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I realize it’s Christmas Eve. Chances are, the holiday baking is done and you’ve already hung up your candy making apron for the season. Still, I couldn’t resist sharing one last recipe for pumpkin seed brittle.

It’s a recipe I first made four years ago and it’s slowly become part of our Christmas tradition. When I landed in Portland a week ago, one of my dad’s first questions for me was, “Are you going to make that brittle again this year? Anything I can do to help?”

It’s a recipe I tweaked from Smitten Kitchen, who found her original inspiration from The Wednesday Chef. Luisa adapted her batch from Karen DeMasco. That there’s good recipe bones, I say.

You start by toasting 2 cups raw pumpkin seeds until they crackle and pop. Set them aside and let them cool. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper and set it near the stove. In a roomy, heavy bottomed pot, melt one stick of butter. When it’s just liquid, add 2 cups granulated white sugar, 1/3 cup corn syrup and 1 1/4 cups water. Stir to combine.

Cook the toffee over medium-high heat until it turns golden brown. On my mom’s stove in her ancient Revere Ware pots, this takes about 25 minutes. Times will vary depending on the width of your pot, their ability to retain heat and the strength of your stove. One way to test it is to drop small bits onto your parchment covered pan. Once they’re cool, taste them and see if they’ve achieved the proper brittle consistency. If not, keep cooking.

When the toffee is a deep golden color, remove the pot from the heat and stir in 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 2 generous teaspoons sea salt. It will foam madly. Keep stirring. Once both are well-integrated, stir in the toasted pumpkin seeds. Pour mixture out onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet and spread using a rubber or silicone scrapper. While it’s still warm, score the brittle into squares using a pizza cutter. When it’s entirely cool (I found that the cold cement floor of my parents’ garage sped the cooling nicely), break into pieces and enjoy.

Just one word of warning here. Don’t use unrefined cane sugar in this recipe. Stick to pure white sugar. If you use sugars with a darker hue, it is VERY hard to tell when the toffee is done cooking. A couple of years ago, I did this and ended up with soggy caramel in place of the brittle. It still tasted good but when it came to texture it was QUITE disappointing.

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In my family, there is truly only one acceptable birthday cake and it’s actually not a cake at all. It’s a giant shell of sculpted meringue, filled with vanilla ice cream, strawberries and freshly whipped cream, topped with a shower of toasted sliced almonds. We call it Pinch Pie.

This epic dessert first entered the McClellan celebratory lexicon sometime in the 1940s. My grandma Bunny found the recipe in a woman’s magazine and made it as a Valentine’s Day treat for her husband (in those days, she whipped the egg whites using a hand-powered rotary mixer. It was a true act of love). My uncles quickly figured out that they preferred this dessert to any cake they’d had before and started requested it for birthdays. A tradition was born.

By the time I came along, Pinch Pie’s dominance as the birthday dessert of choice was well-established. During my first eight years of life, I ate Pinch Pie as many as six times a year. With family birthday gatherings taking place at least every other month (sometimes a single dinner would suffice for several), the math worked out in everyone’s favor. What’s more, Bunny had long since graduated to a electric hand mixer, so it wasn’t the burden to make that it once had been.

But as so often is the case, all good things eventually come to an end. In my case, it was the announcement that my parents were moving us out of Los Angeles and up to Portland, OR. We would no longer have regular access to Bunny and her Pinch Pie factory.

So I did what any food-obsessed eight year old would have done. I started begging Bunny for meringue lessons. I figured that as long as I had the skills, I wouldn’t be entirely deprived. And so I watched. I took notes (I still have those original pages, carefully marked up in my elementary school handwriting). I learned her meringue formula.

In the early years, I would call Bunny every time I made the meringue shell for Pinch Pie. She’d remind me to warm my eggs to room temperature and to make sure I separated each one over a small bowl before adding the whites to the mixing bowl (one drop of egg yolk and the whole batch is ruined). She’s ask about the weather in Portland and warn me that it was harder to get stiff peaks if it was raining out (it always was).

