Chinese almond cookies

Gung hei fat choy!

It's Chinese New Year today, and in honor of the occasion, I decided to try making these Chinese almond cookies. They came out pretty yummy, and my husband taste-tested them for me to make sure they were good, since he's had them before and I hadn't.

They're supposed to look like gold coins, I believe, which is why the recipe calls for an egg wash. The only thing I might do differently when I make these again, though, is look for almond flour -- I couldn't find any when I was out shopping, so I used almond meal, which leaves the skins on the almonds, hence their speckled appearance. If I can find almond flour, that should eliminate that and make them a bit prettier. But if not, hey, they still taste pretty good.

Happy Year of the Horse, everyone!



Chinese Almond Cookies
Adapted from Simply Recipes

1 1/3 almond flour or almond meal
Pinch of salt
1 c butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 3/4 c flour
1 c plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
Sliced almonds
1 egg (for egg wash)

1. Beat together the almond flour/meal, salt and butter until combined. Beat in the egg and almond extract.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar and baking soda in another bowl, then beat or stir into the first bowl until combined.
3. Wrap the bowl and chill for an hour or two.
4. Form the dough into 3/4-inch balls and flatten them a bit with your hands. Place them on a cookie sheet, then press one almond slice into the center of each.
5. Beat the remaining egg well, then brush the tops of the cookies with the beaten egg.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Leave the cookies on the pan until cool.

Buckeye cookies

I did a similar cookie to these last year, Rolo-stuffed cookies. But knowing how popular the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is, I couldn't resist trying these.

I made a few modifications to the instructions for these, but they came out great. The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was that I didn't think the cookie part was quite chocolatey enough; next time, I'll use the cookie from the Rolo-stuffed ones and see if I like that better. But I imagine even as-is, these ought to go over well with the Reeses-lovers in your life.



Buckeye Cookies
Adapted from Baking and Mistaking

3/4 c confectioners' sugar
3/4 c peanut butter

1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Mix together the confectioners' sugar and peanut butter. Form into marble-sized balls, place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze until firm (they'll be easier to work with this way).
2. Beat the butter, sugars and peanut butter together. Beat in the vanilla and egg. Beat in the flour, cocoa and baking soda just until blended.
3. Take the centers out of the freezer. Grab a tablespoon or so of dough, roll it into a ball and flatten it. Tuck a peanut butter center in the middle and wrap the dough around it, re-rolling it between your hands until you can't see any of the peanut butter. Flatten it a bit between your palms. Repeat with the rest of the dough and centers.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes or so, until the cookies look dry and just begin to crack. Cool.

Peppermint pinwheels

Christmas cookies aren't just your ordinary cookies. They're the special ones, the complicated ones, the show-stoppers that you only have the energy to make once a year. When I saw these pretty, minty cookies, I knew they fit the bill perfectly.

Making them was a bit of a chore -- I had to make a few changes to the original recipe's directions to get them to come out alright. What I ended up with was a very pretty, shortbread-like cookie with a hint of peppermint and crunchy, candy-coated edges, a really nice cookie for dunking in a cup of hot cocoa. I don't think I'd make them a lot, but I might make them again sometime, maybe in a few years.

Peppermint Pinwheels
Adapted from The Shine Project

2 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
Red gel food coloring
Lots of white nonpareil sprinkles

1. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, milk, vanilla and peppermint extract. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients until combined.
3. Take half of the dough out of the bowl and set aside. To the other half, add red gel color, kneading it in with your hands until you get a nice, bright red dough. (Wash your hands -- they'll be really red at this point, probably.)
4. Roll out the white dough on a sheet of waxed paper into a large rectangle that's about a quarter-inch thick. Repeat this step with the red dough.
5. Flip the white dough over on top of the red dough and pull off the waxed paper. Roll them both together, starting from one of the wider ends of the rectangle and removing the waxed paper as you go.
6. Go find an empty wrapping-paper tube and cut a slit up the side. Cut the length to the length of your roll of cookie dough.
7. Wrap your dough log in plastic wrap, then place it inside the wrapping-paper tube (pry open the slit you cut to help with this). Place the whole thing in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.
8. Pull out your dough and pull it out of one side of the tube, pulling off the plastic as you go, and cut it into half-inch-wide slices.
9. Dump out the sprinkles into a wide dish. Roll the edges of each slice of dough in a little bit of water, then roll in the sprinkles. Place on a cookie sheet about an inch apart.
10. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, until the cookies are set and dry-looking and the bottoms are lightly golden. Cool on a rack.

