Category: Book of the Month Recipes

Thumbelina’s Fairy Wing Thumbprint Cookies with Homemade Raspberry Lavender Jam

Posted April 2, 2020 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Today marks the end of my Hans Christian Andersen recipe series, which started in January. We’ve constructed delicate meringue swans from The Ugly Duckling, chilled mini ice cream cakes from The Snow Queen, and created sea foam marshmallows from The Little Mermaid. You may have noticed a sugary theme here.

Completely by accident, this has been a desserts-only only blog for all of 2020. It just seems like every time I encounter an Andersen story, inspiration draws me in the direction of something sweet. We’ll get back to savories soon, I promise…just not this week! 😉 The dessert I’m sharing today pairs too perfectly with its story to swap for something savory. And maybe there’s a reason for that.

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Mirror Shard Mini Ice Cream Cakes from The Snow Queen

Posted February 6, 2020 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I’m back with another Hans Christian Andersen recipe! When I created a poll asking folks what Andersen stories they wanted to see recipes for, “The Ugly Duckling” won by a landslide (you can see my recipe for it here), and there was a three way tie for second place! Today I’m making the first of those three: The Snow Queen. It seemed best to do it now since winter is almost over. It feels strange to write that, since winter here has been so mild that it feels like it just started. It’s almost like God is apologizing for last winter, which was monstrously cold and felt eternal.

The recipe we’re making today is inspired by the magic mirror that causes so much trouble in “The Snow Queen.” Splinters of the broken mirror lodge themselves in the heart and eyes of a little boy named Kai, making him see only the ugliness and evil of the world and none of its beauty. I’ve always found the story’s mirror quite intriguing since it doesn’t actually change anything about the world—only people’s perception of it, which is rather fitting for a mirror—and thereby corrupts them to evil, revealing just how much impact perception can have on our lives.

For the recipe, I wanted something frozen of course, which led me to the idea of an ice cream cake. I liked the idea of mini cakes better, since larger, more elaborate ice cream recipes can get tricky if they take so long the ice cream starts to melt. These easy cupcake-sized cakes feature a crushed almond and shortbread crumb crust, amaretto ice cream filling, whipped cream, and mirror “shards” made from melted Jolly Ranchers.

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Meringue Swans from “The Ugly Duckling”

Posted January 9, 2020 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments

 

Happy 2020, folks! I hope the new decade is treating you well so far. I submitted the first draft of my cookbook last week (which felt awesome), but I’ve had two very sick kids at home since then (not so awesome). Hopefully these ups and downs aren’t indicative of how the rest of the year will go!

In December I posted a poll announcing my plan to make a few Hans Christian Andersen recipes this year and asking you to vote on which of his fairytales you’d like me to do. “The Ugly Duckling” won by a landslide…followed by a three way tie for second place! So I guess I’m making four Andersen recipes this year instead of three! XD

I won’t reveal the other winning stories just yet; I’ll do it one at a time as the posts go up. I think it’ll be more fun that way. ^.^ What I WILL tell you is that all the recipes will be desserts, since that’s where my inspiration took me for each one. I had my fingers crossed that “The Ugly Duckling” would make the final cut because I knew exactly what recipe I wanted to make for it: meringue swans!

Using the meringue recipe I developed for my upcoming cookbook (and my tried and true buttercream recipe), I made these fun swans on Monday while my sick kids took a much needed nap. It took a little bit of experimenting to get the shape right, but it was SO worth it in the end.

NOTE: The meringues need to rest in the oven for at least 3 hours (overnight is even better), so I recommend making these a day before you need them.

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Update to January Blog Plans

Posted December 26, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Blogging, Book of the Month Recipes, Holidays / 0 Comments

 

 

Hello, folks! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Just checking in to do a post-Christmas update to January blog plans, then I’m off to thoroughly enjoy a relaxing cup of tea and downtime with the kids. 😊

As many of you may recall, I’ve chosen Hans Christian Andersen as my next recipe inspiration, and I’m taking a poll to determine which of his stories I should make recipes for (you can vote here—poll closes January 1st!). I’ll make recipes for whichever 3 stories get the most votes, and I’ll post 1 recipe per month in January-March. Lots of you have been voting, which is amazing! Thank you! 😀

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Polar Express Hot Chocolate with Gingerbread Marshmallows

Posted December 5, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes, Holidays / 0 Comments

 