Bunny died when I was 14, putting an end to my Pinch Pie support line. But each time I make meringue, I think of her. I imagine she’d scoff at my use of a stand mixer to beat the egg whites, declaring that it takes most the skill out of it. She’d admire my use of Silpats and parchment, as they make the meringue lift easily off the baking sheet (before those two items came along, we struggled mightily with meringues that stuck fast). Most of all, she’s be happy that I was keeping the tradition alive.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of baking that required multiple egg yolks, but no whites. Yesterday, I had half a dozen egg whites quietly cooling their heels in the refrigerator. It was time to make meringue. Because it’s holiday time, I decided to make this batch of meringue into cookies, instead of a large shell. This way, they can be added to cookie plates, be taken to potlucks and, with the addition of a dollop of fruit preserves and a bit of whipped cream, be turned into a quick dinner party dessert. I do love flexible food.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or Silpats. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 6 egg whites (at room temperature, please) with 1 teaspoon cream of tartar. Beat on medium high until they have at least doubled in volume and are nice and frothy.

Then add 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar in half-cup batches, making sure that the first scoop is fully incorporated before adding the next. Finally, when the mixture is looking stiff and glossy, beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Then portion the meringue out onto the cookie sheet. I use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop but you could also spoon all the meringue into a pastry bag or ziploc with a corner cut off. I am particularly unskilled with pastry bag coordination, so I choose to scoop. Bake at 250 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Shorter baking times will leave you with cookies that are still tender in the center, long times will yield a crisper cookie.

Should you want to add flavors beyond vanilla to your meringue cookies, you can add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, some tiny chocolate chips, or 1/4 cup crushed candy canes. There’s a lot that can be done with this simple cookie, though I like them plain best.

If you’re free tonight from 7:30-8:30 pm eastern time and want to talk about cookies, make sure to hop on Hungry Tigress’s Facebook page. She’s hosting a virtual party where we’ll be talking holiday baking, canning and more. She also has a bunch of terrific preserving books that she’ll be giving away, so it’s worth stopping by!

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When I was 13 years old, one of my parents’ friends gave them a bottle of homemade coffee liqueur. I remember my dad being particularly pleased with its arrival. His favorite way to eat it was to stream a generous pour over several scoops of vanilla ice cream. Once in a great while, he’d let me have the tiniest taste. I though it was heaven. I’ve always been some of a fiend for sweet, coffee-flavored things.

Last year, Molly posted a recipe for Coffee Vanilla Bean Liqueur and I took note. I never got around to making it then (writing a cookbook means that you don’t get to many of the recipes that look appealing) and this year I was committed to mixing up a batch.

Yesterday, I bought a bottle of inexpensive vodka and today, I spent ten minutes putting my batch of coffee liqueur (also known in some circles as Kahlua) together.

I combined 3 cups granulated white sugar with 2 cups water and heated until the sugar was dissolved. Next I added 3/4 cup instant espresso (this is actually an ingredient I try to keep on hand, as it is an easy way to add high quality coffee flavor to a variety of baked goods) and whisked vigorously until it was fully dissolved. Once all the little grains of coffee are gone, remove the pot from the heat.

I split and scraped 3 vanilla beans (Molly’s original recipe only calls for two, but three fell out of the bag, so I took it as an omen) and stirred the seeds into the sweetened coffee slurry. Finally, I added 3 cups vodka and whisked to combine.

I funneled the nascent coffee liqueur into a 1/2 gallon jar, dropped in the vanilla bean pods and capped it. I hear it needs to sit for at least three weeks, though four to six is even better. I’ll be away for Christmas, but hope to crack the jar for a few friends on New Year’s Eve, which means I’ve just squeaked under the wire as far as starting the batch goes.

If you’re feeling like it’s too late to make something like this for holiday giving, I firmly believe that there’s nothing wrong with giving someone a jar of homemade liqueur that has a note, instructing them not to open it until the first or second week of January. Think of it as a holiday season extension. Who wouldn’t like that?

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I started out life totally indifferent to chocolate. For my first ten years, I’d eat it when it was offered, but always preferred sweets that were based on vanilla, fruit or toffee flavors. Butter Pecan was my favorite ice cream flavor, and when Eleanor’s platter of holiday treats arrived each year, the first candies I went for were the homemade caramels.

I did eventually come around to chocolate’s many charms, but I’ve still got a soft spot for caramels and toffee-based candies. In past years I’ve made those graham cracker toffees and pepita brittle. Last week, after having the page bookmarked for years now, I made this skillet toffee. Needless to say, I am a fool for it.