Cardamom crescents

Welcome to Cookiegeddon 2013, in which I spend an entire weekend in the kitchen making cookies, most of which I've never made before.

This year, I made five kinds, two of which I'd actually made before: Linzer cookies and Egg nog-pecan cookies (which weren't entirely new but were new to this year, since the first time I'd ever made them was only a couple of weeks ago). I'll do my best to post about the other three before Christmas, starting with this post: Cardamom crescents.

I'd actually come across this recipe a few years ago, but it never quite seemed like the right time to make it: I try to balance out my cookie offerings between the different flavor profiles, fruity and chocolatey and spicy and such, and it seemed like I always had another spiced option that I wanted to try more. But this year, I finally got around to these, and I'm glad I hung onto that recipe all of this time.

They're a lot like my Russian teacakes, except that they're spiced with cardamom and formed into crescent shapes. The shaping of them was really the hardest part here: Sure, they look extra-festive and fancy, but making a moon shape for each one, while carefully ensuring that there were no absolutely cracks in a rather crack-prone dough ('cause I knew any cracks would lead to pieces breaking off when I tried to roll them in sugar later), was a painstaking process to be sure. The work paid off, though, in a decently large number of really fancy-looking, exotically spiced cookies, just the thing to go with a cup of tea at Christmastime. I'll probably end up making these again in the future, 'cause the taste was worth the work -- though if I'm feeling lazy, I might just make them into balls instead of moons.

Cardamom Crescents
From Epicurious

2 1/2 c flour
3/4 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c confectioners' sugar
1 c chopped pecans
1 c butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla
Extra confectioners' sugar for rolling

1. Whisk together the flour, cardamom, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
2. In a food processor, pulse the confectioner's sugar and pecans together until the mixture is the texture of coarse meal.
3. Beat the butter and vanilla together. Beat in the nut mixture, then the dry ingredients. Knead the dough together a bit if you need to.
4. Take a tablespoon at a time, roll it between your palms a little to make it a bit log-shaped, then pinch and taper the ends, bending it a bit in the middle, to form a crescent moon shape. Carefully press together any cracks that form -- otherwise, these will be weak spots in your cookie that will tend to break off later on.
5. Place an inch apart on a baking sheet, then bake at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, until the bottoms are golden.
6. Immediately roll in confectioners' sugar, then place on a rack to cool. Once cooled, re-roll in the sugar.

Egg nog-pecan cookies

This year, I participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. It was really cool -- you sign up and pay a small fee (only a few bucks), and then the swap operators (swaperators?) match you with three people. You make a big batch of a cookie recipe you haven't blogged before, then mail a dozen cookies to each of your three people. Meanwhile, three people out there have your name, so you'll be getting three dozen cookies in the mail! Also, the swap has cool sponsors who will send you free stuff as a thank-you for participating -- for instance, OXO sent me a nice set of silicone spatulas. And the whole thing raises money for Cookies for Kids' Cancer, so it's not only a fun swap but helps out a good cause, too.

I've never actually bought egg nog before, 'cause while it smells delicious, the idea of drinking eggs always grosses me out. But baking with it sounded like a fun idea, so I decided to make these egg nog cookies for the swap. They came out delicious! They have a nice texture and taste sort of like a bear claw or a Danish, eggy and nutty and yummy. :)

In return, I received two delicious packages: one from Ellen at In My Red Kitchen of yummy, shortbread-like Dutch cookies, half of them dipped in chocolate (which my husband promptly made off with, once he got a taste), and one from Susan at A Less Processed Life of homemade Thin Mints. Then, a week past the deadline, I got a third box, with postage dated a week and a half ago. Thanks, USPS? Anyway, the Nutella/white chip cookies from Nicole at The Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie were still tasty.

This was so much fun! The best part was that not only did I get to try new cookies and maybe pick up some new recipes to use in the future, but the actual baking and sending happens in November, meaning that it doesn't add to the pile of December cookie projects. I'll definitely be doing this again next year.



