Almond Macaroons

This year I was very careful to halve the nuts and sugar to make half of a recipe of Almond Paste to use for my Cranberry Stollen. Then I got to the egg, and, whoops, in went the whole egg white. Rather than waste what was in the food processor bowl, I added more nuts and sugar to make a full recipe of Almond Paste.  I figured I'd find a use for the extra paste after Christmas.  The first thought that came to mind was macaroons. I found a couple of recipes on-line that looked promising.    Actually not recipes, photos of ingredients and cookies but no quantities or baking temperatures or times. Minimal help. Then  I went to my trusty New York Times Cookbook (1950-1960 recipes from the NYT). Typical of that era, the recipe contained lots of sugar and correspondingly called for "3 egg whites, approximately" - "Use only enough egg white to make a soft 'dough' that will hold its shape when dropped from a spoon." Interestingly, one of the on-line recipes that gave only the quantity of egg whites warned, " Two large egg whites should weigh 60 grams. Using more or less will change the texture and spreading of the cookie. For best results measure the egg whites."  I reduced the sugar from one cup to one-quarter cup and used a small egg white (25 g).  I did not use any vanilla or almond extract as called for in some recipes I reviewed. I was delighted with the results (crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside),  as were two of my"testers".  The third "tester" weighed in at "pretty good!" but no comment for improvement other than probably making Nut Puffs instead.  The macaroons, however, have no egg yolks or butter!

In a food processor bowl fitted with a steel blade combine:

1/2 pound almond paste, cut in small chunks

1/4 c sugar

White from a small egg (25 grams)

Pulse until well blended. Remove from bowl and shape into small balls about 20 g each.  Place on a non-stick cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F/300 degrees F convection oven for approximately 20 minutes. Makes about a dozen cookies. Scale accordingly.

Revised 1/5/2025                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Rugelach

We had a full house this past Christmas, and Chris, assumed the role of pastry chef,a much appreciated treat for me. In addition to making Cranberry Linzertorte and Perfect Apple Pie (recipe follows soon, I hope) for Christmas Eve, he brought us many loaves of fresh French bread from his bread machine and box after box of cookies. The cookies included a couple of batches of Chris's Brownies, Awesome Oatmeal Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies and Rugelach. Traditional rugelach are formed by rolling crescent dough around a filling, this sliced roll alternative is adapted by Chris from Smitten Kitchen.

Since Chris tells me to write about my failures so others won't make the same mistake, I'm sure he would want me to note that his first batch of rugelach was a disaster (his call not mine, I did not see or taste a cookie).  On first read, the recipe sounded like cookie dough rather than pastry dough, he explained.  The result was a tough crust.  For the next batch he used cold butter and cold cream cheese and found the dough much more satisfactory.   Everyone really enjoyed this second (and third) batch!

Make the Dough

Using a food processor with steel blade, blend until light and fluffy:

8 ounces  cold (straight out of refrigerator!) cream cheese
1 c (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Add and beat until combined:

1/4 c granulated sugar

Scrape sides and bottom of bowl well to consolidate ingredients, then add and mix just until just combined:

2 c sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 t coarse salt

Divide dough equally into two pieces, form into balls, flatten into thick rectangles,  wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  If you have two paper towel rolls, slit them in the long direction and save for later.

Make the Filling

Toss together in a medium sized bowl:

1/4 c plus 2 T sugar
1/4 c light-brown sugar, packed
1/2 t ground cinnamon
3/4 c raisins, finely chopped
1c toasted (optional), then finely chopped walnuts

Assemble the Rolls

On a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of the dough. Rectangle should be about 12" wide by 1/8" thick.

Spread evenly over the dough:

~1/4 c raspberry preserves, heated and slightly cooled

and sprinkle with half the filling mixture. Beginning with one of the long sides, roll the dough into a tight log. Wrap in plastic wrap. Place the wrapped roll in the previous prepared paper towel roll (optional)   and give it a little roll to firm the shape of the pastry roll.

