TWD: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

Please accept my apologies for the light blogging lately. Like all of you, we are busy, busy, busy right now and blogging has sort of taken a back seat. So, sorry - I am hoping that I'll be able to get back into the swing of things after the holidays (and then after a short break for the Disney half marathon and vacation in January).

These cookies are a snap to make and are a good all-around sugar cookie. They are a little on the crisp side, but if you watch them really carefully and take them out just before they start to brown, you can have them a little crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside (which seems to be just the right texture to me). I have to admit that they don't quite measure up to my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe though - Cream Cheese Icebox Cookies from the Joy of Cooking. These are simply outstanding - the dough is great to work with and the addition of the cream cheese just makes them taste fantastic. I also usually use the Quick White Icing II recipe from the same book and it's always a hit (watch this very carefully as it heats - don't overheat it or it'll crystallize on you). Since this was the kids' chance to get in touch with their inner artist (and taste isn't a huge factor), I went with Betty Crocker's icing bags this time.

I let the kids go to town with the frosting and sprinkles. Isn't it amazing how children have the ability to cover almost every square millimeter of the top of the cookie with stuff - that my friends, is pure kid talent. This is my three year old's creation:

For Dorie's recipe, check out the Küchenlatein blog (I think it's German, but she's got a translator function) - thanks Ulrike for choosing this week's recipe and giving my kids the opportunity to make a pretty good sized mess and get a nice sugar rush all in the span on 15 minutes :-) As usual, you can check out all the other supremely talented TWD bloggers here.

TWD: Linzer Sables

It's the most wonderful time of the year again folks! Welcome to the Christmas season - well, actually according to Catholic tradition, it's only Advent, and Christmas is from Dec. 25th through Jan. 5th, but I digress.... Anyway, Tuesdays with Dorie starts off the season with, what else, cookies! They're beautiful cookies too - or they could be if you remember to make a cutout in the center of the cookie (making a window into the delightful raspberry jam filling). As you can see, I completely forgot to do this, but I still think they're pretty. And feel free to judge this book by it's cover - they're delicious!

The recipe is very easy - don't be intimidated by rolling out the dough. It rolled out like a dream and, since you roll it between two sheets of plastic wrap, clean up is a cinch. I only made one change to this recipe and that's to substitute 1 can of almond paste for the ground almonds and sugar. I thought I had plenty of almonds stored away in the freezer and only at the last minute realized I didn't have any. Thankfully, I had bought a can of the almond paste a couple of months ago intending to make another batch of almond horns (still intending to do that - maybe later this month). This substitution worked great, but I had to rearrange the directions a little to compensate, so I'm reprinting the recipe with my changes.

Linzer Sables

adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 8 oz. can Almond Paste

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

scant 1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 large egg 2 tsp water

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup raspberry jam

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend almond paste and butter together until smooth, maybe 3 minutes at medium-low speed, scraping down the sides as needed. Reduce speed to low and add in the ground cinnamon, cloves and salt. Add in the egg and water, beat another 2 minutes. Add the flour, mixing only until just combined - don't over mix.

Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, put the dough between two large sheets of plastic wrap. Using your hands, flatten the dough into a disk, then grab a rolling pin and roll out the dough, turning it over frequently so the paper doesn't cut into it (I did not do this and it wasn't a problem - I used plastic wrap though) until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Leave the dough in the paper and repeat with the second half of the dough. Transfer wrapped dough to a baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until it is very firm, about 2 hours in the fridge or about 45 minutes in the freezer. The rolled-out dough can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Just thaw the dough enough to cut out the cookies and go on from there.

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 375°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Peel off the top sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap from one piece of dough and, using a 2-inch round cookie cutter - a scalloped cutter is nice for these - cut out as many cookies as you can. If you want a peekaboo cutout, use the end of a piping tip to cut out a very small circle from the centers of half the cookies. Transfer the rounds to the baking sheets, leaving a little space between the cookies. Repeat with second disk of dough. Set the scarps aside - you can combine them with the scraps from the second disk and roll and cut more cookies (refrigerate the rolled out disk as before).

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time (I didn't - I put them both in the oven and switched them halfway through baking and they came out great) for 11 to 13 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden, dry and just firm to the touch. Transfer to a rack to cool to room temperature.

To make sandwich cookies, spread jam on one side of the cookies and top with another cookie. Dorie's recipe is a little different her in that she melts the jam with some water and boils it slightly, but again, mine came out fine just using the straight jam. One final note, the recipe says it makes 50 cookies (or 25 sandwich cookies) - I didn't even come close to that as I only got about 16, but I don't think I rolled out my dough as thin as a quarter of an inch either.

