We are happy to have Heidi Cullinan here to share a favorite recipe of hers! Take it away Heidi.

Fudgy Peppermint Bonbons, 3 Ways (Standard, Vegan, and Vegan & Gluten Free)

Okay. Ostensibly this is one of those blog posts where I have a book out and I’m running all over the blogs waving my arms and a copy to promote it. That’s still here, I guess. Let It Snow, gay Christmas romance novel, bears snowed in, hijinks and true love ensue. Blurb, links, etc. at the end of the post.

BUT REALLY we are here to Get Serious, because this is the post where I tell you all about how I rescued my very favorite Christmas cookie. It has nothing to do with the book, but nobody is going to give me a better Christmas present than what I gave myself by fixing this recipe.

My favorite Christmas cookie comes from this cookbook, which some friend of my mother-in-law gave me at a wedding shower. It’s one of those fundraiser numbers where everyone contributed a recipe and they sold the books to fund the church. This particular church is in a microscopic town, and the money was to go toward the rebuilding of a very old church which had burned down due to a lightning strike. I used to make all my cookies from this cookbook at Christmas, and seeing the cover of it brings me much pleasure. Here is the original recipe, which if you have no dietary limitations, you’re welcome to use.

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Fudgy Bonbons

By Janel (Sporleder) Niceswanger in the Memories from Immanuel Lutheran Church, Lidderdale, Iowa, 125 Years cookbook

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

¼ cups butter

11 oz sweetened condensed milk

2 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla (or peppermint extract for mint version)

60 Hershey’s candy kisses or hugs

2-4 oz white chocolate

1 tsp shortening or oil

Heat oven to 350F. In a medium saucepan, combine chocolate chips and butter; cook and stir over very low heat until chips are melted and smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk; mix well. In a medium bowl compine flour, chocolate mixture, and vanilla; mix well. Shape 1 tsp of dough around each kiss, covering completely. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6-8 minutes. Remove from sheets; cool. In small saucepan (or measuring cup in microwave) melt white baking bar and shortening. Drizzle over cookies. Yield: 5 dozen. Especially good when serving: heat in microwave for 8-12 seconds for that warm-from-the-oven taste.

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(Okay, this is tangentially related because there’s a Lutheran church in the book. Pretend Marcus’s mother used to make these.)

For a decade these were my signature cookie. One year during a blizzard my youngest sister made me take her out to get more condensed milk because she wanted to learn to make them and run home to Texas with a box full. I’ve given them to her as Christmas presents. People fight over them on the cookie tray. These are my cookies, and I love them. Though I always used more dough than a tsp, and I never got 60 cookies out of this in ten years of making the recipe.

So last year when I’d been diagnosed with a dairy and egg allergy and had to redo all my Christmas cookies, I was very bummed when I realized how impossible this recipe had become. The chocolate chips I could replace (Enjoy Life brand, I love you), and the butter (Earth Balance, my BFF) but the chocolate kisses? The sweetened condensed milk? Challenges. But I met them! I veganized this bitch, and the cookies were just as amazing. No more white chocolate, but I subbed vegan mint chocolate and added crunched candy cane and turned it to a minty-hit. Just as amazing, still a favorite with family and friends.

This year I’ve added a severe gluten intolerance to my wheelhouse, which means in addition to no dairy or egg I must now play with strange and recalcitrant flours. Once again, I had no help turning this recipe GF. The only place I’ve ever found it is that Lidderdale cookbook. So only a handful of months into the world of gluten free baking, here I am carving out my own path.

My first attempt was nothing short of a disaster. I followed someone’s suggestion that instead of making condensed milk I could simply swap coconut cream, and I sort of slapped a flour mix together and added xantham gum. If you’re a GF afficianado: in two cups of flour I added 2 TBSP of xantham gum. Go ahead and laugh. Laugh really hard.

They sucked. They were gummy, not sweet enough, and I couldn’t even swallow the bite. I spit it into the sink. I left my failed cookies on the stove for two days so I could marinate in my failure and have a good sulk. Then I looked up flours, girded my loins, and went back in.

Second time was a charm. After baking today, I took the cookies dressed and ready to my daughter and husband, who wolfed them down. Wolfed. My daughter snuck a second one—and reported these things are very, very rich, and moderation is suggested by her upset tummy.

Below I’m going to post the vegan (not GF) version, then the vegan AND GF version. If you’re GF but don’t need vegan, you can swap back in the condensed milk (if it’s vegan? Is it? I have no idea.) out of a can and any chocolate candy/chips which are GF. You can also use white chocolate, which I have to hate you quietly for, but it’s okay. (I miss white chocolate.)

During the GF version there will be a meditation and dissertation about flour. Brace yourself.

Vegan Peppermint Bonbons

12 oz dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand or whatever you can find: make sure there’s no casein.)

