, and I’m so glad to have gotten to know these particular cookies. After baking a batch and taking them to the gym, just a few days later, I was pulling out the book to bake them again for a birthday. It could have been the hint of espresso in the cookies that works wonders with the chocolate chunks, but really it was probably the salty pretzels that are stirred into the dough that made me like these cookies so much. This is a cookie dough that needs to rest and firm up in the refrigerator, so you do have to plan ahead. The dry ingredients were whisked together, and those included flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Oats were then added to that mix. Butter was creamed with granulated sugar and dark brown sugar, and an egg, egg yolk, and then vanilla were added. Espresso powder was dissolved in hot water, and that was mixed into the butter mixture. The dry ingredients were stirred into the dough, and last, chocolate chunks and broken pretzel pieces were added. The dough was left in the refrigerator for about four hours. After scooping balls of dough onto the cookie sheets, more broken pretzel pieces were pressed into the top of each dough ball. The cookies baked for twelve or so minutes, and then I wanted to eat them all. 
. The fillings were already delicious on their own, but the brown-butter cookies and chocolate coating with chopped almonds didn't hurt them one bit.
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, and coconut is added to the dough. I bought a bag of natural, unsweetened, shredded coconut and then worried that the cookies wouldn't be sweet enough since I didn't use the regular, sweetened stuff. I tasted the dough before I baked the cookies to see if I thought I should add more sugar, and it seemed good to me. Kurt was happy to taste test a cookie fresh out of the oven, and his reaction made me confident they were just fine. The cookies almost disappeared before I could box them up for shipping. There was nothing unusual about making the cookie dough here. You could use chocolate chips, but the recipe called for chunks, so I chopped a bar of bittersweet chocolate into bits. At two different cooking classes I attended, I learned the same lesson from both Nick Malgieri and Alice Medrich. When you chop chocolate into chunks for cookies, you want to leave the chocolate dust behind. Nick Malgieri places the chopped chocolate in a sieve and shakes it to remove the pulverized stuff and keep the chunks. Alice Medrich used her hands to pull the chunks away from the dust on the cutting board. The fine, powdery chocolate muddies the look of the dough and using only the chunks results in a neater cookie. So, cream butter and brown sugar, add an egg and vanilla, sift flour, baking soda, and salt and add oatmeal then add that to butter mixture, then fold in shredded coconut and natural, unsweetened is fine and neat, dust-free, chocolate chunks. Drop into mounds on baking sheets and bake.
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. The texture of the dough was right, the flavor was good, the baking temperature and time were correct, and the whole process was as easy as baking cookies is supposed to be.Butter and peanut butter were creamed together in a mixer. Brown sugar and granulated sugar were added followed by eggs. The dry ingredients were mixed together in a separate bowl, and those included flour, baking soda, the right amount of salt, and some ground cinnamon. Those sifted together dry ingredients were then added to the butter mixture, and then chocolate chips, salted peanuts, and vanilla were folded into the dough. I used a mix of bittersweet and milk chocolate chips. The finished dough was chilled while the oven was heated. Balls of dough were placed on baking sheets and flattened slightly before baking long enough to be crisp on the edges and tender in the center. 
. They’re thin and crisp chocolate wafer cookies sandwiched with a layer of mint-flavored white chocolate, and this was just one of four ways these cookies were presented in the book. With several of the cookie recipes, Alice Medrich included “upgrades” or variations on the theme. In this case, the base recipe was plain chocolate wafers. The possible upgrades for these were spicy wafers with cinnamon, cayenne, and ground black pepper added to the dough, extra-bittersweet wafers with added ground unsweetened chocolate, and the version I made with white chocolate and mint sandwiched between two wafers. The dough requires some time in the refrigerator before being cut into cookies which means it can be made well in advance. It was entirely mixed in a food processor. First, flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking powder were pulsed, and then chopped, softened butter was mixed in by pulsing. Last, milk and vanilla were added through the feed tube while the machine was running. The dough was formed into a log, wrapped in parchment, and chilled for at least an hour. Possibly the most difficult part of this recipe was cutting the dough into thin rounds. The log was marked at one inch lengths, and each inch of dough was cut into six skinny, little, fragile cookies. The rounds were baked, and as soon as they came out of the oven, small circles were cut in half of them. I used the big end of a piping tip to cut the circles. When the cookies were cool, white chocolate was melted and mixed with mint extract for the filling. Scant half teaspoons of white chocolate filling were spread on half of the cookies which were topped with the ones with holes.
