The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011 - Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

When an event has a name like The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, you know it's going to be a big deal. In the past few weeks, hundreds of bloggers have been busy baking and mailing their holiday cookie creations. It's been a nice way of building community that I've enjoyed taking part in.

I had some trouble coming up with a recipe I wanted to use, but as soon as I tasted the Candy Cane Coal from Trader Joe's, I knew what I had to do. I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and simply swapped out the chocolate for the candy cane bits, and I had a perfectly festive cookie. I made these a little smaller than usual, so they were a little flatter and crispier, but just as tasty.

Now I just need to stock up on this candy so I can make sure I can make these cookies in the future!

And since this was a swap, I got some wonderful cookies in return. I received double chocolate coconut cookies (top left) from Elizabeth at A Chronic Venture, chocolate lemon ricotta cookies (top right) from Janet at Food Beautiful, and hazelnut linzer cookies (bottom) from Athena Plichta. You can be sure that I've made short work of all these cookies.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3-4 ounces chocolate-covered candy cane bits (like Trader Joe's Candy Cane Coal)

Preheat the oven to 325°. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed, then add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended. Stir in the candy can bits, then drop dough in heaping tablespoons on a cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes until golden and puffed. Slide the sheet of parchment off the cookie sheets and let the cookies cool without disturbing them for a few minutes. Once they have cooled slightly, move the cookies to a cooling rack.

Friday I'm In Love... with Trader Joe's Candy Cane Coal

It's seeming like every Friday I'm In Love post is candy from Trader Joe's, and rightfully so. There are always new products every time I walk in, and I can't help but walk out with at least one new item to try. And Christmas time is an even better time for new products - you never know what kind of gifty thing you're going to find there.

Case in point: Candy Cane Coal. It's got kind of a stupid name, but I'll let that pass, because it tastes so damn good. The box is small (although I like the simple design of a fireplace) and holds about 3.5 ounces of the candy. Doesn't sound like much, but there's lots of flavor in each little bit. The candy is tiny bits of crispy candy cane covered in dark chocolate. That's, like, two of my favorite flavors in one food. How could I not love this?!

I've already eaten plenty of these straight, but I've also done a little baking with them as well. Stop back on Monday for the recipe. I'm thinking I might have to stockpile this stuff after Christmas because I don't want to not have this in my life.

Friday I'm In Love... with Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar with Caramel and Black Sea Salt

Recovered from your Halloween sugar coma? I would have traded all the Halloween candy I ate for just one of these bad boys. Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Bar - Caramel with Black Sea Salt (say that 10 times fast) is just too damn good. It's a very good 70% chocolate with a nice snap, filled with a deliciously runny caramel and topped with giant flakes of salt. I'm a fool for anything salty/sweet, and if you add in chocolate, it's a perfect trifecta. This bar doesn't fail on any of its three components. Oh, that caramel... I've heard rumors of jarred salted caramel at TJs, and if it's the same stuff as this, I'm glad I haven't found it yet - I would eat it all with a spoon.

This is not a pretty chocolate bar, though. I know, I took about 50 pictures of it. One side of the bar is nice and smooth, but the opposite side, where the salt is sprinkled, is more unruly. Between the salt, which could stand to be distributed a lot more evenly, and holes where the caramel had oozed out a bit, it becomes clear that the reason Trader Joe's can sell this bar for a very, very reasonable $2 and something is because it's pretty hideous. This isn't something to give as a gift, as it will win no beauty pageants. But then, I'd have a hard time giving one away. I want to keep them all for myself.

Salted Caramel Apple Tart

There comes a point after you've gone apple picking when you can't possibly eat another apple all by itself. And I love apples. Once you hit that point, you've got to do something else with them.

Enter this delicious salted caramel apple tart. Caramel and apples just go together so perfectly. I would have made caramel apples, but, well, that's just an apple covered in caramel. Not different enough from a plain apple for my apple-exhaustion. For the tart, I made homemade caramel, but used store-bought pie dough (to even out the workload). It was so good, I had to make a second one (good thing the pie dough comes two to a box).

