Cookies

Sparkly, Very Sparkly Stars

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More Time will be on vacation for a short time.  
When I’ve cooked a bunch more, I’ll be back! 
In the meantime, make my Sparkly cookies.   Make merry, friends!

Sparkly, Very Sparkly Stars

This not-too-sweet, pie crust-like, melt in your mouth gem is actually a tiny, fluted piece of shortbread showered in white sanding sugar.  Regular old white sugar will work just as well, as would bright red cookie sugar from the grocery store.  The white sanding sugar, however, gives the cookies a sheen and a sophisticated sparkle unlike any other.  It yells, “I‘m special.”

While other cookies try and steal the show with great globs of frosting or hunks of high-quality chocolate, this cookie (tiny, but mighty) shows strength and endurance because after you put out a big bowl of them, folks will just keep nipping in until they’re gone.  One isn’t enough.  Especially with hot tea… or a little snifter of brandy. Try this:
  

Print Recipe

Sparkly, Very Sparkly Stars

Ingredients

  • 3/4- pound 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt no salt if you used salted butter

Instructions

  • Mix together together the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until just combined.  Add vanilla.  Sift the flour and salt and add it to the butter an d sugar.  Mix until the dough starts to come together.  Dump on a floured board and shape into a flat disc. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  • Roll dough out 1/4″   thick on a floured surface and cut with 1 – 1.5″   fluted cookie/biscuit cutter.   Sprinkle each cookie with a little white sanding sugar and, using one finger, press sugar very lightly into each cookie.  Bake on an ungreased sheet for about 10 minutes–until edges show the faintest signs of gold.  Let cool to room temperature.

Notes

The original recipe for this shortbread is from Ina Garten and she got it from Eli Zabar.  I make a couple of other cookies out of this same dough–actually I make hundreds of other cookies out of it!
…
While the dough operates similarly to sugar cookies, it only has to chill 30 minutes and the taste and texture are intensely better…unless, of course, you make your grandma’s sugar cookies–in which case, I know they’re much better.  Really.

Recipes here for the cookies below:

 

 
Valhrona-Sea Salt Shortbreads
 
Raspberry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
 

 

Sing a new song, 
Alyce

Are you done baking yet, Mom?

Fave Cookies-A Repeat Post

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 Raspberry Shortbread Sandwiches and Valrhona Chocolate Shortbreads

 Last Year on Christmas Eve, I posted the recipes for these cookies.   As they are among my favorites, I thought them worth posting again!  Happy Cookying, my friends.


Merry Christmas, Friends, Family and other Loved Ones 

A promise is a promise and here are two more of the cookies from the tray:

 These cookies are at the right of the tray and are both shortbread cookies made from the same recipe, but finished differently.  The recipe is Eli Zabar’s  (NYC) and I took it straight from Ina Garten.  Just the end results are totally different.  And while these are not terribly innovative, they are terribly delicious.  Addictive, in fact.  Go ahead; you still have time to bake.  No?  How about for New Year’s?  Truthfully, the 12 days of Christmas haven’t even begun yet.  Get out those trays and crank up that oven.  Take a batch to a neighbor you wish you knew better or run up to the local church for services tonight and give a batch to one of the musicians.  Like me.  I’m working tonight. 

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Raspberry Shortbread Sandwiches and Valrhona Chocolate Shortbreads

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Merry Christmas, Friends, Family and other Loved Ones

A promise is a promise and here are two more of the cookies from the tray:

 These cookies are at the right of the tray and are both shortbread cookies made from the same recipe, but finished differently.  The recipe is Eli Zabar’s  (NYC) and I took it straight from Ina Garten.  Just the end results are totally different.  And while these are not terribly innovative, they are terribly delicious.  Addictive, in fact.  Go ahead; you still have time to bake.  No?  How about for New Year’s?  Truthfully, the 12 days of Christmas haven’t even begun yet.  Get out those trays and crank up that oven.  Take a batch to a neighbor you wish you knew better or run up to the local church for services tonight and give a batch to one of the musicians.  Like me.  I’m working tonight. 



