Almost there, almond crescents, and Maggie Rudy

 

And I'm taking a leaf out of Shammickite's comment, to make almond crescents. She has a blog you might want to read.  I'm always glad when she posts.  About art, food, the state of the world, all sorts of things.  Go HERE

 Meanwhile back at YouTube, I found a recipe which was simpler than a few others I studied. I've left enough info for you to track it down.

Her results:

My start, grinding almonds to meal, adding in a bit of vanilla essence and lemon zest, not in the recipe but why not.

My dough is drier than hers, so I squeezed a bit to see if it would hold together, and it will. I'll just work it in my hands when I form the crescents, and trust it will work. 

Flours vary, I made my own almond meal from fresh nuts, might be different from hers. We'll see.

So after the half hour fridge time, the dough was really too dry to shape. So I added some whole milk, in little blurts, and made it more workable. I was beginning to have some doubts at this point, having noticed the baking time she says in the video is several minutes' different from the time in the notes below it.  Also I wonder about the oven temp.  And maybe the quantities.  But nemmind. Even Homer nods.

As you see before it goes in the oven

I got 18, and they may be bigger than the originals, so I'll bake them a couple of minutes more.

Some of them, after baking, became more like half moons than crescents, so I shaped them a bit with a wooden spoon. 

We'll see how they cool. And the dredging with confectioners sugar at the end will cover a lot of sins.

Later, after baking them five more minutes, and still not baked, I left them in the hot but turned off oven, while I went to the library for vital supplies, see below. This trick, the oven, not the library, often works to finish baking without singeing.

Came home, still not baked. Put them into a 380 oven for five minutes. Not done. Five more. Now they're more like it. Not without some imprecations not entirely in the spirit of Christmas.

And ready for Christmas serving. I bet Shammickite didn't go through all this, probably made hers with a lot less drama and more success.  Oh well.

 

A mouse ready to make inroads. Mice seem to feature a lot in holiday scenes.

Here, with two wonderful books, why I went to the library, is the cook's trial of the almond crescents

 

Verdict: very good, very almondy, slight whiff of lemon and vanilla, this is beginning to sound like a wine review.  Soft inside but definitely baked, firm outside.  They're unlikely to be repeated, since there were a lot of unexpected spills and thrills in the making, but they're very good anyway.  And there's plenty.  I notice that a lot of Christmas baking involves showering snowstorms of confectioner's sugar around.

 

Maggie Rudy is a wonderful artist, creator of children's books, makes dioramas with all her own creations, expressive mice in narratives, and if you go to her blog MousesHouses,  HERE   you'll see why I love her work.  Just a title and an illustration in each post, and all wonderful.

 

So I thought I'd like to read a couple of her books, don't know why they're marketed as if they're strictly children's books, since, to my mind they're artworks that belong in the pantheon, but, anyway. Unless you have an elastic definition of children.

And you see  there tomorrow's movie choice, the only really Christmassy movie I like, The Bishop's Wife, just lovely.  Every year I watch and wish an angel could get me to skate like that. It's totally Christmas for me.  Recently in our knitting group, one member said her tradition is to have Christmas breakfast, exchange gifts, then watch The Godfather!! She has some reason she says it's a Christmas movie, which I forget now.

Tomorrow I make the other Christmas dessert, apple crumble, which Handsome Son is bringing icecream for, along with the main course, on Friday. Yes, he gets the right day off!  The store closes for Christmas. So everyone gets the day, instead of  working to serve other people who get the day off. He works all the other holidays, so this is a treat.