Salted Caramel
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream, warmed in microwave, plus more for brushing
1/4 tsp salt

Pour the water into a large saucepan, then pour the sugar into the center of the pan. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Cook on high without stirring until golden brown (have cream warmed and waiting for this). Remove from heat and carefully whisk in cream (wearing an oven mitt helps - the caramel will release a lot of steam). Boil to thicken slightly (remember the caramel will thicken further as it cools), then stir in salt. Let cool before using.

Salted Caramel Apple Tart
1 large or 2 small apples (eating apples work better than baking apples), sliced very thin
salted caramel
pie dough (1 disk of store-bought or half of your favorite recipe)
sugar

Preheat oven to 450°.

Roll dough into a 1/4-inch thick circle. Arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread caramel on dough, leaving an inch-wide margin around the edge. Lay apple slices overlapping in a fanned pattern around the dough (outer circle first, so the inner circle can overlap). Gently fold the edges of the dough up over the apples. Brush the top of the entire tart with heavy cream and sprinkle on some sugar. Place baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375° and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the top of the tart is golden brown. Let cool before serving.

The Only Cure for Swine Flu... is Bacon

Aaaand I'm back! I've spent the past week or so holed up in my room, going through about 12 trees-worth of Puffs tissues (with lotion, of course, which is why I still have a nose), a million gallons of tea (I think I've reduced our tea supply by half, which is saying something), 6 two-liters of diet 7-UP and about 3 liters of Trader Joe's knockoff Smart Water, four and a half seasons of Supernatural, and a complete project for my mother's birthday. The swine flu was not pleasant, and I'll probably have this cough until April, when the weather finally clears up, but I made it through alive! And what better way to celebrate than with some bacon?

I originally made this candied bacon back in August, when my brother brought me a pound of bacon after watching Paula Deen make candied bacon with maple syrup. I nixed the syrup in favor of brown sugar and ended up with an easy and delicious treat. The bacon by itself is pretty hardcore - sweet and salty, crunchy and chewy, and pretty much just amazing. But you really can't eat much of it, and I found myself left with a ton of the stuff. I ended up chopping it up and adding it to my chocolate chip cookie recipe (just replace the cherries with the chopped candied bacon) for just a hint of salt and smoke.

You could, of course, also serve it as a garnish to your bacon vodka.

Note: When baking my bacon, I lined my rimmed baking sheet with tin foil and then topped with parchment paper. This may seem excessive, but it helped contain the mess and was worth it when it came to clean up.

Candied Bacon, inspired by David Lebovitz
1 package thick-cut bacon
brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil, then with parchment paper. Arrange bacon slices on parchment so that they are not touching. Sprinkle brown sugar on the top of each slice. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then flip the bacon over and sprinkle on a little more brown sugar. Bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the bacon is crispy and has a deep brown, lacquered look. Cool bacon on a parchment-lined cooling rack and try to keep your hands off it while it cools.

Cooking with Harbor Sweets

Twitter has led me to some of the coolest events as of late. A while ago, I saw a tweet from Harbor Sweets, an amazing local candy company, announcing a cooking class that they would be hosting in their factory. Cooking with Sweet Sloops, my favorite of their chocolates, made with almond toffee crunch, white and dark chocolate, and pecans? Sure - imagine the amazing cookies you could make with them! But no, the class was going to focus on a full menu of recipes, not just desserts. When I saw the words "Sweet Sloops Pad Thai," I knew I had to go.

So last Saturday, after getting more than a little lost, we arrived at Harbor Sweets' factory in Salem only a few minutes late. The small room was packed with tables and people, and we squeezed into our seats as the chef starting talking. The afternoon was led by Chef Bill, a local personal chef, and he taught us a lot about cooking with humor and verve.

We started with dates stuffed with goat and gorgonzola cheeses, bacon, and Sweet Sloop Crunch. I thought I wouldn't like these, but surprisingly, this was my favorite dish of the day. The saltiness of the cheese and bacon were married perfectly with the sweetness of the candy and the dates, and the bacon and the Sweet Sloops added plenty of texture to an otherwise soft dish. These would be perfect for a holiday appetizer, as you can make them ahead and just pop them in the oven to warm through. Since this was my favorite, the recipe is below.