Place the completed roll on a baking sheet and repeat the process using an additional

~1/4 c raspberry preserves, heated and cooled slightly

Place the second pastry roll on the baking sheet along side the first, place baking sheet in the refrigerator and let chill for one hour or longer.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Make the Topping

Mix together:


1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon

Slice the chilled pastry rolls in discs about 1/4" thick. Using your fingers, dip each disc in the topping mixture then shake off any excess topping. At this phase if you didn't roll and cut them perfectly, there's a bit of squishing them together.  Place cookies about an inch apart on the prepared sheets

Bake 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove the cookies from the oven and  using a fork or fingers (careful, don't burn!) tuck in any ends of dough that might have pulled away.  Let the cookes rest on the baking sheet for two minutes to set. Meanwhile spray or wipe a cooling rack with olive or canola oil.  This will help keep the preserves from sticking. Transfer cookies to rack(s) and let cool completely.

Once cool, cookies can be stored in an airtight container.  If making more than one level of cookies, separate each level with a layer of wax paper.

Variations:

Instead of raisins use another dried fruit of your choice, finely chopped.

Instead of walnuts, use another nut of your choice, finely chopped.

Instead of raspberry preserves, use apricot preserves or use raspberry preserves on one roll and apricot  preserves on the other.



All photos this post:
© 2014 Christopher Kern


Reviewed 5/14/17

Candy Cane Cookies

Christmas Cookies 2012*

"MERRY...

No one's hangin' stockin's up,
No one's bakin' pie,
No one's lookin' up to see
A new star in the sky.
No one's talkin' brotherhood,
No one's givin' gifts,
An no one loves a Christmas tree
On March the twenty-fifth." (1)

I guess one could add, "No one's buyin' candy canes / On March the twenty fifth."   However, this recipe came from Alex and Dan via Dan's late Grandmother who lived in Minnesota, and I did not want to post it until I had Dan's express permission. Just recently, he e-mailed the recipe. Unlike the once fresh Christmas tree, the recipe can be saved for next year.

The first Christmas Dan spent at our house, he arrived with a tin full of Christmas cookies his Grandmother had sent him.  I well remember the Candy Cane Cookies.  Last Christmas Alex and Dan decided they would try to make some.  Instead of red food coloring, as called for in the recipe, they made their own red coloring with beets.  They could not find naturally colored candy canes in our local market, but I later noticed some red and green candy canes in Whole Foods Market that were colored only with vegetable dyes. Next time....

This recicpe is adapted from Joy of Baking.com which includes a video.  Minutes 11:23 to 16:00 of this video, which demonstrate how to roll and form the cookie are particularly useful.  This recipe makes about 30 cookies.

MAKE THE COLORING

Alex and Dan washed and cut into 6 -  8 pieces

1 red beet

They then boiled it in water until the beet was soft, pureed it in a food processor and strained the juice.

Other techniques I have since found include (1 ) Puree a raw red beet in a food processor. Strain  the resulting pulp through cheese cloth, then use the strained liquid for coloring and the remaining beet for other uses. (2) Placing three washed large red beets, cut into bite size-chunks, in a small saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer until beets are tender and only a couple of tablespoons of water remain. Reserve the water to use as food coloring and save the beets for salad.

CRUSH THE CANDY CANE(S)

Between 2 sheets of waxed paper, parchment paper, or clear plastic wrap on a cutting board, place

1 - 2 candy canes

Using a metal or wooden meat mallet/tenderiser, break the candy canes into small pieces.

MAKE THE COOKIES

In the bowl of your electric mixer (hand mixer, food processor) beat until creamy:

      1 c (227g/16 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

      1 c (120g/4.2 oz) confectioners sugar

Add and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl as needed: 

      2 large egg yolks

      1 t pure vanilla extract

      1/2 t pure almond extract

Add gradually, slowing down mixer as needed to keep flour from flying out of the bowl, and beat into a smooth dough:

       2 1/2 c (325 g/11.46 oz) all-purpose flour

       1/4 t salt

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and divide into two equal parts, using scales if available. Return half of the dough to the mixing bowl and add, beating on low speed until well blended:

       Beet juice

Cookies will be pink not red and color will fade a bit with cooking, so color accordingly.

If dough is too soft it will crumble when making the cookies. If kitchen is warm, dough will probably need to be refrigerated for ~30 minutes to firm.  Remove dough from refrigerator and make several walnut sized (10 g/.35 oz) pieces of red dough and the same number of walnut sized pieces of white dough. Return remaining dough to the refrigerator. Separately, roll each color on a lightly floured surface, into a 4-5 inch (10-12.5 cm) long rope. Place the two ropes side by side, gently press together, and, holding ropes by the top and bottom, twist to form a spiral. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.  Shape each cookie into a cane shape by bending one end into a hook shape and smooth the edges to soften the line between red and white.Remove remaining dough from the refrigerator and repeat this process until baking sheet is full.  While preheating the oven to 375 degrees F, place the baking sheet and cookies in the refrigerator. Bake cookies about 8 - 10 minutes or until set and edges of cookies are just beginning to brown.

