the mysterious mr quin

Cooking With Christie: Spicy Chocolates

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Inspiration: Wandering the aisles of my local craft store, I came across this adorable silicone mold of hedgehogs holding valentines and hearts….for seventy percent off.

Unable to resist a $1.29 piece of inspiration, I made the purchase.

Now, I’ve never been much interested in candy making. As the majority of chocolate bars, chips, and candy melts are processed in facilities that also handle nuts — my massive nut allergy renders them inedible.

(Which really sucks, btw, as I love Snickers bars!)

However, my husband does not suffer from this particular problem. So, unable to resist using the mold for its intended purpose and the vintage double boiler I picked up at an estate sale for the first time, I found a small bag of candy melts (also on sale) and found this recipe. And because I’m an utter novice to this hobby, I followed the base recipe exactly. Though I must admit, I didn’t pipe on the white chocolate embellishments or edible glitter since I’d neither on hand. Still, I’m rather pleased with how cute they turned out!

Christie: I could see Poirot purchasing something like these, with all the fiddly decorations, for a case or for himself when the mood struck him!

Cooking With Christie: Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cookies

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Inspiration: I love baking holiday cookies for everyone I know –even tangentially….and my mom has a friend, who has diabetes, to whom mom invited for Christmas Eve dinner. Not wanting to leave her out of the Great Holiday Cookie Swap, I modified (ever so slightly) a recipe just for her.

Instead of making Butterscotch Cookies for her….I made Pumpkin Spice cookies using sugarless pumpkin spice chips, rather than the butterscotch, and a 1-to-1 brown sugar substitute. (Made by Swerve, in case you’re interested — it works beautifully. The only thing is, it takes a touch longer to cream with the butter, so keep that in mind.)

The recipe’s from America’s Test Kitchen cookbook: The Perfect Cookie.

The cookies turned out great!

FYI: These are icebox cookies, meaning you roll the dough into a large cylinder, then slice them to the thickness you want — after refrigerating the dough overnight. When you take the dough out from chilling, the sucker is SOLID, so you’ll need a very sharp knife, and make sure to slice them no smaller than a quarter of an inch thick: any thinner and they turn out wonky.

Learn from my mistake!

Christie: Honestly, I can see Tuppence making these for a friend or neighbor who needs a touch of sweet whilst recovering from a cold!