Egg Nog-Pecan Cookies
Adapted from ShopGirlMaria

12 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 c egg nog
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 c flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c chopped pecans

1 1/2 c confectioners' sugar
3 tbsp egg nog

1. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg nog, vanilla and eggs.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt, then dump this into the first bowl and beat until combined.
3. Stir in the pecans.
4. Scoop cookies and place them 2 inches apart on your cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until the edges and bottoms are lightly browned.
5. Cool on a cooling rack.
6. Whisk together the confectioners' sugar and egg nog, then drizzle over the cookies and let sit until hardened.

Molasses drops

It's been a mad crush of a holiday season this year, but while a pile of presents sits here mocking me for not being wrapped, perhaps I should try to catch up here, at least a little bit.

I made these cookies as the result of a search for a ginger-free replacement for gingerbread cookies, since my brother-in-law is allergic to ginger and I planned to send him some -- I totally forgot last year, and he ended up having to give the gingerbread cookies away, and I didn't want that to happen again. Surprisingly, though, most molasses cookies seem to have ginger in them, too. But luckily, I found this one, which doesn't.

These came out pretty well. They're not cakey like your typical molasses cookies; instead, they're more chewy with a bit of crispness around the edges. I skipped the icing recipe that was suggested for it, as it was Crisco-based, and seriously, who makes icing with shortening? Eew! Instead, I used a simple powdered-sugar icing, which worked nicely.

Molasses Drops
From "The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook"

2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp allspice (yes, really, a tablespoon)
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1/4 c molasses

Confectioners' sugar
Small splash of vanilla, maybe a teaspoon or so
Milk

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice and cinnamon and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, then the molasses. Beat in the dry ingredients.
3. Form into 1-inch balls and place a couple of inches apart on a cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool on the pan 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool.
5. Dump a bit of confectioners' sugar into a bowl, then add a small splash of vanilla. Whisk in milk, a bit at a time, until glaze-like in consistency -- if it gets too runny, just add more sugar.
6. Dip the tops of the cookies in icing and let sit until dried.

Rolo-stuffed chocolate cookies

Last week, I went to the post office with five very large boxes (darn you, USPS, for not carrying the medium-sized ones I liked anymore!), containing a very large amount of cookies. Last weekend was my annual bout of holiday insanity: two straight days of almost nothing but cookie-baking (seriously, I actually forgot to plan meals in there -- if it wasn't for my husband reminding me to eat, I might not have).

Somehow, I made it through, despite getting a migraine Sunday that made me really, really miserable all day, not to mention eating up a lot of my valuable baking time with lying-in-bed-oh-god-make-it-stop time. It was actually a bit of a fight to get through this year's baking, and I put in some pretty long hours, and I probably wouldn't have pulled it off if not for the help and support of my dear husband.

I know, blah blah blah, get to the cookies.

These are totally worth you having to read my babbling, I promise. These are really, really awesome. I spent ages scouring the Internet for a recipe that would work for these that looked good and not like it would melt and spread all over, and I'm glad to say that it paid off. These were actually one of those rare recipes where you look at the pictures, and you think "this should work exactly how I want"... and then it does. They came out beautifully, and delicious, too! And the fun part is that they're so plain-looking -- I could have dressed them up a bit, but I decided that this would stand just fine as the kind of cookie that's boring on the outside but surprises you when you bit into it. :) You could shove anything into these, too -- I ran out of Rolos and made a few cookies with mini-Three Musketeers bars, and those came out yummy (though really big), too.



Rolo-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from SugarHero

2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
One bag of Rolos

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa and set aside.
2. Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Then, beat in the dry ingredients.
3. Grab about a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a 1-inch ball. Flatten out the ball, put a Rolo in the center and wrap the sides up the dough up around it, then roll it into a ball again, making sure the candy is covered.
4. Place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes, until the cookies have spread a bit, are puffed and no longer look raw.
5. Let the cookies cool on the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove them to a rack to cool.

Candy corn sugar cookies

I'm sitting here at home, hunkered down, waiting for the "Frankenstorm" to arrive, bringing rain and high winds and probably power outages. I'm sitting here, waiting, and waiting, at home, not wanting to go out and get anything done, 'cause the storm might hit any time. And so, I'm baking today. At least if the power goes out, I'll have treats.