I definitely recommend this cookie and think it'll look great in your holiday assortment, especially if you use a Christmas themed cookie cutter. I tried using my star-shaped cutter, but the tips kept breaking off so, in order to keep my stress level down and avoid that Mommy's-really-irritated-so-don't-mess-with-her atmosphere in the kitchen, I went with the scalloped edge cutter. (My kids know first hand that expression "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" and have started to recognize the warning signs)

Many thanks to noskos of Living the Life for selecting a cookie that's as beautiful as it is tasty (you can find the original recipe there)! Like I said, I don't know if I'd classify my Linzer Sables as beautiful, but not bad. Dorie's are in the book and I'm sure plenty of other TWD bakers' have gorgeous cookies - so check 'em out!

Coming up next Tuesday: Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies (we'll be breaking out the Christmas sprinkles for sure!)

TWD: Rugelach - better late than never

Just a quick post today. As usual, I waited until the last minute to make these and ran into family issues last night while waiting for the dough to chill. My 10 year had to make amends with her best friend and so we pulled out the Easy-Bake oven, made her a sugar cookie and my daughter and I delivered it (with a long note of apology). Problem solved, best friends again, all is right with the world.

So we rescued the friendship, but I didn't get around to finishing the Rugelach until today.

I used apricot preserves, dried cherries and white chocolate chips to make these and the flavors came together beautifully. In the recipe, Dorie suggests cutting the rolled out dough into 4 squares and cutting those into triangles. I just ended up cutting it up like a pizza and ended up with 12 slices for each round of dough - so only 24 cookies. I didn't think these were extra large, but maybe my eyes, and tummy, like the bigger size (I'm guessing my hips won't like these larger rugelach though :-)

I was successful in stowing these in the freezer (except for the one I had for purely R&D purposes, of course) and plan on pulling them out for Christmas. Check out Piggy's Cooking Journal for the recipe and be sure to check on all the other TWD bakers here.

Mocha-Chip Meringues

For those of you out there who made Creme Brulee for Tuesdays with Dorie, here's a great way to use up some of those egg whites (and for those who didn't you should try it - it was so surprisingly easy!). I made these yesterday and already almost half of them are gone (kids got home from school and somehow they just miraculously started to disappear...hmmmmm). I'm trying to tell myself that these are actually "healthy" cookies because they're made from egg whites (protein!) and cocoa (no-fat!) ... I just skim over the whole sugar thing.

They are very easy to make and, like most cookies I've come across, the only difficult thing about these is to have to wait 'til they're done baking. These were a little harder in that respect as they bake for 40 minutes (an eternity in the cookie-baking realm, I know!). But they're so worth the wait. I love the crisp outer shell and the chewy insides - just yummy!

Mocha-Chip Meringues

from Everyday Food Jan/Feb 2008 issue

• 3/4 cup sugar


• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch


• 3 large egg whites, room temperature


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1 tsp instant espresso powder (I didn't have any, so I substituted instant coffee and I can still taste a hint of coffee in the cookies)


• 3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder


• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (okay, so there is a little smidgen of fat in each cookie from these)

Preheat oven to 300°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch; set aside.

In a large bowl, using and electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until frothy. Beating constantly, add sugar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 6 to 8 minutes total (scrape down the bowl halfway through). Add espresso powder and cocoa; beat until well blended. With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake until crisp, about 40 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Cool completely on sheets, about 20 minutes. Makes 48 (must have made mine on the large side, because I only got 40).

My cookies don't look quite as perfect as those pictured in the magazine (what else should I expect?!). I think they must have used a pastry bag and piped them using a large, open tip because they're pretty uniformly round. I think I'm going to make these again at Christmas time, only substituting Andes mint chips for the semi-sweet and I think I'll try piping them too. I always make a traditional Italian orange-anise cookie that my Great-Grandmother brought over from the old country and it calls for a dozen egg yolks (yes, you read that right, 12). I'm always looking for recipes to use up all those whites and now I can make another cookie to boot!

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

Okay, this is without a doubt, my favorite Tuesdays With Dorie recipe so far. Oh my goodness are these suckers good - I'd even go so far as to say they're downright sinful. Yes folks, this rich little cookie is enough to send this good Catholic girl to confession. (Well, maybe not that sinful, but still decadent and utterly delicious!)

I knew after reading the recipe that these would be truly great cookies because they were loaded up with delicious things - dark chocolate, white chocolate, pecans and raisins. In fact, if anything, I was a little concerned about the lack of much else in them. The recipe only calls for 1/3 cup of flour and 3 tablespoons of butter - this to make 2 dozen cookies. I should have just trusted Dorie's greatness - there's the perfect amount of fudgy, brownie-like cookie holding all those chunks o' goodness together.

A few notes for when you make these (and you must):

• Though the raisins were good in this cookie, next time I'm going to use dried cranberries and the time after that I'm going to use dried cherries (because I WILL be making these many times, I can assure you). I think either of these two choices would be better in this recipe than raisins.


