Day 2: The Flavors of Christmas… Cinnamon

Cinnamon...

Just the word makes you think... Christmas! It does me! Here you will find two recipes for cinnamon. Hard Candies that are simple to make.. Also, a drink I featured on SD Living a few weeks ago.. 

Cinnamon? What's the difference? Make sure you download the cinnamon information! 

Here are the recipes.

Apple Cinnamon Rum Punch

Old Fashion Holiday Christmas Candy

I messed up the chocolate cookie recipe yesterday.. Here is the revised version.. I forgot the 2 cups of granulated sugar. Chocolate Cookie Recipe Revised

Two Products today.. LorAnn Cinnamon Oil. You need to always use oil in candy making.. It does not disipate and with a few drops you get a rich flavor. LorAnn products are known for quality and the best for candy making!

Second Product is very important. a thermometer.. Those candy ones from Taylor were good for the time.. Now I suggest an instead read meat thermometer. It has two uses. One for meat where you place the probe into the meat and program the alarm with the exact temperature. Then the alarm goes off when it hits.. same as the boiling candy syrup.. no guessing as to what the degrees are like the old fashion kind. 

Day 1: Holiday Time!!! Chocolate is the Word!

It's time for the Twelve Days of Holiday Sweetness! This year I am doing a few things different. 1. I am also going to be highlighting a product that I feel is the BEST to use for the recipe. 2. Every day of the twelve days are "themed". Today's theme is Chocolate! 3. I am adding a drink recipe! All drink recipes there will be two versions. Adult and Kid-Friendly! .. And we will have a few contests during the run! 

Day 1: Chocolate

Recipes:

Hot Truffle Chocolate

Chocolate Fudge Butter Cookies  (revised)  Tomorrow... Cinnamon! 

Half "Bun" Baking Sheets.. First the origin of the name.. A full sheet is standard for bakeries. These pans are mainly to make yeast buns and these are half the size.. thus.. Half Bun Pans! If you have been at one of my classes you will always see me use these trays for prepping and also for baking cookies. Sheets of Parchment Paper ft perfectly. They will not warp, they are affordable to order at least 6! So you can have your cookies cool completely on the cookie trays. Many cookie cookbook authors only like sheets with two sides that are flat like the sheet. Its been told that the air-flow of the oven will not be even with all four sides like these cookie trays.. I say.. Bologna! If the heat in your oven can not go over 1/2-inch then you have more problems with regulation then with baking of your cookies. 

Is English Toffee English?

A question I have pondered.. Just like is French Toast French? German Chocolate Cake German? 

All kidding aside.. Last night was a wonderful Truffle and Confection Class. I posted a few "Live" pictures from the scene in San Diego and texts, tweets and emails came in for the recipe for the English Toffee.

Here is the recipe.. and if you love it.. pre-post!  RECIPE

Next week... Daily Holiday Recipes! 

Holiday Recipes…. Soft Ginger Cookies

It's Fall... I love all of the spices and aromas that make up the fall/holiday time. Here is a spiced cooking that is very soft. I use two kinds of ginger in the recipe.

If you are looking at your spice cabinet and thinking.. I need new spices.. Then check out The Spice House out of Chicago area. They ship and its work every cent! When you open a jar of spices you will begin to notice the freshness right away.  

The Spice House

Secondly, I have a few spaces for my May 2014 trip to the south of France. If you are interested please email me at ggeary@aol.com

France Information

Here is the recipe for these great cookies: Recipe

Also, make sure you have signed up for my daily recipe for the 12 days of Christmas.. www.georgegeary.com 

Do me a favor and repost this and or send to your foodie friends.. They may just gice you my France Trip as a gift!

~~George 

The BeaterBlade on Daytime NBC

Here is the show from Monday on Daytime.. Check it out.. The recipes are on the previous blogs.. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

George