I was thinking last night, "gee, I was doing to bring cookies to work for Halloween... but if the power goes out before then, I won't be able to bake." And so, last night, with the canned goods and bottled water put away and the electronic devices charged, I made cookie dough. Better that the cookies be a day early, I thought, than that there be no cookies at all.

These came out both very cute and very tasty. The only issue I had is that I'd never worked with dried lemon peel before, but I didn't have any whole lemons in the house, so I used the dried, and guess I probably should have either tried to rehydrate it or just left it out; it made odd little spots in the cookies, not bad or offensive, just not pretty.



Candy Corn Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Kathie Cooks

2 sticks butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp salt
3 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Yellow and orange gel colors (or just use red and yellow food coloring if it's all you have)
Maybe 1/4 c or so of extra sugar in a shallow dish or on a plate

1. Beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, lemon juice and zest and salt. Then, beat in the flour and baking soda.
2. Divide the dough into thirds. Remove one third to a separate bowl.
3. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap, then press another third of the dough into the bottom of the pan.
4. Beat some yellow gel color into the dough left into the bowl until it's a nice yellow color. Press into the pan.
5. Return the last of the dough to the mixing bowl and beat in orange gel color (or a mix of red and yellow food coloring) until nicely orange. Press into the pan, fold the plastic wrap over the top and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
6. Turn the dough out onto a cutting board and unwrap. Slice width-wise into quarter-inch slices, then cut the slices into triangles.
7. Dip one side of each cookie into the extra sugar, then place sugar side up on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom. Remove to a rack to cool.

Chocolate chip cookie bars (Blondies)

What with all of the wedding planning obligations, I've scarcely had any time to bake, and I'm not terribly optimistic about that changing until after the wedding. But I did make time for one project recently, after a lovely bridal shower thrown for me by some wonderful friends. I wanted to do something for them to thank them for all of the work they did to make my shower amazing, so I found this recipe for "chocolate chip cookie bars."

Honestly, what's the difference between a chocolate chip cookie bar and a blondie? Pretty much nothing, really. They both have the same cookie base, generally speaking -- the major differences come with the shape (bars instead of drop cookies) and the mix-ins (sometimes blondies use white chips instead, or butterscotch chips). But the one thing this recipe doesn't share with any blondie recipe I've tried is that this recipe actually came out. The resulting bars looked and smelled awesome, and I had all I could do not to eat any (they were all for gifts, after all). ...Alright, I confess, I may not have eaten any that day, but I did make another batch a few days later, so I could eat one. And yes, they were damn tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars/Blondies
Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

2 c and 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
12 tbsp butter, melted and cooled a bit
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c chocolate chips
1 c chopped nuts or different chips (I used walnuts for one batch, peanut butter chips for another)

1. Line a 9-by-13 pan with foil, then spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
3. Whisk together the butter and sugars, then whisk in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts (or other chips, etc.).
4. Dump the dough into the pan and press evenly into pan.
5. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes, until the top is golden brown and slightly firm to the touch.
6. Place the pan on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Using the foil as a sling, remove from the pan to a cutting board, peel back the foil and cut into bars.

Lime sugar cookies

I'm headed to a tacos-and-tequila party tonight: It's a "Cuatro de Mayo" party, being thrown by someone who doesn't believe in waiting until Saturday to party. I'm not really a partier, but then again, I don't really get invited to parties, so I figure that when I do get invited, I should try to go.

So it's a Mexican-themed party, and we're expected to bring something, perhaps a bottle of tequila, perhaps something else edible or drinkable. Obviously, I decided to bake something for dessert. But what? I don't really know any Mexican desserts. There really aren't that many, aside from flan and churros, both of which have downsides as far as being party food. So I decided to think outside the box a bit, and what I came up with was this: There will be tequila at the party. What goes with tequila? Doesn't lime go with tequila? Lime is in margaritas, isn't it? Lime it is, then.

I turned up this recipe for lime sugar cookies and decided to give it a go, figuring that I'd end up with a nice sweet treat to pair with both tacos and tequila. As it turns out, they aren't as lime-y as I'd hoped, but they're still tasty, mostly a nice sugar cookie but with a hint of lime at the finish. I'd make them again, but I might try to find lime extract to bump up the lime flavor, or I might just leave it out altogether and make plain sugar cookies.

