Archive for the 'cookies & squares' Category
I know, it’s not exactly shortbread season. (It should be – there are few better accessories to fresh fruit in season.) There was a bake sale this weekend awhile ago – a fundraiser I forgot to tell you about. It was on the eve of heading to Vancouver, and so I didn’t throw myself into it as I otherwise would have. I looked for easy stuff, like truffles and shortbread, flavoured with cocoa nibs and lavender and tonka beans. And then I forgot to share them with you.
Because I’m all about using up what I have, I took a leftover chunk of sponge toffee (I know – weird, huh?) off the top of the fridge, chopped it up, and stirred it into shortbread dough too. The butter-sugar-flour makes a snappy, buttery vehicle for all manner of ingredients. Seriously! Try it.
Tonka beans are shrively and black, like a thin, firm prune with a solid tan interior. Its flavour is reminiscent of vanilla and almonds, and if you find some (you can buy or order them here – these are our neighbours down the street) they are best used finely ground (use a sharp grater or Microplane) in a vehicle that will put them on a pedestal – like the plainest shortbread.
A good reason to brew a pot of iced tea, no?
Tonka Bean Shortbread
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. finely grated Tonka bean (optional – experiment with different spices, too!)
In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and salt with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla.
Add the flour and grated Tonka bean and stir just until you have a soft dough. Shape it into two logs, wrap and refrigerate for an hour (or up to a few days) or freeze for up to 6 months.
When ready to bake, slice 1/4″ thick and bake on a parchment-lined sheet at 350F for 15 minutes, or until pale golden around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
May 14 2012 | cookies & squares | 8 Comments »
This is by far the most made recipe of the week. (And I just realized it’s only Wednesday.) I’ve cranked out dozens and dozens of these, starting with four batches with W’s grade one class on Monday afternoon, in preparation for their Christmas concert on Tuesday. The old sandstone school filled with the smell of baking cookies as we went up and down the stairs between classroom and staff room to bake sheet after sheet. And so yesterday there was a table of tea and homemade cookies outside the gymnasium for parents and kids to hang out and nibble before and after the performance.
If you’re a parent and have the opportunity to go help out in your kids’ classroom, and his or her teacher is up for an afternoon of baking, it may just be a few of the most rewarding hours you’ll ever spend. Some of the kids in W’s class had never cooked anything before. Rather than show up with premade dough to roll and cut, or prebaked cookies to decorate, I brought butter and eggs and flour and sugar and molasses and cinnamon and ginger, and printed out copies of this recipe – written out clearly, with simple steps. We talked about recipes and how they work – then talked about each ingredient and where it came from. Then there was measuring, learning about cups and spoons and halves and quarters of same. The kids were divided into four groups and did an amazing job following the instructions, measuring ingredients, cracking eggs, mixing and rolling balls of dough to bake. We talked about what happened in the oven, what made them rise and spread and turn from balls of dough into actual cookies. And at the end we sat around the tables and ate some while they were still warm. The kids took home their recipes and, eager to show their parents how they could bake from scratch themselves. (Of course some had kitchen experience already, but others hadn’t. I’m getting goosebumpy just thinking about it. Don’t wait for Jamie Oliver to show up at your school – get in there yourself. It’s amazing the impact you can make in an afternoon.
Later, I made more to boost quantities for the concert, and some may have wound up sandwiched with some leftover frosting. Try vanilla, cream cheese or lemon – just spread on a cooled cookie and top with another one.
This is the recipe we used:
Molasses Crinkles
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. In a bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until there are no lumps left.
2. Add the egg and molasses and mix together.
3. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Stir until you have cookie dough that is smooth and all one colour.
4. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a small strawberry. Put some sugar in a small dish, and roll each ball of cookie dough in the sugar.
5. Put the balls on a cookie sheet and bake them at 350?F for 12 minutes, until they are cracked and golden around the edges. Move them onto a wire rack to cool.
Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
December 21 2011 | cookies & squares | 29 Comments »
I’m not quite done with cookies yet, although I can’t really classify these as cookies. They’re light, airy and crisp, and taste like what I want elephant ears and other fried dough products to taste like at the Stampede, but never do.
Rosettes are made by frying batter quickly on the end of a rosette iron, which I imagine aren’t found in too many kitchens. But I’d like to rectify that. It’s the sort of thing one might ask Santa to tuck in one’s stocking – they’re inexpensive, and worth it for the batches of crisp rosettes you’ll undoubtedly crank out every Christmas. There’s something to be said for special recipes only made on special occasions, like cookie parties and Christmas. Especially when those things are rosettes, still warm and dusted with icing sugar. Waffle irons exclusively make waffles – so why not? You may even come across some nice vintage ones at garage sales or on etsy.
The batter is similar to that of a crepe, although the result is nothing of the sort. The mixture is easily whisked together in a minute or two. Then to make the rosettes, bring an inch or two of canola or other mild vegetable oil in a smallish pot. Dip the floral end of the metal iron in the oil to heat it up, then dip it in the batter, and back into the oil. Once golden, each rosette will pop right off with the tip of a fork.
Set the pile on a paper towel-lined plate and dust with icing sugar. Pass around immediately.
Rosettes
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
canola oil, for cooking
icing sugar, for dusting
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour and salt and whisk just until blended.
