SPARKLY COCOA NIB CHIP BUTTER COOKIES

Happy Holidays!

FESTIVE CHRISTMAS MACARONS

HO HO HO!  Pistachio macarons with Chestnut Cream, Vanilla Buttercream and Glace Cherry fillings.
VARIATION #1:  MATCHA-PAINTED PISTACHIO MACARONS WITH VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

Hand-painted pistachio macaron shells with buttercream filling.  The “paint” is matcha.

Follow the recipe for Pistachio macaron shells exactly.  I made two separate batches and just changed up the fillings to make my life a bit easier.
*Please hit the "read more" link to proceed to the recipes and techniques for the 3 macaron variations.

AND SO THE XMAS COOKIE BAKING FRENZY BEGINS…

     

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS COOKIES
Here are some of my favourite Christmas Cookies and the recipes.  Click on the first picture to find the recipe post or decorating technique.   Hover your mouse over the first picture to learn the name of the cookie.  You could bake a recipe a day for the 12 days of Christmas!






 





  
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY BAKING!

HOMEMADE VANILLA EXTRACT

Homemade Vanilla Extract is the ultimate culinary act of recycling.  In my home, none of those expensive vanilla beans go to waste.  I use real vanilla beans in various ways.  The whole bean is split and scraped of its seeds for custards and is used in my baking.  The empty seed pods are sometimes ground up finely with sugar to add gorgeous speck of vanilla flavour to cookie doughs, and if I'm not making cookies that day, the empty pods are simply submerged in a huge bottle of vodka where I have been soaking other used vanilla pods.  I sometimes even put a few whole split pods in the vodka bottle, seeds and all, to give it an extra vanilla boost.  Reader, you must join me in my duty to spread the vanilla love so continue the jump for some cool ideas.