Tag: Cookies

Nothing Beats a Classic

Sadie1 Comment

First order of business: Happy Birthday to my Best Best Friend Karla!

Sometimes when I’m in the mood to bake and I haven’t gone shopping for specific ingredients, I play the pantry game.  What can I make (that I would want to eat) with the items that I already have?  I’m usually short on anything perishable, but if I have butter, the answer is usually: shortbread.  And frankly, it’s hard to get better than shortbread.  Delicious.  Plus you can eat it with some tea and pretend to be British and sophisticated.

Classic Shortbread

Adapted from Ina on the Food Network

yeilds 20 cookies (depending on the size you choose)

Ingredients

  • 3/4 lb unsalted butter (that’s 3 sticks)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 8 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Ina uses bitter-sweet)
  • chopped nuts or sprinkles for decoration

Method

  1. Cream together butter and sugar with electric mixer.  Add vanilla.
  2. Sift in flour and salt.  Mix until dough starts to come together a little bit.
  3. Turn the dough out onto the counter and form into disks to chill in the freezer.
  4. Allow dough to chill for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 350.
  6. Roll dough out to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch think and use desired cookie cutters to cut shapes.
  7. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  These are probably better a little on the blond side.
  8. Allow cookies to cool.  Heat chocolate up in microwave for 30 seconds at a time.  Use a fork to stir chocolate and make it shiny.
  9. Use fork to paint chocolate on desired portion of cooled shortbread cookies.  Dip chocolate portion into chopped nuts or sprinkles.  (During the holidays these look great with red and green bead sprinkles)
  10. Stick them in the frige or freezer to help accelerate the cooling process.

Passover Treats

Sadie1 Comment

I have two key recipes for Passover: Macaroons and Chocolate Toffee Matzo (aka Matzo Crack).  I’m not usually tasked with cooking any of the main dishes for the seder, so as usual, I stick with dessert.  If you have any experience with the Kosher for Passover display at the grocery store, you might be aware of the coconut macaroons that come in a can.  I don’t know why these cookies come in a can, it doesn’t make sense to me.  The reason they are Kosher for Passover is because they have no leavening agent.  Coconut Macaroons are essentially coconut with some sugar and a binding agent (egg).  They don’t have a lot of the other traditional cookie ingredients.

The problem with the macaroons that come in the can (and most Kosher for Passover food) is that they are extreemly dense.  Make your own, it makes a tremendous difference!

Coconut Macaroons

from Bon Appetit

Yields about 45 1 inch cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • dash salt
  • 2 tsp orange peel zest
  • 3 eggs
  • 24 oz. coconut
  • 6 oz. chocolate (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 325.
  2. Beat room temperature butter with mixer until smooth.  Add sugar and salt, use mixer to combine.
  3. Add zest and eggs one at a time.  When ingredients are combined, add coconut and mix so coconut is well incorporated.
  4. Drop batter in 1 inch portions onto parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake 25-30 minutes until pieces of the coconut are golden brown.
  5. After cookies have cooled you can melt the chocolate and drizzle it over the macaroons (I opted out of the chocolate this year, but I do recommend it).

This next recipe is the perfect solution for the inevitable leftover matzo.  Beware, it’s addictive.

Chocolate Toffee Matzo

From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

  • 4-6 sheets of Matzo
  • 2 sticks of butter
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 12 oz. chocolate chips
  • Nuts for topping

Methods

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment then matzo.
  2. Melt butter in saucepan on stove.  Add brown sugar to butter.  Stir so the sugar dissolves.  Allow the mixture to bubble and simmer until it starts pulling away from the sides of the pot.
  3. Pour hot toffee evenly over the matzo.  Bake in oven about 20 minutes.  It should bubble and get deep brown, but do not let it burn.
  4. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Allow chips to melt and use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate evenly across the toffee covered matzo.  Sprinkle desired nuts or other toppings and allow to cool.  (I usually let it cool for a bit on the counter then move it to the freezer)
  5. Break apart into manageable pieces and enjoy!

Homemade “Thin Mints”

Sadie2 Comments

I was a Girl Scout from first grade until six or seventh grade and I have the patches to prove it.  I missed the Daisy stage in kindergarten but promptly informed my mother that things had to change.  I was a Brownie, and a Junior I think.  I can’t remember any of the other ranks.  I do remember troop meetings in the basement of the Methodist church right next to school, and camping trips and hikes near the Delaware Water Gap.

The corner stone of any respectable girl scout troop is the annual cookie sale.  I usually sort of cheated because I would send the sign up sheet with my dad to work.  He works in Manhattan so I took advantage of all those city folk who weren’t related to a girl scout.  Other than that, I only really only sold cookies to my neighbors and my grandparents because my town was so small that every girl scout had a very limited territory.

Perhaps the most iconic cookie on the list is the Thin Mint.  In my house we refer to them as “cold cookies” because my mom stored them in the freezer.  That’s definitely the best way to enjoy them.  The internet is riddled with copy cat recipes for Thin Mints, and even though the cookie takes a few extra steps than the average chocolate chip, I was surprised by how do-able they actually are.  I ended up picking a recipe that even used whole wheat flour, so they’re almost healthy!

Homemade Thin Mints

Yields about 50 cookies

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

Cookie:

  • 8 oz unsalted butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Chocolate coating:

  • 1 lb semi-sweet chocolate (might need a little extra)
  • peppermint extract to taste

Method

  1. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add vanilla.
  2. Add in cocoa and salt.  Then add flour.  Mi until incorperated but try not to over mix.  The dough will be pretty crumbly.
  3.  Turn the dough out onto the counter and form into discs of dough to place in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350.  Roll dough out pretty thin (remember how thin and small Thin Mints are).  Use cookies cutters to cut desired shapes and place on cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.

    (I used the cap from my Pam spray as a cookie cutter because I could only find Christmas shapes in my drawer)
  5. Allow cookies to cool completely.
  6. Melt chocolate by cutting into small pieces and microwaving for 30 seconds at a time until almost completely melted.  Then stir until chocolate is smooth and add peppermint extract to taste.  (You might want to melt chocolate in two batches so it doesn’t cool down too much while you’re coating the cookies)
  7. Dip the cooled cookies in the minty chocolate.  Make sure to coat the whole cookie, but allow excess to drip off.  Used two forks to balance the cookie and allow excess to go back into the bowl of chocolate. Place coated cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
  8. Place cookies in fridge or freezer to allow chocolate to set.  Enjoy!
    Cold Cookies!