Not much going on in the way of Christmas countdown, other than trying new recipes lately. I am borrowing books from the library to do this fun research too (other than one recipe).
I picked up one more advent gift, and it was a very good price. A hand towel and hot pad set. Yes, it's store made and not handmade, but it was perfect for an advent gift (useful and inexpensive). I'm working on the next gift, and it will be handmade.I am still trying to locate stores that offer paper bags. I have plans to use them to wrap the advent gifts, but it's hard to find paper bags anymore. I even visited one Wal-mart to find that brown craft paper on a roll. Nope. Nothing. I'll keep looking when I am out and about.
New Recipes Tried and my very first fruit cake!
Butterscotch Shortbread. I was very much intrigued to try this recipe, simply for the "butterscotch" in the title. I made the recipe. It sliced very nicely too.
The recipe for the short bread was in this borrowed library book. The recipe was very easy to make, but when I pressed it down into the pan, the mixture started to stick to my utensil (I even tried the back of the measuring cup, parchment paper, and even slightly wet hands and they all stuck), and started to lift the mixture back up. I got it all pressed down (or so I thought), and in the end it was delicious. However, the dough makes a very, very brittle short bread, and after one bite, the piece falls to pieces in your hands. Delicious flavor, but the dough is missing something to bind it better. That was a bummer. It could just be it needed pressed down more, but again, that was an issue. We both said not worth keeping the recipe.On to the next recipe . . .
My first fruit cake!
It has been on my try-it list since Christmas of last year, and it was about time to get it off the list. The only reason I wanted to try it, is because the recipe was hand written by one of my Aunts, and the note on it states the recipe came from a friend of my Grandmother.
You'd be surprised at what ingredients you can buy in Amish bulk stores, so thanks to finding ingredients, I got to work.
I'm freezing half of it, but everything I am reading says it will only last up to 3 months in the freezer. Any thoughts? Am I the only nut baking fruit cake, ha ha!? I don't know how people mailed this stuff. It's like a brick with all those dates and pecans in it. It is very good. Once I have the recipe shared with all of my family members, I'll be back to write it out to share here as well. My Aunt wrote, that if you were going to make a fruit cake, that this is the one to make. One of my cousins also let me know that my Aunt used to make this very bread every Christmas.
