Christmas Eve is Here, and We Can't Wait for Crabbies

The countdown is over. We made and delivered our foodie gift packages and we are just about prepared for our annual Christmas Eve with Amy's family. There are 17 of us total, including neighbors D and J and their two kids, who are pretty much family to us. Our usual thing is to serve a variety of appetizers and then do one "main" event dish. We like to do something different each year, but certain things are just tradition. And you can't mess with tradition, especially on Christmas! So we spend our efforts on the main dish and also make those certain appetizers everyone loves and waits all year for. 

One of those traditional apps is "Crabbies." Crabbies have been a part of Christmas Eve for as long as Amy can remember, back to when the whole family came to Amy's parents house for the celebration, even her uncle's parents, Anita and Tito, who have since passed. They were the ones who made the crabbies, and we now make them in their honor. And as much as we've been tempted to change an ingredient or "upgrade" them in some way, we wouldn't dare. One bite brings back so many childhood memories that it simply wouldn't be Christmas Eve without them, just the way they've always been. 

Crabbies

(makes 12)

Ingredients:

1 package (6) Thomas's English muffins, split in half

1 6-ounce can fancy lump crabmeat

1 5-ounce jar Old English cheesespread

1 stick margarine, softened

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Lay out English muffins on a cookie sheet. Fold together remaining ingredients until well combined. Spread cheesy crab mixture evenly onto English muffins. Broil until bubbly and golden brown. 

Note: To make ahead, do not broil but lay cheese-covered English muffins between layers of wax paper in a zip bag and freeze. When ready to serve, broil from frozen. 

HAVE A WONDERFUL, SAFE, AND BLESSED CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

Christmas Countdown: Golden Syrup Pecan Bites and One Baking Fail

When Amy lived in New Orleans, her then-boyfriend's family had a pecan tree in the backyard. The nuts would drop around Thanksgiving, and they had a special tool for picking them off the ground. It was a favorite after-turkey-dinner activity, and since then, pecans just seem to say "holidays." We already made some lovely Pecan Sea-Salt Drops, but we had pecans left over from that experiment, so we decided to make some pecan bites. 

You've noticed us using corn syrup in some of our candy recipes, and frankly, we don't have an issue with that. But Whole Foods carries Lyle's Golden Syrup, a iconic product from the UK that we've heard of but never tried. When we tasted it, we thought of pancakes, waffles and pecan pie. And that's where our pecan bites came from. With a crumbly crust and golden, nutty top, these are sure to please. 

Golden Syrup Pecan Bites

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter

5 large eggs

1 cup Lyle's Golden Syrup

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x11 baking pan with cooking spray. Combine flour and brown sugar. Add butter, a tablespoon at a time, into the flour/brown sugar mixture and crumble with your hands until it looks crumbly. Press into prepared baking pan and bake for 10 minutes. Combine eggs, syrup, salt and vanilla and mix well. Fold in pecans. Pour mixture over crust. Reduce oven to 275 and bake for 50 minutes, until set and golden brown. Cut into large bars or bite-sized squares.

And of course, we did have one baking fail this Christmas. We attempted to make Bon Appetit's Bourbon Sea-Salt Caramels. We are pretty confident we followed the directions but they just did not set up. The most disappointing thing is that we sprinkled ours with a beautiful espresso sea salt our neighbors D and J gave us, so it was a real waste of both time and good ingredients. Here's what a part of it ended up looking like after we tried to cut it into pieces. Yikes!

Christmas Countdown: Salemme Pepper-Infused Onyx Moonshine Balls

We are somewhat famous for our rum balls. People request that we bring them to parties every year, and this year we even had someone admit they had been dreaming about them. So of course, yes, we made them again this year - here's the recipe, and here's a photo.

