Jessica's Dinner Party

by jessica yoon

christmas

Chestnut Macarons

Chestnut Macarons by Jessica's Dinner Party

 Until I moved to Paris, chestnuts didn’t hold any holiday significance to me.  But two winters of seeing marrons glacés everywhere changed me for the better and now I can truly relate to the words of “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” It’s Christmas Eve so I’ll keep this post short and sweet.  These macarons make up the last third of my cookie list this year.  The filling is by far the easiest thing, and although used for macarons here, I can imagine it going well with any sort of wafer, shortbread, or vanilla cake. It may not be the day to try making macarons for the first time, but if, by any chance, there is a can of crème de marron lying around, this is definitely something that can be made in a pinch.  Oh, and there’s butter involved…but who DOESN’T have that lying around?

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Sparkly Double Chocolate Cookies

Sparkly Double Chocolate Cookies | Jessica's Dinner Party

My favorite cover of the now defunct Gourmet magazine is a red December issue featuring a variety of holiday cookies and sweets.  I bought the issue at a time when buying magazines were still a big deal to me.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have a few extra dollars to spare, but just that I valued the content of a monthly publication just as much as a cookbook worth ten times more.  I’m not as frugal when it comes to purchasing food publications anymore.  I probably buy cookbooks more often now than I bought magazines back then, but I do find that the books and periodicals I took a lot of time pondering over, sometimes for days and weeks at a time, are the ones I come back to most often.  With all the content available online now, the value of holding onto one magazine issue isn’t as high as it used to be, but still every winter, right before Christmastime, I go back to this red December issue of Gourmet and find inspiration from it over and over again. This year, the second cookie from my cookie box is the double chocolate cookie featured beautifully as part of the cover spread. I’ve been tempted to make these for awhile now…more accurately since I first laid eyes on this issue, but not until this year that I muster my way around to it.

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Rosemary Shortbread this Christmas

Rosemary Shortbread for Christmas by Jessica's Dinner Party

It’s become a little tradition of mine to bake Christmas gifts for family and friends. I have to admit, homemade gifts are a lot of time and effort,  but the joy I get from seeing someone enjoy something I’ve made pales in comparison to the sweat that goes into it!  There are an endless amount of ideas as to what to give for the holidays, but this year I decided to be traditional and make cookies.  During the few days left leading up to Christmas I’ll share with you the trio of cookies I made for my gift box.  Here is this first, my favorite rosemary shortbread.

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Speculoos

I recently discovered this speculoos spread that brought me back to my childhood in Korea. The sweet, spice filled flavors reminded me of a simple, rectangular biscuit cookie my mom had stashed in the cupboard for tea and snacks. I never found these biscuits to be particularly special; they were tasty but a bit everyday and mundane. However, now that I’m away from home, spending the holidays without my family for the first time, any flavor, smell, or object that reminds me of the familiar has become special.

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Christmas: Behind the Scenes

It’s been a bit quiet around here, but I haven’t forgotten about this little space!  I’ve been baking like a mad woman for a little cookie project I decided to undertake for the holidays.  I’m making cookie gift boxes to give as presents and to hand out as favors at various parties.  It’s been a lot of fun trying out new recipes, as well as disastrous.  I seriously thought I was cursed by the cookie gods, because everything I baked was either too difficult to work with, ugly, or ruined.  Luckily, my frustrations didn’t keep me from trying harder, because I did find a few solutions and good recipes that I think are keepers for the years to come.

Instead of a recipe, I thought I’d post a series of photographs showing my failures and mistakes.  This is for those who have become discouraged, exhausted, angry, and frustrated, or are in any other emotional turmoil because of baking.  Feel encouraged!  Holiday baking is so easy feat!

Langues de chat, more like blobs de chat.

Does anyone else find Dorie Greenspan’s shortbread extremely difficult to handle?!  Am I the ONE person in the whole world that just can’t follow Dorie???…

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