I made just a couple changes to the original recipe. I swapped in toasted walnuts for the almonds and I cooked it just a bit longer than called for. As I’ve aged, I’ve found that I like my candy to have an edge. I want sweets to have complexity and so when I cooked the butter and sugar together, I took it to the brink of of being burnt. It’s sweet and sharp and utterly entrancing. I can’t stop eating it and so am taking a good portion to the Philly Food Swap tomorrow so that I stop eating it hand over fist.

The recipe is after the jump…

Burnt Sugar Toffee with Chocolate and Toasted Walnuts
adapted from Skillet Toffee recipe on The Kitchn

1 pound unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Line a rimmed half-sheet pan with parchment paper.

Melt butter in a wide pot over medium-high heat. Stir in sugar and salt as the butter melts.

Stir constantly with a silicone spatula, regularly scraping down the sides. It will bubble and hiss as you stir.

Cook until the toffee mixture has achieved a deep, golden brown color. It will darken a bit more once you take it off the heat, so stop a shade lighter than you want the end product to be.

Once you’ve reached your desired level of doneness, remove pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla. It will sputter and spit when you add the vanilla, so be careful.

Pour the toffee into your prepared baking sheet. Let cool for approximately 10 minutes before evenly sprinkling the chocolate across the top. When the chocolate begins to melt, use an offset spatula to spread it out into an even layer.

Sprinkle nuts across the warm chocolate and pat gently with your palms to embed the nuts into the chocolate.

Let the toffee cool for 4-6 hours, until it becomes stiff and brittle. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container. This candy will keep well at room temperature for weeks (if it lasts that long).

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Last July, I spent a day in Washington, D.C., at the annual summer Fancy Food Show. I walked the show floor. I tasted a world of spreads, snacks, jams and cheeses. I took photos of everything I saw that I liked, intending to come back and write a post rounding up my favorite products from the show. I got as far as uploading my photos to Flickr before life got away from me (this seems to be a common theme with me). I never wrote the post.

Part of the reason I wanted to write that post, was to tell you about a cinnamon pear jam I had tasted. Made by Sidehill Farm in Brattleboro, VT, this jam was the perfect marriage of fruit and spice. The flecks of cinnamon were suspended in a slow cooked jam. If it had been polite, I would have scraped that little sample jar clean before moving on to the next table.

I think you all know where this story is headed. I’ve made a batch of jam in an attempt to recreate that particular jar. Because pears are one of my favorite fruits for preserving, it wasn’t a stretch for me to take my standard pear jam formula (eight cups chopped fruit and four cups sugar) and apply cinnamon to it. It is heaven.

I used local Bartlett pears that I ordered through Three Springs Fruit Farm (I got 25 pounds, which is enough to make this batch of jam at least five times over. I did something else with them that I’ll be showing you soon). If you’re in the Philly area, know that Three Springs still has more pears to sell and you can order them straight off their website. I just love how modern technology makes working with farmers so easy.

When you make this jam, you’ll notice that your finished product will be a bit lighter in color than mine. I’ve made this recipe twice now. The first time I did it (which was the time I took these pictures), I used two tablespoons of ground cinnamon in the jam. And I discovered that that may well have been too much. The second time, I stuck to a more judicious single tablespoon and was much happier with the result.

Should you be an adventurous sort, you could also add a bit of clove and ginger to this jam, for a decidedly holiday flavor. I didn’t go that route this time, as I was trying to replicate that jam. But now that I’m thinking about it, a jam made with pears and an array of warm, mulling spices could be just wonderful.

Pear Cinnamon Jam
makes 3 pints (fills six half pint jars)

8 cups cored and chopped Bartlett pears (or any smooth, thin-skinned pear. There’s no need to peel.)
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
juice of 1/2 a lemon

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, combine chopped pears and sugar. Cook over medium heat until the fruit can easily be smashed with the back of a wooden spoon. Use a potato masher or immersion blender to break the fruit down into a mostly-smooth sauce.

Add cinnamon and lemon juice and stir to combine. Continue to cook until the jam looks thick and passes the plate test.

Fill jars, wipe rims to remove any residual jam, apply lids (heat canning lids in a small pot over very low heat while you’re preparing the jam to ensure a good seal) and screw on the rims.

Process the filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (start the timer when the pot has returned to a boil). When the time has elapsed, remove jars from pot and place the jars on a towel-lined countertop. Let them cool undisturbed for at least two hours. During this time, the lids should seal. Check to ensure the jars have sealed by pushing down on the center of the lid. If it feels solid and doesn’t move, it is sealed.