Shortbread Cookies from Eli Zabar via Ina Garten and Alyce Morgan

3/4# soft unsalted butter
1 c white sugar
1 t vanilla extract
3 1/2 c unbleached flour
1/4 t salt (no salt if you used salted butter)


For sandwich cookies:  3/4 c seedless raspberry jam and 1T Cointreau
For chocolate dips:  3-6 oz Valrhona Chocolate melted*; 1T coarse sea salt

Instructions:

Mix together together the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until just combined.  Add vanilla.  Sift the flour and salt and add it to the butter an d sugar.  Mix until the dough starts to come together.  Dump on a floured board and shape into a flat disc. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped, for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Roll dough out 1/4″   thick on a floured surface and cut with 1 1/2- 2″   fluted cookie/biscuit cutter.  Bake on an ungreased sheet for about 10 minutes–until edges show the faintest signs of gold.  Let cool to room temperature.


For Raspberry Shortbread Sandwiches:


Mix jam with Cointreau and heat briefly; stir well.  Turn cookies flat side up and, holding one, place about 1/2 t jam mixture on it.  Place another cookie, flat side down into the jam mixture and press together lightly.  Place  cookies on racks as you finish them.  When all are done, dust with confectioner’s sugar shaken from the shaker or through a small strainer/sieve.


For Valrhona Chocolate Shortbreads:


Chop or grate chocolate into a small sauce pan.  Place sauce pan over  another with an inch or so of simmering water.  Let chocolate melt slowly.  When melted, take each cookie and dip halfway.  Place each dipped cookie onto a wax paper lined tray to dry.  Place a piece or two of sea salt, if desired, on the chocolate side before the chocolate dries.  

*Depending on how much of the dough you commit to the chocolate variation.


Store these cookies in tight containers after they are very dry.  Place wax paper between layers.

Merry, Merry Christmas and may all your New Year’s dreams come true,
Alyce



Drop in and Decorate Monday December 20, 2010

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Thanks to all involved, particularly Lydia Walshin of Perfect Pantry--(check out her blog) Drop in and Decorate is her brainchild and is now a nationwide cookie-baking and decorating effort to help wonderful things happen in our local communities.  It’s a tremendous way of doing a little bit of good and having a great time while you’re doing it.  Who doesn’t like cookies?  And why shouldn’t they bring us together?  You can host your own event (not just in December, either)…check out the info on Lydia’s blog.

Our cookies are on their way to The Bridge, Assisted Living Center in Colorado Springs.

Ah, nuts or Go Nuts! or Alyce and Helen’s Spicy Nuts

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IMG_4425

It’s snowing here.  I’ve been waiting forever.. or it seems like.
This week, it’s been one thing after another; do you have weeks like that?
When you have an agenda only to have it thwarted by work, illness, spouses traveling, or whatever?
Promises, however, are promises.  And the promise to  give you the recipes from this tray:

 

Go Nuts!  Today’s recipe is at center.

is being kept.

Today’s entry is one I may have posted before, but it’s worth repeating if I have.   Surely it’s gone into the Holiday Cookbook  for 2010 on examiner.com.   This is a spiced nut recipe that I originally received from my sister Helen.  I have since called it Go Nuts!  But, having changed it from her recipe to mine, I’ve also called it Alyce and Helen’s Spicy Nuts.  I’m baking five kinds of cookies today and, while looking at an old Betty Crocker Cookbook from the early ’70s, I saw a very similar recipe there!  I’m big on provenance.  If something is original (or I have every reason to believe it is), I want the credit.  If it’s a riff on something, I want the other cook to have the credit; I want to be a honest recipe person.  Sometimes I know there’s nothing new under the sun and, when I really think I’ve done something new (for instance, I grilled pizza in the ’80s) I wish I’d put it somewhere.