In just a few short weeks, we’ll come to the end of not just another year, but a whole decade. It’s crazy to think how much things change in that amount of time. A decade ago I was 21, halfway through college, and working 3 jobs to pay tuition. I was SUPER busy. Now I’m married with 2 kids, a mortgage, and a food blog. Last year I achieved one of my life goals: getting a book published by the time I turned 30 (though I’ll admit when I first set that goal, I thought I’d be writing fiction instead of cookbooks!). And I’ve got another book coming out next September, so…still super busy. I guess things don’t change THAT much. 😆

These blessings have definitely enriched my life, but they’ve brought a lot of chaos too, which is why I want to close out 2019 with a cozy, soul-nurturing recipe–something to prepare me for Christmas and fortify me for a new decade. This got me thinking about “The Polar Express,” which I’ve wanted to feature on the blog for ages. The kids in the book drink hot chocolate on the train on their way to the North Pole, and NOTHING says “cozy and soul-nuturing” like hot chocolate! ^.^

For my inspiration, I used a hot chocolate I once drank a fancy brunch buffet at Drury Lane Theater in Oak Brook Terrace. Folks, it was downright CHUGGABLE. It was sweet but not too sweet, and even though the chocolate flavor was rich, it was more reminiscent of milk chocolate instead of the dark, intense chocolate flavor I usually shoot for with homemade hot chocolate. It was kid-friendly without compromising quality, and that hit all the right notes for me.

Since the book specifically mentions hot chocolate and not hot cocoa, I used chopped up chocolate bars to make it authentic (I recently learned that “hot chocolate” has actual melted chocolate in it while “hot cocoa” uses cocoa powder. The more you know!). I also dialed back the darkness of the chocolate. Most homemade versions call for 70% dark chocolate or darker, but I kept it at 60% to achieve the mellow, approachable quality I wanted. I kept my flavors simple too: just sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. I didn’t use any coffee or cayenne to intensify the chocolate flavor since we’re keeping this kid-friendly, but you can certainly experiment with them if you’re making this for adults (I’d use coffee or cayenne but not both).

The book doesn’t mention marshmallows, but I just finished a marshmallow recipe for my new cookbook and wanted to experiment with unique flavorings. I threw in some gingerbread spices and voilà–the perfect pairing!

NOTE: The marshmallows need to set overnight.

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Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes: Blueberry Matcha Pancakes from The Good Place

Posted November 7, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes, Pop Culture Corner / 2 Comments

 

 

I don’t watch many TV shows these days. With two tiny kids and a cookbook manuscript deadline looming large on the horizon, I just don’t have time to keep up with the new stuff coming out (I haven’t even STARTED the latest season of Stranger Things 😬). Then one night while I was trying to keep myself awake while nursing my baby, I turned on Netflix. And up popped The Good Place.

I don’t even know what happened. Somewhere between thinking “Kristen Bell? Cool, I like her” and “It’s only a 20 minute ep what could it hurt” I was plunged into a wild world of architects, soulmates, and chili babies. It was the light-hearted romp through moral philosophy I didn’t know I needed.

My friend Jess recently shared her own love for The Good Place on FanDummies, a pop culture fan podcast where she is one of the lovely hosts. She mentioned on Twitter that while she was at comic con she visited the actual Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes cafe, a reference to an interdimensional crossroads in the show shortened to the “IHOP”. It’s filled with giant green floating disks (the pancakes), swirling blue chaos, vicious little monsters called Niednagels, and something called the Time-Knife. When I heard Jess got to visit the Good Place IHOP at SDCC, I felt unabashedly jealous. Then it got me thinking…Wouldn’t it be cool to make interdimensional pancakes at home?

They’d have to be blue and green, of course, to match the color scheme of the IHOP in the show. And kinda edgy, since the IHOP is supposed to be dangerous, but they’d have to be delicious too. My answer to this was classic buttermilk pancakes with a twist: I flavored half the batch with matcha to make it green and the other half with homemade blueberry syrup to make it blue. I threw some fresh berries into the batter too.

I was so pleased with the final product. The matcha was evident without being overpowering, and the syrup added distinct blueberry flavor without being too sugary. 

So fire up the griddle and whip up a batch of pancakes from the Interdimensional Hole of Pancakes…and if you suddenly find yourself caught in a swirling vortex between dimensions about to be eaten by a Niednagel or staring down the edge of the Time-Knife, just remember:

EVERYTHING IS FINE.

