This is my final cookie in the Saveur Cookies We Love event, a spiced molded cookie from the Netherlands. Molded cookies are common in Europe and the tradition is often passed down through families along with the old wooden cookie molds. If you are fortunate you may even have an heirloom mold that’s been in your family for years. My family doesn’t have that tradition so when I chose these cookies I needed to find a mold or two.

First I found some Wilton metal cookie molds at a brick and mortar store, and I chose one with gingerbread houses because I thought the boys would like those shapes, but I continued searching for a good wooden mold. My search led me to Gene Wilson, a retired biology teacher in Illinois who makes gorgeous traditional cookie molds out of cherry and beech wood. He doesn’t use patterns; each mold is started from scratch, and though he makes several of each style they are all unique. I spent a lot of time searching through his extensive catalog of molds trying to select the mold that would make our cookies this year. I finally decided on the dual gingerbread kids board, though I also had my eye on the nutcracker and a few others. After placing the order I received the mold about a week later, and Gene included a booklet about making molded cookies. I also purchased a copy of a book he recommends, Baking with Cookie Molds by Anne L. Watson, which thoroughly covers the history of baking molds as well as recipes and helpful tips.

After my first attempt at the cookies didn’t exactly turn out stellar, I tried again and got a better result. Through reading some of the recipes in Watson’s book, I learned to chill the cookies a bit before baking and that cookies will release much better from the molds if you use honey rather than sugar, and honey is more authentic anyway. The flavor of the Saveur speculaas cookies is very good, like a mild gingerbread, and my boys enjoyed helping to make the cookies. I taught Monkey Boy how to flatten a small piece of dough into a disk then press it into the gingerbread house pan. He got the hang of it and set off to make his own hand shaped abstract cookies. He was quite proud of himself.

I think these cookies, or some form of them, will become a family favorite because of the shapes, the flavor, and the process. The boys were very excited to see the cookies coming out of the oven and couldn’t wait to dive in.

GIVEAWAY

The gingerbread mold I purchased form Gene Wilson is gorgeous, carved from a piece of cherry with a beautiful grain and color. I think he does fantastic work. In celebration of the holidays and because I like these so much, I’m giving away one of his cookie molds, the medium Nutcracker (above), and a copy of Watson’s book to one lucky reader. To enter simply leave a comment below and tell us about your favorite Christmas or other holiday cookies, and if you’ve made molded cookies we’d love to hear about them.

Rules

1. Giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada. One entry per person, please.
2. The giveaway closes at 10:00 pm EST on December 24, 2010. Random.org will select the winner and I will contact the winner immediately. The winner must respond with 48 hours and provide a mailing address for shipping purposes. If the winner does not respond within that timeframe another winner will be selected.
3. I will announce the winner in this post once it’s official.

Disclosure: I’m am sponsoring this giveaway myself and paying for the prizes. I was not solicited by anyone to offer this giveaway.

The giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! Congratulations to amy for winning the cookie mold and book!

And finally, thanks to all my cooking baking friends, especially to Courtney for getting us organized, and to Claire for making our logo. I look forward to baking with you all again next year!

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Michelle of Big Black Dogs

RJ of Flamingo Musings

Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench

Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Courtney of Coco Cooks

(Print this recipe)

SPECULAAS (MOLDED GINGER COOKIES)

Adapted from Saveur.

Makes about 24 cookies. Yield may vary depending on type of molds used.

Equipment

medium mixing bowl
stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer with large bowl
plastic wrap
cookie molds
baking pans lined with parchment paper
wire cooling racks

Ingredients

3 cups (360 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
12 tablespoons (170 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed (110 g) light brown sugar
1/3 (80 ml) cup milk

Preparation

1. In the medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, ginger, cloves, baking soda, salt, and white pepper. In the bowl of the stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Add half the flour mixture and mix, then add the milk and remaining flour mixture and mix. Divide the dough and shape it into 2 disks and wrap each in plastic. Chill, covered, for up to 2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.

3. Working with 1 disk at a time, break off small chunks of dough and press into a floured cookie mold. The dough should fill the mold area and there might be a little sticking up the mold, which is ok, just press lightly against a flat surface to smooth it. Tap the long edge of the mold on the counter to loosen the cookies. Transfer the shape dough pieces to the prepared baking sheets, spacing the pieces 2 inches apart. Chill cookies on the pans in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 16–18 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking pan for a couple minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in tightly covered tins.

