Happy Holidays everyone! Things have been simply crazy this year – some good some not good – such is life. Am hoping to post some newer stuff – as always delicious – soon.

I recently had to get a new phone – my blackberry dated back to the Jurassic era and was just not working anymore – so I bought an iPhone.

I am so loving it. Even for spontaneous food photography!

I have been using my food photography as wallpaper images on my iPhone and have been enjoying images I have not seen in ages.

I thought that I would share one of them with you all. (for free of course)

While surfing on your smartphone CLICK THIS LINK to get a larger version of the image above – save it and then use it as wallpaper!

Let me know if you decide to use it.

We have been enjoying christmas here, lots of baking.

My mother gave me a Kitchenaid stand mixer and we have been using it for a few initial recipes.

One of them is a cheesecake we have baking in the oven as I type.

Another is a recipe I whipped together on the fly for a tasty NUT FREE granola, hope you enjoy it!

I used dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried medjool dates, and dried papaya.

Its super delicious, give it a try!

Christmas Granola

Ingredients:

• 3 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 c honey
• 1/2 c maple syrup
• 1/2 c oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1 1/2 c dried fruit, cut up to small pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Mix oats, honey, maple syrup, oil, salt, pumpkin spice until well mixed.

Onto foil lined cookie sheets, spread mix and put into oven for one hour.

Pull from oven every 15 minutes and mix well.

After one hour, turn oven up to 350 F and toast until it is a color you like (ours is golden to light brown).

Remove from oven and cool to slightly warm.

Add dried fruits, mix, store in baggie.

Enjoy!

I have entered this post into the annual Bon Appetit Holiday Dessert Bake-Off and I would be deeply thankful if you would follow THIS LINK and vote for my entry!

I have been fretting over this post for DAYS. I have been conceptualizing, racking my culinary brains, wondering if this entry should be super child friendly or uber – urbane and a global foodie galore. I have been hoping for just the slightest break in the driving dark rains here in Massachusetts. I baked all day yesterday while also getting ready for Halloween.

Today was meant to be simple – just assemble the lovely tidbits you see below and shoot. Not so fast!

At least the sun came out.

I asked my 13 yo daughter to help set out a stool onto which I would be setting the tray with the styled food. The 3 yo and the 6 yo decide that it would be time to run hair-burning-crazy amok around the house and outside of it – they see my camera as a few moments where I will be distracted and they run like the wind with it.

As the 13 yo was helping me with the stool one of our roosters attacked her and it was a fierce and brutal one. One of the girl chickens had some how found an antique plastic 6 pack plastic and had it wrapped tightly on her neck. As my DD was leaning over to help this poor hen the rooster launched himself at my poor daughter. She then was chasing the rooster around the garden as I rushed out to shoot while I still had sun.

So, as I am shooting these photos, 3 and 6 yos are running amok, 13 yos are running around in the garden, bleeding and swearing a blue streak, and a whole flock of chickens were assembled around me, the soft rustling of their feathers belying their impending attack.

Jeepers, what I do for food photography these days.

It is my hope that this holiday dessert offering can be considered delicious and non-denominational, good for any tradition.

When I was trying to think of what is THE iconic holiday dessert I was completely at a loss. In my house growing up, we just didnt do desserts. We had no tradition beyond Colombian bunuelos and those are not going to win a Bon Appetit contest.

My husband, being a first generation immigrant from England, suggested trifle. I vetoed that almost as soon as it came out of his mouth – trifle is NOT good food photography food.

I envisioned complicated frosted christmas cakes but decided I wasnt in the mood to do the frosting and knew it would not end well.

At some point, it struck me that holiday desserts have been about precious spices since time immemorial. With this thought in mind, I set out to find recipes that might showcase the spices I like and do it in a way that might win this contest.

I think its possible that the following two recipes might fit that bill. I had also in mind a persimmon panna cotta but I fell deeply in love with my persimmon, she is so very beautiful, that I decided to offer her simply as she is. Many cultures have done the same, serving simple fruits at the holidays.

Once again, please consider visiting THIS LINK to vote for my entry into the Bon Appetit Holiday Dessert Bake-Off. The voting selects favorites and then the chefs at Bon Appetit prepare those recipes and then selects the grand prize winner.

What does the winner get?

A trip for two to NY and dinner at Le Bernardin restaurant with Editor-in-Chief Barbara Fairchild and Restaurant Editor Andrew Knowlton!

