The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 6: Peppermint Mocha Pie
Inside: It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a quick, easy, festive, and thoroughly delicious recipe. Here’s our offering: Peppermint Mocha Pie.
Peppermint Mocha Pie
So we’re halfway through the yearly marathon of Christmas posts, and I’m finally hitting my stride. This is the fourth year I’ve done these posts, and I really do enjoy them, though I think I’d be better off with some advance planning to avoid all the late nights and writing on the fly. This was a last-minute idea, really, though the recipe is one I’ve made often in the past.
Today I found myself thinking about the other 12 days, meaning “The 12 Days of Christmas,” trying to remember the various items for each day. While I wouldn’t want to make six of these, one of them definitely hits the spot! I can’t think of a better gift for day six than this delectable Christmas pie. It’s either that or six geese a-laying. Trust me, you’ll have less mess with this option! And some beaters to lick, too.
The Recipe
The ingredients are rather simple–cocoa, cream cheese, sweetener, eggs, sour cream, almond flour, butter, peppermint extract, and peppermint candies. The steps to this recipe are easy, too. While I’m noticing a rise in “no-bake” dessert options on the Internet, let me be the first to confess: I like baking! Maybe it stems from my childhood days playing with my Easy Bake Oven (a Christmas gift), but something magical happens when you slip a combination of ingredients into the oven and, after so many minutes, remove a masterpiece. Okay, maybe masterpiece is a stretch, but after one bite, you’ll be happy with your work of art!
Shall we bake?
- ¼ cup of butter
- 1 cup of almond flour
- ¼ cup + ¼ cup of cocoa powder, divided
- pinch of salt
- 4 teaspoons + ⅔ cup of sweetener (Truvia), divided
- 2 eggs
- 2 - 8 ounce bricks of cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup of sour cream
- 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract
- 2 tablespoons of crushed peppermint candies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In the microwave, melt butter in a 9-inch pie plate.
- Mix in almond flour, ¼ cup of cocoa powder, 4 teaspoons of sweetener, and pinch of salt with the butter until thoroughly mixed.
- Press evenly into the pie plate, covering the bottom and the side up to the top. Put aside.
- In a large bowl combine eggs, ⅔ cup of sweetener, cream cheese, sour cream, remaining cocoa, and peppermint extract and beat with mixer until smooth.
- Pour mixture into the pie plate and bake for 25 minutes.
- Cool the pie enough to place it in the refrigerator and chill for 2 or 3 hours.
- Sprinkle crushed peppermint on top.
- Enjoy!
Notes: You can increase the peppermint extract for a stronger flavor. If you have no dietary restrictions, then by all means use regular sugar. While this is a low carb recipe, you might notice I didn’t use sugar free peppermint candies. The reason is that the sugar-free candies often contain ingredients that disagree with me.
Take this delicious pie with you to your Christmas parties and family get-togethers. Or keep it for yourself to make your Christmas just a little merrier!
The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 5: Santa’s List
Inside: It’s the mother of all important Christmas compilations–Santa’s list. We take a closer look at the tradition.
Making a List . . . or Two or Three
The other day I was pushing my cart around in the grocery store, close to the checkout lane, when a man turned to me.
“Are you in line?” he asked.
“No,” I said, glancing down at the items scribbled on a scrap of paper. “I’m just looking over my list.”
“And checking it twice,” he quipped.
I heard a smile in his voice, even if I couldn’t see his face properly. “Right. Exactly,” I said, returning the smile and chuckling.
What’s the deal with Christmas and lists?
I admit to being a person who makes lists, even more so this time of the year. To-do lists, lists of food, gift lists. I blame it on Santa.
Oh, I’m not keeping track of anyone’s behavior, mind you, but I have this insatiable urge to take inventory. To keep on task, stay sane when December gets crazy.
Santa’s List
But what of Santa’s List? No one seems to know exactly when the idea of Santa’s list came into being. According to a legend most of us are familiar with, Santa Claus keeps a record of all children’s behavior in his “naughty list” and his “nice list.” As a child, those lists held lots of clout. Parents often reminded kids their bad behavior would promptly remove their names from the nice list and add them to the naughty one. Horror of horrors!
And how did I know this to be true? The song, of course! The 1934 Christmas song, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.” In it, J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie penned these words:
“He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!”
By the way, after being performed on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in November of ’34, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” became an overnight hit with more than 30,000 records sold and orders for 500,000 copies of sheet music within 24 hours.
Kids never had a chance!
The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 4: Clothespin Stars
Inside: A versatile little craft, these Clothespin Stars are a great project to make with the kids this Christmas season.