Lime Sugar Cookies
Adapted from My Baking Addiction

2 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
Zest of a lime
3 tbsp lime juice
1/4 c sugar for rolling

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg, vanilla, zest and juice. Stir in the flour mixture until combined.
3. Take a rounded teaspoon of dough at a time, form it into a ball, roll in sugar and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, an inch and a half apart.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, until lightly browned. Let sit on pan 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.

Oatmeal-raisin-nut cookies

Y'know, nobody told me that wedding planning would take all of my free time. But it's ridiculous how booked my calendar has gotten -- and when you're this busy, there's not enough time to contemplate fun hobbies like baking. I'll need to change that, though, if for no other reason than that there are a few events coming up soon for which I'm obligated to bake something.

Alright, confession time: I did bake one thing since the last time I posted. It was an orange angel food cake for Easter, and it proved disappointing -- while it tasted alright, the texture was just off, the crumb too uneven and a bit too chewy. This experiment taught me that if you already have a good recipe for something, you probably shouldn't reinvent the wheel. I might make an orange angel food cake again, but next time, I'd just modify this recipe to add orange flavor.

That failure sort of reminded me of my mission when I started this blog, though. It wasn't about making whatever fancy or trendy recipe I came across (though there's nothing wrong with that necessarily) -- it was about establishing a baseline, finding good, solid recipes for basic things that I (and you) can turn to again and again whenever I need to make a cake, or some cookies, or what have you. And while I've found a few good ones, there are still a lot of basic things that I don't have my own recipes for -- like pound cake, and great biscuits (not just passable ones), and really good white bread.

And oatmeal cookies. Yes, those, too. I have plenty of cookie recipes, some of them old standbys by now, but the one basic cookie I hadn't made yet was oatmeal.

The hardest part of making these was deciding where to start, what sort of cookie I wanted to end up with. A chewy oatmeal cookie was a given, but aside from that, the options were dizzying: oatmeal raisin? Oatmeal chocolate chip? Oatmeal peanut butter chip? Oatmeal-pecan-white chocolate-coconut? Ultimately, I decided to stick with a classic, or close to it, anyway -- I went with the standard oatmeal-raisin, but as luck would have it, the recipe I ended up basing mine on included walnuts, which I'd already been thinking of throwing in.

These came out pretty good, though a bit small (you'll want them small so you get a decent number of them and so they cook properly all the way through). Also, I discovered that while warm chocolate chip cookies are great, warm oatmeal cookies fall flat -- they were vastly better the next day than fresh from the oven.

Oatmeal-Raisin-Nut Cookies
Adapted from a Smitten Kitchen recipe

1/2 c butter, softened
2/3 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I scaled this back a bit 'cause I was using strong Tung Hing cinnamon; next time, I'd use more)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts

1. Beat together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into the butter mixture.
3. Stir in the oats, raisins and nuts.
4. Form into medium-sized mounds (mine were maybe an inch and a half or so wide -- I don't own a cookie scoop, so I just sort of made what looked like a reasonable size to me) and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, until the edges are browned but the centers still look underdone. Let sit on the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a rack and cool completely.

Cinnamon-cocoa meringues

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. And when life gives you not one but two lousy recipes for lemon curd (of which we shall never speak again -- maybe someday, I'll muster the enthusiasm to try making it again, but not soon), causing you to waste six egg yolks... well, at least you can make something good with the whites.

Finding this recipe was actually perfect timing, too, 'cause we'd only had a Penzeys open around here for one day before I was there, buying ridiculous amounts of stuff, including what ended up to be four different kinds of cinnamon. Good thing I like cinnamon, but I definitely need to come up with more uses for it now.

These came out pretty good, but I'm not sure if they're something I'd want to eat all the time. And I'd cut back further on the cinnamon next time -- I knew to use less than the recipe said, 'cause I'm using fresh, good-quality stuff, but I also used one of the hotter kinds (China Tung Hing), so it was still a bit much. Also, I had an awful time trying to figure out when these were done. I ultimately just went ahead and overbaked them, erring on the side of caution, 'cause they're on low heat anyway, so it's not like they'll burn soon, but you definitely want them nicely dry, not sticky in the centers.