. I bought Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour which is made from ground, organic coconuts, and it has the same sweet, warm smell of fresh coconut. I was thinking this flour would be good in pancakes, and as luck would have it, there’s a buttermilk coconut pancake recipe on the back of the flour package. But, about these cookies, they’re made with just coconut flour and barley flour with no all-purpose or wheat flour included. There’s also coconut milk in them, and each ball of dough was rolled in shredded, unsweetened coconut before being placed on a cookie sheet. Three sources of coconut was a sure sign that Kurt was going to be happy with these. They were tender, cakey cookies full of coconut flavor. Warm from the oven, they were melt-in-your-mouth good, but I also liked them after they’d been refrigerated overnight. I usually don’t go for cold cookies, but these were an exception to the rule. Once cold, they were a little firmer, and for whatever reason, I like shredded coconut when it’s cold. Making this dough was just a little different from most other cookie recipes. The dry ingredients were sifted together, and those were barley flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Then, eggs were beaten in a stand mixer and then granulated and brown sugars were added and mixed with the eggs. Next, the dry ingredients were added and mixed until combined before room temperature butter was added. I felt a little uncomfortable adding the butter after the dry ingredients, but following the butter, coconut milk and vanilla were added. Last, some of the shredded unsweetened coconut was mixed into the dough which came together just fine. I used a scoop to make balls of dough which were rolled in more shredded coconut, and the cookies baked for about 20 minutes.
, and the recipe was contributed by Nick Malgieri. They’re like a Sicilian homemade Fig Newton except for the shape of course. A fig filling, and let me tell you that was one amazing fig filling, was wrapped in dough, rolled into a long cylinder, and cut into pieces which were sliced on the ends and pulled into an X. This was a little bit of a project compared to simpler drop cookies, but I thought the process was fun since it worked exactly as described with no problems. Regarding that filling, it was a grown-up kind of fig filling full of aromatic and delicious things mixed with dried figs like almonds, apricot preserves, golden raisins, candied orange peel, chocolate, dark rum, and cinnamon. I tasted the filling just after it was pureed and realized it could have been served in bowls for dessert all by itself. There’s only a small amount of chocolate, so it doesn’t taste like a chocolate Fig Newton, but the chocolate with all the other filling ingredients makes it a sophisticated mix of flavors. And, the shape is an X which is appropriate for Valentine’s Day even though I didn’t make any O’s, right?The pastry and the filling were both made in a food processor, and cleaning between steps wasn’t even necessary. The pastry, or pasta frolla, was made by pulsing flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the food processor before adding chopped, cold butter. The butter was cut into the flour by pulsing, and then eggs were added and mixed to form a dough. The dough was kneaded briefly, formed into a log, and covered and set aside. The bowl of the food processor was set back in place, and the filling was made in it next. That was a pureed mix of chopped dried figs, toasted and chopped almonds, apricot preserves, golden raisins, candied orange peel, and yes I was thrilled to use my own candied orange peel again, chopped semisweet chocolate, dark rum, and cinnamon. There are great tips in the recipe such as reminding you that the dried fruit will not become softer or moister after baking. Therefore, if your dried fruits are too dry, they should be plumped in water and drained before using. Although I was tempted to stop there and just eat the filling with a spoon or maybe save a little to plop on top of yogurt for breakfast the next morning, I did continue with the recipe by forming the filling into a log and cutting that into 12 pieces. The pastry was also cut into 12 pieces. Working with one piece of pastry at a time, it was rolled against the countertop into a rope 15 inches long. Then, it was flattened into a three inch wide rectangle. Don’t even bother with a rolling pin. The dough is very easy to press and flatten into the rectangular shape. Just have some flour nearby to sprinkle on the counter to prevent sticking. Next, one piece of filling was rolled into a 15 inch long rope and set on the pastry. The pastry was rolled around the filling and pressed to seal. That filled rope shape was cut into three inch long pieces. Each piece was cut on each end so the ends could be pulled out to form an X shape. It’s really more complicated to write this than it was to do it. The cookies were baked, cooled, and then topped with confectioners’ sugar.