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Valentine’s Day is just a week away now and if you haven’t begun to think about a few little gifts, now might be a good time*. I’ve been seeing lots of inspired treats across the internet of late. I’m particularly charmed by these peanut butter and jam thumbprint cookies, where the hollow for the jam has been molding into the shape of a heart.

However, if you don’t have the time to make something up yourself, there’s an organization I want to tell you about. Called Eat Boutique, they are tiny company who is in the business of putting together boxes of artisanally made foods. It’s not a situation in which you can customize the box. They simply have a seasonal box that get’s packed full of whatever lovely things they’ve determined work best for the current season. The box they’re currently offering includes sea salt caramels, snowball cookies and a jar of sweet pickled beets and costs $55 + s/h. Sounds pretty nice to me.

Now, if that box happens to be a bit too spendy for you, consider taking the idea as inspiration and putting something together from your own homemade items. I keep envisioning a few friends teaming up, making a couple of components and then trading, in order to have more variety in less time.

Now, let’s hear how the rest of you plan on celebrating Valentine’s Day. Got any special treats or goodies in the works?

*I happened to be married to a man who’s birthday is also on Valentine’s Day, so I’ve been thinking and planning for months, trying to ensure that I cover both bases and make him feel as special as he deserves.

Note: There’s been no pay for play here. I received nothing from Eat Boutique in exchange for this post. I just like what they are doing and their focus small and handmade.

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For most of my childhood, my parents had a small business that produced and distributed music. It was mostly instrumental music and it all started with a Christmas album that my dad and his friend Lewis made. Back in the early eighties, there wasn’t much in the way of instrumental Christmas music. There was plenty of the big band and pop stuff, as well as organ and choir music. But no matter how hard you looked, it was nearly impossible to find lovely, instrumental Christmas music.

So Lewis and my dad made an album (and truly, back in those days it was actually an album, on vinyl and everything) called Collection of Favourite Christmas Carols. Lewis played all various parts on his many guitars and my dad did the recording and designed the packaging. The only problem they faced was that once they had finished creating the album, there wasn’t any way to get it into the hands of the broader public. Thus, a distribution company was born and soon they were distributing thousands of titles to book stores, gift shops and card stores all across the country.

As they worked to create a business around the album, a woman named Eleanor joined the company. She was an old friend of my parents and was hard working, honest and just happened to love Christmas (though I don’t think it was a pre-requisite, it sure helped you survive in a workplace where holiday music played nine months of the year). One of the ways in which Eleanor displayed her holiday fervor was through the annual giving of food packages to her friends and family.

My sister and I looked forward to the arrival of Eleanor’s goodie bag every year. There would be a divided holiday plate, heaped high with homemade caramels (both regular and chocolate), sugar cookies and a tidily wrapped loaf of sweet nut bread. Along side, there was always a zip top bag, filled to bursting with her deeply toasted Chex Mix. Thing was, this was no ordinary Chex Mix. She always included Cheerios, generous amounts of mixed nuts (the brazil nuts were always my favorite to pick out) and Fritos. Competition over that bag of Chex Mix was fierce and my mom would often resort to hiding it and doling out small portions in Dixie cups.

When the internet arrived, the music industry changed and the business eventually disappeared. It has been years since I’ve had the opportunity to taste Eleanor’s Chex Mix. Until now. You see, I’m friends with her daughters on Facebook (they were my childhood babysitters, after all) and so after more than ten years of longing for it, finally hit them up for the recipe. I made it over the weekend and jackpot. It tastes just like it should – buttery, salty and oh so crunchy.

I’ve realized since making it that this Chex Mix recipe really isn’t too dissimilar to the one on the box. However, what makes this special is the extended roasting. I kept mine in the oven for over an hour, stirring regularly and alternating the trays from top rack to bottom with every stir. I kept it in there until the cereal at the very edges of the pan were almost burnt (but not quite). That’s what it took to really get that familiar, beloved flavor. I suggest you do the same.

Then, I recommend bagging or jarring up the bulk of what you’ve made and taking it to work or dropping some off with a neighbor. Because something this delicious and seductively crunchy is best shared.