We then moved onto Pad Thai. A lot of people seemed skeptical about pairing candy with pad thai, but I thought it would be a great match - there's already sugar and peanuts in pad thai, so why not? In fact, Chef Bill took out both the sugar and the peanuts and used the Sweet Sloops to provide those flavors - it worked perfectly, although I can't see making this routinely. It's definitely a conversation piece, though, and would be great to wow your friends and family with.

For dessert, we actually tried two different dishes. Chef Bill passed around Toll House cookies that were made with Sweet Sloops Crunch instead of chocolate chips. They were delicious, as I expected them to be, and is probably the recipe that most of the attendees are going to try at home. We also had Bananas Foster, with Sweet Sloops Crunch used as a garnish. (Above, Chef Bill gets ready for some flambe.) I'm not crazy about cooked bananas, but I loved the Sweet Sloops over ice cream.

So, as if I didn't already love Sweet Sloops, I now have even more excuses to buy them.

Can you see the chocolate all melty and delicious in that picture?

Dates with Goat and Gorgonzola Cheese, Bacon, and Sweet Sloops Crunch
4 oz goat cheese, room temperature
3 oz gorgonzola cheese, room temperature
3 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup Sweet Sloops Crunch
15 Medjool dates

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix together the two cheeses, then mix in cooked bacon and Sweet Sloops Crunch. Make a slit in the top of each date, keeping the bottom intact, and remove the pit. Put one teaspoon of the cheese mixture into each date. Place dates on a sheet pan and bake for less than 5 minutes, until cheese are heated through.

Using Up That Giant Bag of Apples

Last weekend, my friends and I finally got our acts together and headed out to do a little apple picking. We decided to forgo our usual spot, Parlee Farm in Tyngsboro, for a quieter orchard (read: fewer kids and, sadly, no goats in trees). We decided to check out two different spots in Harvard (the town, not the square) - Old Frog Pond Farm and Carlson Orchards.

Old Frog Pond is the only certified organic Pick-Your-Own orchard in the state. We stopped there first, primarily because they were still picking raspberries (on Columbus Day weekend!). They seemed hesitant to even sell us a box, saying they weren't sure if there was anything left on the bushes, but once we got down to the patch, we found plenty of berries (and ended up buying a few more boxes). Because the berries were so (overly) ripe, we had to use them right away - apple raspberry pie that night and some raspberry limoncello brewing away in my cabinet right now. Old Frog Pond also has a nice sculpture walk through the woods - some of the art is not exactly my cup of tea, but it was nice to wander through on a brisk day.

From there, we headed over to Carlson Orchards, also in Harvard. We grabbed our bags and headed into the orchards... and were instantly surprised at the size of the farm and the variety of apples. Most orchards are only picking three or four varieties at once, but Carlson had seven or so ripe for the picking. We tasted them all as we went, but my favorites were the McIntosh and the Macoun - I don't think I actually picked any of the other kinds. Carlson also makes their own ciders (regular and Honeycrisp), and you can get hot apple crisp with ice cream when you're done picking your apples (I tried a bit that was so good, I almost went back in to the store to buy my own - the sugar had all caramelized so it was gooey and amazingly delicious). I really enjoyed picking at Carlson - I think it might be my new favorite place for apple picking near Boston.

Of course, apple picking left me with a giant bag of apples to use. I mean, I really enjoy apples, but that's a lot of fruit to get through. So besides the apple-a-day since last weekend, I've been cooking with them wherever possible. Apple pie? Check. Apple crisp? Check. Apple butter? Check. Apple and squash gratin? Check. Caramel apples? Check!

When I was in the grocery store to pick up caramels to melt for caramel apples, I found a genius product that made the whole process wicked easy - Kraft Caramel Bits. For some reason, they're not on Kraft's website, but they're basically caramel perfect for melting or adding to cookie batters without the need for unwrapping - just open the bag and dump the contents out!

