Let the baking begin!

And we're off! Despite still trying to gather ingredients together (anise seed, hazelnuts, ramekins...), I started the annual Christmas / holiday season insanity with half of Ichi's Vanilla Crescent recipe and Ysa-chan's Eggnog Cookie recipe. Being a bit out of it when I started (I started with Ichi's recipe), I forgot that the almonds were to be put in the food processor to be ground. Well, while we do have a food processor, we've never actually taken it out of the packaging. It's hiding somewhere in the basement. (No counter space and doing things by hand was much easier back then...) ^^; So, being the bright eyes I'm not, and since I'd just taken the butter out of the fridge... Out came the mortar and pestle, and the cutting board, and Shadow starts crushing and finely chopping nuts for the next who knows how long! :P I still had a good while to measure everything out, lose things, find things and otherwise putter about afterwards waiting for the butter though, so all was well. That dough is chilling overnight so shall see how it'll turn out tomorrow night (I might have mucked up the mixing in of the flour... Oh, and the female sibling unit said something about picking up another mill for nuts / spices if I'm planning on doing anything so silly again. I'd briefly debated cleaning out the coffee grinder, but decided against using it). ^^;;

After putting the vanilla crescent dough in the fridge, I started in on Ysa-chan's Eggnog cookies... Umm, yeah. 7.5 dozen cookies my foot! I specifically aimed for smaller cookies (going for half teaspoon sized cookies) and ended up with about 6 dozen. If I'd gone for the size as written, I'd probably have gotten 1/2 to 2/3 that. That teaspoon sized dough must be a literal measuring spoon teaspoon. >_< Anyhow, the cookies themselves are *great*! I want to see how they taste after a day and see how the consistency holds out. The recipe suggested having it with espresso, but there's no way I'm having espresso at 11PM, so I had it with a cup of darjeeling tea. Yummy! The darjeeling cut through the cookie and cleansed the palate wonderfully. BTW, the first batch of cookies out of the oven never saw the cookie plate. There really must be some sort of black hole phenomenon in the kitchen. ^^;

The real shame is that, chances are, next time I make this recipe, it won't turn out so nicely. >_< I'm *notorious* for first timer's luck with cookies. The first time I make a cookie recipe, it'll turn out great. The next time... T_T

Anyhow, next up tomorrow night, the second half of the Vanilla Crescent recipe, and probaby three batches of choux to two batches of custard cream. Ichi's and Ysa's recipes combined give me 3 extra eggwhites, so I might as well make some more choux from them. (I don't know of any recipes calling only for whites and not yolks on my list). I hadn't planned on cream puffs yet but... the ingredients dictate.

Time permitting and depending on how work goes, I might swing the cookies forward or do a cake / loaf in the afternoon. Shall see. I'm thinking either the peppermint chiffon cake or one of the pumpkin loaf recipes. (I could use a loaf for breakfast and/or tea time). I have to double check which recipes take what sort of fat / oil; tonights recipes has knocked me down to a little over 1 c of unsalted butter left. I think I'm going to have to pick up another pound of unsalted... :P

Tomorrow's prep will hopefully be crushing candy canes for chocolates. I'm trying using the rolling pin and crushing them that way. The test cane seems to have worked reasonably well, and while not as fine as I'd like, it does end up crushed. Shall see how that goes. It certainly would beat pounding candies on the patio at 11PM in -20... unlike a certain other year. :P

Can't wait to see how things go tomorrow night! :P