Holiday Party Recap: A Cookbook Redemption and a Crew of Junior Party Assistants

So it's almost March and I'm just now getting around to finishing up my blog posts on our annual holiday party. Where does the time go?

First, I'm happy to report that I've had a change of heart about Christina Tosi's All About Cake. I had quite a few complaints about her recipe for Pretzel Cake Truffles, but I made her "B'day Truffles" and "Mint Cookies and Cream Cake Truffles" for the party and both were terrific. (I'm also basing my revised opinion on my positive experience with several additional recipes from the cookbook I made after the holidays -- I will get around to blogging about those eventually!)

The cake truffles were so popular at the party that I don't even have a picture of the birthday truffles because they were all eaten before I remembered to set some aside for a photo. I managed to stash away three mint cookies and cream truffles to get the photo below. These delightfully minty truffles have a center of vanilla cake crumbs mixed with miniature chocolate chips. They're held together with mint liquid cheesecake (cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, salt, milk, egg, egg yolk, and peppermint extract), coated with white chocolate, and covered in chocolate sand (sugar, flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, salt, and melted butter). I didn't encounter any problems with the recipe and I loved the crunch from the mini chocolate chips in the center.

I had a ridiculous amount of chocolate sand leftover and a decent amount of extra birthday sand as well, so I used them as toppings for home made ice cream. The salted caramel ice cream I served at our 2017 party was so popular that I made it again this year, along with ginger ice cream and maple spice ice cream. The full list of ice cream toppings I offered included: shots of espresso, maple cream liqueur, chocolate sand, birthday sand, toffee bits (I saved the crumbs and small bits when I cut this pecan and chocolate almond toffee), and homemade Cracker Jack bits (see below).

I recruited a small army of child laborers to help serve ice cream. My cousin's two children (who have expertly served as party helpers for the past several years, adeptly replenishing platters of cookies and brownies over the evening), my friend Jim's oldest daughter McKenna, and a co-worker's daughter were all eager to help. I dispatched them with a printed menu and some notepads and pencils, and they took orders, ran them back to me in the kitchen, and zipped away to deliver the assembled cups of ice cream with the requested toppings. Guests were very impressed with the efficiency and professionalism of my crew of 9- and 10-year old workers. My husband Tom told me that when the salted caramel ice cream was running low (I'm making a double batch of that next year because guests can never get enough of it) that they were discussing among themselves the need to "push" the other flavors and politely asking guests for their second choice of ice cream flavors in case their first choice was no longer available.

This post is already pretty long, so I'll quickly run through a few more recipes from the party. Bravetart's Homemade Cracker Jack (pictured below): Delicious. Crunchy, caramel-y, peanut-y. Kept well and could be made in advance. Plus, I used the crumbs as an ice cream topping.

Double Pecan Thumbprints from epicurious.com (pictured below): Meh. The texture of the cookie was quite crumbly and I didn't love the espresso powder in the pecan frangipane. I thought the coffee flavor was a little distracting.

Dorie Greenspan's Maple-Star Anise Cookies from Dorie's Cookies, made without the optional cream cheese filling/frosting (pictured below): Good, but I couldn't help comparing them to Ottolenghi's Orange and Star Anise Shortbread from our 2017 party, which were better. Both cookies include ground star anise and orange zest, so the flavor profiles are similar. But Dorie's cookies are slightly soft in the center and Ottolenghi's have a firmer texture and are more buttery.

François Payard's Christmas Balls (pictured below): Quite addictive. These are gluten-free cookies made from almond flour, sugar, egg whites, candied orange peel, candied ginger, dried cranberries, and powdered sugar. They had the flavor of a stollen but the form of a chewy almond cookie instead of bread. Plus, they were super easy to make and very festive.

And I'll close with a few more comments about some of the other desserts. I made the Carrot Graham Layer Cake from Smitten Kitchen and it went so fast that I not only failed to get a picture, but I didn't even get a chance to taste it. I'm assuming it was fantastic but I definitely need to make it again so that I can know for sure. I used homemade Oreo cookies (from Bravetart's recipe, of course) to make the crusts for Karen DeMasco's Cranberry Fool Chocolate Tart and Tiffany MacIsaac's Gianduja Tart with Chocolate-Cookie Crust. While I love the Bravetart Oreo cookies, they didn't work well in either of these tarts -- the crusts turned out greasy and in the future I would just use commercial chocolate wafers. I made the Chocolate Caramels from the Guittard Chocolate Cookbook and instead of chewy caramels I got something that was the texture of fudge. But holy cow was that fudge delicious. I took it to the office and my colleagues raved about it.