I also love the combination of sweet and salty, so I added pretzels and bittersweet chocolate to my mix. It helped cut the sweetness of the caramel and added texture. I didn't get too creative with this round of apples, but they were tasty enough that I might not deviate from the combination next time.

Chocolate Pretzel Caramel Apples
5 fresh medium apples
5 popsicle sticks
11 oz caramel pieces
16 oz bitterweet chocolate, chopped
2 handfulls of pretzels, broken into bitesize pieces

Line a pan with parchment paper and set aside. Push popsicle sticks into the apples at the stem and set aside.

In a small pot, melt caramels over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to prohibit burning. When all the caramel is melted, remove from heat. Dip apples into caramel, using a spoon to bring the caramel up over the sides. Set covered apples back on the parchment paper; freeze for 30 minutes to harden.

Add chopped chocolate to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 20-30 second blasts, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted (if you heat it all in one go, it will burn - take it from me). Mix in broken pretzel pieces, then dip caramel-coated apples into chocolate, using a spoon to bring the chocolate up over the sides. Return apples to the parchment paper and return to freezer to harden. Remove apples within 30 minutes and store at room temperature.

To serve, cut the apple into nine pieces around the core (like a tic-tac-toe board). This ensures that each bite is a perfect combination of fruit, caramel, and chocolate.

Candied Citrus Slices

As I mentioned, on my trip to San Francisco I was lucky enough to get to wander through the Saturday morning farmers market at the Ferry Building. I bought myself plenty of souvenirs, including raw olives (I'll post about them once the brining process is done) and a huge bag of Meyer lemons.

Of course, when I got home, that left me with a giant bag of lemons and not many ideas of what to do with them. I've had worse problems before ;) With a little internet scouring and a snow day, I managed to make my way through most of the lemons.

I've done candied citrus peel before. It's tasty and makes a great gift. But I wanted to try something a little different this time, so I opted to try candying whole slices of fruit (I also had a few blood oranges kicking around, so I candied them as well). The key here is to get super-thin slices, as thin as you can make them while still keeping the slices whole. It's also important to keep an eye out for seeds - take them out as soon as you see them, as they can make slicing a little more difficult.

Note: If you're using different types of citrus, candy the lighter colored ones first. Here, I cooked the lemons first, then the blood oranges. The oranges turned the syrup a beautiful deep ruby color (which I saved for drink mixing), but it would have stained the lemons if I had reversed their cooking order.

These are delicious for snacking, but they also make gorgeous garnishes on desserts and drinks. I'm keeping them wrapped in parchment paper in the fridge, ready for use.


Candied Citrus Slices
3 lemons (or Meyer lemons)
3 small oranges (or blood oranges)
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water

Cut citrus into very thin slices, discarding the ends that are all pulpy white. Set aside.

In a large frying pan, combine sugar and water over medium high heat. (If your pan is too small, use 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water). Once sugar has dissolved, bring to a boil for about one minute. Reduce heat to medium low, or a gentle simmer, and add lemon slices in a single layer. Cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the rinds begin to turn translucent. Remove slices from the pan with a slotted spoon and arrange on parchment paper to cool. Repeat process with orange slices.

Once citrus has cooled, roll each slice lightly in sugar and put back on the parchment to dry for a little while. Store wrapped in parchment paper in an airtight container.

Cashew Fudge

Mel and I have been friends forever - since kindergarten, I guess. And in that roughly twenty years, there have been few people that have been able to tell us apart. People we meet when we're out automatically accept that we're sisters. Her mother's coworker (my dentist when I was a kid) had no idea we were two different people (based on the fact that he ALWAYS called me Mel). Teachers would figure it out eventually. Of course, it doesn't help that we perpetuate the myth that we're twins.

You see, we don't actually look all that similar. It's just that we're vaguely "ethnic" in the Middle Eastern sense of the word, have long, curly, black/brown hair, wear glasses, and have long names that are hard to pronounce and begin with the letter A.

