Monday, December 07, 2009

Some recipes from Domino Sugar

I was contacted by Domino sugar and offered a gift card to buy ingredients in order to make something from the Domino website. I took a quick gander and decided that wouldn't be a problem at all. They have lots of great recipes on there now but gosh, I bet their site will just grow and grow. I mean, they have such few limits with sugar as their product.

I have to admit that I will often buy store-brand baking ingredients but when I do my holiday baking, I usually reach for brand names and for sugars that means Domino. If I'm going to the trouble of baking all those treats for my friends and family, I want to use the best ingredients. Is there any difference between Domino sugar and other brands? Well, I've never come across lumps in my Domino sugar - I can't say that for the store brands. That's just my own personal experience.

So what did I make? Well, strangely enough, even though I usually follow recipes as closely as possible, I played around a little bit here.

I combined the design idea of Peanut Butter Reindeer Cupcakes with the recipe for Chocolate Sugar Cookies and made Reindeer Cookies. Since my son can't eat M&Ms (due to his peanut allergy) I used Sixlets for the eyes and nose. Sixlets aren't as sturdy in the oven as M&Ms and melted quite a bit but I think they're still cute.



They were so cute, I couldn't settle on just one picture.



I don't like to make cute cookies just for the sake of being cute. These were also delicious. I wasn't sure if the pretzels would work here but it tastes like eating chocolate-covered pretzels when you eat that part of the cookie. I'd also like to note that I rolled the cookie dough out between sheets of parchment paper which is one of the most awesome baking tricks I've ever learned and I like to pass it along whenever I can.

I also made some Drop Sugar Cookies. I was intrigued by the combination of oil and butter and the use of cream of tartar instead of baking powder or baking soda. I added some green food coloring to the cookies - I usually do that with any sugar cookie at Christmas. These had a nice crispy texture around the outside with a soft, chewiness in the center. I liked them with just the sugar on top but alternatively, these could be frosted.



But the very first thing I made was this Peppermint Swirl Fudge Cake. I opted to top it with vanilla candy coating instead of the chocolate glaze, just because. I used chopped up candy canes and candy cane kisses on the top. I added a bit of green food coloring to intensify the green in the peppermint cake batter. I just wish I had something green on the top too - next time I'll get the candy canes that have both green and red.

I love how we spend the holidays now but someday I hope I get a chance to host my own Christmas gathering so I could put a gorgeous cake like this out for my guests.




It wasn't just pretty, it tasted great too. The cream cheese gave it a nice texture. It wasn't too minty like I've found some peppermint-flavored recipes to be - the level of mint was just right for my taste.



Although, I'm not a Tweeter myself, some of you might be interested in one of Domino's programs to fight hunger. Basically for each time that #NoKidHungry is mentioned in a tweet, Domino®/C&H® Sugar will donate $1 to the Share Our Strength® organization. They're going to donate up to a maximum of $10,000.

I'm excited to do even more holiday baking now. Thanks to Domino for getting me started.

Question of the Day: What plans do you have for holiday baking this year?

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

You made a good variety of sweets! They all look so delicious.

I have no clue what I plan on baking this holiday season. Probably just some sugar cookies

Annie Jones said...

Thanks for posting these recipes and pictures. I love the reindeer idea!

As for baking...I'm going to sit down and plan that out this afternoon or tomorrow!

elizabeth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
elizabeth said...

(Monday spelling oops in the first comment. ::sigh::)

They all look delicious, and fun to make. Thanks too for the link to the Domino site. I have yet to bake one holiday treat, soon... :D
I think I'll make the cake for a Feb. dinner/Christmas party (yes, not till next month, everyone is so busy!)

Chef Aimee said...

In addition to cookies, I may do some peppermint brownies. :)

Unknown said...

Love those little reindeer cookies! Too cute!

Sara said...

Those reindeer cookies are so adorable!!! I wish I had the energy to make them. I am hoping to make some shortbread cookies this week, that will be all the baking I'll do for Christmas this year.

Anonymous said...

I made the reindeer cookies for a school function last year and they were a big hit. I guess I'll make my usual for Christmas. I thought I might change it up a little so I asked my hubby which items he REALLY had to have again. Well, he named practically each thing I make, so.....it'll be pumpkin pie and some other one. I do vary that, and this year it'll be German Chocolate. My cookies and sweets will be Fruit Cake Cookies, ones I don't remembe the name of, but they are white drop cookies, very light and have pecans, Haystacks, but with chocolate instead of butterscotch, Cranberry-Almond Bark and Pumpkin Bread.

Jan