Can I show you one more cookie? I hope you said yes because this was my favorite cookie I baked for Christmas this year. That sounds like I'm being mean to the other cookies, but I'm really not. Of course I liked them all, but this one with the stacked doughs was a different kind of cookie. The technique got me thinking as well. If two doughs can be stacked as they are here, why not three? And, next time, I can try different flavors depending on the season or the occasion. I followed the original recipe for these from the December 1998 issue of Living magazine. I found the page in my files when I was checking to see if there was something I'd tucked away from years past that I should try. I love it when I find a gem like this hiding in my files. So, the two types of dough in this cookie are orange-sable dough to which dried cranberries were added and a chocolate-espresso dough to which toasted walnuts were added.I started with the orange-sable dough, and it was made with almond meal, confectioners' sugar, butter, orange zest, an egg, lemon juice, and flour. You can grind blanched almonds in a food processor or use almond meal as I did. Once the dough came together, dried cranberries were stirred into it, and it was pressed into an eight-inch square pan lined with plastic wrap and set aside. Next, the chocolate-espresso dough was made with flour, Dutch-process cocoa powder, finely ground espresso, butter, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract. I used a mix of ordinary Dutch-process cocoa powder and some very dark and rich black onyx cocoa powder which gave the dough a deep, black color. Toasted and chopped walnuts were added to the chocolate dough, and it was pressed on top of the orange-sable dough. The pan was chilled at least two hours or overnight in my case. The next day, I removed the stacked doughs, cut two-inch wide rows which were then cut into skinny, one quarter inch cookies to be baked.
Once I stared baking from the Gourmet Cookie Book,
I couldn't stop with just one cookie. As I flip back through the book again now, I don't see any cookies in it that I don't want to try. This next one I baked is the second to last cookie in the book, and it's from a 2008 issue of the magazine. The glittery, sparkly little butter cookies sandwiched with a lemon buttercream just had to be tried. They're made with a straightforward dough with no surprises, and the hardest part of making these was rolling the dough into little balls to be coated with sanding sugar. The very next day after baking these, I found a similar recipe from which I learned that if you chill the dough for a bit, rolling it into balls is much easier. I'm set for next time. Each cookie is tiny, made with just barely a teaspoon of dough, but when they're sandwiched together they're just the right size.To start, flour, cornstarch, and salt were whisked together and set aside. Butter and confectioners' sugar were mixed until fluffy, and lemon zest and vanilla were added. The flour mixture was mixed in until the dough formed. At that point, I should have chilled the dough for at least 30 minutes. Had I done so, rolling teaspoons of it into balls and then coating them in sanding sugar would have been a breeze. Since I didn't chill the dough, I had sticky cookie dough all over my hands and repeatedly had to stop and wash my hands and start again. I rolled half the cookies in plain white sanding sugar and the other half in sugar in confetti colors. The sugared balls of dough were placed on baking sheets and baked for about 12 minutes. When they were cool, the filling was made with confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, corn syrup, and softened butter. The buttercream was placed in a plastic bag, the corner was snipped, and filling was piped onto the flat sides of half the cookies before they were paired up and sandwiched.
I'm always drawn to a cornmeal-lime cookie, but I'm not always happy with what I get. Some versions tend to be dry and often the lime is barely discernible. Well, I can stop trying every version that comes along, because I've found one that delivers big in texture and taste. These cookies are from the new book Flour
, and I told you I'd be mentioning it frequently around here. They bake up puffed and light with a tender, almost cake-like crumb, they have great cornmeal flavor, and the lime is both noticeable and delicious. The thick glaze that's brushed onto each cookie adds a sweet, tart layer on top with bits of lime zest adding decoration. I made some of these at the recommended size of about one quarter cup of dough per cookie, and I made a some at a smaller size. The smaller sized cookies worked fine and still had the same tender texture. What I really should have done was double the recipe, and next time I definitely will.Making the cookies started with the standard creaming together of butter and sugar. Lime zest was added with eggs and vanilla followed by a whisked-together mix of flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. As I mentioned, the cookies were formed from one quarter cup scoops of dough, and the scoops were slightly flattened with the palm of my hand. Do you use an ice cream scoop for placing cookie dough on baking sheets? I started doing that years ago, and I use scoops for muffins too. Some scoops break easily or the sliding arm that glides through the scoop seems to constantly pop out of its track. If you've ever had that problem, I may have the solution for you. Food scoops work better than ice cream scoops, and they come in all different sizes. I used the 2.07 ounce scoop here. The large cookies baked for about 25 minutes, and the slightly smaller ones I made baked for about 20 minutes. The glaze was made with confectioners' sugar, water, fresh lime juice, and lime zest. Once the cookies were cool, the glaze was brushed onto the tops, and they were left to dry.