Do not over bake. While cookies are baking, start a second sheet of candy canes. Remove cookies from oven and while still warm sprinkle/roll in:

        Crushed candy cane

Cover and store in an airtight container for about a week. These cookies can be frozen.

1. Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends, page 164

*Christmas Cookies 2012
In jar:
Awesome Oatmeal Cookies
On tray from upper left hand corner, clockwise:
Chris's Brownies
Molasses Cookies/Ginger Snaps
Nut Puffs
Mexican Chocolate Meringues
Candy Cane Cookies

Reviewed 5/14/17

Chris's Brownies

Chris brought some awesome brownies to share with family over the recent holidays.  The recipe he used and gave me is Supernatural Brownies in the April 2007 edition of the New York Times, adapted from “Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers,” by Nick Malgieri.  We not only added some to the cookie platter but had them as a stand alone dessert, their richness tempered by a clementine or small scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.  

Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.







In a double boiler [or microwave] melt:

8 oz  butter [2 sticks! not a typo - these definitely fall in the category of "special/holiday dessert"]

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate

In a large mixing bowl whisk together:

4 eggs [why bother with my usual "egg product" when using this much butter]

then add:

1/2 t salt
1 c dark brown sugar
1 c granulated sugar
2 t vanilla extract

Whisk the slightly cooled chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients, then fold in

1 c flour

Then add (optional)

1/2 c chopped walnuts

(The recipe also gives an option of arranging 3/4 c of whole walnuts on top of the batter; Chris used the chopped nuts but not the topping nuts.)

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes "or until shiny and beginning to crack on top".

The author notes, "For best flavor, bake 1 day before serving, let cool and store, tightly wrapped. "

September 2013: I was recently asked to bake brownies for a Dartmouth College First Year Trip.  My few attempts at brownies have been pretty disastrous, and Chris's comment about a dessert  pot-luck he recently attended did not boost my confidence:  "If I'd just gone for the food, I would have been better off to stay home and eat the Linzertorte I made.  Most of the other desserts were gooey brownies,  definitely not worth the calories."  Oh my!  But Chris said this recipe was pretty fool-proof and fortunately he turned out to be right; I made two batches and both met my expectations. 

Lining the pan definitely helped.  After the brownies had cooled, it was so easy to carefully lift them out of the pan on the paper.  Even the first piece cut cleanly!

I melted the chocolate and butter in a microwave instead of a double boiler.  I checked and stirred the mixture each minute for the first two minutes then every 30 seconds. In my microwave, which does not run as hot as some, this took 4 minutes.  

Since the batter is so stiff, it is needs to be smoothed level once it has been poured (and scraped) into the pan.

Because I could not make these right before the event, I froze both batches.  I removed the paper from each sheet, wrapped each sheet (un-cut) tightly in aluminum foil and placed one sheet on top of the other in the cleaned baking pan so that the brownies would be protected in the freezer and while traveling to the event where they were enjoyed by all :-)

December 2014:  Chris just brought us some brownies made in his Edge Brownie Pan. Many more edges and corners --- very yummy.  

Reviewed 5/14/17

Awesome Oatmeal Cookies

In late November I was in Cambridge and wandered into the Coop Bookstore. In the stacks of newly arrived books, Smitten Kitchen caught my eye.  I had come across the Smitten Kitchen blog on some of my searches in the past, and the book really showcases Ms. Perleman's excellent photos. However, I have learned to remember I do have a library card and restrain myself from buying cookbooks. After perusing the book, I did resolve to visit the blog and try a few recipes. Then I went to Chris's for dinner one night and, apologetically noting cookies are hardly a dinner party dessert, he served the most awesome oatmeal raisin cookies (and ice cream). Shortly after I suggested (begged) he make a batch of these cookies for the Christmas holidays.  "You know they are good because they have butter in them," he warned, referring indirectly to my butter-deprived Oatmeal Cookies and Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal Cookies. Just before Christmas, he arrived with a double batch of the delicious oatmeal cookies and awesome brownies, reading my mind and proffering the recipes for both.  "SK" on top of the cookie recipe.  Ah!  These are from Smitten Kitchen I exclaimed and quickly launched into a summary of  an article about Deb Perleman and her Blog/Book Smitten Kitchen I had just read in the New York Times and about the book I had seen in The Coop.  Christmas came and I found a copy of Smitten Kitchen under the tree :-)  Chris had purchased the book several weeks earlier and, given my recent SK enthusiasm, worried it would be a duplicate....