The Rest of the Saveur Cookies We Love

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

As soon as Thanksgiving is over we start decorating for Christmas and baking cookies. For us Black Friday is more about decorating and baking than shopping as we’ve often finished our Christmas shopping by then. This year we had family visiting so the decorating and baking was put off, but we are catching up.

Two years ago a few baking bloggers got together to celebrate Christmas cookies by baking our way through a selection of Gourmet magazine’s favorite cookies from the last 40 years, and we repeated the event last year though my schedule didn’t permit me to participate. We’re back again and this time baking some of Saveur’s favorite international cookies. We have each chosen four cookies to bake, one for each week between now and Christmas and we hope you enjoy the cookies along with us.

For my first cookie, I was immediately drawn to the Basler Brunsli, a chocolate and almond cookie from Switzerland. These are made with finely ground almonds rather than wheat flour and are gluten free. I opted to use almond meal from Trader Joe’s rather than grinding the almonds, and it worked very well, I just weighed out 8 ounces of almond meal. The cookies are spiced with cinnamon and cloves, which I ground just before adding to the dough, and the baking aroma is fantastic. The cloves really stand out in the cookies, so if cloves aren’t your thing you may want to reduce the amount slightly. I found that dividing the dough in half and rolling half at a time made it much easier to work with.

The boys helped cut the shapes, and we used practically every cutter in the kitchen. Monkey Boy even grabbed the pumpkin cutter and made a rather large cookie that he kept all to himself, but he had competition for the snowmen.

Make sure you check out the other bakers to see what’s in their ovens for Christmas.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen (Thanks for making the logo!)

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Michelle of Big Black Dogs

RJ of Flamingo Musings

Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench

Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Courtney of Coco Cooks

(Print this recipe)

BASLER BRUNSLI COOKIES

Adapted from Saveur.

Makes about 48 cookies.

Equipment

food processor with a large bowl, at least 5 cups
5 to 6 pieces parchment paper
4 baking sheets
rolling pin
star shape cutter (and other cutters as desired)

Ingredients

8 ounces (227 g) almond meal (or whole blanched almonds, finely ground)
1-1/2 cups (263 g) sugar, plus more for rolling
6 ounces (170 g) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Preparation

1. In the bowl of the food processor, mix together the almond meal and sugar. Add the chopped chocolate and process until finely ground. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and egg whites, and pulse to make a dough.

2. Sprinkle the extra sugar over a sheet of parchment. Divide the dough in half and lay one half on top of the parchment. Lay another piece of parchment over the dough and roll it out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut the cookies with the cutter and lay on parchment-lined baking sheets, arranging them 1 inch apart. Reroll the remaining dough and continue it’s all used. Allow the cookies to stand and dry for about 3 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 300° F/150° C.

4. Bake the cookies until they are slightly puffed, about 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool completely and store in a tin.

More Christmas Cookies

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

Making gingerbread houses is a father-son event in our home, with the boys crowded around the table as Michael assembles the house, a task that is not always easy. Some years the walls fall over and we’ve even resorted to using a glue gun to make the walls stand up. Each boy has a mini muffin tin filled with little candies in each cup that they put on the house. Some years the boys cooperate and the effort is pretty organized, but certainly not every year. Someone usually bumps into the house or spills the candy decorations or sticks their fingers where they don’t belong, but in the end that’s all part of the fun. In the past we purchased gingerbread house kits because the boys were very young and we wanted to simplify things a bit, and we weren’t planning to eat it anyway. We figured making our own parts from scratch would come as the boys got a little older.

Last year as we began talking about the annual gingerbread house, we stumbled across a Wilton kit for a gingerbread Christmas tree. After looking it over we thought this would be fun and different. (And if your children are very young, this is an easier project than a house because of the walls-falling thing.) After buying the kit I came across the Wilton Christmas tree cookie cutters on Amazon and immediately ordered them. (Also check your local K-Mart, Michael’s, A.C. Moore, and Jo-Ann’s Fabrics.) Even if we didn’t use them right away we thought they would be useful in coming years.