If I win, I am going to take my 13 yo daughter (who should have stopped bleeding by then) and we will try things like foie gras and lord knows what else at Le Bernardin! It should be something she will remember for a long time and I would love to be able to meet Barbara Fairchild and Andrew Knowlton though I am not exactly certain what we will talk about!

Besides the persimmon, which is not an entry so much as food porn, we have, in front, Rosemary Coconut Hedgie Cookies (a variation of my very popular Chocolate Coconut Hedgies) and a Cardamom Cream Cake topped by figlets. The hedgies, as usual, are simple but just fantastic. They are crunchy and coconutty and sweet on the outside while still moist inside.

The Cardamom Cream Cake was something new to me and is also a very simple recipe. It is a traditional dessert in Scandinavian countries. The cake is very moist, quite decadent (made with heavy cream) and can stand up to all sorts of decorating abuse you might throw at it. I prefer simple. As such, all I did was make a homemade cardamom syrup, put that on the bottom layer and then sprinkled the top layer with powdered sugar.

Rosemary Coconut Hedgie Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 C AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 C butter
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp finely minced fresh rosemary
• 1/2 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 C flaked sweetened coconut
• powdered sugar, as desired

Directions

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt, set aside.

Cream together butter, minced rosemary, brown and white sugars. Make certain that it is very well mixed and that you get a light fluffy texture (you have incorporated air into the mix).

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Make golf ball sized dough balls and put onto parchment.

You can dredge in powdered sugar or more coconut before baking.

Bake for about 25 minutes (your oven may be different, watch the first batch).

Dust with powdered sugar.

Cardamom Cream Cake topped by figlets (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp freshly ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 C heavy cream
• several figlets, sliced in half for garnish
• Powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Put about 2 tsp cardamom pods into a coffee grinder and grind as much as you can. Pick out the pod husks and any other large bits, set aside. You will use some of this in the cake and then in the following recipe for the syrup. Please be careful because this grinding releases A LOT of really intense cardamom essence into the air which can really choke you up. We had to open windows to vet out the kitchen area.

In a large bowl, mix (low speed) together all purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, freshly ground cardamom, and salt. Use an electric mixer so that you can get a really good whip going. Keep your mixer on low and blend in your eggs. Next add your heavy cream and slowly turn the speed up to high. Continue beating until the batter looks like softly whipped cream. There is no water in this recipe so you do not need to worry much about excess gluten development. Really whip it.

You can then pour this batter into a cake pan but I wanted to get fancy so I used two spring form pans and spread it out thin so that I could cut the cake with a cookie cutter.

Bake until the toothpick comes out clean (an hour but check at 40 minutes on to be sure you do not over cook)

Cool on a rack and then decorate as you wish. I think dusting with powdered sugar is the traditional way.

Like I mentioned before, I wanted to turn up the cardamom notch so I made a cardamom syrup that I put on the bottom layer. I sliced my figlets and adorned the top of the cake with them.

Cardamom Simple Syrup

Ingredients

• 1/2 C water
• 1/2 – 1 tsp ground cardamom, pod husks and all
• 1 C granulated sugar

Directions

Add ground cardamom to water in small pot, bring to a boil, add sugar, simmer until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool.

Strain out large bits, store in cool place until use.

Dont forget to visit THIS LINK to vote for my entry into the Bon Appetit Holiday Dessert Bake-Off.

Drop me a comment to let me know if you did so I can thank you!

We made the usual sugar cookies this year but I do not have any photos, was so dark at the time and, well, who needs ANOTHER sugar cookie shot!

When shopping for cookie making ingredients, I picked up a bag of butterscotch chips without any particular plans for them. I made a couple of test sugar cookies studded with the chips but they seemed too plain. I took a peek at the recipe on the bag and found that I was latently craving oatmeal cookies, just like the ones in the bag’s recipe (amazing coincidence huh?)!

I changed the recipe to include sweetened coconut flakes because, well, they were on hand in my pantry and I love how they lend moistness.

I highly recommend these cookies. They pack a LOT of flavor and the flavor layers itself, delivering a long lasting experience. They also hold their flavor and moistness well on the counter, the few days until they are all gone. You can make them softer by not baking the full recommended period. Experiment with it.

Oatmeal Coconut Scotchies (Adapted from this recipe which you may find on your bag of Nestle Butterscotch chips)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or grated peel of 1 orange
• 3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
• 3/4 cup Sweetened coconut flakes (I used these)

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, coconut flakes, and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION:
Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

Have you ever noticed that your cat WILL be in the best spot for shooting? This is because they like it warm and sunny. If in doubt of where to shoot in a hurry, find your cat. We have 5 so I usually have to kick one out of the best spot. Sometimes, the cats just WON’T move.

