christmas cookies

Posted on December 21, 2012 by hilary924

so, i made you some really adorable and yummy cookies for this holiday season. packaged them up in sweet little boxes with tissue paper and ribbons. and then proceeded to take many, many horrible photos of them.

you are welcome!

i've been struggling to get into the holiday spirit this year. too many cocktails, not enough general cheer.

too many packages gone missing in the brown ups truck in the sky.

my gifts for my sisters-in-law may not arrive until february, but i had a pretty solid cookie strategy.

my go-to sugar cookie recipe is a cut above due to the addition of an aggressive amount of citrus zest.

i upgraded my oatmeal chocolate chip recipe with some cranberries for color and tang.

several of our nation's dairy farmers are having a fine christmas thanks to the brown-buttery deliciousness of rosemary walnut shortbread.

and because it isn't christmas without some powdered ginger and sparkle, i added dorie greenspan's speculoos buttons into the mix, but mine aren't nearly as cute as those gracing the cover of bon appetit.

extreme walnut close up. please just be grateful it isn't blurry.

these shortbread cookies will melt in your mouth. did i mention the butter? they left darling little grease spots on the tissue paper.

allow me to warn you about the speculoos buttons, however. it will be nearly impossible to tell when the little buggers are done since they are such a warm lovely brown color to start. so you must remain vigilant about over baking them, which will turn them into tiny spiced hockey pucks. you will lose a tooth. you have been warned.

but aren't their sparkly edges nice?

believe it or not, this was one of the better photos. in my next life, my kitchen will be nothing but windows. WINDOWS I SAY.

ahem.

for those of you who know my sommelier, you will enjoy the image of him on the couch on a saturday night, watching a dreadful movie involving horses and the end of my respect for steven spielberg, delicately frosting reindeer antlers with a squeeze tube of royal icing.

i think we generally ended up with a nice mix of frosted cookies that looked nearly professional, but just charmingly off key so as to seem legitimately homemade.

towards the end of the rather nice bottle of twomey 2008 napa valley merlot, the cookies looked a lot closer to what you might expect out of a kindergartner with some fine motor skills challenges.

those cookies ended up at the bottom of the box. just slightly out of frame.

not that you would even be able to tell much about the quality of our handiwork, based on my mad skills with a camera. so, with that, i will leave you with this gem and some links to cookies that you should revisit in march perhaps, when the gray sky and several months of pretend-dieting leave you in the need for something sweet.

does the filter make it seem like it was supposed to be fuzzy? good. let's go with that. it was quite the pretentious little display of cookies anyway.

citrusy sugar cookies
martha's royal icing
speculoos buttons
rosemary walnut brown butter cookies
cranberry oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - please note that i cut down on both butter and chocolate, as recommended by the reviewers. it felt like sacriledge, but made for a very nicely balanced, chewy cookie. plus i used my cranberry technique from these muffins.

almond chocolate biscotti . . . or chocolate toffee cookies.

Posted on July 3, 2012 by hilary924

i don't really understand biscotti. i like a gooey cookie. a chewy, melty chocolate chip cookie. i can handle a crispy cookie . . . a ginger snap or crumbly shortbread. but biscotti. what, my friends, is the point?

this isn't to knock the joy of dunking. i very much enjoy a good milk-soaked oreo or graham cracker. but the biscotti doesn't do it for me.

i tried here. the baking with julia recipe was for hazelnuts. but i decided to pull a total hilary. i used almonds. and rather than buying frangelico, i made amaretto.

that's right. i have two mason jars of boozy almond goodness in order to put two teaspoons of almond liqueur in these bad boys.

but neither the homemade amaretto or the judicious addition of chocolate could save the biscotti from their inherent hard as a rock biscottiness. they were lovely biscotti, easy to make (even with the exceptionally unnecessary step of homemade liqueur, a recipe for which you can find at shutterbean) and were munched down by italian and spanish fans alike at my euro cup party.