You can go to Smitten Kitchen and get the recipe for thick, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies  as well as the delightful commentary and photos or (in case this recipe moves from the SK blog to the next SK cookbook) just follow my condensed directions below.

Makes ~ 2 dozen cookies

In a large bowl cream together until smooth:

1/2 c (4 oz) butter, room temperature
2/3 c (4.4 oz) light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1/2 t vanilla extract

In a separate bowl mix:

3/4 c (95 g/3.35 oz) flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t table salt

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients along with:

3/4 c (4.2 oz) raisins [or dried cranberries (especially good for holiday cookies!)]
1/2 c (2.3 oz) walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Ms. Perleman writes, "The last trick to getting a really thick, chewy cookie is to chill the dough before you bake it."  So "At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and chill the whole tray before baking them."  She also notes one can scoop and freeze for later baking .Maybe this theory should be applied to my oatmeal cookie recipes!

Cookies should be ~2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake 10 - 12 minutes "until golden at the edges but still a little under-cooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool."

Reviewed 5/14/17

Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal Cookies

We hosted a neighborhood open house this weekend and my invite read "seasonal beverages and munchies".  But what seasonal munchies to serve?  Hummus would go well with fall carrots, radishes, broccoli  and all of the various colors of cauliflower now in the farm markets; Pumpkin Pie Muffins (mini) and Fiery Pumpkin Seeds also made the list. But cookies.... Browsing through Sarah Leah Chase's Cold-Weather Cooking  I found an interesting recipe for Cranberry-Oatmeal Cookies (page 111) but was put off by the amount of butter (1 1/2 cups/3 sticks to make 24 cookies). Taking the idea, I decided to modify my old standby recipe for Oatmeal Cookies and was pleased with the result.  While normally I would just add a "variation" to the original recipe, I decided this is such a great option for a more healthy holiday cookie, I would give it its own post. If you want a truly awesome (holiday splurge) cookie, go for the Awesome Oatmeal Cookies with the cranberry (rather than raisin) option.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat together until creamy (I use food processor fitted with steel blade):

¾ c canola oil (or 1/2 c canola oil + 1/4 c orange juice)
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
½ c granulated sugar
1 egg (I usually use 1/4 c "egg product")
¼ c orange juice
Zest of one orange (optional)
1 t vanilla

Then add:

3 c oats, uncooked (traditional, not quick-cook)
1 c flour
½ t soda

Pulse mixer just to blend oats with other ingredients; don't pulverize the oats! Mix in by hand not with food processor:

2 c (8oz) cranberries, coarsley chopped
1/3 c nuts (I use walnuts/pecans), coarsley chopped

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto greased or non-stick cookie sheet. Bake ~15 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.

Reviewed 5/14/17
Revised 11/14/2024 changed olive oil to canola oil

Cookies and Brownies

The bakery project*

The evening was billed as:
"... a special lecture series discussing the basic science and history of your favorite recipes for cookies and brownies featuring Michael P. Brenner, Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and current Radcliffe Fellow.

What makes recipes different from each other? Where did recipes come from? You will learn about the recipe tetrahedron as well as the science and history that underlie it."

Sounded interesting.  It began with Professor Brenner presenting a quotation by Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin:

"The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star."

And then asking what we thought constituted a "new dish".    Ummm....  I've thought about this a lot. If I take a recipe from a cookbook and change the quantity of one or two ingredients even slightly, is that a "new dish"?  The evening's focus being on cookies and brownies, Brennan noted that the earliest recipe for cookies in the United States was probably in The First American Cookbook (1796):

The Boston Cooking School Cookbook

"Classic Cookies"

2 # flour
1 # sugar
4 oz butter
1 c water

The ratio of butter was probably low because butter was scarce and expensive. 

A sugar cookie recipe I found in the Sixth Edition of The Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Merritt Farmer (first edition published 1896, sixth edition, 1936) is richer: more butter, eggs and cream as well as baking powder (a mid nineteenth century invention). This recipe (photo above, left) also offers several "variations". My Grandmother's Cookbook (photo at left)  contains 3 sugar cookie recipes, one quite similar to The Boston Cooking School Cookbook, one quite different.  "New Dishes" or variations? (The third recipe must be a mistake as it contains sugar, shortening, an egg and milk but no flour.)  