They really taste this good.

Well, here’s your recipe for the day.  People adore this stuff.  It does store ok, but is best during the first day or so.

P.S.  I know how pedestrian this post is…   See bottom.

Go Nuts!  Or whatever you want to call it—————-

Ingredients:

  • 3 egg whites, beaten well
  • 1.5 pounds nuts (pecans, cashews and almonds are a good mix; just pecans are scrumptious)
  • 3/4 c white, granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I like Vietnamese)
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
  • 1/8th teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (added after baking)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
  2. Mix together all ingredients well in a large bowl.
  3. On a well-greased half-sheet cake pan (or a large, rimmed baking sheet), spread out nuts evenly.  You can use parchment paper instead of greasing the pan.
  4. Bake for an hour.  Check for crispy brown doneness.  If just chewy, separate out nuts a bit with a fork or fingers (careful!), and bake five minutes longer.
  5. When nuts are crispy, remove pan from oven, sprinkle with black pepper. Cool briefly and break nuts apart and stir as best you can, using a sharp-edged spatula to get the nuts up off the pan.  Remove to another pan for cooling or nuts may stick. (If they do, reheat them for 5 minutes and then remove to another pan.)  For crispiest nuts, let sit at room temperature for several hours.
  6. Store, cooled,  in gallon plastic bags or well-sealing containers at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.  For longer storage, refrigerate.

In Memoriam

Our share cat Skippy Jon Jones had to be euthanized today.  Miss him already.  No words.

Skippy–Luvya!  See you later.

Ginger Repeat

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Don’t forget DROP IN AND DECORATE
MONDAY, DECEMBER 20; 4-8PM
I’ll bake the cookies; you come and decorate them!
On Tuesday, we’ll take them to The Bridge, Assisted Living Center

Ah yes, I promised the recipes for all of the cookies on this tray:

And, even though I’ve blogged the ginger cookies (to the far left) before, they’re worth repeating.  In fact, I’m repeating that blog.  Why not? 

It starts here…

Is there anything more Christmasy (food-wise) than a ginger cookie? I have so many foods and ideas to blog for Christmas (I’m making clam sauce today) that I don’t know what to do. But things always boil down to cookies during Advent, don’t they?

One year, I just had to figure out what was


THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ME AT CHRISTMAS………

What wouldn’t it be Christmas without.

Or, what was Christmas….

You know. It’s the year you decide to drop

ALL that decorating

ALL that shopping

ALL that worrying about when you’ll get it wrapped…

ALL that pouting about “It’s not like it was when ___________.”


And you wonder,

“What is my very favorite thing about Christmas?

Do I need the tree?

Do I need the lights?

Do I need the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha?

Do I need the big party?

Do I need to go to the Nutcracker(again)?

As our priorities tumble and crumble and finally crystalize, we straighten out and fly right…

Knowing just exactly what we need at Christmas as we walk to the stable, waiting for the savior to be born in OUR hearts because we need to be new and clean and loving so very badly.

As I’ve walked (not run) each of the years since my priorities scrambled and came round right, I’ve discovered I like these things best about Christmas:

1. Spending time with my family

2. Worship–Christmas Eve especially

3. Baking Christmas cookies for my family and friends

Well, gee, I guess you couldn’t figure it out.

Oh, this is a food blog–right?   Back to the cookies.

And, if I just had to name my very favorite cookie (and my children and husband each have theirs), I guess I would name

ALYCE’S GINGER COOKIES–a word or two about them:

These cookies are a cross between a cookie sold during Needlework Week at Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria, Virginia (where I worked for several of my lovely years at the National Trust for Historic Preservation) and the cookies they sell in Coshocton, Ohio and are OH SO famous for.