When I heard about the International Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange hosted by Adrienne at Gastroanthropology and Lori at Fake Food Free, I jumped at the chance to take part. The two organized this event in which cookie recipes were shared by email among fellow food bloggers from around the world. The recipe I received was from Astheroshe of Accro. She explained that her mother always baked these cresecent cookies for Christmas, and they were one of her favorites. She noted that they can be made with any nuts, but her mother's version always included walnuts. The recipe looked very familiar to me because my grandmother used to bake a very similar cookie in a round shape rather than a crescent, and hers were always made with pecans. I've had my grandmother's recipe tucked away for years and had never gotten around to using it. So at last, thanks to Astheroshe and by way her mother's recipe, I finally made grandma's powdered sugar pecan cookies. The recipe is a simple one starting with room temperature butter being creamed with confectioner's sugar before adding flour, salt, vanilla, a little bit of water, and finally chopped nuts. My grandma's recipe calls for twice as much sugar as Astheroshe's mother's recipe, so I split the difference. I also have a recipe for Mexican wedding cookies which are very similar, and that used even more sugar. For my taste one quarter to one half cup in the dough itself is enough. Clearly, the shape can be whatever you prefer. I followed Astheroshe's instructions to shape crescents by hand. I used a mounded tablespoon of cookie dough, rolled it into a cylinder between my hands, and then shaped that into a crescent with thinner ends and a thicker middle. The cookies have no baking soda or powder, so they don't rise or spread on the baking sheet. After they are baked and cooled, they are tossed in more confectioner's sugar for a snowy, festive look.
Pecan Crescents
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (plus and additional 1/2 cup for coating cookies)
1 1/2 teaspoon water
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
-Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
-Cream butter until light, add confectioner's sugar and cream again. Add flour, water, and vanilla, and mix to combine. The dough will be dry. Fold in chopped nuts.
-To shape each cookie, roll a mounded tablespoon of dough between your hands to form a small cylinder. Bend cylinder and pinch ends thinner to create a crescent. Place cookies on a parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Let cookies cool and then roll in the additional confectioner's sugar to coat.
Last week, I was planning to bake cookies for some friends, and I wanted to come up with something their kids would really like. I asked Kurt what kind of cookies I should bake. His answer, shockingly, was chocolate chip. You should know that anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances, when asked what type of cookie should be baked, Kurt’s answer will be chocolate chip. And, he backed up that predictable response by informing me that everyone likes chocolate chip and surely that would make the kids happy. Well, he had a point, but I also wanted to offer something a little bit different and fun. I went searching through both paper and digital files and found these s’mores cookies that I bookmarked from a cookie slideshow. I thought they definitely qualified as fun. They’re also really easy to make. The cookie base has whole wheat flour and ground oats that give it a graham cracker vibe, and the toasted marshmallow topping looks as good as it tastes.The cookie dough was started in a food processor by first pulsing the oats until finely ground. All purpose and whole wheat flours were added with cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, and that was pulsed to combine. In a separate bowl, butter was mixed with brown sugar and an egg, and then the flour mixture was added. The cookies were shaped by the tablespoon on baking sheets and topped with squares of chocolate. I used milk chocolate thinking that kids probably prefer that to darker chocolate. The cookies baked for about thirteen minutes, and then each was topped with a marshmallow cut in half. One baking sheet at a time was placed under the broiler for a minute or so to toast the marshmallows.