An arguably "new dish" is the brownie.  According to Brenner's lecture, the first published recipe for a "brownie" (Fannie Merritt Farmer's of The Boston Cooking School) appeared in the 1896 edition of the Ladies Home Journal.  The recipe contained no chocolate, and a little more flour than sugar [1/3 c butter, 1/3 c powdered sugar, 1/3 c molasses, 1 egg, 7/8 c flour, 1 c pecans ].  In 1905 the Boston Globe carried a recipe for "Bangor Brownies".  This brownie contained chocolate and 2 times as much sugar as flour [1/2 c butter, 2 eggs, 1 c sugar, 2 squares chocolate, 1/2 c walnuts, 1/2 c flour]. The brownie recipe has been evolving ever since. My grandmother's recipe (at left), containing a higher ratio of flour to sugar (but still more sugar than flour) and  the addition of baking powder, is probably more cake-like than "Bangor Brownies".

The Joy of Cooking states: "Brownies may vary greatly in richness and contain anywhere from 1 1/2 cups of butter and 5 ounces of chocolate to 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 ounces of chocolate for every cup of flour.  If you want them chewy and moist, use a 9 x 13-inch pan, if cakey, use a 9 x 9 inch pan [for a 2c sugar : 1 cup flour recipe].**  Mark Bittman in How to Cook Everything writes: "Brownie and bar doughs are virtually identical to cookie dough (in fact you can take any drop cookie dough and bake it in brownie form). The major difference is that brownies and bars never become crisp (unless of course, you overcook them mightily).  If you like very soft brownies, remove them from the oven when the center first sets; a toothpick inserted into the middle will still bring a few crumbs out with it, although it will not actually be wet."***  While the lecture focused on ingredients, technique can also make a difference in the final product. When I checked out brownie recipes in my current favorite cookbooks I generally found a sugar : flour ratio of 2:1. The major exception being an incredibly rich recipe in The Silver Palate Cookbook.**** Though introduced as "Traditional American Brownies - what could be better?" This recipe is relatively heavy on butter and eggs and has a sugar to flour ratio of 1:0.25.  

My Grandmother appears to have added (different hand style from most other recipes) another brownie recipe which calls for Wesson [vegetable] oil instead of butter and a sugar to flour ratio of 1:1. I suspect this recipe was added during World War 2 when butter and sugar were rationed.  On occasion, recipes are adapted due to ingredient availability and sometimes to make them healthier (Orange Poppy Seed Olive Oil Cake with 3 T olive oil to 1 cup flour vs Orange Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with 4 T butter to 1 cup flour).  In some cases ratios change, in others they remain constant.

The bakery project*

How does one sort out all of these recipe variations?  Enter the Recipe Tetrahedron, the discussion of which comprised the bulk of the lecture.  The tetrahedron depicts 4 ingredient dimensions: flour (F), sugar (S), egg (E), and liquid (L) Over 1,000 recipes from http://allrecipes.com/ were placed in a data base and analyzed to determine ratios of these 4 key ingredients. The recipes were from 8 groups including brownies and sugar cookies and each group given a different color (see key at left). Each recipe was then mapped as a point on each face of the tetrahedron with each "face" showing the ratio of three of four main ingredients.

The bakery project*

Loaves clustered near the flour vertex (some bread having no ingredients other than flour, water and yeast), moving toward the sugar vertex one finds a "cloud" of cookie recipes, then even more toward sugar a "cloud" of brownie recipes.  While some define brownies by the pan they are cooked in, Brenner proposes that it is the high sugar to flour ratio that defines brownies. Finally, the pancakes and crepes cluster in clouds with a higher ratio of eggs and liquids.  While many of a similar type recipe are clustered and can can contained in a "cloud", there are outliers in every category. The Boston Globe article about the Recipe Tetrahedron observes "Recipes are varied, tested, and refined over the years, and the most beloved succeed in large part because they've hit on the right ratios."  The Recipe Tetrahedron is all about ratios.

As part of the program, we sampled cookies that the students had made using different ratios of ingredients.  The ones high in sugar were obviously sweeter but had a fragile, crumbly structure, the ones with a higher flour ratio, not as sweet and with a harder denser texture, and the ones with a higher egg ratio, limper and wetter - almost like a crepe.  Ratios do make a difference, and the results will be further from "traditional" as one pushes the boundaries of or leaves the "cloud".

