Tag: Cinnamon

Chili and Cinnamon Infused Chocolate Bonbons with Horchata Caramel Filling

Posted February 15, 2024 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Time to wrap up my first menu of the year with a dessert I’ve been looking forward to for months: chili-cinnamon chocolate bonbons with horchata caramel filling, inspired by MY FINE FELLOW! When I first read the book, the descriptions of elegant gourmet food floored me, and this was one of my favorites. The idea of chili-cinnamon chocolate sounds amazing all on its own, but throw in caramel flavored with horchata and you’ve got something downright decadent.

To make these bonbons, I added ground cinnamon and chili powder in a pot with some chocolate and melted it down, letting the chili and cinnamon infuse into the chocolate. I used this chocolate to line some candy molds (I decided to use a crown mold since, in the story, these are made for the Royal Culinary Exhibition). For the filling, I started with an horchata recipe I found on AllRecipes and subbed out the milk for heavy cream (this helps cut down on the water being added to the caramel later, which helps control consistency). I caramelized some sugar in a pan, then added in some butter, a bit of the horchata cream, and a touch of chili powder.

These. Bonbons. Are. INREDIBLE! I can’t get enough of them. The chili lends a savory warmth that is accentuated by the horchata, and it helps cut the intense sweetness of the caramel. Interestingly, the individual flavors of the chili, cinnamon, and horchata aren’t easy to isolate. Instead, they come together to make a new, warm, rich flavor, which is balanced by just a touch of bitterness from the chocolate. My four-year-old tried one, and when I asked her if she liked it, she sighed and pretended to faint on the floor. I’d say that’s high praise!

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Maple Cinnamon Roasted Hazelnuts

Posted November 18, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments

 

 

I had an open-fire entree planned for this week, but I haven’t been able to make it yet due to prolonged rainy weather. So while we wait for more clement conditions, let’s make a side dish: roasted hazelnuts!

For all the recipes in my HATCHET menu, I want to draw inspiration from the rugged setting of the book. The main character, Brian, eats a variety of nuts and berries, including hazelnuts, which caught my interest since I don’t get to cook with them much. At first I planned to make roasted nuts seasoned with fresh oregano, but then maple syrup popped into my head. It’s the perfect seasonal ingredient for November, and I’ve never seen maple roasted nuts before. I decided to experiment using my go-to candied walnut recipe as a base.

They turned out amazing! The buttery earthiness of the hazelnuts is balanced by the warm sweetness of the maple, and the cinnamon adds just a hint of aromatic lift. It’s a food that feels fancy but is actually just a combo of a few raw materials. Those materials are a match made in trail snack heaven. Enjoy! 😉

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Mudder’s Milk

Posted March 30, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

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In the episode “Jaynestown,” the crew of the spaceship
Serenity stumbles upon a poor town of clay farmers (known as “mudders”) who’ve erected a statue to Jayne in their town center.

As it turns out, Jayne committed an accidental act of generosity during his last visit, and the mudders now consider him to be their hero. Now that he’s back, they sing his praises and treat him to unlimited rounds of mudder’s milk—their alcoholic beverage of choice.

Jayne describes mudder’s milk as “all the protein, vitamins, and carbs of your grandma’s best turkey dinner, plus 15 percent alcohol.” Our version is a vanilla protein milkshake blended with a bit of oats, flax meal, and cinnamon—along with a couple shots of hazelnut Baileys. So drink up and get ready to sing another verse of “The Hero of Canton”!

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Calcifer’s Sweet and Spicy Candied Bacon: An AWR Original Recipe!

Posted August 18, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 5 Comments

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Howl’s Moving Castle was actually the first Studio Ghibli movie I ever saw, and it’s main comic relief (the fire demon Calcifer) is still one of my all-time favorite Miyazaki characters. Though he can be a bit salty and sassy, Cal’s got a good heart underneath it all, so I wanted to pay tribute to him with a dish in our Ghibli menu.

When forced into making breakfast with the new cleaning lady, Calicifer famously curses her by saying, “May all your bacon burn!” So in honor of Cal (and the delicious, non-burned bacon he made with Sophie that day), I decided to make some sweet and spicy bacon!

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This recipe features crisp center cut bacon rubbed with cinnamon and cayenne for spice and coated with honey and brown sugar for sweetness. The perfect snack to share with your favorite fire demon!

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Baked Apples

Posted December 17, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments


No fruit or vegetable appears more often in
Little Women than apples. They’re Jo’s go-to reading snack, and the final chapter is even set in the Bhaers’ apple orchard. In honor of Jo’s apples, I decided to make my own interpretation of baked apples, which pairs well with our turkey roulade and has enough sweet-savory balance to work as a side dish or dessert. Plus, it’s got those cozy, subtle spice flavors that fit so well in a Christmas menu!

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Dauntless Chocolate Cake: Brownie Layer Cake with Chocolate Fudge Filling and Cinnamon Bourbon Buttercream

Posted November 25, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 11 Comments


If you’ve read Divergent, you know there is one dish that stands out above all the others, put on a pedestal by all who taste it: Dauntless Chocolate Cake. It’s so remarkable, Tris’ mother remembers it after years of living in Abnegation.

What kind of cake could merit that level of notoriety? I like to imagine it was a rich, moist dark chocolate cake topped with fluffy cinnamon frosting with just a little bourbon kick (the frosting I use here was originally developed by Eats Well With Others). It’s a good thing they don’t let you taste it until after choosing your faction…otherwise everyone would be in Dauntless!

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Ariadne Oliver’s Homemade Applesauce

Posted October 15, 2015 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments


As a super organized person, I love it when a post comes together exactly as planned. Then again, some of my favorite recipe posts have been the result of last minute changes. That’s definitely the case today. My original plan was to post a recipe from
Murder on the Orient Express, but I really struggled to find a good option. Sure, lots of foods are mentioned in the book (soup, chicken, cream), but they aren’t described and don’t have much significance in the story. A week ago I was scouring the book for anything that might work. To get me in the spirit, I decided to play an episode of the Hercule Poirot TV series in the background while I worked. The episode was Cards on the Table, which features Ariadne Oliver, Hercule Poirot’s crime writer friend who always speaks her mind. I kept getting distracted by Ariadne’s funny antics involving apples (her favorite snack), and I stopped all my work so I could watch my favorite moment in the whole episode: when she gets out of her car and half-eaten apples spill out all over the driveway. Then it dawned on me: I’d found my recipe—Ariadne’s Apples!

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Katniss Cakes

Posted November 26, 2014 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

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 When I first decided to make a Hunger Games menu, I knew I wanted to go all-out on dessert. Cupcakes immediately came to mind, but I wanted more than just Hunger Games decorations. I wanted each cupcake to exemplify a key story element. After tossing around dozens of ideas, I created three kinds of cupcakes…

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