Christmas + New Year Sweets

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[What colors do people use for New Years? Christmas colors? I don't even know...]

I really can't believe it's 2012! It honestly feels like, "Oh hello January! Nice to meet to..." Just a new month, that's all. Although this is probably because I spent my New Year's Eve tired after work, sitting on my couch, watching Friends and wanting to sleep at 10:30pm.

Pretty much for the past...4 days I've been baking/candy making.  I wanted to do it for Christmas but I was gone that weekend.  And I also didn't have much time to take pictures so...don't expect too much

Almond Toffee, sweet tooth love!

The first one was an Almond Toffee that I made with one of my friends, Connie.  The recipe is from the Joy of Baking here. She had a great idea as we were toasted the sliced almonds to toss in a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, yum yum! The super sweet toffee hits your tongue first, then countered by the bittersweet chocolate as it melts in your mouth, then the last finishing note of almonds and warm spices are a great touch.  Delish!

Peppermint Bark! [woof woof]

Peppermint! One of my friends loves peppermint, he would probably eat it with anything.  He got a peppermint cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and loves the Andes candy...Anyways, I felt like making some peppermint bark.  I probably should've added more candy canes.  It was bittersweet chocolate drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkled with peppermint.  I bought WAY too many candy canes, I have a ton leftover.  Maybe I'll give them to my friend.

Compost Cookies-raw cookie dough, my fav.

Okay yes it's just raw cookie dough, but this dough is SO GOOD that I would eat it without baking it.  Unfortunately I overmixed the dough for probably about 15 seconds.  The dough spread like crazy.  I used this recipe which is based off of Christina Tosi's Compost Cookies from Momofuku's Milk Bar.  BUT I am borrowing the Milk Bar cookbook from one of my friends so I have the actual recipe! It is a little different in terms of time and ingredients, so I can't wait to make them again!

Macarons for Lemon Curd Macarons

Oh the fickle macarons.  As you can see from the picture I was not as successful as this.  This was my second time trying to use the Italian Meringue Method probably somewhere on this blog. But my blog probably is only worth viewing after June 2011  [Actually probably more like November 2011].  Anywhoos, they were fun to make, but oh the problems.  I won't go into the painful details, but hopefully next time will be more successful.

Very sparse in the pictures, particularly ones of the actual finished product. My apologies.  But I hope everyone had a safe, fun, great New Year's Eve and will make the year 2012 freaking awesome!
May your 2012 be filled with great food, great times in the kitchen and blessings from your family and friends!