These are not snaps, no, definitely not. They aren’t the Gingerbread Girls of the Drop in and Decorate variety. They are cookies. Crispy and chewy at the same time. Sweet and spicy and even a tad “hot” all together. Throw out your old bottle of ginger and get a new one before you begin. These are why cookie jars were invented, my friends. Why kids come home. Why husbands raid the freezer middle of the night.

Make ’em; make ’em right. You’ll always be tweaking them between the kinds of sheets and the oven temps………. Are they done? Are they not? (Don’t overbake them; they’re toasty garbage.)

The recipe is a guide. You’ll make them your way and they’ll be your cookies. Eat them with milk. Eat them with hot tea. Eat them with coffee or hot cocoa. For capital G-Goodness sake, just make them and eat them. What else do you need? Part of Christmas is… well, it’s just ginger cookies.

ALYCE’S GINGER COOKIES–A BIG BATCH –6 DOZ 2-3″ COOKIES

1 1/2 c shortening ( I know, I know)

2 c sugar (plus more for rolling)

1/2 c molasses

2 t freshly ground ginger

2 eggs

4 cups unbleached white flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons cinnamon (I like Penzey’s Vietnamese cinnamon)

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F.


Beat well the shortening, sugar, molasses, egg and fresh ginger until fluffy. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Shape into 1″ balls. Roll in granulated white sugar and place on cookie sheet two inches apart. Bake until edges are quite dry, but centers are soft and still a tad gooey. If you overbake them, they’re dunking cookies.


Let cookies sit on trays for 5-8 minutes. Remove from trays to cooling racks until completely cool. Store in airtight containers for 1-2 days. Freeze for up to 2 weeks if not using immediately.

Just ginger.  Again.

What I’m reading and listening to:

BOOKS-
IN THE KITCHEN WITH A GOOD APPETITE by Melissa Clark
JACQUES PEPIN:  THE APPRENTICE  by Jacques Pepin
AROUND MY FRENCH TABLE by Dorie Greenspan
THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein (Book Club’s at my house in January.)
THE LIGHT WILL SHINE; A STUDY FOR ADVENT

MUSIC-
John Rutter’s “Gloria”
my own piano playing
“my” choir’s cantata
Dave practising
Straight, No Chaser’s “12 Days of Christmas“
The whipping of the trees and the scuttling of the leaves as winter weather moves in.
My daughter’s voice on the telephone

VIDEO:
Oh, and my favorite food video of the year is Yeo Valley:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOHAUvbuV4o&feature=player_embedded

Sing a new carol; bake a new cookie,
Alyce

You Don’t Need a Cookie App or The Only Fig Newton You’ll Ever Need

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 Don’t forget Drop in and Decorate:  Monday, December 20, 4-8pm……….………

Watch this space…throughout the season for the recipes for these cookies.

  Are you really carrying your smart phone to the store and searching your cookie app for ingredients?  I’d like to know.  Are you deciding which cookies you’ll make based on which cookies are on your app?  Or is this just a cool thing to look at on subway or while you’re waiting for the dentist?

I mean, it sounds kinda fun.  Maybe.  Squinting at a screen while in the grocery…trying to remember what you already have at home…bringing the recipe up over and over as you move from aisle to aisle or while you argue with your toddler or husband.   How about stopping in the midst of the Christmas grocery crowd and actually writing a list down?  How’s that goin’?  Is a smart phone dictating your Christmas cookie list?  Now, now, now.  I have to know.

New recipe;  Oatmeal cherry chocolate almond….Coming soon!

