Eggnog Thumbprints and other musings

Hello my lovelies! I return from a hellish semester filled with reading and a 24 page paper on the racial divide in the misogyny of author Richard Wright's fiction. Wooooo! Time for some Christmas cooking!!! I know I promised Thanksgiving recipes, and I'll get around to updating those too.

Today, hubby and I decorated our (too large) Christmas tree, which is always a somewhat special time as he proposed to me as we finished decorating my family's tree. And the decorating of the tree really made me want to bake some Christmasy goodies.


First came the fudge. Two batches. And I failed at both. I first tried an Alton Brown recipe, paying strict attention to the temperature on the candy thermometer. It was a disaster. Then I decided to go with Nigella's recipe, adding chocolate. Again, disaster, but on a smaller scale. Since I've tried multiple recipes, it must be me. What am I doing wrong?? I had an aunt who made the BEST fudge ever, but I was too young to learn her ways (also, she lived multiple hours away). Now, she's no longer with the family so my one fudge link is gone! I do have another aunt who has suggested another recipe, which I will try tomorrow. I will persevere until I have some creamy, chocolatey fudge awesomeness. It's my mission.

So the fudge failed. Being a trooper, I moved on. I'd come across this recipe for rum-eggnog thumbprints. I thought I'd audition them for a spot in my Christmas cookie line-up as them seem like such a festive embodiment of Christmas cheer.

Eggnog Thumbprints

Cookie

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Cream together buter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add to butter/sugar mixture.

Drop 1 inch balls of cookie dough onto baking sheet. Make deep depression in the middle of each cookie. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cool completely. While the cookies are cooling, prepare frosting.

Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp rum
• nutmeg, to garnish

In a small bowl, mix together the butter, powdered sugar, and rum. Make sure to eliminate any lumps the powdered sugar might form.

Spoon mixture into a ziplock baggie and cut the edge off one tip. Squeeze the icing into the depressions in each cookies.

Sprinkle with nutmeg.


Alright. So, I was a bit disappointed with these, though the idea is awesome. I felt something of the eggnog taste was missing; I'm thinking of trying to make a more involved icing, involving cream and eggyolk. Hubby enjoyed the cookies. I suppose I'm just looking for things to knock my socks off.

*ed. note .. A day later, these cookies seem to have a bit more eggnogy flavor, and unlike many sugar cookies, have not hardened. Points for this!