Tahini Shortbread {Holiday Recipe Club 4/28}

tahini shortbread

It’s time for another Holiday Recipe Club! Today is our first post focused on an international holiday and that holiday is Buddha’s birthday.

My friend Keely over at Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo was kind enough to help me come up with the international holidays and ingredients. I was happy she was able to help me with this challenge because as much as I don’t like to admit it, I am totally clueless about international holidays (hopefully that will change soon!)

She suggested that for Buddha’s birthday we use garam masala, tofu or sesame. All of those ingredients sounded pretty wonderful to me so we went ahead and told the rest of the club what was up.

tahini Tahini Shortbread {Holiday Recipe Club 4/28}

These ingredients are a little bit more challenging than usual, but I couldn’t wait to see how creative the rest of the club would get with a new holiday.

I decided to go with sesame paste, aka tahini. I had been thinking a garam masala yeast bread would be divine but between a failed hard drive and upcoming finals I worked with what I had.

These shortbread cookies are super quick and easy. I even was able to make them before class on Friday!

The tahini adds a wonderfully nutty, almost peanut buttery, flavor to the shortbread as well as making them extra flakey.

tahini shortbread 1 Tahini Shortbread {Holiday Recipe Club 4/28}

If you have been wanting to use tahini for something more than noodles now is your chance!

And if you are interested in joining the Holiday Recipe Club please contact me here! We would love to have you! [Read more...]

Cranberry and Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars

Cranberry & Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars

What could be better then a crispy shortbread cookie paired with white chocolate? (Not much!)

But, I added some macadamia nuts and fresh cranberries to see if I could changes things up. It turned out totally delicious!

I know a few people that are die hard white chocolate macadamia nut cookie fans…

When I worked at Blondie’s, the white chocolate mac nut had a dedicated customer base. The people that came for them rarely bought anything else.

Personally, I love the cranberry bliss bar from Starbuck’s.

cranberries chopped 300x200 Cranberry and Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars         white choc chips 300x200 Cranberry and Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars

But nothing beats a homemade cookie, so I decided to make my own version of the delicious treat at home.

The bars consists of a classic shortbread cookie topped with chopped fresh cranberries and melted white chocolate.

bar 2 Cranberry and Macadamia Nut Shortbread Bars [Read more...]

Dulce de Leche Shortbread Cookies

Dulce de Leche

The last time I went grocery shopping I happened to stumble across something wonderful…dulce de leche. It can be found fairly easily, but I had never seen it at any of my grocery stores until recently.

I had had it for the first time a few years ago when I was in Mexico. It was in the candy form and they called it cajeta.

For those of you who have had dulce de leche, you already know how amazing it is. If you haven’t had it before, run to your closest store and look for a can!

I found this in the ethnic foods isle. Dulce de leche is a caramel candy and spread. It can either be bought like this, or you can make it yourself!

If you are at all interested in taking that path, check out this post by David Lebovitz. And be careful!

Dulce cookie bite 2 Dulce de Leche Shortbread Cookies

Dulce de leche is one of those things that once you start eating it you can’t stop. It’s thick, creamy, sweet, and totally addicting.

All of those things made me want to do something completely opposite of that with it. And I found this delicious recipe that uses a shortbread cookie base. I highly recommend it!
[Read more...]

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