Feeling Christmas

Nothing says Christmas to me more than gingerbread and peppermint. I am in no mood to spend hours making and decorating gingerbread men this year, so to satisfy the gingerbread monster deep within me, I made Gingerbread Biscotti from the recipe over at the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog. I've never eaten biscotti. I've never made biscotti. So this was quite an experience for me. I used all unbleached AP flour and ended up having to add about 3 tablespoons of water at the end to make the dough stick together. Here's my logs after round 1 of baking:

Obviously my shaping technique leaves something to be desired. Okay, I suck. The finished product:

I got 16 happy little biscotti, not counting the end pieces. I guess I cut 'em too big. Oh, well. The taste? Subtle and spicy. They are crunchy at first, then become chewy and finally melt in your mouth. Why have I shunned biscotti for so long? I have no reason to dislike the crunchy cookie any longer. Bonus:

Crispy...

On to the next order of bizness: peppermint. The other day one of my co-worker's gave me a mug full of peppermints as a gift. Sadly the only gift from a co-worker that I could actually eat, despite them knowing of my dietary habits. Knowing I should do something special with peppermints this year, I hoarded them until inspiration hit. Inspiration hit me on friday afternoon when I checked the A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise blog. I knew I had to make the Chocolate Candy Cane Ice Cream. Sadly I had no arrowroot, nor have I been able to find any around here. I turned to V-con for help. I used the vanilla ice cream recipe in it, opting for the addition of melted chocolate, and then I obliterated my peppermints (in a baggie with a mallet). So this morning I blended up everything but the peppermints, and stuck it in the fridge to chill. After about 7 hours it had firmed up nicely. It actually looked like mousse. I was tempted to stop here and just eat it all then. I forced myself to push on, knowing it would be even better as a frosty dessert. I poured it into my ice cream maker, which has been sitting under my kitchen counter unused for the past TWO YEARS. Crazy! I put the bowl in the freezer last night as directed. In the ice cream maker:

The peppermints waiting to be added:

I poured them in after about 10 minutes, and continued to crank every two minutes until it had been 20 minutes total. My impatientness got the best of me. I started eating straight out of the freezer bowl. It is very creamy, chocolatey and pepperminty. I spooned the rest of it into a freezer safe tupperware bowl and put it in the freezer to harden more, and to eat later of course. I am currently riding the ice cream sugar high. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Look! It's ice cream!

Last week I mailed out my last two Christmas packages. After a marathon knitting spree (about 4 hours worth) I cranked out a scarf to fill the small, empty space I had in one of the boxes. It turned out to be a big hit with her, and I'm glad.

It's a very sparkly, fuzzy yarn. It only took one ball, about 50 grams, for the scarf and fringe. For another friend, I knit an ankle bracelet using blue beads with a few charms mixed in. There's a pegasus, a knight on a horse and a dragon. It was supposed to be a bracelet, but came out a wee bit big. Perfect for an anklet though.

I'm tired just thinking about all that. I think I need more ice cream.