holiday baking

[Guest guest]

Hi folks,

I did some NT-style holiday baking for gifts and to entertain guests this

Christmas, and it was a huge success. Everyone LOVED the " Hazelnut

Shortcake " from the Gourmet Desserts section of NT, and also the egg nog I

made.

By the way, does anyone know where to get food-grade cocoa butter? I

couldn't find any in any of the health food stores I went to.

Anyway, I found the Hazelnut Shortcake incredibly easy to make, with the

exception of skinning the hazelnuts, which I found a royal pain in the

you-know-what, and thought the NT directions were only moderately effective.

I'm going to look harder for skinless ones next time, and will happily pay

twice the price to do that. However, aside from that, the pie takes a total

of 20 minutes to make or so, and is not only great-tasting, but absolutely

beautiful. I used fresh strawberries and Wyman's frozen wild blueberries.

The berries ran a little, tinging the whipped cream, and together with the

strawberries made a lovely-looking colorful desert. I strongly suggest

anyone who hasn't should try this recipe if they can find skinless hazelnuts.

I developed my own egg nog recipe, having never made it before, out of a

synthesis of numerous other recipes. Some people said it was the best egg

nog they'd ever had before. I don't know whether this was more because of my

recipe or because of the high-quality ingredients I used, but it was a big

hit either way.

I got a couple recipes off the internet, and one that came with my eggs, and

" NT-ified " them (except for the alcohol). Here's the recipe:

6 Country Hen eggs (best-tasting and quality supermarket eggs by far)

3 cups raw cream

1 cup raw milk

2/3 cup Captain 's spiced rum

2/3 cup brandy

1/3 cup raw honey

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

Separate eggs. Beat six yolks with raw honey, maple syrup, vanilla, and

nutmeg in a bowl with an electric hand-held blender with whipping attachment.

Let stand for one hour. Whip cream up by itself into whipped cream,

unsweetened. Fold in milk. Remove to large bowl to be used for serving (a

really big one, whipping increases volume by a lot). Whip six egg whites

with a pinch of salt, (preferably celtic or unrefined) until stiff. Fold

whipped egg whites into cream. Mix rum and brandy into

yolk/honey/syrup/flavoring mixture. Fold this mixture into whites/cream

mixture. Gently refold mixture before serving with a plastic spatula, or mix

with ladle, before serving. Serve in cups topped with more ground nutmeg.

I have a couple other recipes that I experimented with that came out decently

that I'll post later.

Happy Holidays!

Chris

____

" What can one say of a soul, of a heart, filled with compassion? It is a

heart which burns with love for every creature: for human beings, birds, and

animals, for serpents and for demons. The thought of them and the sight of

them make the tears of the saint flow. And this immense and intense

compassion, which flows from the heart of the saints, makes them unable to

bear the sight of the smallest, most insignificant wound in any creature.

Thus they pray ceaselessly, with tears, even for animals, for enemies of the

truth, and for those who do them wrong. "

--Saint Isaac the Syrian