Maybe it’s like watching Food Network.  Of course, I watch Food Network.  Where would I be without Ina?  How would I make (ok, Dave make) Christmas dinner without Tyler?  And how fun has it been to leave the tv on in the sunroom while I cook during the day.  I can’t see it, but I can hear the pitter-patter of Jadey’s little feet or the whirr of Ina’s electric juicer.  I can get the hell out of dodge whenever the Neely’s show comes on.  Or, as one person wrote, “I have an incredible urge to smoke a cigarette whenever Neely’s comes on.”  Yes.  Me, too.  And I don’t smoke anymore.  (6 1/2 years now)

But if you keep your eyes on this blog (I’d like that!), I’ll give you the recipes for the cookies on the tray at the top of the post.  One or two at a time.. or what I have time for.  We’ll start with

The Only Fig Newton You’ll Ever Need

The Only Fig Newton You’ll Ever Need or How Alyce Conquered The Fig Bar
makes one 9×12 pan of cookies

Ingredients:

 2 c dried figs, stems snipped, chopped (I do it in the food processor w/ a little flour)
1 1/2 c brown sugar, divided
1 c water

2t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract

1 c unbleached flour
2 c oatmeal, uncooked
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

Directions:
  • In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil figs, 1/2 c of the brown sugar, and the water.  Reduce heat and simmer about five minutes.  Remove from heat and cool a little while.  Add vanilla and almond extracts.
  • Combine flour, oatmeal, remaining 1 c brown sugar, the baking soda and salt, stirring and tossing them together.  Add melted butter and mix thoroughly.  
  • Press half the mixture into the bottom of the 9×13 pan.  Spread with the cooled fig filling.
  • Sprinkle filling evenly with rest of oatmeal mixture.  Press it gently into the figs.
  • Bake about 30 minutes or until gently golden brown.
  • Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a  rack.  Cut into squares the size you like.
  • Store at room temperature 2 days or in refrigerator 1 week.   Can freeze for up to 2 weeks. 
These started out as Fanny Farmer date bars…nice morph, huh?

Sing a new song; bake a new cookie;
Come listen to “my” choir sing their Christmas cantata this Sunday at 10.  In fact, if you read well, come to dress rehearsal on Saturday at 1pm and sing along.  Blessings if you’re moving through Advent right now..walking down the path, following the light, squinting into the distance…

Alyce

Two-Dog Kitchen Returns:  (Skippy Jon Jones, grown up, reappears this weekend for a month.)

Resting while mom bakes!   Tucker (left),  Gabby (right)

DROP IN AND DECORATE-PLEASE COME!

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When: Monday, December 20

Time: 4pm-8pm (anytime/come and go)

Where: Alyce Morgan’s house,
              719-635-1799 rsvps helpful!!

What’s up: Stop in and decorate a few cookies Alyce has baked up. Stay for a bowl of soup and eat any cookies you messed up. Sing or play a carol or two or twenty. All ages welcome.

What happens to the other cookies? The other cookies, the ones you didn’t “mess up”, go to The Bridge Assisted Living Center on December 21

Hope to see you come sing a new carol or decorate a new cookie,
Alyce

Book Club and Cookies: Good for your Heart..

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     I added a few grains of sea salt to some of the cookies … Wow.

Our Book Club (no-name) meets the first Wednesday of every month.  You pick your month by figuring out when you have time to clean your house and bake a couple of cookies or buy a bottle of wine.  We’re kinda new at this; we just met for the third time.   We seem to be growing by small increments, adding one new person each time.  So far, we’re all women.  Until now, we all lived in the same small up-on-the-mesa neighborhood.  Last night we had a good friend of mine join; she lives in the north end of town.  We agreed:  when it’s time for her to host book club, she’ll rent my house.  We don’t want to drive.  The wine may have something to do with liking to walk.  Perhaps this is a bit exclusive.  I don’t think we care.  Boy.

So last night was my night.  The book was MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather.  What a book.  It sparked lots of conversation about life on the plains, immigrants, and our own nationalities and backgrounds.  Maybe more than about the book itself.  Two of us discovered that each has an American Indian grandparent.  We all found out that one of us went to a  one-room school house; her father went to the same school.  Another still has a few words of German, even though her family came from Germany in the 1850’s.  We now know who feels at home in Colorado Springs and who would rather be elsewhere.