Leo is tenacious.

Let me know if you make these and how they work out for you.

If you are a chocolate fiend, I don’t see why you can not pitch in a couple of tablespoons of powdered baking cocoa into the flour part, mix well before adding liquids.

Buen Provecho!

Living in the Northeast means that we get nice long summer days and sad short midwinter days.

I was born very near the equator, in the mountain city of Pereira, Colombia (up in the Andes). I moved to Wisconsin when I was 3 1/2 years old and have lived in the snowy lands of the US for some years (when I wasn’t living in the humid sweaty southern swampy parts of the US that is). There is some part of my inner child which misses those 12 hour days and 12 hour nights.

As a result of all this, I am very sensitive to the shortness of these days so I get really excited when we hit the winter solstice and our days begin to get longer.

In an effort to not be overly depressive during this time, we learn about solstice traditions across the ages and across the globe.

There is a huge amount of interesting information about solstice celebrations, from the Maya to the ancient Romans to Sweden to Germany to other countries on the Wikipedia. Follow this link for that page on the Winter Solstice.

Today is mid-winters eve with tonight being the longest night of the year where I live. The winter solstice will occur tomorrow morning at 1:08 AM and tomorrow will be the shortest day of the year.

Last year we made an edible Stonehenge, the neolithic structure dedicated to the winter solstice. That was a lot of fun.

This year I made a winter solstice stollen.

This bread is filled with rum-soaked fruits and nuts (in those homes where they do not have nut allergies). It has pagan Germanic roots although that would be hard to tell in recent times. If you look at the wikipedia page for stollen, the references are all christian. The stollen is meant to symbolize the baby jesus wrapped in a snowy white blanket. Other sources speak of how this festival bread was made by the pagan germanic tribes in times before the Romans invaded.

Nevertheless, the stollen is taken very much to heart by the German people. It is said that in 1730, King August the Great commissioned the baking of a 1.7 ton stollen for the people of Dresden. These days, the stollen has grown to 3 to 4 tons for the Stollenfest. To learn more about this oversized stollen, see the official page for the Giant Dresden Stollen. A few photos can be found at these links: The stollen cart pulled by draft horses, mega-stollen and the mega stollen knife (with stollen maiden), hefting the stollen knife at the mega-stollen, cutting some stollen for the townsfolk, stollen maiden with stollen knife.

Yeah, you have to see the photos to understand, I promise.

I found this recipe at About.com and I doubled it with no trouble. I soaked my dried fruits (apricots, dates, and raisins) in rum for a week before I made the bread. I also made my own candied lemon and orange peel.

This bread has delightful notes of citrus and also decadent rum soaked moments of apricot and date. Keep some on hand for Solstice and Christmas, its festive and delicious. You might want to be liberal with the simple sugar icing (powdered sugar with a bit of milk or lemon juice until the desired consistency) in case the crumb gets a bit dry.

Ingredients:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water, about 105 to 110 degrees
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• zest of 1 small to medium lemon
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup chopped mixed candied fruits and peels
• 1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates
• melted butter
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

• In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Melt the 1/3 cup butter in a small saucepan; add the milk and heat until warm, about 110°. Combine milk mixture with yeast mixture, the 1/3 cup sugar, the salt, lemon zest, eggs, and 2 cups of the flour.
• Beat on low speed of mixer until blended and smooth. Cover and let rise for about 45 minutes in a warm draft-free place. Stir in the chopped almonds, candied fruits, and raisins or dates. Beat in remaining flour, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup at a time.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 12 minutes. Divide in half and shape each half into a 12×8-inch oval loaf. Brush each loaf with melted butter; fold lengthwise almost double. Press edges together. Place in a large greased baking sheet and let rise for 40 minutes. Breads should be almost doubled. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Brush loaves with melted butter. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with the cinnamon and sprinkle over loaves. Cool on rack then wrap tightly and store in refrigerator or freezer.

Let me know if you try this and how it goes for you!

Technorati Tags: Northeast, midwinter, equator, Pereira, Colombia, Andes, Wisconsin, inner child, solstice, Maya, Romans, Sweden, Germany, Wikipedia, winter solstice, edible, Stonehenge, neolithic, candied, orange, peel, ladyfinger, stollen, pagan, Germanic, christian, baby jesus, August the Great, Dresden, Stollenfest, stollen maiden, rum, apricot, date, powdered sugar

Yummmm, sugar cookies.

I know its only November but the holidays are really just around the corner. Once Halloween is gone, it seems like its a full-on sprint into the winter holidays.

