Raw Dough-Nots

Fruit is my typical raw dessert, but James was visiting this week, and I wanted something to distract him from my cherries and watermelons. So, I made raw dough-nots.

Hazelnut Chai Brownie...Balls

Finally, I have forced myself to write about another recipe I served at my Christmas party—one of my favourites, too.  This one comes from Green Kitchen Stories, a blog I love and which has very reliable recipes; I used a couple for my Christmas party. I had been wanting to make their Raw Hazelnut Chai Brownies forever and, after a few failed cookie recipes, I thought it'd be a nice break from baking.

Cocoa Mint Macaroons

I spent last weekend trying to add more recipes to my Christmas party repertoire. It's actually become more of a challenge than I initially anticipated. Of the three recipes I tried, none of them turned out to be appropriate. Two of them, a sugar cookie and a gingerbread, just...weren't good. They were bland and boring...so they've been dumped. It was pretty heartbreaking...watching all those ingredients go to waste. I get so frustrated when recipes don't work.

Carob Walnut Fudge

No story to this post. The other day I was bugging my dad to give me more ideas for baking—things like bread, or cakes, or cookies. He suggested fudge...with walnuts.

Makin' Macaroons

No Bake Macaroons

I made this recipe for the first time on Christmas Eve...

I substituted the cocoa powder for carob powder and used maple syrup instead of honey. Of course, I also added a splash of vanilla and a sprinkle of sea salt. They were very sweet, but I'm not complaining. That evening, I ate a couple of them with warm milk and honey while watching It's a Wonderful Life...

Oh, What a Perfect Day! Featuring cornbread, peanut butter cups and banana "ice cream"

Today was the first day in a long time where I did not have any commitments, so I used it to try a bunch of recipes I've been interested in.

Maple Banana Cornbread

Cornbread was the first recipe of the day! Conditions were perfect...we were having ham for dinner (well, the rest of the family was), my dad loves cornbread (I've been trying to convince him to eat my baking) and I also had a ridiculous amount of extremely ripe bananas that I needed to use up. I had bookmarked this recipe a long time ago and decided today was the day!