So when it comes to throwing birthday parties, for the past couple of years, we've thrown a joint party (since we're only a month apart anyway). Our party was back in September, but I just found this picture and thought I'd post the recipe. For this year's party, we went with an all-desserts theme. We had all kinds of cookies and treats, and I even made the most amazing chocolate cake ever. I also needed something for my gluten-free friend (GFF!), so I made this delicious cashew fudge, based on a recipe from Dozen Flours.

This fudge is so easy to make, and the unctiousness of the cashew butter lends a flavor that is fantastic but hard to pinpoint.

Cashew Fudge

2 cups sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cashew butter, well mixed and at room temperature
7 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 stick of butter, at room temperature and cut into 8 small pieces

Line a 8x8 baking dish or cake pan with parchment paper so it comes up and over the sides of the pan.

Combine the sugar, cream, milk, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Once the mixture begins to bubble, stir frequently until it reaches 235° on a candy thermometer, about 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and cashew butter and continue to stire until the cashew butter is completely absorbed and the candy is smooth and thick. Transfer to the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with a rubber spatula. Set the dish aside for about 1 hour for the fudge to cool and harden.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter together. Mix until well blended. Pour the chocolate over the top of the fudge, smoothing and shaking the pan. Let sit at least 20 minutes in the fridge until solid.

Lift the fudge out of the pan using the overhanging parchment paper. Cut it into 1-inch squares. Store the fudge in an airtight container with layers of wax paper.

Blogging By Mail: Halloween Edition

Yes, it's that time of year again! Time for another round of Blogging By Mail. The ever-wonderful Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness managed to corral 116 mostly-food bloggers and set up a complicated network of who's-mailing-to-whom. By now, Brilynn at Jumbo Empanadas has received a very Boston-y package from me.

I received my mystery package (no name, just a return address in California) last week. It was a great mix of Halloween goodies - cookie cutters (bat, cat, ghost, and pumpkin), caramel Kisses, Maple Nut Goodies, and Caramel Apple Sugar Babies. The Sugar Babies are the only ones I've eaten so far - I love the combo of the slightly sour apple coating over the caramel, very different than regular Sugar Babies. I'm taking my time, though, with the box, as I want to keep all the fillings in my teeth ;) Sadly, the package arrived a little too late for this Halloween, but I'm an avid collector of cookie cutters, so I'll have no problem putting them to good use next year. Thanks to my mystery BBM benefactor!

I'm a Sucker for Promotional Marketing

With a mere month and a half before Indiana Jones once again graces the big screen, the promotional marketing machine is firing on all cylinders. The latest Indy marketing tools? M&M's and Snickers.


Everyone's favorite saucy candy, Green, can even be seen flirting with Indy on the bag of the limited edition Mint Crisp M&M's, proclaiming that "treasure is a girl's best friend." May I take a moment and stress, as an archaeologist, that treasure-hunting is bad?

Taste-wise, these candies are just ok. They're overly sweet (I know we're talking candy here, but it was still a little too much), and the crispiness is not something I'm really looking for in an M&M. They taste kind of like the chocolate mints you get at restaurants, only not so good. I almost bought the Indiana Snickers too, but it weirded me out with the addition of coconut and the vague promise of some sort of "spice."

I'll be taking the rest of these in to my office, where the rest of the archaeologists can laugh at the altered M designs.

Have a Gooey Easter!

Besides the religious meaning of the holiday, Easter is known for its candy. Peeps have unfortunately made the move to become year-round treats, while many other candies only dress up in pastel colors for the holiday. But Cadbury makes a whole line of egg-shaped goodies that are only available at this time of year. My personal favorite are the mini eggs with their sugary coating and velvety chocolate interior. I've never been a big fan of the Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Until now.


I'm still not interested in the too-sweet filling inside the eggs, but I think this marketing campaign is brilliant. YouTube is filled with videos of suicidal chocolate eggs coming up with new and creative ways to off themselves. The most dramatic, though, is the mass suicide finale:



But nothing made me laugh as hard as the alternate to that scene. I think it's the music that really makes it.



