pinwheels

(recipe from joy of cooking doubled)

total haul: ~8 dozen
husbanded: ~1 dozen (ends...)
net haul: 7 dozen
bake time: 12 minutes
notes: square the inside edge to reduce unusable end pieces.

spritzies

(recipe from cookies doubled)

total haul: ~14 dozen
husbanded: ~2 dozen
net haul: ~12 dozen
bake time: 8 minutes
notes: less a tablespoon or two of flour. don't use insulated baking sheets.

madeleines

last weekend my uncle jim gave me a madeleine pan. the week before, the miminator gave me a miniture madeleine pan. there's something about me that just insists that you give me the baking tools you don't use anymore. it's how i've become the proud owner of lots and lots of neat things, like antique lab & bunny cake molds, a few extra muffin tins and a checkerboard cake kit.

j is fond of madeleines. "fond" might be a staggering understatement. j left for a new job in another city this morning. yesterday, i made 8 dozen 3" madeleines and two dozen minis. i filled a 2.5 gallon bag with the full-sized cakelettes (the minis require more discipline than i generally exercise) and this morning he drove away with it half full. fond. in order to make so damn many, i had to quadruple the recipe-- i think i need to buy another madeleine pan.

ingredients:

• 2 cups unsalted butter, melted
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 eggs
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 4 tsp vanilla

prep:

• melt the butter
• preheat to 375*

actual cooking:

• combine flour, baking powder & salt
• beat eggs & sugar at medium-high until tripled in volume (eh, 6-7 minutes)
• sift a 1/2 cup or so of the flour mix over the eggs and fold it in
• gently, slowly fold in the rest of the flour mix
• add about 1/4 cup of the egg/flour mix to the cooled melted butter & whisk
• gently fold the butter mixture into the rest of the batter
• chill for an hour
• grease your mold (i used baking spray)

• drop rounded tablespoons of batter into the mold (i piped mine in, as i do with anything that doesn't all go in one pan)
  

• bake for 11-12 minutes
• drop pan from a couple inches onto your counter to loosen madeleines
• cool un-scalloped side down on a rack
• present the little darlings elegantly on a tray or impressively in a giant zippy bag
  

best of luck, j.

(and thanks for taking care of him, uncles jim & frank!)

(and for the madeleine pan! i hope there were some left after he was alone in a car with them for 5 hours.)

fruit-filled shortbread

this is a variation on one of my new favorite recipes: chocolate-raspberry filled shortbread.

short bread-- along with macaroni & cheese and bolognese sauce-- was one of the first things i learned to cook by myself. it also happens for be favored by a lot of people i know: daddy, j, aunt diane and mrs. bender, my high school latin teacher (salvete, maestra!) (that's probably wrong, i got a c in latin), probably because it's awesome and delicious and crumbly and perfect. probably. j also favors blueberries, and he's coming over for salmon and leffe blonde tonight, so i made these blueberry.

ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 3/8 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• about 1/3 cup jam (blueberry, here, or seedless raspberry)
• (2-4 ounces of finely chopped white or semi-sweet chocolate)

prep:

• allow butter to soften very slightly
• reserve 1 tbs of butter for greasing the pan-- and because this recipe actually needs 7/8 cups butter
• preheat oven to 300*

actual cooking:

• beat butter on low about 1 minute
• add sugar
• add vanilla & salt
• add flour and beat until just combined
• line a tart pan with plastic wrap
• divide dough in 2 equalish parts

• pat half into the lined tart pan and chill in the freezer until it (and its plastic) can be removed in one piece-- leave the dough in the freezer until called for, but take out the pan because you need it now

• grease the tart pan with remaining tbs (or less) of butter
• pat the other half of the dough into the pan
  

• add your filling
  

• spread it to about 1/2 and inch from the edge

• remove other dough from the freezer, carefully removing the plastic and laying it fingerprints down on top of the filling

• allow dough to soften for 5-10 minutes until you can press the edges together without damaging the dough (i got distracted when my volunteer gig called to see if i could work 12-2 tonight)
• bake for 45-55 minutes until golden
• allow to cool most of the way
• slice with a thin, sharp knife

savory shortbread experiments: cheesy rosemary slices

i know, i know, i'm three weeks behind on shortbread recipes! what can i be thinking posting an unscheduled shortbread recipe? mostly, i'm thinking, oooh, yum.

