Monday, December 29, 2008

Blueberry Lemon Crumbles

Blueberry Lemon Crumbles

Sometimes I worry that I will never have "my" recipes--dishes I'm known for, something I make every time we have guests, a cake that appears for every family birthday. With so many cookbooks weighing down my shelves, I feel the need to constantly try new recipes, nevermind the gazillions of options on the internet.

Christmastime, however, seems to bring out the traditionalist in me. Perhaps its that my family has eaten cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember, or that J's family holiday celebration is not complete without a hickory nut cake, a recipe that comes from his great-great grandmother. So, when it comes to Christmas cookies, I turn to some of the same recipes year after year.

My absolute favorite are Cranberry Orange Drop Cookies, chock full of pistachios, fresh cranberries, walnuts and orange zest. However, these Blueberry Lemon Crumbles aren't far behind--they were the first to disappear at our annual holiday party, much to J's chagrin (he only got two).

The recipe can be found here. This year I replaced the blueberry jam/compote with some thawed frozen blueberries, which I macerated with a bit of sugar and lemon zest. Be careful regarding your dough to filling ratio, if you're too over-zealous with the blueberries, you risk a sticky mess.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Cranberry-Citrus White Chocolate Biscotti

Cranberry-Citrus White Chocolate Biscotti

I was lucky enough to have a relatively light finals schedule this December, so instead of studying, I baked--and became the cookie fairy for all my friends at school. These citrusy, holiday-colored biscotti were a big hit in the library, as I defied our evil librarian and distributed them freely throughout the stacks.

Cranberry-Citrus White Chocolate Biscotti

The recipe is here, but I made a few tweaks. I used frozen cranberries instead of dried (its easy to chop them in a food processor) and included chunks of white chocolate instead of drizzling the chocolate over the top at the end. They're best with a cup of coffee in the morning, or as a pick-me-up while you're hitting the books.