¼ cup Earth Balance or vegan margarine/shortening

1 recipe vegan sweetened condensed milk (see below)

2 cups flour (or more as needed)

1 tsp vanilla (or peppermint extract for mint version)

1 bag Enjoy Life Mega Chunk chips or vegan chocolate drops if you can find them

2-4 oz mint chocolate

1 tsp shortening or oil

In a lot of ways this recipe is much like the one above, but there are two distinct differences: you can’t use kisses, so you have to hobble, and you have to make your own milk. This is both simple and long. You need

1 large can of coconut milk (13.66 fluid ounces)

¼ cup maple syrup

2 TBSP brown rice syrup

Do not get the box of coconut milk you use for your cereal. You must have the can, and you should shake it in the store. If you hear sloshes, put it back and get another one. If it stays silent and heavy, you have a winner.

Open the can and dump it, water and all, into a small saucepan. Most of the can will be a thick goop of stark-white cream. Add to this your sweeteners and whisk it up.

Ostensibly you’re going to boil this down into less liquid, but honestly you can just sort of give it 15 minutes or so on medium, stirring constantly. That brown rice syrup will help thicken it, and honestly you’re going to have to fuss with the flour anyway. I can’t ever get it to reduce, but I made the cookies work.

Now we are back to the regular recipe, using your vegan versions: “Heat oven to 350F. In a medium saucepan, combine chocolate chips and butter; cook and stir over very low heat until chips are melted and smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk; mix well. In a medium bowl combine flour, chocolate mixture, and vanilla; mix well.”

The only thing you need to do differently here is add more flour if it’s too wet. You need to be able to make this easily into a ball, so if the two cups isn’t enough, keep going until you have a batter that looks something like that below in the GF notes.

Now it’s time to wrap the dough around the kisses…and you can’t use Hershey’s.

If you can find something kiss-like in a vegan version, then go for it. You could also use chocolate chips but they’re going to be a pain in the butt. If you want to really get intense you could make your own kisses by melting vegan chocolate or cocoa and putting them in a mold…but that is getting intense.

I take a bag of Enjoy Life Mega Chunks, dump them in a bowl, and make do. I use three full sized chunks or as close to that as I can come inserted into the middle of the dough. Because I can’t quite get the dough around these as nicely as a kiss, I use more.

Now we’re back to the recipe, just with small alterations. “Shape 1-2 TBSP of dough around each clump of chocolate, covering completely. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6-8 minutes. Remove from sheets; cool.”

This part is easy: you swap the vegan mint chocolate for the white. I use Endangered Species Mint Chocolate, and I melt it in a measuring cup in the microwave with the oil.

This is what it looks like when I drizzle the cookies: I spoon the chocolate and whip back and forth to make lines over the top. You get good at it after twelve years.

Because they’re kind of boring without the white, I add crushed up candy cane to the top while the chocolate is wet. I put a candy cane in a baggie, smash it with the bottom of a coffee cup, and sprinkle. This year I didn’t really make the dust small enough. But maybe you like it that way. To each their own crunched candy cane.

These are good when warm, a little hard when not. Microwave for 8-12 seconds for that warm-from-the-oven taste.

If you’re not needing a GF recipe, or if you’re not adventurous, use one of the versions above. If you are GF or GF and vegan like me? Read on, read on.

Vegan and Gluten Free Peppermint Bonbons

2.5-3.5 cups GF flour blend (see below)

¼ cup Earth balance shortening

1 cup vegan sweetened condensed milk (see below)

12 oz semisweet vegan chocolate chips

1 “mega chunks” chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla extract (or peppermint for stronger mint flavor)

1.5-2 oz vegan mint dark chocolate bar

½ TBSP oil

parchment paper

This is exactly like the vegan version above, except we have to have a moment with our flour. If you have a favorite flour blend for cookies, use it. I would not use xantham gum as it doesn’t need it, but if your pre-bought blend has it, it will probably be okay. If you have the various flours and starches on hand, go ahead and make your favorite mix and skip the gum.

I used some strange flour hybrid I can’t exactly recreate in report here. I didn’t want grit and I didn’t want gummy or beany, so I leaned on sorghum flour and potato starch (NOT potato flour). I also had more than a bit of coconut flour because I had this instinct it would be good. I think though don’t use too much. If you want to try my blend, I think go with something like this:

Heidi’s GF Flour blend:

1.5 cup sorghum flour

1 cup potato starch

½ cup coconut flour

½ cup brown rice, millet, or almond flour

I can’t use almond flour (allergic, such a pain) but if you can, I’d go with that one. I am interested in trying the millet. My blend had the last bit as a kind of a mesh of Pamela’s blend, some brown rice, and a trace of leftover GF oat, teff, etc. I’m basically trying to come up with the mixture I like still, so it was a bit weird. Again, if you have a favorite blend, use it.

