Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Holidays Cometh


Walking around the store today, I noticed a lot has changed over the last days.  Things like brussels sprouts and cauliflower have given way to more winter-y produce.  Most prominently, I noticed that the citrus is starting to come in and be beautiful.  For me, the citrus we have all winter sustains me until April when I can really eat vegetables again.  What can we do with, say, oranges?  (Okay, I'm lumping the tangerines in with the oranges).
Photo via The Naptime Chef
The most obvious thing that comes to mind is sweets.  And, yesterday, I started scratching my head about what sorts of cookies I'm making over the holidays.  What do I have that includes oranges?  As it turns out, quite a bit.  The acid from the citrus helps to balance the sugar and fat in desserts, so it's actually a pretty necessary component.  Here's what I found, and I put all of these on my short list.  So, who wants a cookie?

  • My mom loves to make her own biscotti.  So I'm sending her this recipe.
  • Sweets from North Africa all the way across Asia to India pair oranges with cardamom, and it's heavenly.  Especially in sugar cookies.
  • Citrus zest is an important component of good shortbread.
  • Santa used to occasionally leave a chocolate orange in my stocking.  You know, orange flavored chocolate shaped like orange wedges.  (Do they still make those...?  Gotta check.)  So I've always loved that flavor combinations.  So these madeleines have to be heavenly.
  • These simple orange cookies look soooo good.
Photo via How Sweet It Is

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