The Joys Of Christmas: Baking and Cooking

I didn't make these fabulous Cocoa Bombs, but I'm blessed to have

 a fabulous friend, Nicole, who is wildly talented. 

It gives me infinite joy to do a holiday cooking and baking post. It's something I wasn't able to do last year, and for all the sadness of 2020, I'm grateful to be able to have this experience

as part of my life again. Because of the gas line issues, I didn't keep up with cooking trends very much, but even in my cooking stupor I began to hear about cocoa bombs. In a burst of synchronicity I found Nicole's video -- just click the link above to see the video -- and am now planning a cocoa bomb cooking party sometime in January. For anyone who knows me at all, I am one of the least crafty people anywhere and I'm doubtful that I will have photo ready cocoa bombs, but I'm going to try. The photo above is also thanks to Nicole, who is giving cocoa bombs and cookies as Christmas gifts. Enjoy the video. Spending time with Nicole via video was so much fun, and I hope you enjoy it, too.   

For our baking portion we're visiting a new favorite blog, Mission Food Adventure. I'm not sure how I discovered it, but I'd like to make every recipe. I did make the amazing Pain d'Epice, a French gingerbread loaf, from one of my favorite bakeries, Bouchon Bakery. Bouchon is now history, but I am so delighted to be able to bake one of their treats. I'm skipping a photograph for this post. My cake -- I used a round 8" pan instead of a loaf -- was delicious, but not picture perfect. As with so many treats, it got better on the second (and third and fourth) day. It was a lot of work, but so worth it. Now that I've got blackstrap molasses in the house, I will be making more gingerbread. 

I call this an adult gingerbread. It's very dense and takes a lot of molasses. My blogger buddy at Mission Food explained that French gingerbread is denser and less airy than the American gingerbread most of us are more familiar with. I'm also skipping sharing a photo of my sink afterwards. I thought I was cleaning up as I went along -- the gold standard of baking -- but the sink didn't reflect it. 

Pep and I made it to Rockefeller Center today and we had a wonderful time. I'll be sharing the photographs for our  Christmas Eve post. 

As ever, thanks for visiting and have a cozy Christmas Eve.