How to Make Clothespin Stars
Oh my stars! Clothespin Stars, that is. It’s day 4 of our marathon 12 Posts of Christmas, and we have a great little craft project for you. Making star ornaments from ordinary clothespins. Mom put together a couple of these last year, and I liked mine so well that I left it out all year long. So when she suggested this for our ornament project, needless to say, I was all in.
What You Will Need:
- 6 – 8 clothespins (the kind with metal springs) per star
- cardboard to make 1 3/4 inch circle (cereal or cracker boxes work great)
- materials for decorating the stars: raffia, ribbon, buttons, wooden cutouts, Christmas card cutouts, pine cones, paint, tea for staining. Editor’s note: Not all of these materials are needed. Get creative! Choose the materials you want.
- glue gun and glue sticks
Making the Stars
- Remove the metal spring from the clothespin by grasping the ends while simultaneously twisting and pulling them away from each other (like you’re forming an X with the sticks) and pull off the spring.
- Paint or tea stain sticks and allow to dry before gluing. You can also choose to leave them plain, as we have done with one of the stars.
- Glue the flat sides of the sticks together to form the points of the star.
- Take your cardboard and cut out a circle about 1 3/4 inches in diameter to make a base for the pins. (You don’t want this to show. Mom suggests coloring it was a magic marker to match the color of the sticks.) Note: A variation of this step is to make a larger circle (2 3/4 inch diameter) from some other material, such as the galvanized steel circle Mom used for one of the stars, in which case you want it to show. This might take the form of plain or painted wood, colorful cardstock, painted cardboard, Christmas card cutouts, tin, galvanized steel, etc.
- Glue points of the star together on circle base. (See photo.)
Glue pins together as shown. - Decorate the star. Here’s where you want to unleash your creativity. We like the natural look, so I formed a bow out of three strands of raffia and glued it to the center. Then I chose a thin piece of red ribbon to glue on top of that bow. I finished up with a tan wooden button glued to the center. (I was actually inspired by Nordic ornaments I have seen with splashes of red on straw-colored materials. Picture above.) If you like glitzy and shiny things, I’d suggest painting the star and applying glitter. Or use a wooden cutout, which are easy to find in hobby stores, to glue in the center as in this 6-point star Mom also made last year ( picture below).
- Attach a hanger to the back by making a loop from jute or ribbon that matches the look of your star and hot gluing it to the back of the ornament. Make sure it’s centered properly so your star will hang right.
Simple 6-point star with wooden cutout. Easy peasy. Now, post-haste, go find a tree on which to hang your masterpiece. Stand back and admire the work of your hands! Happy Christmas decorating!
The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 3: Pursuing Joy
Inside: There is no better time for pursuing joy than the season of Advent.
Waiting for Joy
I remember one particular Christmas from my young married days when our daughter was small. Mike worked long hours, more gone than home, and the demands of the dairy I ran with my dad kept me busy, too. Tensions were high, arguments far too often, and my plans for a Hallmark Christmas fell by the wayside. Seeing my disappointment, Mom took me aside to impart some wisdom. “Christmases come and go,” she said. “You’ll have some good ones and some bad ones, and lots in between.”
Was she ever right!
For most of my life I thought of joy as something you happened to catch–like a cold or a pop fly. If you randomly caught the feeling, lucky you.
Birthdays and Christmases your chances of finding joy were increased, though not guaranteed! A stroke of bad luck, like sickness or an argument might derail the elusive, fragile emotion before it took hold. Even favorite activities could be joyless with mood and temperament in the mix, and if you happened to clutch your joy tight enough to keep it from escaping, a day with a sad friend or angry relative could send it packing.
Pursuing Joy
I’d like to think I’ve grown up, put away childish things. When it comes to joy, I now realize it’s a choice. For years I saw that message on signs and T-shirts but never really understood it, much less practiced it. Nowadays I’m more proactive. I part the curtains, looking for joy. Search through cabinets. Turn over rocks. I’ve got a prescription I follow, one that serves me well: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV.)
What does that mean in a practical sense? It means directing my attention on things that bring joy. This Advent season I’ve been listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies. I’ve been giving to those favorite charities of mine, putting money in the bell ringer’s kettle. I’m writing cards and handing out candy bags to Amazon drivers when they drop off packages. I’m smiling at people and giving out encouraging words. I’m holding on to every scrap of good news I hear–mine or others.
But there are things I’m not doing. I’m not immersing myself in news media. I’m not watching negative programs, and I’m trying not to complain. Trying. I know this could be a bad year, if I embrace that. Instead, I choose joy. In fact, I’m chasing it down, tackling it to the ground like a football player in the playoffs.
I’m allowing myself to hope for better things, yet being grateful for the myriad of blessings right under my very own roof.
I’m fine tuning my ear, listening for those ancient angel tidings. I’m focusing on the real reason for the season, the babe in the manger, pursuing the joy that can only be found in Him.