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 1 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup scratch cheese
• 1 tbs fresh rosemary, chopped fine or 1/2 tbs dried rosemary, chopped fine
• 1 1/4 cups flour

prep:

• allow butter to soften
• preheat oven to 350*
• butter 2-3 baking sheets

actual cooking:

• beat butter until lightened in color (about 1 minute)
• add cheese
• add rosemary
• add flour until just combined
• shape into 2 5" logs
• wrap in plastic and chill IN THE REFRIGERATOR (not the freezer, not not not the freezer) for 1-4 hours until firm
• slice 1/8-1/4" thick
• bake until edges are golden brown

these... are not perfect. but they are damn good. with a beer. maybe golden monkey? that may or may not be what happened to all but the six i packed for daddy's official taste-testing.

frosted sugar cookies

my great grandmother, mom mom, preferred cookie recipes that made a WHOLE LOT. i pretty much feel the same way. these amazingly simple sugar cookies double and triple nicely for a humongous tray of prettily-decorated, heavenly cookies. (if your mixer is big enough. mine is not. oops.)

this (triple) batch is decorated with betty crocker "butter cream" frosting colored with mccormick neon food dye-- apricot is green + pink, raspberry is blue + pink and turquoise is blue + green. they're going to a family reunion this weekend, at my uncles jim & frank's house.

this batch (well, several batches) was from almost a year ago was made for bill's cousin melissa's shower shortly before she and her husband brought home their beautiful son tyson from china. they were decorated with yellow "butter cream" (the stars) and confectioner sugar and milk glaze. the colors matched the invitation pretty well, though i'm not sure anyone but me knew that.

ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt

prep:

• preheat oven to 400*
• allow cold ingredients to warm up
• grease baking sheets

actual cooking:

• beat butter until creamy
• add sugar, eggs, vanilla & almond extract
• combine flour, baking powder & salt
• add to creamed mixture
• chill in a disc for one hour
• roll out to 1/4 inch think on a well-floured surface
• cut out desired shapes (i don't reccomend stars because OMFG, hard to frost)
• bake for 6-8 minutes
• cool & decorate (if you're using "butter cream" be warned it takes several days to set)

these always go over well because, frankly, they're freaking fantastic. really, truly delightful cookies. not to toot my own horn.

giant chocolate chip cookies

these are great for the impatient baker or when your cookie-dropper calls out sick. they also go over big in dorm rooms.

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces chocolate chips

prep:

• lightly grease 2 pie plates
• preheat oven to 375

actual cooking:

• cream butter and sugar
• add egg and vanilla
• beat until blended
• add half the flour, then the soda, salt, other half of the flour
• beat well
• add chocolate
• divide dough into two equal parts
• press gently into pie plates with greased fingers
• bake until the edges look golden/browned-- the middle will still look underdone!
• cool in pie plate until set, then release onto wire rack until cooled

it took my brother about 36 hours to eat these both, but only about five seconds to think of putting them on his butt for a picture.

christmas cookies 2008: finale

(sorry for the picture... i had a much more dramatic one planned, but for some reason blogger & i don't agree on how the picture should be oriented. and the sideways-cookie thing was not doing it for me. at. all.)

so... funny thing. when you're spending every free moment baking, it's hard to find a moment to write about baking. to sum it all up: they were wonderful. had i gone through it blow-by-blow, you can bet i'd have been singing a different tune. i was, in fact, in my kitchen, and it was a pretty bawdy tune. with crying. but i learned some things.

1. i need more flour-- like, twice as much.
2. vanilla does cost just as much at trader joe's as it does for the store brand at the supermarket-- the difference is, tj's bottles are twice as big.
3. it's difficult to buy chocolate when you boycott nestle and hershey's... trader joe's to the rescue!
4. the broiler won't just melt the jam... it'll burn the shortbread.
5. a candy thermometer makes all the difference.
6. a quarter of an inch is a lot thicker than i think it is.
7. a little less flour makes the dough softer. ummm, duh?
8. too much water will ruin gingerbread.
9. expensive non-stick baking sheets really are non-stickier than the regular ones.
10. wilton sells no-taste red food dye.

i made everything i was supposed to make, pretty well, plus some extra fudge for gifting. i had a couple mishaps, too, like when i broke the christmas tree plate for my cookie press with my super-tough dough. i overdid it, of course, but i'm sure the recipients of the extra bags don't mind-- and let's face it, everybody has a lonely, old neighbor who will appreciate being thought of (though, perhaps not as a "lonely, old neighbor"). now i have some new cookie recipes and ideas to work out before next year. maybe then, i'll get through it with a little less crying.

