Hi! You might be arriving from Leslie’s place, or you just jumped in from Romance Writer’s Weekly and I’m your first stop. Welcome to my kitchen. Pull up a chair, because it’s that time again! December, when Liz loses her mind and bakes all the things. If you’ve been with me a while, you know this is called Cookiepocalypse. If you follow me on Instagram, you get the pictures as I bake.
Now, I finished Blood Bound (my BDSM Vampire novel) Sunday night, so I have time to bake this year. But let’s get real. It’s Christmas time — even if I hadn’t finished the book, I’d be baking!
This is what’s on the Cookiepocalypse list this year:
- Three Color Cookies
- Molasses cookies
- Chocolate Chip cookies
- Espresso Mocha Chip cookies
- Carob Chip cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal
- Thimble Cookies
- Some flavor of biscotti
- Coconut Macaroons
- Cream Cheese cookies (new this year)
If you’ve known me for a while, then you know I’ve been doing WW since they were Weight Watchers. So, no, I’m not going to be eating all of these. (Some. Not all). Most of these will be given away as teacher gifts, or sent to the office with the Darling Editor (that’s my husband). But that first one on the list? Yeah, most of that is staying home. Because even if I didn’t make any other cookie, I HAVE to make Three Color cookies. It’s not Christmas without them!
These cookies are traditional Italian cookies, and you’ll see them sometimes marketed as Rainbow Cookies (or as Traffic Light cookies.) I make them from scratch, using my mother’s recipe with the only variation being that I make them gluten-free. I usually make them first, because it’s a two day process.
First, you have to make the layers. Make the batter (it’s basically an almond sponge). Separate into three batches and color them (red, yellow and green — I use gel food coloring). Bake them off — until done, my recipe card says. Like I said. Traditional recipe. Done is about half an hour, usually. Once they’re cool, you slather with jelly (traditional is apricot. I use strawberry,) sandwich and squish! The green layer goes on the bottom. Always. No exceptions. Then yellow, and the red layer on top.
Why?
It tastes funny of you do it any other way. Really. It does!
Squishing takes all night, so on day TWO, you take your sandwich out and melt your chocolate. Usually, these have a dark chocolate coating. However, both of the men in my life (Darling Editor and When-did-he-get-that-tall?) are allergic to chocolate. I’m using a white baking chip that has no cocoa butter. (Yes, I know. Palm oil is evil. So are allergic reactions.)
On day two, you take your squished sandwiches and unwrap them, then coat them in melted chocolate. Once they’re coated, you cut them into small squares.
See? Green on the bottom. Perfect! It can be Christmas now.
From here, it looks like you’re heading on to Brenda Magriet’s place. I’m not sure what she’s baking up, but she does have a hot sale right now! Her book Allegro Court is on sale for 99 cents!
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