For my cookie exchange at work this holiday season, I made these cookies called Snickery Squares. They're a bar cookie, and totally delicious. They had a shorbread crust, and were then layered with dulce de leche and candied peanuts, then bittersweet chocolate spread on top of that, with more peanuts sprinkled on top. I had trouble cutting them, and the dulce de leche wasn't as stiff as I was expecting it to be, but regardless, they tasted yummy. But they were quite an expensive cookie to make. I bet I spent $20 on the ingredients for a 13x9 size pan. It was a nice treat.
For the cookie trays I'll be giving away to my friends and family, I made some of my favorites from the market—cinnasnappers, chocolate chip snowballs, and squish monsters. In addition to those, I made some other Christmas favorites of mine: a lemon meltaway covered in powdered sugar. These look so pretty on the cookie tray. Also very pretty on the cookie tray are linzer wreaths—a shortbread-like cookie made with crushed almonds, sandwiched with raspberry jam in between, and dusted in powdered sugar. Some other favorites include snickerdoodles, peanut butter blossoms, and double peanut butter cookies. It's been a busy couple of weeks.
There have also been some exciting things going on for HappyJack Bakery. Back in October, at my daughter's school's family spaghetti dinner, they had a cookie contest where my chocolate chip snowballs won first prize. A freelance writer for the Post-Gazette happened to be at the dinner, and thought my cookies were worthy of printing in the paper. Although I sell these at the market, I felt it was worth it to give out the recipe to get some exposure. So she printed my recipe, along with a little write-up about me and HappyJack Bakery. I was so thrilled about this.
But even more thrilling was the email I received a few days later. The adult program coordinator from the Whitehall Public Library contacted me to see if I was interested in teaching a demo/class on baking there at the library. I told her I would love to, so now sometime in February, I will be having a class to share my knowledge with those interested in learning from me. I'm now working on a name for this class (if it takes off, she said they may ask me if I'd be interested in doing more), and I need to come up with an agenda for the class. Or is that called a curriculum? I don't know. I need a list of topics. And I need to practice. And practice some more. I don't mind speaking in public, but this is still kind of exciting but scary. I'll be sure to keep you updated on when the class will be held. Look for mentions on the library's Web site.
Until next time, have a yummy day!