cooking-related christmas gifts: a pastry workshop (on sunday!), subscriptions to bon appetite and martha stewart's everyday food and a giant cupcake cake pan.

cooking-related new year's resolutions: cook one thing from each magazine and bake cookies year-round-- not just christmas!

oh, and one final thought:

christmas baking is not complete without a nice set of... giant chocolate chip cookies.

concept: daddy cookies

my entire life, my daddy has been responsible for eating-- and enjoying-- every, single, ugly, ridiculous thing i've baked. it's pretty much his sworn duty. even when it's a "cake" that took three hours in the easybake oven and is frosted black, and not by using chocolate frosting and black food dye (oh, yeah, they have that!), but mixing all the colors together. mmmmm, delicious, sweetie.

for whatever reason, i've been having a slightly bad run with cookies this year. my peanut butter cookies are a little too short and hard. (but pretty, damn it!) my first tray of oatmeal cookies spread too much and browned too much. my pinwheels are three different sizes (totally my fault). my first tray of sugar cookies stuck to my greased cookie sheets. so did my first batch of slightly misshapen spritzes. my second go at sugar cookies came out beautiful but my second batch of spritzes came out horribly misshapen. horribly.

ugly or slightly irregular cookies do not go on trays. they're called husband cookies. we feed them to our husbands. (i know, you think you want to feel bad for the poor husbands eating ugly or irregular cookies all month-- don't. they're eating delicious, homemade cookies all month, okay?) i make so many husband cookies that bill has to spread the wealth a little bit. hence the concept: daddy cookies.

last night i made a whole batch of husband/daddy spritzes. a whole batch. that's, like, six dozen. they're perfect in every other way, but all kinds of ugly. i don't know why. my press is messed up-- there's too much pressure or something-- it's really hard to press out the cookies and dough leaks, spills, really, in between cookies, leaving little cookie tails. and, to top it all off, somehow, the christmas tree plate broke. it's broken. unusable. do you think wilton sells them individually? no. wilton and i are totally in a fight. except... i really want a couple of food dye sets (the 12-pack, the 8-pack, primary, pastel and garden tones, and maybe throw in some white-white, no-taste red and copper), one of those spinny cake holders, a frosting spatula and... and... a cordless electric cookie press.

for now? i soldier on. chocolate-orange-almond biscotti tonight. (chocoralmond, for short.)

springerle cookies (2008)

that? is not what my springerle cookies look like. it's from thespringerlebaker.com, which has all kinds of information about springerle cookies, including a recipe.

fun fact about springerle cookies: you make the dough, roll it out, cut it out, set it on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with anise seeds and then... elave them out over night to get stale. no shit. it's the funniest thing. it's the kind of thing that makes me wonder, you know, whose idea was that?? like blue cheese or vodka or thousand-year eggs.

i guess there are two kinds of springerle molds: rolling pins (like i use) and stamps. the thing about rolling pins is... i think the dough needs to be much thicker, because the rolling pin flattens it while it presses in the pretty designs. i think.

so, mine suck. this year they are thicker than last year, but they were still too thin. and i have no idea what they're supposed to taste like. plus? i cut them out with an ancient ravioli trimmer (because then the egdes are pinked, not just cut and they look more intentional) and that messes up the angles of the corners. i should try springerle's sometime between now and next christmas, but they're soooo haaaaaard and they make me pout and swear and growl. and growling at cookie dough? is pathetic.

but, anyway. they're done. and ugly. they will not go on trays because a) they are ugly, b) they are hard to make and one batch does not make many and c) i feel like anise in this form-- that is, straight up anise seeds on the cookies-- will get all into everything on the tray. besides, i really only made them because when i asked my dad for his cookie preferences he said pinwheels which i think are about the dullest cookie in the world. which? i'm making tonight!

springerle's will get better, i'm sure. coming up: peanut butter cookies (with comparison shots of the traditional fork-cross decorating and our pretty-bottomed glass decorating!), the battle of oatmeal no-raisin and pinwheels. after that, i take a quick break from cookies, but i'll be cooking mini cheesy biscuits, twice-baked new potatoes, spinach dip, white bean hummus and deviled eggs.

christmas cookies 2008

on the first day of modern christmas, also known as black friday, i hit the stores like every other nutcase. only i had them almost all to myself. i was at the grocery stores.