Eleanor’s Chex Mix
makes enough to fill three half gallon jars, with just a bit leftover for snacking

20 cups cereal total. Here’s how I broke it down:

4 cups Cheerios
4 cups Rice Chex
4 cups Corn Chex
4 cups Wheat Chex
4 cups Crispex (not original to the recipe, but I had some that needed to be used up so in it went)

2 cups stick pretzels
2 cups fritos
1 cup peanuts
3 cups mixed nuts

Sauce:
2 sticks butter
5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
5-8 dashes of Tabasco (or other hot sauce)
10 generous shakes garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked salt (my substitution for Eleanor’s smoked almonds, which I was unable to find. If you can get smoked almonds, skip the salt and add 1/2 cup of the almonds to the list of ingredients above)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place the cereals, pretzels, Fritos and nuts into your largest bowl. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. When it is nearly melted, add the Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, garlic powder and smoked salt (if using). Once it’s all melted together, remove the saucepan from the heat.

Pour some of the butter mixture over the cereal, stopping to mix after each addition (if you have someone around who can pour as you mix, this process goes much faster). When all the butter is incorporated and the cereal appears to be well-coated, pour the cereal equally into two roasting pans (if you happen to have one of those very deep disposable ones, you might be able to get away with cramming it all in that. Stirring could be a problem, though).

Place in oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour. Remove the pans from the oven every ten minutes to stir the mix. If you’re using two pans, make sure to keep swapping their position in the oven, so that the mix roasts evenly. When the cereal takes on a deep, toasted color, it is done.

Spread parchment paper or tin foil out on a countertop or table (you need at least three feet) and spread the hot mix out to cool. Once it is completely cool, pack it in plastic bags or jars. If stored in air tight containers, the mix will easily stay fresh for a month. Whether it will actually last that long is anyone’s guess.

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In my family, we always eat the same breakfast on Christmas morning. It consists of eggs cooked sunny-side up, crispy turkey bacon and a warm bread product. Some years, it’s crusty sourdough bread. Others, we toast slices of panattone. Last year, upon my father’s request, I made a batch of bear claws (they were good but deeply imperfect). Of all our breakfast breads, I think my very favorite was a batch of cranberry orange scones.

It’s a recipe my mother plucked off the internet some years back and was so easy and good that I asked her to send it to me. I’ve made them many times in the last four years (the recipe print-out is dated 2006) and now, I’ve adapted the recipe to make a gift out of the mix. I’ve managed to get the whole thing into a pint jar, save the 1 egg, 1/4 cup of butter and 1/2 a cup of buttermilk that the recipient will have to provide. Gifted with a jar of homemade jam, it becomes a Christmas breakfast kit that I think many a household would be happy to have.

You begin with a pint jar. If you’re preparing a batch for particularly good friends, I recommend using a lovelier than average jar. I’ve pulled a sturdy, vintage one from my collection to use here and I think it adds to the charm of the gift. Layer 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt (sea salt is best if you have it) into the jar. Put the lid on and give it a good shake, so that ingredients integrate. Once they are combined, make sure to tap the jar gently on the counter a few times, to better compress the ingredients into the jar.

Measure out 1/4 cup of sugar into a small jar and grate the zest of one orange into it. Use your fingers to work the zest into the sugar. The sugar will act as a preservative and will help the orange zest maintain its fragrance and flavor longer than if you just heaped the zest into the jar on its own (a small jar of orange infused sugar would make a tasty gift all on its own as well).

Pack the orange sugar on top of the flour (if your orange sugar is very moist, laying a small piece of plastic wrap between the flour level and the sugar level will extend the shelf life quite a bit. Just make sure to tell your recipient to look out for it) and finish the jar off with 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. Should you realize as you’re making up a jar that you’re actually out of dried cranberries, feel free to substitute dried blueberries. Had I not already written up the recipe card, I would have simply called these blueberry orange scones, but that’s what I get for my poor pantry maintenance.

Write the following instructions on a small card (if you’re doing a number of these, feel free to print it up on the computer. Though, the handwritten touch is nice, provided your penmanship is legible).

1. Empty the contents of this jar into a bowl.
2. Cut 1/4 cup of butter into the flour.
3. Beat 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1 egg together. Add them to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
4. Once combined, turn out batter onto a cookie sheet and pat into a circle.
5. Cut into 8 wedges, but do not separate.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until they are golden on top.
7. Serve with jam.

One thing to note is that this scone mix doesn’t have the longest shelf life ever, so do try to gift it soon after mixing.

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