All of the videos, as well as games and some hilarious pictures, are available at the Creme Eggs website.

So Happy Easter, and try not to get too sick off all that candy.

Eggs-elent

I'm not much for eggs. The taste just sticks with me, and that's not a meal I want to be remembering hours down the line. Someone at Harry and David must be thinking the same way... how else can you explain gummi fried eggs?


Apparently, these eggs are only available as part of a basket online, but they carry individual bags at Harry and David outlet stores (these were found in Florida). They were the first thing I saw when I walked into the store, and I started obsessing over how weird they were. My friend bought a bag, probably because I wouldn't shut up about them or move away from the display.

The taste? Vaguely fruity, but nothing to write home about. Thank God they didn't taste like the real thing...

Stained Glass - It's Not Just for Churches

There are some cookies that are baked because they taste great. Others are baked for their looks. The Stained Glass Christmas Tree, in my opinion, falls into the looks category. It's a simple sugar cookie recipe that's jazzed up by crushed hard candy. Nothing revolutionary, but the results are impressive. My cousin requests them for our family party, and who am I to disappoint?


Stained Glass Christmas Trees

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
crushed Lifesavers (lighter colors only)

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until combined. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325°. Roll out dough on a floured surface until 1/8 inch thick. Use large cookie cutters to cut dough. Transfer to parchment-lined cookie sheet and cut out interior tree using a smaller cookie cutter or a paring knife. Fill centers with crushed lifesavers, making sure not to get any candy on the dough itself. Bake until candy has melted and cookies begin to turn golden. If the candy starts to bubble, pull them out right away. Let the cookies cool briefly to harden, then move to wire racks to cool completely.


Tips:

• The darker colors (like green and purple) turn too dark and muddy in the oven. If you know a way to make that not happen, let me know!


• I had great luck crushing the lifesavers individually in their wrappers using the flat bottom of a metal measuring spoon. Make sure you keep the different colors separate.


• You can either reroll whatever gets cut out of the center of the tree, or you can make minature stained glass trees. Instead of triangles or tree shapes, though, I just cut a small circle. In fact, I liked the smaller size better; it was just the right amount of cookie and candy.

Snow Falling on Citrus

What else is there to do during a snow storm but cook? The French Toast Alert Level was on high, but I wanted to use the time to get ready for Christmas. With plenty of time on my hands, I went to town on candied citrus peel.


Start with fresh oranges or grapefruits (or lemon or lime with a thick rind). Cut them in half and gently remove the flesh, keeping the peel as whole as possible (rind cups are ideal). Put the cups in a pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Pour off water and repeat two to three more times (grapefruit needs at least four boils) until peels are tender. Set peels out to cool.


Slice rind into strips, roughly 1/3 inch wide. In a medium saucepan, make a simple syrup with a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water. For 4 oranges or 3 grapefruit, I used 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water. Stir over heat until sugar crystals are dissolved, then add peels (I kept each type separate so the flavors wouldn't mingle). Keep the peels at a low simmer until translucent, roughly 15-20 minutes. Stir only occasionally. When peels are done, pour off syrup (save for drinks!) and lay peels out separately on parchment paper so that they are not touching. Allow to cool and dry slightly, an hour or two.


In a food processor, pulse granulated sugar until texture is fine. When peels have dried so that they are only slightly tacky, roll each slice in fine sugar and lay back out to dry further. Let dry overnight before packaging in an air tight container.

This is great to give as gifts or added to other baked goods. There's just something so Christmas about candied orange peel!

What the hell is Cristle?

While shopping at Eastern Lamejun in Watertown for provisions, this candy caught my eye, thanks to the darling love birds on the wrapper. I've had this type of sesame candy a million times before (as I have mentioned), and this one wasn't particularly good. I just liked the birds... and the fact that it's called "Cristle". (click the picture for details)

So what the hell is Cristle? Do they mean "crackle," or "crystal"? Or maybe the Lebanese word for this sounds like "cristle". Any thoughts?