Bringing It Forward

Just today, the excitement of Christmas hit me!! I've not not been looking forward to it, but I haven't really yet felt it. In part, that has to do with the fact that it's 60 degrees (yuck!!). And, it tends to take me a few of the first days of Christmas Break to unwind enough to realize it really is break! The feeling hit just in time, too, as it was the day I proclaimed we work together on the cookies!

There's one cookie recipe in particular we made every, single Christmas growing up, and it's the singular recipe I maintained and continued almost every year since being on my own. They're called Birds Nests. It was a recipe passed through my Dad's family and seemed to be the family Belle of the Cookie Ball.

Check out that boss wallpaper and my sweet nightgown threads.

That's me and my brother, 1978, decorating the Birds Nests. Every year, my brother asks me if I sent him any for Christmas. Too bad for him that I mailed his goods before we even thought about baking this year (more for us!).

Here's a batch of ours from last year as decorated by the young Crewers:

I have a confession to make: I do like these, but I don't love them. I'm more emotionally attached to them -- both from childhood and because our kids like them so much -- than I actually want to devour them. And, in truth, I'm not a huge sweets fan in general (Savory is where it's at. And, popcorn. Popcorn is the world's most perfect food. That and artichokes. YUM.). ANYWAY, given my mission to rid my environment of most white sugar, this presented an interesting situation this year ...

I did commit to two things for Christmas baking: (1) I will make Birds Nest proper as well as a round of them made with substituted ingredients; (2) Unless there's something in particular anyone wants in the sweet zone and was willing to help make, the buck would stop at Birds Nests. That not only sounded reasonable to me, but it was also accepted by the entire family. Whuuuuuuut?!

I did, in fact, make a hugely successful batch of Birds Nests swapping out the flour with Trim Healthy Mama's Baking Blend (1:1), and, instead of sugar, I swapped it with THM's Gentle Sweet Blend (using a conversion chart on their website). For the icing center, I ground some Gentle Sweet in a coffee grinder to make it more like powdered sugar, and I made a sugar-water icing like normal. It doesn't look quite as pretty, but it totally worked.

I was a bit stunned that they turned out so well! They totally scratch that "I wanna Birds Nest for absolutely no reason!" itch I get around Christmas! And, even better, I took some to my Dad (my original Birds Nest connoisseur), and he loved them. He ate every, single one I took him. I was thrilled. It's the little things.

In the meantime, I stumbled across a recipe for Buckeyes on this website, and I really wanted to try them, too. I do like Buckeyes, but I wasn't willing to make them this year given the sugar status. Pit Crew #2 and I took on the swapped-ingredient recipe the other day, and we finished them just a bit ago with the chocolate coating:

The peanut butter insides have been in the freezer for a few
days (because I didn't have a chance to get back to them, not
because they needed that long). The chocolate hardened almost
immediately after dipping. It was kind of like Magic Shell!

After dipping all of them, we went back and dipped again
because we had plenty of chocolate, and the first layer was a bit
thin. Don't they look fab?!

The result: I love them! They're the perfect little hit of peanut butter and chocolate, and I totally love 'em! Pit Crew #2 and Aaron like them but would prefer a more prominent peanut butter taste. I think that flavor gets muted a bit as the inside is oat fiber (which tends to mute a lot of recipes I've tried) and -- wait for it -- Great Northern Beans. It's true. And, it totally works! I actually forgot they were in there until I just reread the recipe. Oh, and don't get me wrong, I completely hear what they're saying about the peanut butter flavor. But, I am, personally, willing to make the swap of a little less peanut butter flavor for a zero on the sugar scale. I'm not sure if adding a bit more peanut butter would affect how well they stay together, but I am willing to give it a whirl.

More healthy buckeyes? OH DARN!! So, these are totally on my Christmas radar from now on!

Of course, some of the traditional goods are happening around here, too. While PC#2 and I were putting together more Birds Nests, the boys were making some almond bark pretzels in between dancing to Christmas songs on the radio:

A quick break from the dance to get
something done ...!

I'm seriously stoked for these options -- they just made some of our Christmas traditions both doable and very enjoyable!!

And, tomorrow? I'll explain this ...!: