5 days until Christmas…
Around here, Christmas means eggnog. As soon as it starts appearing in stores, the kids start asking for it. I make it a point to never buy it before December (and I know, I know, I could just make it, I even have a few different recipes for it). But there is something about that thick, rich, creamy nog all scented with nutmeg. It finds its way into my morning coffee. (Not the Martha Stewart version, but there are times where that might be nice.) Someone just told me about eggnog bread. Who was that?
I swear I am not just rambling about eggnog, I actually have a point. Nutmeg cookie rolls. YUM. A nice little stick of a cookie with rum and nutmeg flavors. I was hoping that this recipe would be nutmeg-y enough to be a suitable replacement for the drink and thus save me some room in the refrigerator. The verdict is that it’s just not quite creamy enough. These cookies are crisp and sweet. The nutmeg is sort of a warm afterthought. You can smell it as you bite into them, but it’s not the first flavor in your mouth. I decorated these with melted white chocolate and some red things to make them look festive. I think they kind of look like matches. Whatever.
Now, divinity. I’m sure if you read through cookbooks the way I do, you have seen recipes for divinity, but you may not know what it is. Imagine if meringue cookies and marshmallow fluff had a baby. Divinity is light fluffy clouds of vanilla flavor. They have a bit of a brittleness about them like the crunch of your feet on grass after the first frost. But instead of being cold, it’s warm and gentle. It’s not exactly sticky, but it’s kind of got the memory of being sticky. Nuts are optional here. I figured I had enough nutty things on my cookie tray and more would just make it unbalanced. 
Ok, so if you’ve made it through making butterscotch and anise candy, you may already know that making candy can be hard. Molten sugar is HOT! And sticky. And it will burn the crap out of you if you let it touch your skin. Cold water will harden the candy and help with the burn, but you need to act quickly. Anything that is over 200 degrees is going to hurt. Sticky things are worse. BE CAREFUL when pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. Pouring slowly will lessen the chances of hot liquid splattering up at you. Scrape down the sides as necessary. When it is time to spoon out the warm candy, work quickly. It gets harder to scoop as it cools.
The nutmeg rolls remind me of drumsticks. I could see dipping the ends in chocolate, of course, but the red is so bright. You could easily change the flavoring and color to fit a season and color scheme. This could be a go to cookie recipe. Mint and chocolate seems obvious but how about lemon and white chocolate, orange and a thin glaze and orange rind, just vanilla and colored sprinkles for a birthday party oh I think I could go on and on.
We chose the white chocolate because the nutmeg is so light that I didn’t want it to be overwhelmed. But, yeah, this was an easy recipe that could easily have a thousand variations. It’s sort of like play-doh for adults.