But in the interest of changing things up a bit, we thought we might used a different liquor to make a second batch. At first we considered Grand Marnier, since orange and chocolate go well together. Then Amy thought she might try Creme Violette, but decided it could be too flowery for some. Bourbon? Boring. Then Chris had it! Why not try our own Salemme Pepper-Infused Onyx Moonshine? 

Onyx makes a "111" version that is higher proof than their regular product, and is perfect for infusing. We infused it with Salemme Pepper, a special dried red pepper that is Connecticut-grown and cultivated. Basically, we added a tablespoon of the pepper flakes into the bottle of moonshine and let it infuse for the past few months. Then we used our infusion to make chocolate balls that have all the kick of a spiced hot chocolate, with a little booze in there as a bonus. Made in CT with CT products, these Christmas balls are a uniquely local experience!

Salemme Pepper-Infused Onyx Moonshine Balls


Makes about 70

Ingredients:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

3/4 cup hot pepper-infused Onyx moonshine

2 1/2 cup vanilla wafer crumbs

cinnamon for dusting (optional)

In a heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and corn syrup. Stir in moonshine, then add vanilla wafer crumbs and mix well. Cover and cool in refrigerator until mixture is hard enough to roll into balls. Line a baking sheet with wax paper, and using your hands, roll into 1/2-inch balls and place onto wax paper. Store in an airtight container between sheets of waxed paper for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Dust with cinnamon when serving. 

Christmas Countdown: Pecan Sea-Salt Drops

We are heading to New Orleans for a few days after Christmas and while we're there, we always pick up some freshly made pralines from Southern Candymakers in the French Quarter. But we wanted a praline-style candy to include in our gift packages this year, and settled on another Martha Stewart recipe, Pecan Sea-Salt Drops. 

A praline without the cream and butter, these drops consist of chopped pecans in a crunchy caramel sprinkled with sea salt. Martha suggests using a mini-muffin tin, and we tried them first in one, but then we tried a regular sized muffin tin and liked the look much better. What's great about these candy drops is not only the salty sweetness but also the pretty elegance.  

Pecan Sea-Salt Drops

(from MarthaStewart.com, makes 12-16 candies)

Ingredients:

cooking spray

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

flake sea salt

Coat the cups of a muffin tin with cooking spray. Bring sugar and corn syrup to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cook, swirling occasionally, until mixture becomes golden around the edges. Stir in pecans and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is pale and amber-colored, about 8 minutes. Spoon mixture into muffin cups, about 1 tablespoon each, and immediately sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool completely, then remove from tins. Store in an airtight container.

Christmas Countdown: Honeycomb Brittle

It's the weekend before the big holiday, and A Couple in the Kitchen has been busy making sweets and treats for sharing with friends, neighbors and loved ones. We're still quite busy with school and life and all that, like everyone, so we started with something very easy - a candy recipe from the queen of all things homemade, Martha Stewart - Honeycomb Brittle. Making candy seems scary to some, but we find it much easier than baking. And less time-consuming! We used orange blossom honey to get a hint of orange essence in each crispy, crunchy, airy bite. And that great honeycomb-like texture comes from whisking in some baking soda at the very end.

Honeycomb Brittle

(from MarthaStewart.com, makes 1 sheet, about 9"x11")

Ingredients:

cooking spray

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon baking soda

Spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside. Bring sugar, honey and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-high. Cook without stirring until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and whisk in baking soda until combined and bubbly. Gently pour onto prepared baking sheet, tilting to spread, and allow to cool. When cool, break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

Acqua di Cedro-Soaked Cherries

We were sure cherry season had come and gone but then spotted these nearly-black beauts at the market. Amy snatched up a pound of them, recalling a recipe she had seen on Food52 on the bus on the way to New York for the cruise. The recipe had been forgotten over the gadget-free week at sea, but the market display brought it right back. She looked it up then and there, in the middle of the store.