Cinnamon-Cocoa Meringues
Adapted from Eating Well

3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp cinnamon (or much less if you're using high-quality stuff)

1. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar on high until soft peaks form when you turn off the mixer and pick up the beaters. Beat in the sugar a bit at a time until combined, then continue to beat until stiff and glossy. Beat in the vanilla, then the cinnamon and cocoa.
2. Drop 1 1/2-inch-wide mounds a half-inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
3. Bake at 200 degrees (yes, that's not a typo) until dry and crisp, about an hour and a half (or longer if you made your meringues too big, like I probably did).

Gingersnaps

It's hard to find the time to blog when you're planning a wedding. Truth be told, I haven't been baking much lately, either. But when I found this recipe in a recent issue of "Cooks Illustrated," I had to make it, especially when I found out that my fiancé had never had gingersnaps. Really? Never? No, never. He never had the experience of sitting in front of the TV after school, dunking gingersnaps into a glass of milk until they go all soft, but timing it so that you don't leave them in that one extra second that makes the dunked part fall off into the milk.

We had to fix that, of course. :) And these came out just as good as, if not better than, the ones in a box that I grew up eating. I will warn you, though, that this recipe makes a ton of cookies, so you might want to think about who's going to get a gift of gingery goodness before you make them. :)

Gingersnaps
From "Cooks Illustrated"

2 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp butter
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 1/4 c dark brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
1/2 c sugar

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Heat the butter in a skillet or saucepan until melted, then continue to cook on medium-low heat until foaming subsides and butter is just beginning to brown.
3. Pour butter into a large bowl and whisk in the ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and cayenne pepper. Cool slightly, then add the brown sugar, molasses and fresh ginger. Then, whisk in the egg and yolk.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir just until combined.
5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill until firm.
6. Roll into 1-inch balls, then roll in sugar to coat. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 20 per sheet.
7. Bake at 300 degrees on the top rack of the oven for 15 minutes. Then, move to the lower rack, place the next sheet of dough balls on the top rack and bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies on the lower rack just begin to darken around the edges. Remove the lower sheet and move the top sheet to the bottom for about 15 to 17 minutes, until done. Repeat with remaining pans of dough balls.
8. Cool completely on a rack before serving. (Cookies are best enjoyed with a cup of milk or hot tea.)

Mexican hot chocolate cookies

I just had to get fancy, didn't I?

The annual cookie contest was coming up at work, and I was mulling over my options. Snickerdoodles? Or maybe this new recipe I had for espresso fudge cookies? Neither looked terribly difficult, just make dough and put it on the pan and bake it.

But no. I couldn't take the easy way out, now, could I? I had to find a recipe that was way fancier, way more difficult, too, 'cause tasting good apparently wasn't enough for me. I couldn't just bring in a delicious cookie. I had to wow them.

And this is how I found myself in the kitchen at 1:30 a.m., swearing profusely, every surface and utensil (and of course my fingers, on both hands, somehow) sticky with dulce de leche, the pastry tips clogged, the counter covered in almond bits. Bleh. I spent hours on these damn cookies, and I'm sure that at least two curse words were said for every damn cookie that resulted.

And to add insult to injury, I didn't even win the damn contest. The winner was someone who made cookies into ice cream sandwiches. I thought this was a cookie contest, not an ice cream (with cookies added to the outsides) contest, but oh, silly me. (My boyfriend, upon hearing of this, suggested that next year, I should make a layer cake with tiny cookies as garnish. Fair point, I think.)

But anyway. *ahem* These cookies did come out really good, after all of that work. I might even make them again, now that I've learned a few things about them, though not at 1 a.m. this time. They're a very complexly flavored cookie, cinnamon-chocolate with a hint of black pepper and cayenne, a little sweetness and a bit of crunch. They're sort of addictive, really. And they look impressive on a cookie tray (assuming you can display them in a way that they won't stick together).

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from a Food Network recipe, with help from Cooking for Engineers

1 c flour
1/2 c plus 1 tbsp unsweetened Mexican cocoa powder (or substitute by adding 3/4 tsp cinnamon to unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c plus 1 tbsp light brown sugar
1/2 c plus 1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter, softened
3 tbsp margarine (yes, margarine, do not substitute)
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
Generous pinch black pepper
Generous pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Chopped almonds