For some of the "science" covered in the lecture see the "Cookie Ingredients and Textures" section of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking.  The preface to this section states: "Most cookies [McGee includes drop, cut-out, hand-shaped, bar (as in brownie) and icebox cookies] are both sweet and rich, with substantial proportions of sugar and fat. They're also tender, thanks to ingredients, proportions, and mixing techniques that minimize the formation of a gluten network. But they may be moist or dry, crumbly or flaky or crisp or chewey.  The diversity of textures arises from a handful of ingredients, and from the proportions and methods of cooking them."***** A concise description of the role of flour, sugar, eggs, fat and leavening in producing a cookie then follows.

Although only major  ingredients are reflected on the tetrahedron, the data base compiled for this study contains 60 separate ingredients for brownies alone. And broccoli was not included.  Yes, there are recipes on line for "Broccoli Brownies" but given their lower sugar ratio and other ingredients they would fall more in the cake "cloud". A "new dish"?

So what did this all teach me?   Well... one can probably change the proportions of one or more ingredients or add or subtract ingredients and own the recipe. Since changing the proportions changes the results, particularly in the type of recipes discussed on this post, the recipe/brownie I prefer may not be your favorite version.  Consequently, when I post a recipe derived from another recipe, I will continue to note changes I have made. While I prefer my adjustments you may prefer the original.

*  Photo taken of material found on (and assembled from) The Bakery Project website (no longer available)

**  The Joy of Cooking, page 653,  (1964 edition) 

***  How to Cook Everything, page 717 (first edition, 1998)

****  The Silver Palate Cookbook, page 260 (1982 edition)
***** On Food and Cooking, page 568-568

Reviewed 2/22/2017

Polly’s Brown Lace Cookies

This recipe comes from an Aspen friend of Ja and Moogie’s. They are decadent but delicious. I usually make them around Christmas.

Blend in Cuisinart fitted with a steel blade:

2 c brown sugar
½ stick butter
2 eggs
½ c flour
1 t vanilla

Then add, stirring in by hand:

2 c medium chopped pecans

Chill for one hour or overnight.

Rolldough  into 1” balls [I make them about half that size as they are easier to remove from the pan after cooking - see below]

Put balls on a greased and floured cookie sheet.

Cook at 375 degrees F [Moogie notes 350 degree preference] 7-8 minutes.

Cool 2-3 minutes in pan before removing. [These can be a bit difficult to remove in one piece. I find it helps a bit if I put the pan outside in the winter cold (or in the freezer) for about a minute and then remove.]

Reviewed 5/14/17

Mom’s Lunch Box Cookies

This is a recipe from Moogie. Our crew prefers the straight Oatmeal Cookies but this is a good recipe if you have ripe bananas on hand.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together:

1½ c flour
1 c sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt [I omit]
¼ t ground nutmeg
¾ t cinnamon

Cream:

¾ c shortening (part butter) [1/2 olive oil + 1/4 c orange juice or milk]
1 egg, well beaten [1/4 c "egg product"]
3 medium bananas, mashed fine

Combine sifted ingredients with creamed ingredients and add:

1 3/4 c oatmeal [Mom's recipe calls for “Quick Quaker Oats, but I think the regular oatmeal that I use works just as well]

½ c chopped dates
½ c chopped nuts

Mix until well blended.

Drop 2 inches apart on non-stick or well-greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.

Reviewed 5/14/17

Date and Nut Bars

This is another recipe from my Grandmother Hope, copied exactly as she wrote it out in script with a fountain pen in her cloth-bound recipe book. Bracketed comments are mine. She seldom gave directions. I cream the eggs, sugar and butter then combine with the dry ingredients, dates (rolled in a bit of the flour) and nuts. While she rolled the bars in confectioner's sugar, I use a shaker and sprinkle the sugar over the top right after removing pan from the oven.

January 2012:  I made this recipe for the first time in years this past Christmas.  When I went to get the 7" x 11" pan I remembered taking it to the transfer station a few years ago when I was purging my cabinets of decrepit aluminum. Ummm... so used the 8" x 8" glass pan and cooked for 30 minutes, until a small skewer inserted in the middle came out clean.  Not enough (think nuts near the top cleaned the skewer). The middle area was not fully cooked. Ed liked them anyway, so I tried them again this week and cooked for 35 minutes. Again, they appeared cooked but a small area in the very middle was a bit soggy.  The bars cut well, however, and seemed to have a pretty good texture after cooling on the rack.