If you have the time, one nice way to open the season is to make a batch of beautiful sugar cookies. Perhaps a turkey-shape would be best right now and I might do some of those for Thanksgiving but today’s post shows Christmas cookies (because I do not have other types of cookie cutters) that go for a good cause!

By the way, I will be blogging soon on how we are NOT doing a turkey this year and something completely different but hopefully just as satisfying.

Are you thinking of drop-kicking the overgrown poultry and going for something brand spanking new?

If yes, let me know what your up to!

Lydia of The Perfect Pantry and Nine Cooks has been running a wonderful community building event for years now called Drop-in & Decorate. I am going to borrow from her site to give you the details.

“Drop In & Decorate^SM Cookies for Donation is a simple concept: bake some cookies, invite friends or family (or neighbors, or co-workers) to drop by and help decorate, then donate your cookies to a local food pantry, emergency shelter, senior center, lunch program, or other community agency serving neighbors in need.

Drop In & Decorate parties have become a wonderful tradition for many friends and families a way to “give back” and have fun, too.

To start your own tradition, download our free “How to Host Your Own Cookie Decorating Party” Guide (click here). Includes recipes, supply sources, and how to donate.

Read about Drop In & Decorate parties here.

Meet our recipient agencies and partners, and learn how and where to donate your cookies.

What’s in the King Arthur Drop In & Decorate Baking Kit? Click here for details.

NEW! Drop In & Decorate gear: buttons, T-shirts, aprons.”

Today I am going to share with you Lydia’s truly fantastic recipe for these sugar cookies that can put up with a LOT of icing.

Its much more of a shortbread and that, my friends, is ALWAYS a good thing (ok, maybe not for the hips, but the lips say “Yes, please, ma’am”).

I hope Lydia doesn’t mind my sharing this recipe here. Its my hope that you try it, see how fantastic your cookies are and then you become inspired to host your own Drop-in & Decorate party this year!

DROP IN & DECORATE SUGAR COOKIES
Reprinted from the archives, our best, most delicious sugar cookie recipe. See note below for making multiple batches. Makes 16-20 large (4-5 inch) sugar cookies.

Ingredients:

• 3-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups best quality unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 2 1/2 tsp best quality pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a couple of baking sheets with a Silpat or parchment paper. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. In another large bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar, until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla, and continue to beat until well blended and smooth. Beat flour mixture into the butter mixture until smooth. Divide dough in half. Place one half on a sheet of parchment paper or wax paper; cover with another sheet and roll to 1/4 inch.

Repeat with second half of dough. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes, or up to a couple of days (or, if making far in advance, you can freeze at this point. Wrap sheets tightly in plastic wrap). Remove one sheet from the refrigerator; peel off the top wax paper, then replace paper and invert dough. Peel off and discard what is now the top sheet of paper, and cut out the cookies. (cookies will spread, so do not place too close together on the baking sheet).

Reroll scraps, refrigerating if necessary to firm the dough. Bake for 6-9 minutes, or until just lightly colored on top and slightly darker at the edges. Rotate sheets halfway through for even browning. Remove pans from oven and let cookies cool 2-3 minutes. Then remove cookies to a rack and let cool completely. (At this point, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks, in layers separated by parchment or wax paper.)

After the cookies are completely cooled, decorate with Royal Icing. Place the decorated cookies on a tray and leave out overnight, uncovered, to harden. The next morning, package in food-safe cellophane bags or cookie tins.

*Note: to make multiple batches, do NOT double the recipe. It’s hard to control proportions. Instead, make multiples of the original recipe, one batch at a time, for guaranteed success!

*Another note: Rolled sheets of cookie dough can be made ahead and frozen (or, if you’re going to use them within a day or two, you can stack the rolled sheets of dough on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator). Let defrost until dough is pliable enough to be cut without breaking cookies, but not necessarily completely defrosted.

I will post again once I decorate these babies and shoot them. Be patient!

Technorati Tags: sugar cookie, November, Halloween, winter, holiday, sugar cookies, turkey, Thanksgiving, Christmas, cookie cutter, poultry, The Perfect Pantry, Nine Cooks, Drop-in & Decorate, Cookies for Donation, food pantry, emergency shelter, senior center, lunch program, community agency, neighbor, tradition, friend, families, recipe, King Arthur, icing, shortbread

Back in December, during my cookie baking furies, I noticed that AllRecipes.com was running a photo contest for cookie photos. I had fresh cookie photos so I entered (see shot above) not really expecting to win because the AllRecipes site gets a huge amount of traffic and there were sure to be many great submissions.