but still. if i'm going to eat a cookie, friends, biscotti will not get the job done. my newest cookie obsession will: chocolate toffee cookies, courtesy of smitten kitchen.

yeah, that's the stuff. the perfect slightly gooey center, crisp and chewy edges, intense chocolatey goodness with the crunch of slivered almonds and caramely, toothiness of the heath bar crumbles. dunking optional.

if you insist on enjoying biscotti, check out the recipe at tuesdays with dorie.

baking with julia: strawberry rhubarb “shortbread”

Posted on May 30, 2012 by hilary924

summer has arrived. with a vengeance.

luckily, we can temper the crankiness brought on by heat and humidity with the sweet pucker of strawberries.

i love the classic sweet tart of strawberries and rhubarb. i like my food with balance. not too much one way or the other.

the way a sprinkle of sea salt on dark chocolate brings the sweet and bitter together a little more harmoniously on your tongue.

if it is pink, all the better.

i learned a new technique with this recipe. you put together the dough, chill it, and then grate it into the pan.

the grated dough sandwiches homemade jam of the strawberry rhubarb vanilla bean persuasion. don't be tempted to add something sweeter. it needs a bit of the sour bite of the rhubarb. and the vanilla bean deepens the flavor a bit. i love the almost woody caramel flavor of a real vanilla bean.

grating the frozen dough keeps the butter cold but brings a lightness to the finished cake. because, let us be clear.

if you are looking for the crisp crumble of a walker shortbread cookie, this is not your recipe.

this is cake.

have a bite!

For the recipe, visit Tuesdays with Dorie or buy the book!

twd: baking with julia: rugelach

Posted on March 6, 2012 by hilary924

as a kid growing up in southern california, rugelach were not abundant. we were an oatmeal cookie kind of family. as an adult, the cardboard specimens i ran across left me unimpressed. they always seems so dry. the filling wasn't gooey or rich enough.

this recipe CHANGED MY MIND. for serious. it was a multistage process, but it was worth every moment.

there was rolling. slash beating of that mighty hunk of dough with a rolling pin.

there was chilling. more rolling. slicing, dipping. way too much eating.

but these rugelach were some of the best cookies i've ever had. rich and buttery, coated in cinnamon sugar that gets crisp, caramelized, chewy.

i made two types – apricot and dried cherry, with homemade apricot lekvar, and dark chocolate with nuts and cinnamon.

lekvar is a type of jam made from dried apricots. the flavor is deep and rich.

i think maybe my secret was an excessive amount of filling. i did not manage to create much of a spiral effect, and that is even after i scooped a bunch of filling out of the way post first attempt, which, by the way, was fantastic over greek yogurt. no homemade lekvar went to waste here!

i'm pretty sure this isn't what the rolls of deliciousness were supposed to look like.

the dough kept melting and needing to be rechilled, making me curse the concept of rolled pastry, but silently, so the somm wouldn't think i was going too crazy.

the result was cookies that are almost like slices of pie – rich, chewy centers of dried fruit or chocolate, surrounded by the tender cream cheese crust.

just because it was a novel trick for me, i'm going to say that rolling the crust out with a dusting of powdered sugar instead of flour helped keep the crust so light and tender despite my repeated mangling attempts to get it to behave.

they aren't pretty, but man were they good.

this recipe made a lot of cookies. i tried foisting them off on friends, neighbors, coworkers, but still ended up freezing about a dozen.

and discovered a whole new way to love rugelach. oh, good lord. frozen, they are even chewier and more satisfying.

i really felt initiated into the community of rugelach lovers when describing my triumph to a friend's mother who seriously knows her way around good pastry and she whispered . . . have you tried them frozen?

yes, barbara. yes i have. there's no going back now.

seriously, if you have a free weekend, do yourself a favor and make these cookies. just be sure you have a distribution plan, or you WILL end up eating them all yourself. find the recipe in this book, or at tuesdays with dorie, including this week's hosts jessica of my baking heart and margaret of the urban hiker.

