Almond Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I don't know about you, but I only seem to have time to breath once Passover has already begun. Before hand is a whirlwhind of cleaning and shopping (and for most people cooking and for me a wedding, a bar mitzva and a new baby in the family). But once the holiday starts, most people have more time to think about trying out new recipes, or, you know, blogging.

Hamantaschen galore!

Hey bakers and mistakers! Long time no blog. But never fear, I've still been making tons of messes in the kitchen. Before I get back into the real swing of things, I'm here to share with you some weird and exciting varieties of the hamantaschen cookie for the Jewish holiday of Purim (which is on Sunday!)

This year I set my sights on creating a delicious caramel apple hamantaschen - and succeeded!

 Check out that recipe over at my other blog, The Nosh Pit!

From years past, I made these awesome chocolate, coconut raspberry hamantaschen...

These cool lemon-lime hamantaschen... 

And of course the ultimate classic pairing - chocolate and peanut butter hamantaschen.

And in case you missed it, which should have been hard with my bragging, Buzzfeed picked up not one but two of my hamantaschen in their feature: 32 crazy hamantaschen flavors for Purim! I'm famous!
Have a happy holiday!

Chocolate Dinosaur Brownie Cookies

OK, yours don't have to be dinosaur shaped. But that's what really made them for me. It's been a long time since I've made roll and cut cookies, probably because they're more work than drop cookies and I'm lazy. But they're also more fun than drop or bar cookies, and when my roommate brought me a set of dinosaur and farm animal cookie cutters, and then I came across this recipe for brownie roll out cookies in my new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, I knew it was meant to be.

 

Trio Cookies

Yes, I have about 50 cookbooks lining my living room wall. No, I don't cook from them all. At least a dozen of them I've never made one recipe from. But I love flipping through them, taking one idea from here, another from there, taking inspiration from a chicken dish and turning it into one with turkey or tofu. But there are some cookbooks that inspire devotion - some that when I turn the page, and see a photo, and say "I must make that" - I mean it. Which is what happened when I got the Gourmet Cookie Book - and found the recipe for these adorable jam trio cookies.

 

Chocolate Gelt Cookies

Sure, Chanuka/Hanukkah is all about the frying, but that doesn't mean the only desserts you can serve all week are dripping with oil. Chocolate gelt - another traditional symbol of the holiday -
are just as cute when part of some cute sugar cookies. And they're less likely to melt in your hands!