Almon Half-Moon Cookies and Peanut Butter Balls

I was up until 11:30 pm last night completing these two batches of cookies. I finally got the moon cookies right!...well almost. I added more flour this time but I think I added a little too much; such a delicate balance! I also spent half and hour grinding the roasted almonds myself to get the texture and look the same. They turned out pretty good, and after a toss in some icing sugar they will be just like Nonna's!

The peanut butter balls were pretty time-consuming. I probably should have just done half a batch but I wasn't thinking clearly...clearly. I have 65 peanut butter balls in the freezer now. I hope they get eaten at the party in a week and a half. I used natural peanut butter for these which actually worked for once. The only difference is the softness of the ball when you first roll them. I refrigerated them for a bit before coating them in chocolate so they would be easy to handle but they were still a little difficult.

I used dark chocolate for the coating for most of them until I ran out, and then I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. The dark chocolate was definitely easier to temper the chocolate. It hardened much nicer and was smoother when dipping the balls. Also, it is much more delicious. Using a double broiler also made the process a little more fool-proof.

So now I just have one other batch of cookies to make to complete the cookie section of the book. I will probably make those this week so that they can be eaten at the party next weekend.

Tomorrow I will be making one of my favourite dishes. It is a lentil dish from 101cookbooks. I made some substitutions due to what I had on hand and I have been making it the same way ever since. While I normally eat it as a meal in itself, it will make a great side dish for my Mom's 49th Birthday dinner tomorrow night!

Happy Birthday Mom!