i went to the local supermarket first, hoping to buy everything in one shot. i was mostly prepared. i had edited last year's list (removing cookies that didn't work out, adding some new ones, changing amounts) and mapped out the recipes on my christmas cookie spreadsheet. what, you don't do that? huh.

i estimated, generously, how much i'd need of everything and prepared a comprehensive list of things i needed to buy. it is as follows:

• rolled oats
• 10 pounds flour (i already had 5)
• 1 bag confectioners sugar
• 10 pounds granulated sugar
• 4 pounds brown sugar
• 24 teaspoons vanilla extract (who said my system is perfect? i bought two bottles of the store brand and i hope it's enough. if not, i think trader joe's brand is cheaper, actually.)
• almond extract
• 18 ounces of milk chocolate chips
• 48 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips
• 28 ounces of white chocolate chips
• 1.5 cups slivered almonds (i take the shortcuts as they come)
• 2 cups walnuts
• 1.5 cups unsalted macadamia nuts
• 2 cups dried cranberries
• 3 chocolate-orange cake mixes
• a lemon
• candy canes
• peanut butter
• seedless raspberry jam
• 13 pounds of butter
• 4 dozen eggs

so, i bought nearly all of it at the supermarket and then moved on to trader joe's. there i bought the butter (because it was, like $1.30 cheaper per pound, and that adds up when you're buying thirteen!), the almonds, the macadamia nuts, the eggs ($1.50 cheaper, at least, i forget the exact amount), the white chocolate chips and the milk chocolate chips (i try to avoid buying either hershey or nestle for political reasons. i bought store-brand semisweet.) and tried to buy the chocolate-orange cake mixes. but they didn't have them. so i might have to actually make my biscotti dough, which might mean more flour and definitely means a trip to the supermarket for orange essence.

there was other stuff, too, of course. stuff i already had (mostly not shown):

• instant coffee
• 3 ounces semisweet bakers chocolate
• molasses
• light corn syrup
• decorating sugar
• vegetable oil
• cream of tartar
• anise seeds
• cinnamon, cloves, ginger
• gluten-free flour

and stuff i wasn't sure would keep until i had that confection scheduled, namely, heavy cream. which i can buy next door or at any supermarket/grocery/dairy store. so i'm not worried.

i also picked up some decorating frosting in little tubes and what appear to be markers for use on... food. creepy. but possibly very useful for the making of gingerbread people with a four year old. and a boneless turkey breast-thing, a box of stuffing and a ritter sport bar (totally for bill)

cookie-related shopping came in about $14 under budget (without the cake mixes and heavy cream, though) and $11 over estimate (so far). but really, good enough for me!

next up, look for springerle cookies (which i've actually already baked) and 4 batches of peanut butter cookies (which i'm baking tonight as soon as i get the pretty-bottomed glass from my mom-- i'll explain later).

regularly scheduled baking: christmas cookies

when i was growing up, my mother made christmas cookies. thousands of them. hundreds of thousands. million, maybe. a whole damn lot. candies, too! fried walnuts and almond brittle. but, umm, that's crazy hard. CRAZY. now, with two teenaged boys in the house and one only half out, she can't set a batch of cookies aside, anyway, so why bother?

but christmas cookies are so NICE. two years ago, i guess i made some pretty regular cookies: chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, and some gluten-free meringues. there might have been shortbread and spritzes. i don't remember. it just seemed like the thing to do, newly married in our own little apartment.

always trying to outdo myself, last year i made chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, shortbread, springerle, spritzes, other spritzes, pinwheels, these insane chocolate pillows with maraschino cherries on top that are made with cake mix and never made it onto the trays because they looked a little obscene, gingerbread SNOWMEN-- each frosted and decorated because i bought cookie-cutters too late to find gingerbread people, sugar cookies, chocolate-orange biscotti, vanilla meringues, white chocolate cranberry-walnut fudge and candy cane fudge. i think that's it.

this year's plan includes choco-chip, pb, oatmeal raisin, shortbread thumbprints, springerles (which all go to my daddy), spritzes, pinwheels, gingerbread snowmen, sugar cookies, chocolate-orange biscotti, snickerdoodles, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, meringues, chocolate-pb oatmeal squares, white choc cra-lnut fudge, candy cane fudge and almond brittle. plus, some gluten-free gingerbread ladies (yadies), but that's just for fun.

ingredient shopping is scheduled for black friday (when everyone else is in a gift-shopping frenzy the supermarket will be all mine!), with springerles that weekend and everything else commencing december 1st.

this is the big one, people. the great christmas cookie flood of ought-eight.