Eggnog Shot

Last weekend, Derek’s mom threw her annual Christmas party.  She’d been a fan of Shotibles since I started working on this project, and she wanted to have some at her party.  The Candy Cane Shotibles were a clear choice, but she wanted variety, so she asked for another holiday classic; Eggnog.

I used a box spice cake mix for the glasses.  For the filling, I made a butter cream frosting.  For the flavor, I incorporated actual eggnog and rum.  I then topped it off with nutmeg.

Gingerbread Shot

When I was in the 3^rd grade, we made individual gingerbread houses in class.  I remember being disappointed because instead of using actual gingerbread, we used graham crackers.  It’s sort of ironic that 25 years later I ended up using graham crackers as an ingredient in the Gingerbread Shotibles.

I made a test batch of the glasses a few weeks ago using spiced wafers and butter, similar to several of the other no bake crusts I’ve done before.  While they were enjoyable, the flavor was a bit overpowering, and the taste of filling was lost.  Melanie suggested that I cut it with something else.  So, I went back to my tried and true graham cracker crust.  I combined the two.  The result was exactly what I was looking for.

For the filling, I made a cream cheese frosting flavored with a ginger snap liqueur.  According to Jeff, this glass and filling are the best flavor combination yet.

Of special note, the gingerbread house in the background was constructed and decorated by Jeff.  Pay particular attention to the adorable snow covered shingle roof made with cereal and powdered sugar.

Candy Cane Shot

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  December has arrived and brought the Christmas season with it.  So this week I will be posting the first of four Christmas themed Shotibles I have planned.

My original plan for the Candy Cane Shotible was to make the glasses with traditional peppermint bark.  But I learned from the Candy Bar Shotible that making glasses out of pure chocolate could be a nightmare for the teeth.  So I experimented with making a sort of white chocolate fudge with candy cane bits.  While they tasted good, the texture just didn’t work.  First off, I couldn’t really get them out of the molds.  And, even if I could, they wouldn’t have held up well.

I decided to go in a slightly different direction.  I wanted to keep the core premise of the peppermint bark, but I needed to make it more functional.  I combined two proven recipes.  I used my vanilla wafer pie crust and combined it with melted white chocolate.  I knew, because of the vanilla wafer and butter, it wouldn’t turn out to be the pristine white of peppermint bark, so I used white chocolate that was already colored red, and I added more red food coloring.  I also blended up candy canes to mix in.  The resulting glasses tasted like peppermint bark, but had a consistency much more conducive to eating without resulting in a dental emergency.

For the filling, I made a peppermint mousse.  I melted down marshmallows in milk and allowed it to cool.  I then whipped some heavy cream and peppermint schnapps and folded it into the marshmallow mixture.  I filled each glass and topped them off with red and white peppermint sugar sprinkles.