• Definitely use parchment paper. I had no trouble at all lifting them off the paper.


• Finally, these cookies need to come with a warning - they are rich and extremely addictive. You might want to freeze some before you even take your first bite.

There's only one drawback to this cookie and that's how they look. The first round looked, well a little lumpy:

For the next round to go in the oven, I kinda flattened them out a little with my hand and they turned out better.

Everyone in the house raved about these - even the littlest one got the opportunity to try one. He has apparently grown taller since the last time I really checked and can now easily grab things off the counter. After I put the 2nd round of dough on the cookie sheets and into the oven, I turned around to find crumbs and chocolate smeared all over the floor. When I looked up, I saw the same said cookie remains smeared all over a tiny, smiling face and hands:

Now that was one happy boy, let me tell ya - until I wouldn't let him have another. These things are chock full of choking hazards - big chunks of nuts and raisins (my sister-in-law the doctor is probably having a kinipshin right about now). Totally yummy for those of over age 3, but not such a great idea for little 13 month olds, no matter how tall they're getting or how cute they look covered in chocolate. I'll make them again little man, I promise.

You all (look at that, I've been too far north for too long I guess - should read y'all) can find the recipe at Fool for Food - wish I could speak or at least read German because her site looks great! Thank you so much for picking this cookie Claudia!

Y'all come back next Tuesday for Dimply Plum Cake!

TWD: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

This one's definitely for those of us with a chronic sweet tooth. Here's how Dorie starts off the recipe in her book:

"If you're thinking that these sound like something right out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, you're right. They are almost equal parts candy and cookie...."

Sounds fantastic, right? But, overall, I have to admit I was a little disappointed in these cookies. Don't get me wrong, they were good, I guess I was just expecting more. Maybe I'm just not a malt-flavor kind of gal. Usually, the raw dough is a good indicator of how good a cookie will be, but not so in this case. My first reaction from the glob I swiped from the paddle only rated a "meh". They really improved with baking, however. They're a nice, soft cookie and every bite was filled with either bittersweet chocolate and/or a whopper chunk.

If you decide to make these, and if you're a lover of whoppers and/or Ovaltine you should, here's my two cents worth:

1. I followed the advice of a fellow TWDer and just chopped the whoppers in half. This left recognizable chunks in the cookies. Some people said that they chopped the whoppers up and you really couldn't tell they were in there. Also, the box I bought at the grocery store was 5 ounces, this was plenty.


2. I used regular-flavored Ovaltine and didn't think the cookies were overpowered with chocolate flavor (some reviewers who used chocolate Ovaltine thought this).


"Ovaltine for Radiant Health" - I love that. So these cookies must be good for you!


3. The recipe calls for using parchment paper or silpat mats on the trays. I just used Pam and didn't have too much trouble getting them off, but a word of caution...






4. Once you pull these out of the oven, definitely let them sit on the cookie tray for at least 5 minutes. The recipe says 2 minutes, but they were still awfully fragile at this point and a few had to be disposed of right away because they just fell apart (one of my little sous chefs happily came to the rescue).

My cookies don't look a thing like the photo in the book, and in fact, I don't think they're really much to look at. So here's how I decided to eat them, taking a cue from the book (Dorie's got the whole cookies sitting atop a large mound of vanilla ice cream):

I enjoyed a few bites of this during the blissful silence of nap time. Had to force myself to only have a little bit and put the rest back in the freezer for tomorrow (with all the baking I'm doing, I am downright fearful of the scale these days - an occupational hazard of food blogging?)

Thanks to Rachel at Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for choosing the recipe this week (you can find the recipe there). And check here for all the TWD folks who'll be posting their results too.

On deck for next week: Chocolate Chunkers (yes, another cookie recipe - my kids are rejoicing!)

TWD: Chunky Hazelnut and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was for Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters which, to me, sounds as great as the name is long - I love PB and chocolate, Reeses being my fav-o-rite candy. As I mentioned before, however, we've got a little one 'round here that may have a peanut allergy, so I had to ditch the Peanut Butter.

Enter in

If you've never tried this chocolate hazelnut concoction, well, you simply must. It's realllllly good, especially on a slice of french bread. I like it this way for nostalgia sake I guess, because I first tried nutella when I was in France as an exchange student way back in high school. Unfortunately, it's not particularly inexpensive, but c'est la vie.

I really needed to add some chunkiness to these, too (mainly because I like nuts, but then there's also the whole "Chunky" thing right in the front of the title). So conveniently, I snagged the very last bag of chopped hazelnuts at Meijer (for a minute there I was sweating in the baking aisle - you gotta be kidding me, no hazelnuts in the nut section?! but then there it was, buried under the walnut pieces - yessssss!). This was quite a find, because if you've ever had to crack and skin hazelnuts, you know what a real chore this can be, and I just wasn't up to doing all that.