and here's this week's gratuitous shot of manchego, the cat who is too cool for rugelach.

spicy double chocolate cookies

Posted on February 29, 2012 by hilary924

the next two posts i have planned have a theme: using food to make friends.

i have told you before that i am shameless in using baked goods at the workplace. here is my latest entry . . . a revamp of a tried and true chocolate chocolate chip cookie. inspired by this recipe, i decided to up the flavor with cinnamon, super finely ground coffee and cayenne pepper.

these are serious cookies. they come to play.

clearly, they aren't the only ones.

they make an impression. this is a chewy, soft, brownie-like cookie. it isn't crisp. it's rich and fudgy.

leave out the spices and coffee, and this is as true a chocolate cookie for chocolate lovers as you can get.

add the spices?

you'll leave people wondering just what it is about those cookies. they'll ask you for the recipe. word will get around.

mission accomplished.

Spicy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Crisco – don't judge until you try them!

1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cayenne
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp finely ground coffee or espresso powder
2/3 cup shortening
1tsbp water
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package chocolate chips – I find I like the bigger chunks for this recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together dry ingredients – flour through spices and coffee – in a medium bowl.

In a larger bowl, beat shortening, water and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients to wet, mix at low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until set.

chewy ginger cookies

Posted on November 29, 2011 by hilary924

generally, i'm a soft and chewy kind of cookie girl. i have no time for biscotti. why? why would you double bake a cookie? it's wrong, i tell you, just wrong!

but, when it comes to ginger cookies, i'm a snap kind of girl. something about the hard crunch of a ginger snap just seems to fit the hard spicy flavor.

but then, i got sucked in by the magazine photo.

so sparkly, so deep and warm looking. that's a cookie that needed to enter my repertoire.

these cookies really are softer than they are chewy. the mixture of butter and shortening makes them tender, and i think the molasses helps them down that path as well.

molasses cookies are totally acceptable as soft cookies.

but do not mistake these for molasses cookies. they have a serious one-two-three ginger punch: powdered, fresh, and crystallized.

crystallized ginger really is magical. well, crystallized pretty much anything's pretty good. foodie friends of my mother's from the big easy came to visit one summer and made crystallized citrus rind. it totally blew my mind that you could MAKE that. like, from SCRATCH.

they also kick started my obsession with squash blossoms, but that's a story for another time, and definitely another season.

but don't worry. i didn't crystallize my own ginger, and really, neither should you. it would ruin what is otherwise a super easy cookie recipe.

the ginger teams up here with some other nice holiday flavors. nutmeg, cinnamon, obvious.

it is the black pepper, though, that i think adds a nice, unexpected layer of spice to the mix. i think i'm going to keep that in mind for future recipes.

if i can ever find any of my spices again. my ocd spice organization system seems to be rebelling on me.

i guess i can't be that ocd since my kitchen counter's looked like that for a couple weeks now. i just can't bring myself to address the situation.

ahem.

back to the cookies. i might be failing in spice organization, but i finally did my math-hating self a huge favor and got a new app for my iphone that automatically converts cup amounts to ounces or grams.

i mean, seriously. why have i been multiplying fractions for so long?

and i wonder why i can never get the flour right.

my iphone and ipad are seriously some of my most important kitchen tools.

they help save me from myself. if only siri could see what i was actually doing, i'd really be rolling.

but, to be honest, these cookies came out great. the turbinado sugar on the outside gives a great crunch, but the cookie is melt in your mouth soft, and the flavor is a wonderfully intense spice bomb.

bake them. you won't be sorry.

