12 Days of Christmas, Days 5-9

Well, two 12-hour shifts in a row, along with the parents coming to visit for Christmas has left me a little behind in the blogosphere, and it turns out that I've forgotten to write for the last few days.  The Christmas season has been hectic, but is drawing to a close - phew! Only four days left in this challenge.

Day five brought popcorn balls - I did two versions, cranberry ginger and Mexican chocolate. If you want to surprise your friends, don't tell them that there is chili powder in the chocolate popcorn balls.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting were the special for day six - if you want bonus points, put extra frosting into an icing bag with a smallish tip, shove it into the top of each cupcake and inject some frosting into the middle of each cake before frosting the top. You'll know you have enough when the cupcake swells a little. I got hugs all day from friends at work for these.

Day seven was a flurry of Christmas candies. I like to make different   bag them up and give them to friends as little gifts. It is fun and relatively easy to do. I went a little overboard, making another batch of apple cider snicker doodles (see disaster cookies from previous episode), peppermint bark, Mexican chocolate truffles (chocolate truffles with almond extract, cayenne and chili powder - yum!), peanut butter chocolate pretzels, turtles, and maple walnuts.

Day eight - I totally forgot to make something. It was an hour before I had to leave for work when I realized I hadn't made a single thing, but figured it was ok given the overload of goodies from day seven. Right?

Day nine brought my parents in town, which means I get the joy of cooking with my mom again. More on this later. We made triple-ginger gingersnaps, which were flat out awesome. I definitely recommend this for ginger fans.

Triple-Ginger Gingersnaps - recipe courtesy  Taste of Home Magazine December 2011

2/3c butter, softened
1c packed brown sugar
1/4c molasses
1 egg
2tsp minced fresh ginger root
1c all-purpose flour
3/4c whole wheat flour
3tsp ground ginger
1 1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1/4tsp ground cloves
3tbsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1/4c sugar
1 1/2tsp ground cinnamon

1. in a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses, egg and fresh ginger

2. combine the flours, ground ginger, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cloves; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in crystallized ginger. Cover and refrigerate for one hour or until easy to handle


3. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into 1" balls, roll in sugar mixture. Place 3" apart on parchment paper lined baking sheet, bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.