Heat an inch or two of oil in a heavy medium saucepan until it’s hot but not smoking (if you have a thermometer it should register about 375°F). Dip the metal end of the rosette iron into the oil for a minute to heat up, then take it out, letting the extra oil drip into the pot.
Dip the rosette iron into the batter, without letting it come up over the top edge of the design, then submerge the iron in the oil and cook until golden, 35 to 40 seconds. Lift out iron, letting oil drip off, and pry the rosette off with a fork over a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with remaining batter.
Dust the rosettes with icing sugar and serve immediately. Makes lots.
December 20 2011 | breakfast and cookies & squares | 19 Comments »
We had our annual Christmas party this weekend – the theme this year, as the past two, was polyester & cheese. As in, wear polyester (the cheesier, the better), and bring a chunk of cheese. It’s an idea we shamelessly stole from good friends who did it a few years ago. Polyester offers so many more options – and less itchy ones – than those tired tacky sweaters.
So. There was a lot of cheese. And crackers, bread, wild boar pate, and loads of Christmas cookies and squares. House parties are just the very best thing at Christmas, aren’t they? They remind me of being a kid and getting to stay up late with the neighbourhood kids while my parents were distracted, and of hiding under the dining room table-turned-buffet, reaching up to steal the occasional Hello Dolly. I’m still a little giddy that I’m the boss of me now and can eat as many Hello Dollies as I want.
I tried not to cook much, as my back is still a little choked at me – but I had to make Hello Dollies, and some spiced nuts, eccles cakes, rugelach, and a cheese ball. A cheese ball is a must at any Christmas house party, I say, and this year I made Lisa‘s (the Homesick Texan) bacon-jalapeño cheese ball, because I had the chance to meet (and even have dinner with!) her this year, and because it looked fantastic. And it had bacon.
The recipe is on her site – the only thing I did was cut the jalapeño back to 1, and lazily mixed all the cooked bacon into the ball, rolling it exclusively in chopped toasted pecans. I also used far more grated cheddar, as I read “1 1/2 cups” rather than “1/2 cup”, and W was helping me and was enthusiastic about grating and adding even more to the bowl, but it’s a cheese ball – if it will hold together well enough to roll into a ball, you’re in good shape.
And then I made some pecan pie brownies, because after all that it seemed we were lacking in the chocolate department. They were Gwendolyn’s Pecan Pie Brownies, something she had found in an NBC Sunday Night Football Cookbook, of all places. I made a few changes – ditched the bourbon, not because I’m anti-bourbon, but because I don’t want it to interfere with my chocolate, caramel and pecans. Ditto the cinnamon. (Am I the only one that doesn’t appreciate the chocolate-cinnamon combo?) And I swapped Roger’s Golden syrup for the corn syrup, because I like the flavour far better. (Golden syrup is cane syrup, rather than corn syrup, but it has a similar texture, so I use them interchangeably.) You bake the brownies, then cool them, then pour the topping over top and bake them again. They will be uber moist and gooey and need some coaxing to get them out of the pan -which happily means a few mucked ones to sample as you cut. (Quality control is important.) If I had the freezer space I might have frozen it first – gooey bars always cut more cleanly when frozen.
Pecan Pie Brownies
Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Pecan Pie Topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Roger’s Golden or corn syrup
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the cocoa over medium heat, stirring and removing from the heat as soon as the butter melts. Stir until smooth, then stir in the sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla until smooth, then add the flour and salt and stir just until combined.
Pour into an 8×8-inch baking dish that has been buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray; smooth the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then let cool completely.
To make the topping, stir together the brown sugar, syrup, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the pecans and pour over the base. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and set.
Let cool completely, then refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.
Makes 16-24 brownies.
And have you heard of our Random Acts of Cheese? We’ve had some fun this weekend, popping in on two people we’ve never met, showing up on their doorsteps with Mike in a Santa suit holding a box of cheese. Allyson and Michelle were the happy (and totally surprised) recipients this weekend, but we’ll continue to play Mr and Mrs Claus all week, spreading cheesy cheer all over the city. Have someone you’d like to acknowledge with a box of cheese? Say so here! (Or here, or on twitter (hashtag: #randomactsofcheese), or Facebook… we’re keeping tabs everywhere!
December 18 2011 | cookies & squares and dessert | 21 Comments »
I made these on a whim on Saturday morning, before everyone arrived for the exchange, and while I could still stand and work at the counter. When my mom arrived later on to bring drugs and survey the aftermath, these were her favourites (not knowing who had made them). I had Mike in mind, who adores those Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, but anyone who loves chocolate and orange together will love these. You could fancy them up with dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks and pecans, but I rather like the dramatic effect of pure dark chocolate and orange.
Dark Chocolate Orange Cookies
With thanks to Anna Olson for her chocolate chip cookie recipe – now the standard to which I compare all other cookies.
3/4 cup butter, at room temp
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
finely grated zest of an orange
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. (or more) dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
1/2 cup candied citron (optional)
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugars and orange zest until pale and almost fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and stir or beat on low until almost combined; add the chocolate chunks and citron (if you’re using it) and stir just until blended.
Drop dough by the spoonful onto a parchment-lined (or buttered) sheet and bake for 10-14 minutes (depending on their size) until golden around the edges but still soft in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen large or 3 1/2 dozen small cookies.
December 15 2011 | cookies & squares | 10 Comments »
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