Friday, December 29, 2023

Blog Highlights from 2023

I hope that everyone had an excellent holiday season; it has been a strange year for me in several ways, but I am looking forward to next year. I enjoy the time I spend baking and I have discovered the joy of making fudge now that my dad is no longer with us. These are good distractions to the complexities of life. Since many folks are sugared out right now, I am looking back at some of my favorites from 2023.

Pop Tart Inspired Shortbread Bars
While I love the idea of pop tarts, they are often so dry! This cookie version takes those great flavors and makes a great bar cookie!

Pop Tart Inspired Shortbread Bars: two layers of shortbread dough sandwiched with preserves, topped with powdered sugar icing and colorful sprinkles. Photographed on an orange plate.

Black Forest Cookies
How can you go wrong with chocolate and cherries in the classic Black Forest Cake approach? You can’t and these are rich but truly excellent!

Chocolate cookies with cherries, drizzled with white chocolate, photographed on a square red plate.

Vegan Apple Cider Cookies
During the month of September, I made a couple of different apple cider cookies, and they were all so wonderful. I liked this vegan one, which was nice and thin.


Two vegan apple cider cookies, drizzled in a criss-cross pattern with a powdered sugar glaze, photographed on a green mat

Browned Butter, Cranberry, and Oat Cookies with Cream Cheese Chips
In cleaning out my baking supplies, I discovered my cream cheese chips that I hadn’t used. I found some recipes that called for white chocolate chips and adapted them to these cookies that have a bit more of a tang.

Cookies with browned butter, cranberries, oats, and cream cheese chips, photographed on a pink zig-zag plate


Brown Sugar Biscoff Bars
One of the simplest cookies ever, but the Biscoff (or Cookie Butter) in these is unparalleled. Just a simple cookie with a pecan pie-like filling that tastes like Biscoff. Yum!

Three Brown Sugar Biscoff Bars, a bottom crust topped with a brown sugar/Biscoff topping. Photographed on a white patterned plate

Irish Cream Fudge
With my dad passing this year, I wanted to carry on the tradition of making fudge. I didn’t make nearly the number of varieties he did, but I am proud of what I made. It’s honestly hard to pick a favorite, but this Irish Cream Fudge was wonderful and the texture was superb!

One piece of Chocolate Irish Cream Fudge, topped with Andes mint chips. Photographed on a white plate with a small Christmas tree.
Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies
Sticky Toffee Pudding is a class British dessert, with spices and dates as the strongest flavors. These are just perfect for the holidays, and they stay fresh for a long time. I used chopped fruitcake fruits and chose what spices I liked, and they were so good.

A row of sticky toffee pudding cookies, spiced cookies with dried fruits and drizzled with white chocolate. Photographed on a white plate with a red and green border.

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