Chewy Ginger Cookies

Find the recipe at Bon Appetit

chocolate banana oat bars

Posted on November 4, 2011 by hilary924

this is kind of a cop-out post. i'll be honest.

there are lots of photos on my camera for lots of yummy recipes. short ribs. brownies. cauliflower. (yes, cauliflower. trust me.)

there are even more recipes on my weekend to do list. pumpkin apple cake. more short ribs.

plus, i have things i want to tell you. about dutch-processed cocoa and chili sauce. and frosting.

but this week, i was distracted. by margaritas and tequila shots and, well, what it feels like to be nearly thirty the morning after you have a bit too much fun on a school night. plus, there was giggling and vampires and new extracurricular activities. oh, and after months of running jail, i'm totally supposed to be training for some crazy half-marathon that is exactly one month away.

whew. no wonder i'm sleepy!

next week . . . i promise awesomeness.

in the mean time, these bars are pretty darn good.

i found this recipe on a great blog. cookies masquerading as breakfast bars.

they might be vegan and vaguely healthyish. they might contain two tried and true breakfast foods – banana and oats – but don't be deceived.

they are rich and gooey and wholly satisfying. the banana chips are such a value add – giving each bite a soft crunch. and the edges have that perfect, brownie-like chew. mmm.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Oat Bars

I didn't change anything about this recipe except rename it for accuracy, dammit, accuracy! Go visit Eat, Live, Run for her recipe!

salted mudslide cookies

Posted on October 12, 2011 by hilary924

booze + chocolate + salt = a winning combination.

these are some intensely chocolaty cookies. they may be posing with the hershey's, but don't be fooled. there's more than that in here.

mocha kahlua. dark cocoa powder. dark chocolate chips. a smattering of that fancy-pants sea salt.

it's manchego-approved, so you know it's good.

in fact, the somm tried one and was sure that whoever i'd baked them for probably didn't deserve them.

not true! happy 30th to mishap!

these cookies were almost better than our miami celebration trip. luckily, the hurricane-gale-force winds died down and the sun came out or it might not have been so close.

warning: these cookies may not be conducive to a bikini-ready body, but just TRY to only eat one. they're gooey and rich. they have a perfect chewy edge. and the salt just kicks it up a notch.

i finally found a trick to getting salt to stay on the top of cookies. it's a little weird. are you ready?

take cookies out of oven. quickly spritz with pam. apply salt.

neat, huh?

i still can't figure out how to get turbinado sugar to stay crunchy on muffins. i think i'm just going to need to practice!

maybe we should start with another batch of cookies.

Salted Mudslide Cookies

Loosely adapted from How Sweet It Is

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
3 tablespoons instant coffee powder (I ran out and just used more cocoa powder)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled for 10-15 minutes
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup coffee liqueur + 1 teaspoon (I used Mocha Kahlua for an extra chocolate kick)
1 cup chocolate chunks
sea salt for topping

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Stir together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, mix the melted butter and sugars until they are combined. Next add your liquids – egg, vanilla, Kahlua.

Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms – it will be a little more crumbly than most cookie dough but should come together.

Fold in the chocolate chunks. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Be patient. Remember you didn't have to remember to soften your butter, so you have to make up for it somewhere. Your reward: puffy, chewy yumminess.

Scoop balls of dough onto a greased or nonstick baking sheet. I went for about 1tablespoon-sized scoops because I was bringing them into work. Bigger scoops would probably maximize the gooey, chewy character of the cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set and the middles are still soft. The centers should be puffy. Do not over bake.

Remove from oven. Working three cookies at a time, immediately give each a spritz of Pam or other cooking spray (just not the kind with flour!) and then sprinkle with sea salt.