If you are making this recipe for a friend who is GF as a surprise—first of all, they’ll probably cry, because nobody makes us cookies. If someone made me cookies like this I would definitely bawl like a baby. I would feel so loved. However. If you do this? Don’t surprise them, or if you want to talk to their partner or nearest loved one in-the-know for explicit instructions. A lot of us GF people have wrecked guts and can’t tolerate all kinds of things, or have learned we hate the bean flours but love the rice or hate the rice but love the coconut or are allergic to corn or some bullshit. It’s different for each person. It will be enough that you’re trying to make something, and not asking can mean you go through all this for something they still can’t enjoy. They might even be able to give you a premade blend of flour. Ask and they’ll totally tell you. Through tears.

Then get ready for sticker shock. When you non-GF people go buy regular flour for $5? Or even $10? Enjoy that. For me to buy as much flour as you would be $15-20 easy. Easy. And that’s a premade blend, usually. If I buy bags of flour or even grain to grind and mix I have to buy each one, and make it, and…expensive. So if I ever make you cookies? I really love you. Really love you. (I can’t make you regular cookies, because I can’t even be in the same room with clouds of wheat flour. Not kidding.)

Also if you’re making this for someone GF and you don’t normally cook GF, you must clean everything beyond clean before you cook with it. Double-scrub all cookie sheets, mixers, pans, counter tops. One crumb can make them sick. One. Crumb. If they are celiac, half a teaspoon of gluten can damage their small intestine for life. Clean, well, read all labels, and double check on reputable websites.

So basically this is the same as the vegan version. Make your milk. Melt the chips and margarine, add vanilla/peppermint.

Now you add the flour: and it’s going to be greasy. I don’t know why. The GF version is so much greasier, and I just went with it. You will add more than 2 cups of flour, but I’m going to say start there and then just keep adding in TBSP increments until you get it to look like this:

Basically this is firm but not crumbly. It will not be sticky, just greasy. I know, I’m sorry I don’t have an exact amount. It’s going to depend on what flour you use anyway. I think for mine it was about 3 cups. If you use a mix and run out and need more, I’d use sorghum or potato starch to finish off.

At this point you also form the dough around your mega chunks (if GF/vegan/dairy free) or your GF chocolate drops if you’re lucky enough that you can still do dairy. It should work but the dough is a bit fussy, so be patient. Use the parchment paper on your cookie sheets. These are greasy so they might not stick, but who really wants to find out? Plus then you can use one of the trays for your drizzle and not have to scrub your cookie sheet.

You will also have to cook your cookies a bit longer. I would say 8-12 minutes, probably closer to 10 but it depends on your flour and oven. The cookies should still look slightly wet but not much. They will be soft. That’s okay.

Cool them off, then get them all close together for the drizzle. Melt the chocolate the same as above, drizzle, add candy cane if desired.

Here is the fun part. The GF cookies? Very soft the whole time. You don’t have to put these in the microwave to get them butter soft in your mouth. The chunks are a little hard, but not that bad, and the cookie is very delicious. I just had one off the front porch, where it was frozen, but it thawed very quickly and tasted amazing.

Now, I agree with my daughter: these are very rich, so don’t gorge. They go great with any milk, hot cocoa, or coffee. Or wine. And a fire and a book. Definitely a fire and a book.

If you have any questions or improvements on this, let me know! Have fun with this recipe. And if you’re GF and missing your old favorites? Don’t accept defeat. If I can do this, anybody can turn anything GF.

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The weather outside is frightful, but this Minnesota Northwoods cabin is getting pretty hot.

Stylist Frankie Blackburn never meant to get lost in Logan, Minnesota, but his malfunctioning GPS felt otherwise, and a record-breaking snowfall ensures he won’t be heading back to Minneapolis anytime soon. Being rescued by three sexy lumberjacks is fine as a fantasy, but in reality the biggest of the bears is awfully cranky and seems ready to gobble Frankie right up.

Marcus Gardner wasn’t always a lumberjack—once a high-powered Minneapolis lawyer, he’s come home to Logan to lick his wounds, not play with a sassy city twink who might as well have stepped directly out of his past. But as the northwinds blow and guards come down, Frankie and Marcus find they have a lot more in common than they don’t. Could the man who won’t live in the country and the man who won’t go back to the city truly find a home together? Because the longer it snows, the deeper they fall in love, and all they want for Christmas is each other.

Warning: Contains power outages, excessive snowfall, and incredibly sexy bears

Buy/Book Links: Amazon, B&N, Samhain, Goodreads, Excerpt

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Heidi Cullinan has always loved a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. She enjoys writing across many genres but loves above all to write happy, romantic endings for LGBT characters because there just aren’t enough of those stories out there. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading, knitting, listening to music, and watching television with her husband and ten-year-old daughter. Heidi is a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and is proud to be from the first midwestern state with full marriage equality. Find out more about Heidi, including her social networks, at www.heidicullinan.com.