Chocolate Thumbprints, Pecan Almond Crescents, and Almond Sables

Coffee pots de creme

I spent some time this Christmas baking some new cookies and trying out a few new things.  These are what I took pictures of.  They are not perfected yet, but I will endeavour to do so next year because they were good enough to encourage me to continue!

The cookies above were all made from one almond cookie dough, found in Fine Cooking.  I made it from the magazine, but here is a link to the recipe on their site.

Almond Cookie Dough

The Coffee Pots de Creme were found in Wine Spectator magazine (December 15, 2012, p. 88).  They are very rich and use a LOT of coffee beans, so it is not an everyday dessert.  However, I thought spending Christmas settled and quietly deserved a treat!  And I will plan to make it again - the custard is yummy!  Let's see if I can find a link to the recipe...Nope, you must be a subscriber.  There are other online recipes, however, and I'm sure they are yummy, too. 

(Another I really want to try:  Pioneer Woman's Pots de Creme)

I am so glad I have a kitchen scale since it was written all in grams.  In this recipe, one leaves the coffee beans (120 g) to soak in a mixture of whole milk (225 g) and heavy cream (225 g of whipping cream for me) for at least 12 hours (I left it longer).  Then mix in sugar (75 g), salt (0.5 g) and egg yolks (7 - technically 120 grams but I left my scale too long and it turned off, so I guessed, using the recommendation for 7 1/2 yolks) and cook in a water bath, covered by aluminum foil for and hour at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.  Chill in fridge until cool.  The pic above is the result - minus 2 ramekins which DH and I quickly consumed.

Merry Christmas!