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Here There Be Sea Monsters: Colonel Brandon’s Curse Cupcakes and Sir John’s Kraken Rum Punch

Posted October 3, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

It’s time for one of my favorite posts of the whole year: a Halloween recipe! This year my inspiration comes from Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, a parody of the Jane Austen classic. A reader requested a recipe from the original Sense and Sensibility earlier this year, but although it’s always important to me to take requests when I can, I ran into 2 problems:

1) There aren’t many foods mentioned in the book, and those that are get just a fleeting mention.

2)* deep breath * As a self-professed lover of classic books, this isn’t easy for me to say, but … I’ve never finished a Jane Austen book. * cringes and ducks behind a desk as everyone throws weighty Austen omnibuses at me *

I know, I know—it’s unforgivable. In my defense, I DO think she’s a skilled writer. She’s witty and creates believable characters. And I’ve STARTED many of her books…but I always wind up DNFing halfway through, despite enjoying them in the beginning. I’ve thought a lot about this, and I think the problem is, despite the dynamic characters, the plot doesn’t extend beyond the character’s personal lives. The will-they-won’t-they of Elinor and Edward is interesting, but I need higher stakes to keep me invested beyond the first 25 chapters.

Still, I take reader requests very seriously, so I found a middle ground. Several years ago, I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I snagged a copy of the second Austen parody novel, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I liked this one even more than the zombie book. Not only did I finish it, but I was up waaay past my bedtime several times because it was too good to put down. Whenever I felt the story start to drag, the author threw in fang beasts, sea witches, underwater colonies, or a sinister island mystery. Just the kind of high-stakes story I like. 😉

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Pippi Longstocking’s Pepparkakor Heart Cookies

Posted September 5, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I finally got around to listening to the Pippi Longstocking audiobook a few months ago, and, guys, I just gotta say…it’s a total gem! I looove Pippi. She reminds me of Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes. I remember the artist (Bill Watterson) saying that kids and adults like Calvin for almost opposite reasons, and I totally see Pippi the same way. Kids love her grownup qualities (Independent! Confident! Super strong!), and adults love her childlike qualities (Imaginative! Spirited! Fearless!). I definitely want to read this one to my kids when they’re old enough. For now though, I’ll just have to settle for making them goodies from the book. ^.^

I thought there wouldn’t be much food in it since it’s so short, but it’s actually PACKED with all kinds of yummy goodness: pancakes, ham, cold roast, cream cake, cookies, and more. The food that stood out to me most was the cookies. They show up in multiple scenes, but my favorite is the one where Pippi is cutting out heart shapes from dough rolled out on the floor. They’re specifically called “pepparkakor” (a traditional Swedish ginger cookie). Since I’ve never made them before, I tracked down a recipe from Daune at Cottage in the Oaks. I added a little cream cheese frosting because I want it on all my spiced desserts from now until forever. I’ll admit the frosting is not strictly authentic, but it IS strictly delicious, which is all that really matters, right?

These were so fun and easy to make: the perfect weekend baking activity with little kiddos! 🙂

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Miracle Max Resurrection Truffles: A Princess Bride Recipe

Posted August 1, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

I have a confession to make: before this year, I’d never ready The Princess Bride. The years up til now were a distracted chorus of “I’ll get to it” and “It’s somewhere in my TBR.” I’ve seen the movie, so I guess I just didn’t feel a ton of urgency. It wasn’t until someone requested it as my blog’s next Book of the Month that I actually sat down to read it for the first time.

AND OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS IT IS THE GREATEST. Such a complete and utter joy. I can’t remember the last time I had so much pure fun while reading. It’s clever, heart-warming, and fiendishly funny. As soon as I finished it, I was more than ready to get in the kitchen, and I knew exactly what I was going to make: Miracle Max’s resurrection pills.

In the book, Miracle Max prepares a resurrection pill for the “sort of dead” Man in Black. Inigo is skeptical of its appearance, but Max’s wife Valerie assures him that it looks a lot better with a chocolate coating. This reminded me of chocolate truffles, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to make the filling from scratch. After all, I’ve got a 2-year-old, 6-month-old, and Mysterious Suuuper Seeecret Project (which I PROMISE I’ll announce soon–hopefully next week!) to worry about. To resolve the issue of time, I turned to my trusty Oreo truffle recipe. It’s quick, easy, and dependably delicious—just what the doctor ordered. Then I snuck in a Werther’s soft caramel center for the perfect surprise.

You don’t have to slave away for ages to make these addictive little morsels (but they’re so delicious that everyone will think you did). So whip up a batch—they’re even worth coming back from the dead for!

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