Good warm, cooled, or unbaked.

double batch of coworker charm cookies

Posted on August 25, 2011 by hilary924

so, i started a new job last week. same building, same agency, new boss, new office (windows! a door!). definitely a step in the right direction.

one challenge? their IT seems to be stuck in 1995. no youtube. no flickr. facebook? you be dreaming. taxpayers, your bureaucrats are resigned to focusing on their actual work.

sort of.

anyway. it might make things a little slower in my blogland, since i usually get home with just about enough energy to cook, but always enough to cook + blog. me = lazy. moving on.

anyone who bakes should be smart enough to bake for coworkers. the old cookie charm offensive, that's what i like to call it. make friends. lull people into a false sense of security with chocolate chips. be that girl, the one who's office is great for gossip because you never know when there'll be a banana bread.

or, these:

i decided, pick a tried-and-true recipe, and went with a double batch! ha ha! cleaned me out of: butter, eggs, vanilla, flour and nearly sugar. whew. it takes a lot of butter for these bad boys.

four sticks. turning brown. it takes a while to brown a pound of butter, let me tell you.

i also needed some coconut. toasty.

my kitchenaid was up to the task. although it got a little dicey there.

thank goodness mom, er, i mean "santa" put that cute cookie scoop in my stocking last year!

don't they kind of look like cookie pac-men? is that just me? or are they pac-man ghosts?

in any event, they turned out perfect. thanks joy the baker! and hey, new coworkers: i'm gonna be emailing you needing stuff. like, needing stuff yesterday. please remember the deliciousness of my baked goods and help me help you.

Browned Butter, Toasted Coconut, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Visit Joy the Baker for her recipe and just double it. Or not. Double makes a lot of cookies! Hope you have hungry coworkers!

cherry crumble bars

Posted on July 18, 2011 by hilary924

we are hitting that point of summer where i start to get into real trouble at the farmers market. everything looks so good! i want it all!

it’s a double whammy when the sommelier goes out of town on the weekend. there is no one to check the madness. no one to question whether we really need TWO QUARTS of sour cherries.

i mean, isn’t the answer to that always YES at the end of cherry season?

but it didn’t stop at the cherries. while you check out my haul, try to guess the number of humans i’ll be feeding this week.

the answer? me. just me.

dear sommelier: please come home. yes, i miss you. but also i bought a bunch of kale larger than a small child.

lordy.

didja see rio lurking amidst the produce? let’s see a close up.

can haz fahmarz mahket! (hat tip jaime)

this is the point where she runs back and hides under the bed.

back to the cherries. i bought a cherry pitter!

file that under other things i purchase when the sommelier is gone: excessive amounts of produce, single-use kitchen implements, shoes . . . .

let me tell you though, that cherry pitter is unbelievable. so much fun. i had purple fingers for so many years for no good reason.

i have many plans for these cherries. luckily i bought TWO QUARTS. the first round went into these:

yeah, cherry crumble bars. top notch.

sour cherries + lemon + butter + brown sugar + oaty crumbly goodness = winning.

plus, this recipe – itself a bastardization of several other recipes – is a great basis for all kinds of fruity, crumbly goodness. i really liked the tartness of the sour cherries, but any other type of summer fruit would be good. reduce the brown sugar and oats for a blueberry crumb bar like smitten kitchen’s original. or swap the lemon for some ginger for a peachy crumble bar. or add almonds and apricots!

Cherry Crumble Bars

adapted primarily from Smitten Kitchen

1/2 cup white sugar (3 1/2 oz)
1/2 cup brown sugar (3 3/4 oz)
3 cups all-purpose flour (12 3/4 oz)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces) cubed
1 egg
1/2 to 1 cup oats
4 cups fresh sour cherrys – pitted and halved or not as you like it
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375.

Stir the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt and zest together. Add butter and work into flour with a fork, pastry cutter or your fingers until mostly incorporated, then add egg and finish incorporating. It should look kind of like coarse meal, but a little shaggier.

Press half of mixture into bottom of a 13 by 9 in pan. Add oats to the remaining half for topping.

Mix cherries with lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar and corn starch. Pour over bottom crust.

Sprinkle reserved oats mixture on top. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the cherries are bubbling. It shouldn’t be too wiggly in the middle – it’ll firm up a bit. But mine stayed a bit gooey. Which I love. But not everyone does, so just watch it, ok?

Manchego's Kitchen

it's his kitchen. i just cook here.

Category Archives: Cookies