I got an email from AllRecipes a week ago or so telling me that I had won the gingerbread cookie category (runner up to grand prize)!

I got this super nifty cookie cookbook, I think I will be trying some out, already have a few ideas brewing.

Thanks AllRecipes.com!

Technorati Tags: baking, AllRecipes.com, photo contest, cookie, fresh, win, AllRecipes, traffic, cookbook, brewing

If you would like to learn more about the winter solstice and traditions around it (ancient and new) try these links:

Winter Solstice wiki entry
Stonehenge wiki entry
Maps and layouts
Amazing Stonehenge photo gallery
Stonehenge clones and morphisims
Party at the henge
Modern Stonehenge Solstice Ritual
Modern Druids and the Stonehenge
Information on Druids and the Stonehenge
List of Solstice websites that may interest you

To mark the occasion, we made our own stonehenge cake! We printed out some layouts and photos.

We gathered the various materials we would need to build our stonehenge and sat down to the hard work of nibbling on ladyfingers and sneaking bites of frosting.

Colombian Bunuelos

Ingredients:

• 2 C white fresh farmers cheese, finely ground or crumbled with fork
• 2 C Colombian “Bunuelina” mix
• 2 eggs
• milk to moisten
• canola oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mix all ingredients (except oil) in a bowl.

Heat the oil to very warm (you can stick your finger in it but not very long). Gently drop the balls into the oil and then turn up the heat. The balls will linger at the bottom of the pot until the oil heats up. They will turn themselves as they come up “for air.” Fry until light brown. Remove to a drained surface to cool.

Related Posts:

• How-2 guide on how to make Platanos (fried plantains or tostones)
• Yucas Fritas (Fried Yucas or Cassava Root) Recipe and How 2 photos
• Empanadas – The Recipe
• Flash Flickr Movie of How to make Colombian Empanadas
• Chicharron – Deep fried pork belly – How To
• How to make Colombian Empanadas – directions
• Latest full recipe for Colombian Bunuelos (2006 post)
• Last year’s Christmas Bunuelo Decadence
• A Colombian breakfast How-2 guide
• Colombian Frescos
• Lechona preparation

Technorati taggage:
food, Colombia, Colombian, bunuelo, christmas, navidad, latin, latino, hispanic, dessert, sweet, sugar, cheese, fried.

I have been writing up a storm over at the Well Fed Network these days but not posting (as I should) here because things have been hectic! I have included my latest Spirit World article below for your sugar high consumption needs.

This month’s drink for the Designated Driver is actually much more for the sugar-addicted than any other drink I have written about here before. I would be afraid to guess how many calories it might contain. It is honestly only for hard-core fluff lovers and adventerous adults and children.

I decided on this concept when I was making some rice crispies christmas cookies earlier this month.

The fluff you use to make those cookies is really an amazing compound material. While it was cooking in the pan, it sort of deflated and became less than it was so I wanted to see what I could do with it that kept its glorious color and texture.

I surfed over to the official Fluff site and found their online cookbook (PDF) with all sorts of high-caloric nefarious recipes! This is actually the 9th edition of the Yumybook, the first was published in 1930! On page 13 are their “shakes”, drinks made from fluff, milk, and various amendments. I extended the concept and created the Peppermint Fluff Martini in this post. I am sure you can come up with your own favorite variation!

This recipe could benefit from the addition of peppermint schnapps if you were so inclined. I am working on one made with kaluha myself.

Peppermint Fluff Martini

The Yummybook directions call for the use of a blender, I used a stick immersion blender instead. It works just fine.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons fluff
• 2/3 C cold milk (I used 1% because thats what I had, didn’t effect it negatively. Might not want to go with the cream, not sure if that would be too fatty and cause pools of fat on the top of the drink)
• Crushed peppermint sticks
• 1 peppermint stick, dipped in melted chocolate
• red food coloring
• Lorann natural peppermint oil

Directions:

Into a tall narrow mixing container add the fluff, milk, and 1 drop peppermint oil.

Mix until all fluff lumps are gone.

Split mix in half and add red coloring to one half, mix until incorporated.

Layer the white and pink fluff with additional peppermint chunks throughout.

To decorate top edge of glass (as shown), before assembling the drink dab a small amount of fluff on the edge and then dredge in finely crushed peppermint candy.

Finish with chocolate dipped peppermint stick.

Give to your loved ones. They will be lucky to finish one of these.

Resources:

• Rumple Minze Peppermint Schnapps
• Fluff
• Lorann Oils