The most popular items with our guests were the cake truffles, chilled grapefruit pie, caramel ice cream, carrot cake, Kahlúa fudge bites, and homemade Biscoff. Oh, and of course the chocolate chip cookies and sweet and salty brownies are always favorites. I also have to give a shout out to my husband's pork meatballs, which were the best meatballs he has ever made (and the man has made thousands of meatballs for our party over the years... but I think the Calabrian chili paste he used this year took them over the top). My personal favorites were the Nussstangen, Christmas balls, lemon sugar cookies, ginger ice cream, Biscoffs, Pecan Sandies, Kahlúa fudge bites, and dark chocolate raspberry bonbons.

The complete list of recipes from the party is below:

Baked Goods:

• Chocolate Chip Cookies by Jacques Torres (see this post from July 11, 2008).
• Sweet and Salty Brownies from Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (see this post from December 5, 2010).
• Homemade Biscoff (Belgian Speculoos Cookies) by Stella Parks (see this post from December 25, 2017).
• Spekulatius, Zimsterne, Nussstangen, and Lebkuchen from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss (see this post from February 18, 2019).
• Gingerbread Rum Balls from The New York Times (see this post from February 18, 2019).  
• Brown Sugar Layer Cake with Cranberry Buttercream from The New York Times (see this post from January 9, 2019).  
• Kahlúa Fudge Bites by Abigail Dodge, from Absolutely Chocolate: Irresistible Excuses to Indulge; recipe available here at Fine Cooking (see this post from October 16, 2018).
• Homemade Pecan Sandies from Bravetart by Stella Parks (see this post from March 8, 2018). 
• Maple-Star Anise Cookies and Lemon Sugar Cookies from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan.
• Christmas Balls from from Payard Cookies by François Payard.
• Double Pecan Thumbprints from epicurious.com. 
• Gianduja Tart with Chocolate-Cookie Crust from Food and Wine.  
• Cranberry Fool Chocolate Tart from Fine Cooking.
• Carrot Graham Layer Cake from Smitten Kitchen. 
• B'Day Truffles and Mint Cookies and Cream Cake Truffles from All About Cake by Christina Tosi.

Confections:

• Homemade Cracker Jack and Caramel-Vanilla Peanut Brittle from BraveTart by Stella Parks. 
• Cardamom and Pistachio Caramels from Modern Baking by Donna Hay (see this post from November 28, 2018).
• Salted Pumpkin Caramels from Food52 (see this post from November 2, 2018).
• Pecan and Almond Chocolate Toffee from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (see this post from December 16, 2018).
• Dark Chocolate Raspberry Bonbons from Guittard Chocolate Cookbook by Amy Guittard.

Frozen/Chilled:

• Chilled Grapefruit-Caramel Meringue Pie from Food and Wine (see this post from January 11, 2019). 
• Salted Caramel Ice Cream from The New York Times.
• Ginger Ice Cream from The New York Times.
• Maple Spice Ice Cream from The New York Times.

Savory and Miscellaneous:

• Classic Tomato Soup Recipe from Fine Cooking (served with grilled cheese sandwiches).
• Dates stuffed with parmesan cheese and wrapped in bacon.
• Black Tea-Port Milk Punch from America's Test Kitchen, recipe available here at The Splendid Table.
• Cinnamon Mocha from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings (see this post from December 3, 2017).
• Grilled Feta and Roasted Squash Sandwiches from The New York Times.
• Cheese Rye Appetizers from Taste of Home.

Previous Holiday Party Coverage: 2017 Holiday Party Recap; 2016 Holiday Party Recap; 2015 Holiday Party Recap; 2014 Holiday Party Recap; 2013 Holiday Party Recap; Holiday Spice Cake with Eggnog Buttercream (2012); Stump de Noël (2011) and 2011 Party Recap; 2009 Party Recap; 2008 Party Recap Parts I, II, and III.