These cookies were very easy to make. Really, I'd only have to recommend one thing and that's to follow the chilling directions. I didn't chill the dough after the first batch went in the oven and, in hind sight, I wish I had. The cookies that were chilled looked better (see exhibits a and b below) and tended not to spread as much:



The kids really enjoyed these, and yeah, so did the grown-ups. All in all, I'd have to give the nutella twist on these the thumbs up. Try it, you'll see.


Little Miss K approves, too (sorry for the blur, but this was definitely an action shot - had to hurry before that cookie was a-goner):



Thanks to Stefany at Proceed With Caution for choosing this week's recipe! (You can find the recipe on her site.)

Looking forward to next week? I sure am: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.

Almond Horns, take 1

Last week, a friend of mine introduced me to these sinfully delicious treats, and I can only guess that the chef who came up with them has sold his or her soul to You-Know-Who (no, not Voldemort, but I couldn't resist throwing a H.P. reference in here). This is why I figure they're called horns, because they look more like a boomerang to me. They were kinda crunchy on the outside and filled with chewy almondy goodness on the inside. And they were huge - big enough for two, but if I was all by my lonesome I could've eaten at least two or three of these bad boys without batting an eyelash. It's a veeeerrrrryyyyy good thing the bakery she got them from is pretty inconvenient to get to. (The picture above is just one I found on the internet, but it looks pretty much like the one I had.)

At any rate, I've got a thing for almond flavored baked goods and knew I must find a way to make them. A quick Google search (what would we do without that little internet tool?) came up with about 300,000 hits. I looked through quite a few before settling on trying this recipe first from Recipezarr.com. The recipe says to bake for 12-14 minutes, but I'm here to tell you that mine were in for 16 minutes and still came out on the undercooked side. I was just so scared of over-cooking them that I just went ahead and took them out; they are nice and chewy but, unfortunately, no crunchy outside.

My preliminary taste test results - pretty good, but not even close to the ones I tried a week ago. So, darn, I'm going to have to try another recipe. The downside of trying again is that the almond paste is pretty pricey. The upside, of course, is that I get to keep sampling my efforts (I fear the scale is not going to like me after all this).

Wish me luck as I continue on my quest.

It's Tuesday!

This is my first Tuesday entry with the Tuesdays with Dorie group - yay!

These Granola Grabbers turned out even better than I thought they would. I was afraid that since the granola was such a big portion of the recipe that these might turn out a little dry and hard - boy was I pleasantly surprised. They taste a lot like a soft, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie, but with oomph. I had to forgo the peanuts because of a possible allergy, so I doubled the almonds. Definitely two thumbs up...er, make that, two hands up.



Granola Grabbers

makes about 40 cookies

3 cups granola without fruit
3/4 plump raisins
1/2 cup salted peanuts
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 3/4 sticks (14 Tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp.
3/4 cup packed lt. brown sugar
1/4 sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper (I didn't do this and they came off my pans fine).

Put granola in a large bowl and break up any clumps with you fingers. Add the raisins, peanuts, almonds, coconut and wheat germ and mix together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, or until creamy. Add the egg and salt and beat until well blended. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is just incorporated, then steadily add the granola. Stop the mixer when most of the granola mix is blended and finish the job with a sturdy rubber spatula, making sure to get up any bits of dry ingredients left in the bottom of the bowl.

Scoop out rounded tablespoonfuls of dough, pack the scoops between your palms and arrange the mounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them. Flatten the mounds lightly with your fingertips.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway. The cookies should be golden brown, but not firm (you definitely don't want to over cook these). Allow them to rest on the sheets for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring them to racks to cool to room temp.

There is no way they're going to last until the first day of school on Thursday. Darn, I guess I'll just have to make more :-)


Enjoy - we sure did!

Tuesdays with Dorie

I am so excited to be a part of this online cooking group! Each week a recipe is selected from the beautiful cookbook "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan for the group to prepare. I got my copy of the book a few days ago and it just looks spectacular. It's loaded with photos - this is a huge plus for me because I really don't like it when cookbooks don't have a lot of pictures to base your results on. The author is quite accomplished, and one of the things that impressed me the most is that her previous book is titled "Baking with Julia" - you know, the Julia, pioneer of cooking shows, educator to millions on the basics of fine cooking and all-around chef extraordinaire.

Anyway, check back each Tuesday as I attempt to keep up with this fabulous group of bakers. Featured for this coming Tuesday is Granola Grabbers. Here's an excerpt from the book:

"It would be hard to find a more after-schoolish cookie than this one. It's chunky, bumpy, both chewy and crunchy and packed with little surprises..."

This sounds perfect, as next Thursday is the first day of school for us. I'm not sure we'll have any left by then, but maybe I can freeze them without the kids knowing (I know, you're thinking - yeah, good luck with that). We'll see.