We work it this way (so far):  if you host, you choose the book for the next meeting.  The library has an extensive collection of book club books and we’ve been able to find one each time and get free copies for everyone.  Cool… and it’s accessible in lots of ways with a six-week check-out period. 

Well, this is a food blog…so how about a little about the food?   I served wine:  a nice California zin (Cigarzin) and an Alsatian Pinot Gris (Helfrich) to accompany a little cheese spread that’s great for spring.  Note:  I heard “Giada” talk about this spread and remembered it–not original–except for the addition of black pepper.

Mix equal amounts goat’s cheese and ricotta.   Add grated lemon rind and minced fresh basil to taste.  Optional:  a little fresh ground pepper on top.  Serve with skinny, crispy crackers.

(I saw this made on the Food Network–Giada, I think.  I don’t know if there’s a real recipe.)

I also served coffee and some sweet little cookies.  These are a riff on a cookie from Ina Garten’s BAREFOOT CONTESSA PARTIES, and Ina got the recipe from Eli Zabar.  Hmph.  Cookbooks bring people together; never doubt it.  Here’s how I did it:

BOOKCLUB COOKIES (Tiny shortbreads dripped, no–dipped! in chocolate)

3/4 # butter, unsalted (3 sticks) at room temp
1 c white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 t salt

3.5-4.5 oz dark chocolate  (I like Valrhona Guanaja; you can try orange Lindt as well)

1/4 c sea salt, optional

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffly.  Add vanilla; beat 30 seconds.   Mix salt (yes, it’s really only 1/4 t) into the flour and beat together with the butter-sugar mixer until the dough holds together well.  Dump dough onto counter and shape into a flat disk.  Wrap in plastic and chill 30 min.

*Preheat oven to 350F.  Remove dough from refrigerator. 

*Roll the dough out 1/4-1/2″ thick (your choice).  Cut out with 2″ fluted cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake about 15-20 min, depending on thickness.  Cookies should remain fairly pale, but are done when they just begin to brown around the edges.  Cool on racks.

*Melt chocolate by placing in a deep, microwave proof small bowl, covered with a plate.  Microwave on low for about 2 minutes.  Stir; heat a little more if required.  Note:  some people would rather melt chocolate in a double boiler.  If you’d like to do that, bring a small pan of water to simmer and place a pan with the chocolate on top of the pan with water.  Make sure the chocolate bowl doesn’t touch the water.  Let chocolate melt slowly, stirring often until completely melted.

*Set out large cookie sheets or platters (2-3) and line with waxed paper.  Take a totally cooled cookie and dip its edge into the melted chocolate.  Let drip (you can wave it a little) a second or two and carefully place it on the waxed papered tray to cool and harden.  Add a couple of grains of sea salt if desired.    Repeat (this is time consuming) until all of the cookies are done.  Let sit just like that 2-3 hours until chocolate is solid.  Store covered with wax paper between layers. 

*You can also choose to leave the cookies plain, in which case they will keep longer–for weeks.

Sing a new song; bake a new cookie; read a new book; get to know your friends better….
Alyce

TWO-DOG KITCHEN  –up again.  Sorry if you missed it!

Ginger Cookies and Merry Christmas!

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Food-Cookies-Ginger

Before we begin with ginger cookies, a huge and wonderful Christmas cookie hug to all who participated in DROP IN AND DECORATE. I think we had 14 dozen incredible sugar, gingerbread and chocolate cut-out cookies, decorated to the nines, for our local Bridge, An Assisted Living Center. We tasted, we decorated, we had dinner, we played, we sang, we laughed and we got to be better friends. Perfect thanks to Lydia Walshin of The Perfect Pantry for the super idea (now in the eighth year) of holiday fun and “doin’ good.”
Lydia tells me she’ll include a pic and a few sentences on the website after the first of the year. Eyes peeled. And: Let’s do it next year!

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