“2 eggs [or 1/2 c"egg product"]
1 cup sugar
butter 'size of walnut’ [I uses 1 1/2 T]
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
salt [I omit]
½ tsp cinnamon
vanilla [I use 1 t]
1 cup dates, cut fine
½ cup nuts [chopped]
[Confectioner sugar]


Bake in pan 7” x 11” at about 325 degrees for 20 –25 minutes. Cut as soon as out of oven. Pieces while warm may be rolled in conf. sugar.”





Reviewed 5/14/17

Oatmeal Cookies

As a family, these are one of our favorite cookies. Because they are “a favorite” I used to make them for school trips and was surprised on occasion when quite a bit of the batch came home. I always attributed that to not enough sugar and butter, but lately it occurred to me, perhaps Alex/Topher saved a stash for themselves. These day the coveted oatmeal cookie would be Chris's Awesome Oatmeal Cookies.






Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Beat together until creamy (I use food processor fitted with steel blade):

¾ c canola oil (or 3/4 olive oil or 1/2 c olive oil + 1/4 orange juice or milk0
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
½ c granulated sugar
1 egg (or 1/4 c "egg product")
¼ c water
1 t vanilla

Then add:

3 c oats, uncooked (traditional, not quick-cook)
1 c flour
½ t soda

Pulse mixer just to blend oats with other ingredients; don't pulverize the oats! Mix in any/all of the following - I usually use all three and mix by hand not with food processor:

½ c raisins
½ c chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet)
½ c nuts (I usually use pecans)

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto greased or non-stick cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.

VARIATION: Cranberry-Orange Oatmeal Cookies

Reviewed 5/15/17

Hermits

This recipe comes from my Grandmother Hope; for more details on her cookies see: Molasses Cookies/Ginger Snaps

This recipe has been edited by my Mom. For my Grandmother's "original" recipe which I recently discovered see below:

"¾ c shortening [I substitute canola oil]
1 c granulated sugar
1 egg [or 1/4 c "egg product"]
¼ c molasses
2 t soda
¼ t salt [I omit]
2 ¼ sifted flour
1 t cinnamon
¾ t ginger
¾ t [ground] cloves
1 package chopped dates OR ½ c raisins

Mix shortening, sugar, egg and molasses thoroughly. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Press evenly over an ungreased 11” x 17” jelly roll pan. Sprinkle some sugar over the cookie dough. Bake for almost 9 minutes at 375 degrees F. Cracks in the cookies will remain yellow and appear uncooked but remove the cookies from the oven anyway. Cool, cut into bars. These are good."

HOPE'S HERMITS

"2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c shortening
1 t soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t [ground] clove
1/2 t nutmeg
1 T cold water
Salt
Raisins
Flour to roll - about 2 1/2 cups"

My Grandmother often did not give directions beyond the ingredients. Follow directions in recipe above. This is a very "sweet" recipe. I prefer Mom's revised version.

Reviewed 5/14/17

Molasses Cookies/Ginger Snaps

Christmas Cookies on Hope's China

When I was growing up in NH my grandfather, "Gaga", lived right down the street from us. My grandmother Hope died when I was very young and Gaga had a housekeeper named Mrs. Dessert (honest!). Mrs. Dessert made the best cookies and kept the two cookie jars on the kitchen counter perpetually full of cookies, molasses on the left and Hermits on the right… or were the molasses on the right? My brother now has one of the cookie jars and we have the cabinet (the house was torn down to make way for Interstate 89) that hung above the cookie jars. Refurbished, it stores dishes in our dining room . This recipe for Ginger Snaps is attributed to Aunt Lou, Hope’s sister-in-law.

"Bring to a scald [I now use microwave]

1 c dark molasses

And stir in

1 t baking soda

[This is a fun part if making with children - they add the baking soda and it's almost like the "vocano exercise"!]


Pour while foaming over:

1 c sugar
1 egg
½ T [1 1/2 t] ginger
½ T cinnamon

Then add
1 T vinegar
Flour to roll quite stiff [about 3 cups]

[ I mix in food processor fitted with a metal blade until dough forms a stiff ball]

[I divide dough into three balls and place one on floured board to roll-out with rolling pin. Note all of the dough can be rollled at once or some can be saved in refrigerator/freezer for later use] Do not roll thin, cut in squares and bake."

