Holiday baking

I'll admit, I've been slacking a little bit this year in the holiday baking department. I decided to remedy the situation today by baking up some treats for our friends, family and coworkers.

First up were Dorie Greenspan's world peace cookies. People have been raving about these cookies for years, but for some reason I just never got around to trying them. I'm glad I finally made the recipe, because these really are outstanding cookies. The ingredients are fairly common, and the technique simple, but the addition of fleur de sel to the dough really takes these cookies to the next level. I only got to taste one cookie, but I think I'll be keeping a roll of this dough in the freezer from now on.


Once the cookies were out of the oven and cooling, I made a batch of red velvet cupcakes. I will be completely honest and tell you that I used a Sprinkles mix. I'm not usually a cake mix person; I prefer to cook from scratch. However, I received this mix as a gift, and I had a really excellent red velvet cupcake at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills a few months ago. The cupcakes are frosted with a cream cheese icing and decorated with one of Sprinkles' signature dots.

The cupcakes were quite good, but not as good as the one I had in the actual bakery. I'm sure the formula is slightly different. Nevertheless, they're delicious and festive, and that's really what matters during this time of the year!