1. Whisk together the flour, Mexican cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Mix together the sugars in a large bowl, making sure that there aren't any lumps. Beat together with the butter and margarine. Beat in the cinnamon, peppers and vanilla, then the egg white. Beat in the flour mixture until incorporated.
3. Press together into a neat log about an inch and a half in diameter, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill.
4. Slice about a quarter-inch thick, place rounds on a cookie sheet an inch apart and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on a rack.
5. Make dulce de leche: Some people will tell you to just boil the entire can in a pot of water, and that sounds great if you've got four hours. Me, I took the shortcut method: Pour the contents of the can into a huge bowl, the biggest one that you can use in your microwave -- it will look like overkill, but this stuff will swell up a ton, trust me. Then, cook on medium (NOT high, MEDIUM) for 2 minutes at a time, whisking in between, until thickened and caramel-y. If it gets too thick, you can whisk in a bit of water to loosen it up.
6. Spoon the dulce de leche into a pastry bag with a somewhat small round tip, or spoon it into a zip-top bag and snip the corner off. Drizzle the dulce de leche onto the cookies.
7. Sprinkle with chopped almonds, pressing them into the dulce de leche a bit so they stick.

Espresso fudge cookies

I went to my first From Scratch Club food swap last week, and since it's December, it was a cookie-themed swap. As I'd hoped, I went home with lots of cookies and a few ideas for my holiday baking, and when I got home and taste-tested all of my swap booty, these were the clear winners.

I added them to my cookie list for this year, and I'm really glad I did -- they're amazing, sinfully rich and fudgy and delicious, with the espresso serving to deepen the chocolate flavor even more. These cookies would be on Santa's naughty list for sure, 'cause they're simply decadent. :)

Espresso Fudge Cookies
Adapted from a recipe from Love & Olive Oil via @talkanatalka

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 c semisweet chocolate chips
8 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
3 eggs
1 c plus 2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant espresso powder
3/4 c flour
Heaping 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. In a microwavable bowl, melt the unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup of semisweet chocolate and butter (do not overcook -- microwave it for a minute or 30 seconds or so, stir and repeat until just melted).
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In another, large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and espresso powder on high until very thick and pale. Beat in the chocolate mixture, then beat in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
4. Drop heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, until puffed and cracked on top. Cool on the pan for 1 minute, then remove to a cooling rack.

Russian teacakes

I remember eating these as a kid, when my mom would buy packaged ones at the grocery store. But years later, we stopped being able to find them at the store anymore, and when I got into baking, I decided to make some myself.

The problem was, I couldn't remember what they were called, and every recipe I found that sounded similar had a different name -- Russian teacakes? Mexican wedding cookies? Something like these, it seemed, was what I was looking for, but I distinctly remembered the cashews. I also remembered calling them Russian teacakes, though, which is what I continue to call them to this day, even though the recipes I turned up for those weren't quite the same. So I adapted a Russian teacake recipe to produce this one, which is pretty much like what I remembered eating as a kid.

Of course, now, just to add further confusion, I've been coming across "cashew nougats" at the grocery store, and they look similar to, if not the same as, the ones from my childhood. So maybe they've brought them back. Or maybe this is just another layer of confusion. Whatever -- I've got my own recipe now. I don't need that packaged stuff.

Russian Teacakes

1 c butter
1 tsp vanilla
6 tbsp confectioners' sugar, plus a lot more for rolling
2 c flour
1 c chopped cashews

1. Melt the butter and mix in the vanilla. Add in the confectioners' sugar and flour and mix until blended. Mix in the nuts. Chill.
2. Carefully break off bits of the dough (it will probably be crumbly) and form into 1-inch balls, placing them on a cookie sheet (these won't spread, so spacing doesn't matter much).
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, until they are a bit dry-looking and just slightly browned on the bottoms.
4. Immediately roll in confectioners' sugar. Let cool, then roll in sugar a second time.

White chocolate-clementine cookies

Sometimes, you buy ingredients for a recipe. And sometimes, you find a recipe to rationalize buying the ingredients. :) That was what happened here: There was a sale on boxes of clementines at the store, and I wanted to take advantage, but did I really need to buy a box of clementines, honestly? Well, no... unless... unless I used them for one of my Christmas cookies! Yeah, that's it!

