back on the icing. Very easy to assemble...a nice sugar cookie recipe.

032313 Icebox Spirals and Bulls-Eyes

This recipe is a bit too simple and plain tasting. Somewhat involved since you have 2 doughs to work with....I only made the bulls-eyes since I halved the recipe (good thing). Make sure that the dough is rolled out to 1/2" thick otherwise the dough starts to tear if it's too thin. Probably won't repeat...

030213 Whole-Wheat Date Bars

These are very delicious date bars...reminds me of the fig bar recipe. The whole-wheat adds a nice crunch! The recipe is a bit involved but worth the effort. Multiple dough chilling and you have to take out the food processor for the date filling - serious clean-up time.

022413 Peppermint Meringue Sandwiches with Chocolate Filling

This recipe was a bit more involved than I expected. I added a tad of cream of tartar to help stiffen the meringue. The ganache was a bit runny - maybe I needed to use better quality chocolate (?). So, I improvised and concocted an apricot filling since the ganache just wasn't staying put. Not bad. I skipped the red food coloring, too. Probably won't be repeating this cookie recipe....