Now, a few years ago during a long weekend in the Federal Hill section of Providence, we spent an hour or so at a tasting at Gasbarro's Wines where we were introduced to B. Nardini's spectacular Acqua di Cedro Liqueur. We loved it so much that we bought two bottles, and have bought several since. We think of it as lemon-flavored grappa, which is how it was described to us. The Nardini website calls it "the noble cousin of limoncello," and describes it quite succinctly as "sweet with a citrus taste." 

Well, what we did was take these two unique products, one of nature, one of man, and marry them via the Food52 recipe. We made five small jars of Acqua di Cedro-Soaked Cherries and set them aside as this year's Christmas Eve favors. Our hope is that they have a bit of a cherry-lemonade flavor; a taste of summer in the harshness of winter. Five households, five jars. So if you need a nice Christmas gift, get on it ASAP. These need a few months to soak (and there are only 122 days until Christmas!). 

Acqua di Cedro-Soaked Cherries

(minimally adapted from this recipe found on Food52)

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh cherries

enough Acqua de Cedro liqueur (or grappa) to cover

glass jars with air-tight lids

Wash and dry cherries thoroughly. Snip off all but 1/4 inch of each stem (it will "act like a little umbilical cord that drinks up the grappa"). Arrange cherries in jar and pour enough grappa over them to cover. Seal in jars and store in a cool dark place for 4-6 months. 

Christmas Present(s)

Last week, we offered up some of our favorite holiday cookie and candy recipes from Christmases past. Admittedly, several of these are annual traditions, without which our Christmas Eve table and foodie gift packages to the neighbors would not be complete (especially our Buckeyes, Rosemary-Almond Butter Toffee, and Rum Balls). Of course, we did try a couple of new things we want to share with you. Thus, we give you Christmas Present(s), with photos and links to the recipes we used, along with notes on how we adapted them. Enjoy!

Brownie Thins

We used this recipe from Epicurious, replacing the pistachios with walnuts

(and leaving a few plain for Amy's dad who doesn't like nuts). Crisp thin brownie wafers!

Geoffrey Zakarian's Vanilla Crescents

We are going on a cruise this summer and Geoffrey Zakarian has a restaurant on the cruise. We are so excited because he is one of our favorite Food Network Chefs. So of course we had to make these cookies. We used almond flour instead of hazelnut flour. Delicately crumbly, light and pretty.

Cookie Press Shortbreads

We used this recipe in our new electric cookie press and had fun decorating our little trees, poinsettias and wreaths. Sooo easy! 

Chocolate "Amaretti" Cookies

First we thought, why buy Italian cookies when you can make them? Then we realized we had no Amaretto. And no almonds. No big deal - we used 2/3 cup almond flour and Biscotti flavored liqueur instead and they came out fantastic. A great cookie for the adults!

Grapefruit Sparklers

Epicurious was our source for this recipe as well. However, a school fund-raiser left us with 10 lbs. of grapefruit, so we used grapefruit zest and grapefruit juice to give these a zingy twist. Of all the cookies listed here, these were our favorites!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM A COUPLE IN THE KITCHEN!!!



The Posts of Christmases Past

You all know The Ghost of Christmas Past, the famous Dickens character from A Christmas Carol. Along those lines, here we offer you the (slightly less famous) Posts of Christmases Past - A Couple in the Kitchen's round-up of our favorite cookies and candies from past holiday seasons to inspire you while you finish up your baking and gifting. Happy holidays!

Favorite Holiday Cookies:

Chow's Split-Second Cookies

Double Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies

Florentines

Mad-Easy Macaroons

Spruced-Up Sugar Cookies

 

Favorite Holiday Candies:

Rosemary Almond Butter Toffee

Peppermint Bliss Bark

Holiday Divinity

Rum Balls

Burnt Molasses Candy (Coal)

Buckeyes

Chocolate-Dipped Fleur de Sel Caramels

Earl Grey Truffles

Snickers Bar Fudge

And one that wasn't posted during Christmas but makes a great gift:

Chocolate-Covered Sea Foam