These are the cookies I remember cut in ~2 ½” squares. I used this same recipe with Alexandra and Christopher and we did roll the dough thin and used cookie cutters: angels and stars for Christmas, owls and crescent moons for Halloween, pigs any time of the year. We also made gingermen and women using currents for eyes and buttons and making a "smile" with a small measuring spoon before putting cookies in the oven.

Bake at 425 degrees F (on oiled or non-stick cookie sheet) about 7 minutes for thin cookies, 8-10 minutes for thicker cookies or "squares".



Reviewed 5/14/17

Mexican Chocolate Meringues

I believe this recipe comes from a  Cooking Light magazine.   I cannot date the magazine but I have been making these cookies, particularly around Christmas, for well over ten years.  A favoorite holiday dessert is this cookie paired with an orange or clementine and, more recently also and an Almond Macaroon (photo below). BUT this is one of the trickiest recipes in my repertoire. Before making, see notes at the end of the recipe. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake:

1cup slivered almonds

stirring occasionally for 5-10 minutes until lightly toasted.

Beat on low speed until frothy then whip on high speed until firm but still moist peaks form. DO NOT OVERBEAT!**

4 large egg whites
1 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
1/4 t cream of tartar

Gradually add:

1/3 c sugar

Sift and then fold into the whipped egg white mixture:

2/3 c sugar
5 T Dutch-process cocoa powder* 
3 T cornstarch
1 1/2 t cinnamon

Then add and fold in:

1/2 cup of the toasted slivered almonds***


Drop meringues onto wax paper on a cookie sheet. REDUCE oven heat to 200 degrees F; bake one hour or until meringues sound hollow when tapped on bottom [I often cook 1 1/2 hours]. Turn off oven and let meringues sit an additional hour in the warm oven.

Dip cool meringues in melted
bittersweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 ounces) [I use 365 Dark Chocolate Baking Chunks]
then toasted almonds.

Cool cookies with chocolate/nuts on top.

* I have been using (and still use) Ghiradelli Natural Unsweetened Cocoa, but recently discovered that there is a difference between this and "Dutched" or alkalized cocoa. This dutching process raises the pH to a neutral 7 or alkaline 8 versus that of cocoa which is distinctly acid with a pH around 5. "The result is a cocoa powder with a milder flavor and darker color." This discussion in more detail can be found in Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking pages 705-706.

** December 2021 I learned not to overbeat the hard way. I beat until stiff dry peaks formed. The mixture was too stiff to accept the cocoa and sugar I tried to fold in and resulted in a watery mix (like the last cookie or two in a normal batch). In On Food and Cooking Harold McGee explains the reason, "Glossy Soft Peaks and Stiff Peaks  At the "soft peak" stage, when glossy foam edges retain some shape but droop, and when the foam doesn't yet cling to the bowl, the somewhat coarse bubbles are still lubricated by plenty of liquid, which would quickly drain to the bottom of the bowl. At the 'stiff peak' stage where the foam is still glossy but now retains a well-defined edge and clings to the bowl, the foam is approaching 90% air, and the egg liquid has spread so thin that the protein webs in the adjacent bubble walls begin to catch on each other and the bowl surface. There's just enough lubrication left for the foam to be creamy and easily mixed with other ingredients." (page 106).

December 2024 Subsequently, I have beaten less but perhaps this year (photo left) not enough. The cookies were not as puffy as some years (and there was a fair amount of runny batter in the bottom of the mixing bowl. I've yet - in all these years - had a batch where all the cookies held a nice shape but there were more "flat" ones than usual. The flat ones were still tasty broken up and topped with ice cream then drizzeled chocolate and/or sliced toasted almonds.

*** TIME SAVERS My food processor slicing blades either slice the almonds too thin and leave a lot of almond dust or don't slice them enough leaving almost whole almonds. This year I put the almonds in a bag and pounded them with an ice cream scoop (could also use a wooden mallet) until they were the desired size. Worked well (see photo directly above) and no clean up! Also (different bag than photo) I used roasted and unsalted almonds so I could skip the toasting process.

Reviewed 5/14/17

Revised 1/21/24

Revised 12/29/22 Photo and notes

Revised 1/5/2025 Photo of cookies

Revised 1/18/2025 Photo and Time Savers note