Inspiration: Once again, my husband’s coworkers requested cupcakes for their birthday, so I obliged! Scouring the internet, I eventually landed on this coffee based recipe I found on the King Arthur website. (They used to publish a magazine that I really, really wish they’d bring back because it was brilliant. No, this isn’t an advert; I just like their flour.)
In any case, it turned out beautifully.
Christie: If baked as a cake and properly frosted (with someone more adept with a piping bag than I), I can see this as a great reviver at the end of a weekly dinner party, say held every Tuesday, due to the amount of coffee/espresso one is asked to add to the confection!
Part of the ingredient set up for baking the Orange & Earl Grey Madeleines! I also baked a batch of the Birthday Cake variety, just in case my experiment didn’t work….
Inspiration: On a random Saturday morning, whilst puttering around the house, I had The Food Network playing in the background and on popped the show Girl Meets Farm. Now, I must admit, I wasn’t paying particular attention to Molly Yeh….Until she started talking about making tie-dye cookies.
That perked my ears right up.
Watching her method, I decided they looked pretty easy, so I gave them a go.
From the Office of Me to You: Choose your food coloring gels with care. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a dull and potentially colorless bake!
Whereupon I learned not all gel food coloring brands are created equal. In the pic above, the basic cookie color was initially green. However, the organic dye I used disappeared entirely during the bake. An outcome the manufacturers failed to mention might happen on the back of the box.
I then discovered that the purple, produced by a different company, would fade a bit if the oven temperature exceeded 350 degrees. Prewarned, I added loads more food coloring than I usually would to counter the fading – as these cookies bake at 375 degrees.
(And usually is a relative term here, as this is the first time I’ve worked with food dyes in…..Well, the last time I can recall was in grade school for a rainbow cake for a carnival cake walk. I’m sure I’ve used it since then, but darned if I can remember when.)
The orange, the only non-natural dye of the lot, turned out perfectly.
In any case, as an eggless cookie, they turned out okay. I think these are better when eaten warm. And they are HUGE, which my taste testers found off-putting. So next time, rather than eyeballing the amount of dough in each cookie (as instructed), I will weigh each piece of colored dough and cut the size by half.
Christie: I can see these cookies being a popular holiday treat in the early days of Christie’s detectives’ careers. As eggs, amongst many other kitchen staples, were rationed during and after the Great Wars.
Inspiration: On a recent trip to a kitchen supply store, I picked up a truffle mold they’d had on sale. Blending this acquisition with the knowledge that not everyone is as keen on lemons as my husband’s former co-worker and I are, I decided to make something for the chocolate lovers attending their going-away party.
So I started hunting for a chocolate coffee truffle recipe….and couldn’t find one that combined all the elements I was looking for. So I decided to use one recipe for the filling, another for the shells, and a distant memory of Henry, from the Great British Bake Off, using a silicone mold.
It was weird, but it worked!
First: I used steps 2-4 of this recipe for the filling, and rather than putting it into a pan to cool, as instructed, I poured the concoction into a zip-top bag instead. As I intended to fill the chocolate shells, rather than coating the filling when it stiffened up, this cut down on the waste and mess. When the ganache was room temp but still pliable, I cut one of the bottom corners of the zip-top bag and squeezed the filling into the shells.
A Helpful Tip From Me to You: Don’t put it into the molds when the filling’s hot — otherwise, you’ll melt the shells. Also, make the ganache first, so it’ll start cooling as you work with the mold. It’ll save you time overall.
From The Office of Minor Mistakes: Do not put the filling into the fridge to cool — it will become way too stiff to use, and you’ll need to set it on the counter (in a sunbeam if there’s one handy) to warm back up to room temperature so it’s pliable enough to use.
Second: I used steps 8-14 of this recipe to form the shells.
From The Office of Minor Mistakes:DO NOT place the mold open side down while it cools — otherwise, the chocolate will try very hard to stick to your drying rack.
It seems like common sense, but when you’re buzzing around the kitchen making all kinds of other stuff and have never attempted these before, these subtle nuances can slip right over your head!
My other deviations: I used a double boiler for making both the ganache and the shells. It gives me much better control over the melting chocolate chips than a microwave. To keep the sweetness of the confection in check, I used a 60% cacao chocolate chip for the filling and a 72% dark chocolate chip for the shell.
Okay, from this write-up, these sweets appear tricky.
But they really aren’t.
The three major parts of this recipe requires rest time. Meaning you’ve got built-in time to either accomplish other bakes/chores/take a nap or, if you don’t have enough time to do everything all in one, you can do one part a day over three or four days.
Seriously, these candies look impressive but are so simple!
Christie: For once, I can see a certain Belgium detective actually enjoying one of my bakes! These bite-sized morsels of chocolate and coffee turned out perfectly from the molds and were really shiny!
And are perfect to give out to friends on Halloween!
Inspiration: Okay, in honor of the spooky season, we’ve got a Pumpkin Spice Liqueur (produced by Bellewood Farms in Lynden, Wa.) to try in a cocktail called a Maiden’s Prayer!
So I managed to find Valencia Oranges (hand squished), Meyer lemons (the very best kind, imho), triple sec (which is seriously cheap), and this pumpkin spice liqueur…the full recipe’s found here.
And my oh my, if you enjoy pumpkin spice, this is very, very drinkable!
Smooth, citrusy (without being overpowering), and with autumn distilled down to its’ alcoholic essence — this drink is everything I’d hoped it would be!
I think I’m in heaven…
Christie: I do believe if Ariadne Oliver had one of these after discovering the body bobbing amongst the apples in the tub — it might’ve calmed her nerves…
My 52 Weeks With Christie 
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