I have always had a distant obsession with bonbons because they sounded super fancy, and yet have never partaken in them until recently. Â Megan and I often use the phrase “sitting around each bonbons” as a metaphor for people being leisurely and luxurious. Â Corey’s mom gave me a Christmas cookie book this year and I decided to use a couple of recipes from the book for our ornament party. Â When I saw the Almond Bonbons recipe, I knew I had to make them. Â I wanted to feel leisurely and luxurious too. Â Corey requested the Chocolate-Raspberry Bars as chocolate and raspberry are two of his favorite things. Â I realize that we are no longer in the holiday season (sads) but I actually think these would make for excellent Valentine’s Day desserts as well. Â Or everyday desserts. Â Let’s start with the bonbons, shall we?
Almond Bonbons (recipe from Betty Crocker Christmas Cookies)
Cookie Ingredients
– 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
– 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
– 1/3 cup powdered sugar
– 2 tablespoons milk
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
– 1/2 package (7 or 8 ounces) almond paste (I actually made mine because I couldn’t find it at the store)
Almond Glaze
– 1 cup powdered sugar
– 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
– 4 to 5 teaspoons milk
– sprinkles/crystals for prettiness
What you’ll do:
1) Heat oven to 375 degrees. Â If you couldn’t find almond paste at the store, use this recipe to make your own. Â Trust me. Â If I can do it, you can do it.
2)Â In large bowl, beat flour, butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla with electric mixer or spoon if you want a workout.
3) The recipe says to cut the almond paste in 1/2-inch slices, then cut each slice into fourths. Â However, as I made my own and therefore had a big ball of paste, I just took little pieces about the size of my pinky nail. Â Shape a 1 inch ball of cookie dough around each small piece of almond paste. Â Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.
4) Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set and bottom is golden brown. Â Place cookies on cooling rack to cool about 30 minutes.
5) For the glaze, mix all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Â Dip the cookies into the glaze and sprinkle with crystals or sprinkles.
 Chocolate-Raspberry Triangles (also from Betty Crocker Christmas Cookies)
Ingredients
– 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
– 3/4 cup sugar
– 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
– 1 package frozen raspberries in syrup, thawed and drained (I used normal frozen raspberries because I couldn’t find any with syrup)
– 1/4 cup orange juice
– 1 tablespoon cornstarch
– 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (yah I just used normal size)
– Powdered sugar (I added this because the original recipe wasn’t sweet enough for my liking)
What you’ll do:
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Â In small bowl, mix flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Â In bottom of ungreased 13″ x 9″ pan, press dough evenly. Â Bake 15 minutes.
2) While dough is baking, in a medium saucepan, mix raspberries, orange juice and cornstarch. Â Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Â Boil and stir 1 minute. Â Cool 10 minutes.
3) Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Â I actually used twice what the recipe called for in chocolate chips because it seemed like there wasn’t enough chocolate. Â Carefully spread raspberry mixture over chocolate chips.
3) Bake about 20 minutes longer or until raspberry mixture is set. Â Add some chocolate syrup on top. Â You’ll thank me later. Â Also, if you used the syrupy raspberries, you might be ok, but if not, def add some powdered sugar on top. Â Like maybe a lot. Â It was not nearly sweet enough. Â Refrigerate 1 hour or until chocolate is firm. Â Cut into triangles.
To be honest, I was not a huge fan of the chocolate raspberry bars. Â However, Corey quite enjoyed them, as well as a bunch of people at the ornament party. Â If you are into this flavor combo, you might find them to be a delight. Â The almond bonbons on the other hand, were fantastic. Â More cookie-like than I had expected. Â I guess I always thought they were a candy. Â Regardless, they will definitely become a part of my cookie arsenal.
How come I neveer get to taste them??????? HA HA
Ima need some chocolate raspberry treats stat! I LOVED those things. Of course the bons bons were fantastic as well. I love me anythign almond. You are a real whiz kid! 😉
Haha so glad you liked them Tay! I am no whiz kid, I am relatively good at following recipes. Sometimes 🙂