So I Googled around a bit, and I found this recipe, which was even better because it also has white chocolate, and I had a few bags of white chips lying around. They came out... well, not bad, but the baking directions weren't terribly accurate, I don't think. But with a little fussing, they came out alright, fairly tasty, though with so many great cookie recipes out there, I don't know whether I'd make this one again. Maybe I would if I wanted to justify buying clementines again, though. :)

White Chocolate-Clementine Cookies
Adapted from a recipe at Hot Polka Dot

1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 tbsp clementine zest
2 tbsp clementine juice
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 c flour
2 c white chocolate chips

1. Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the clementine juice, zest and eggs.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Beat this mixture into the wet ingredients.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough an inch or so apart on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, until they are browned around the edges and don't look wet in the centers. Cool on a rack.

Snickerdoodles

It's cookie time!

I love December, 'cause it gives me an excuse to make lots and lots of different cookies, at least some of which must always be kinds I've never tried before. I started off with these snickerdoodles as a warmup, a prelude to the full-on Cookie Weekend that I just wrapped up (whew!). And I'm kicking myself now, because I should've been making these for years, and instead, I only made them for the first time this holiday cookie season. They're really, really good, and they make the house smell awesome -- so awesome, in fact, that my boyfriend was roused out of bed by the smell, at 1 a.m., powerless to resist eating one, even though he was nearly asleep. :)

I'll be blogging the rest of what I made on Cookie Weekend as I get the time. For now, enjoy this one, and do make it -- it's delicious, it's not hard and you probably have everything in the house already, except maybe the cream of tartar.

Snickerdoodles
From "Baking Illustrated"
2 1/4 c flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp butter, softened
1/4 c shortening
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

1. Whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs, then the dry ingredients until combined.
3. Mix together the 3 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon in a wide bowl.
4. Roll the dough into balls, a heaping tablespoon at a time. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar and space about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet.
5. Bake about 10 minutes at 400 degrees, until the edges are beginning to set and the centers are soft and puffy. Let cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes, then move to a rack to cool.

Pumpkin chip cookies

Have you ever tried cinnamon chips? I hadn't, but I came across a few recipes for pumpkin cookies that included them, so I decided to get some. What I discovered, though, is that apparently, at my grocery store, they're a seasonal item -- they didn't have them when I looked a few weeks ago, but then later on, they did. And they were worth the wait -- they add just the right spicy-deliciousness to these classic pumpkin cookies. I'm definitely going to buy a bunch more bags to stock up before the holidays are over, not to mention plenty of pumpkin. Some people may say that pumpkin cookies are a fall thing, but I'd eat these all year, they're that good. In fact, I think they might be my new favorite cookie.

Pumpkin Chip Cookies
Adapted from Libby's

2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
1 c pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
10 ounces cinnamon chips (one bag)

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl.
2. In another, larger bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Then, beat in the dry ingredients.
3. Stir in the cinnamon chips.
4. Drop tablespoon-sized dollops onto a parchment-lined (or greased) cookie sheet.
5. Bake at at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, until the edges are firm.
6. Let cool on pans for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.

Trail mix cookies

I went on a trip last month to a cabin in the woods, and I needed something to bring, something that's easy to grab and munch. Cookies would be popular, of course, but I wanted something more. I wanted cookies that would actually be healthy, cookies that I could eat for breakfast and not feel horribly bad about it. So I picked up a healthy-recipe cookbook we have lying around, and I found this recipe. Trail mix, for a weekend in the woods? That seemed appropriate. And these have nuts and seeds and fruit in them, plus a little whole grain, so they're remarkably healthy. But I won't compromise on flavor in the name of good health, and I'm happy to say that no compromise was required here -- these are delicious, chewy and crunchy and salty and sweet and addictive, for sure.

Trail Mix Cookies
From "The America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook"

1 c rolled oats
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c regular all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
5 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 c brown sugar (either light or dark works here)
1/2 c dried cherries, raisins or other similar dried fruit (I used currants)
1/2 c unsalted pumpkin or sunflower seeds
1/4 c pecans, walnuts or almonds
1/4 c chocolate chips

1. Whisk together the oats, flours, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.
2. In another, larger bowl, whisk together the butter, egg and vanilla. Stir in the sugar until smooth. Stir in the oat mixture until just combined, then stir in the fruit, seeds, nuts and chips.
3. Roll dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (You'll want to use wet hands for this, so the dough doesn't stick to your hands.)
4. Bake at 350 degrees until the edges are set and starting to brown but the centers are still soft, puffy and underdone, 12 to 16 minutes.
5. Let cool on the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to finish cooling.