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Toffee and Candied Pecan Snickerdoodles

They say that, in general life, necessity is the mother of all invention. In baking, leftovers are the mother of all invention. I can’t count how many recipes I’ve come up with that came out of having extras of an ingredient I used for a different recipe and compulsively needed to use up. It’s like with all the random specialty or seasonal ingredients I’ll buy: for the intended recipe I may only need 1/2 cup but I have to put the remainder to use! Hence three different pomegranate scones, lemon thyme basil scones, and cinnamon chip scones/cinnamon chip pumpkin bread, just to name a few. Once inspiration for those leftovers hits, I often have to run to the grocery store to buy a different specialty ingredient for that recipe and then end up with leftovers of the new ingredients. And thus the leftovers dilemma continues. It’s a vicious cycle my friends.

Toffee and Candied Pecan Snickerdoodles

Toffee and Candied Pecan Snickerdoodles

Combine that with my other compulsive baking need to find some twist on a recipe or figure out some way to make it a little more complicated, and you end up with Toffee and Candied Pecan Snickerdoodles before I even get around to making a solid basic snickerdoodle cookie. Oops. I blame Thanksgiving and salad.

White Chocolate and Pistachio Dipped Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

White Chocolate and Pistachio Dipped Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Wow. Four cookie recipes (I’m counting the peppermint bark since remember our gluten-free cookie sneakiness?) in a week. Come to think of it, have I ever posted four recipes that quickly? Must be all the sugar I’m consuming in testing these recipes that has me writing at the speed of the convection oven. Regardless, these cookies have been and will be all delicious so it’s totally worth the Costco sized block of butter you’ll go through making all of them.

White Chocolate and Pistachio Dipped Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

White Chocolate and Pistachio Dipped Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Butter=Deliciousness. Mathematical proof right there.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Scones

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Scones

First let me send out a huge thank you to all my new readers! The past two days, this blog has gotten over 50 hits each day! Yay! And I’ve gotten some really nice messages and comments about my last review of Steampunk’s Afternoon Tea event. Hearing from you always makes me smile, so keep the communication going!

To celebrate, let’s make more scones. How else would we celebrate?

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Scones

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Scones

My mind has been on vacations a lot lately. No, not like I’m taking a mental vacation and becoming a space cadet, but like thinking about traveling and getting away from California for a little while. Maybe it’s because all the schools are getting out right about now and people are heading out of town. Alas, I’m a poor, starving actress who has to subsist on the millions of scones in her freezer and can’t afford to go on vacation just yet. So I guess I have to make a scone into a vacation! How about Hawaii?