As it turns out, we were so excited by the prospect of having the cookie cutters that we made three trees: the tree from the kit, a homemade gingerbread tree, and a homemade rice crispy treat tree. We went a little overboard but had a lot of fun doing it. With the cutters you can use whatever kind of cookie you like for the tree. The box comes with a few photos of trees to get your creative juices flowing.

We made a shortened version of the gingerbread tree to save time, so we only made one of each size star, but to get a tall tree you need to make two of each, for 20 stars altogether. The rice crispy treat tree pieces were thicker than the gingerbread pieces, so we chose to make one of each star plus one extra tiny star for the top and still got a nice tall tree.

Of the two homemade trees, the gingerbread tree held up better. If you plan to eat the rice crispy treat tree, you really need to do it on the day it’s made because the pieces dry out quickly. Because we didn’t use any royal icing on this tree, we drove half a chopstick through the middle of the large stars to hold it together.

We use royal icing to decorate because it hardens and stays in place, and it also makes good glue to hold the tree pieces together. The recipe makes a large amount, but you can use the extra for decorating other Christmas cookies (Moravian Christmas Trees, Gingerbread Men) or make a recipe-and-a-half, using half for each color (green, yellow, white). Just remember you need enough for the glue, as well.

We’re sharing our gingerbread Christmas tree with Susan of Food Blogga for her annual festive Christmas cookie event. Each year she gathers links to many beautiful and delicious Christmas cookies from around the world, so you’ll have plenty to choose from. And thank you, Susan, for keeping this fun event going for the past three years.

GINGERBREAD CHRISTMAS TREE

Makes one 8-inch x 11-inch tree.

Equipment

See Equipment list for gingerbread men cookies.
Wilton Christmas tree cookie cutters
10-inch cake round, covered with aluminum foil or food safe decorative paper
stand mixer with paddle attachment
decorating tips and plastic bags (2 #16 star, 1 round)

Ingredients

1 recipe gingerbread men dough for 10 stars or 2 recipes for 20 stars (If you have extra you can decorate the extra cookies for the cookie tray.)

ROYAL ICING
16 ounces (454 g) confectioners sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons powdered egg whites  (Check the baking aisle at your grocery store.)
1/3 cup (80 ml) cold water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
green food coloring
yellow food coloring

DECORATIONS
cinnamon imperials (not the heart-shaped)
Jujubes
other as desired

Preparation

1. Prepare one or two batches of gingerbread dough and cut and bake 20 star cookies, 2 of each size, according to the recipe. Allow the cookies to cool completely. (TIP: Make a day or two ahead to spread the project out a bit and save time on assembly day.)

2. ROYAL ICING: In the bowl of the stand mixer, add the sifted confectioners sugar and the egg white powder, stirring to mix.

3. In a measuring cup, stir together the water, lemon juice, and vanilla. (If you want to color the icing, add some liquid coloring at this point. Reduce the amount of water slightly to compensate for the extra liquid.) Pour the mixture into the sugar and mix on low until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, about 1 minute.

4. Increase mixer speed to high and whip for 3 minutes until the icing has stiff peaks. (Repeat for each color you need.)

3. Prepare three piping bags, two with #16 star tips and 1 with a round tip. Fill each with one color.

5. Pipe a blob of icing (any color) in the middle of the foil covered cake round. Place the largest gingerbread star on top of the blob and gently press. Continue adding blobs of icing and stacking the stars, going from the largest to the smallest. Rotate the stars a little as you go so the points don’t overlap.

6. For the top star, pipe some yellow icing on it and add a cinnamon imperial if you wish, then stand it up on a blob of icing on top.

7. Begin piping the green tufts all over the tree. We pipe two or three tufts on each branch, er star point.

8. Pipe white tufts for the snow. We kind of spread those all around.

9. Add Jujubes or cinnamon imperials for the decorations. If the icing has started drying already, you may need to put a dab of wet icing on the bottom of each to make them stick.

14. Allow the tree to rest uncovered for an hour or so to make sure the icing hardens and becomes stiff. And if you have little boys who like to swipe pieces like mine do, you may need to hide the finished tree until Christmas Day.

More Christmas Cookies

More Gingerbread From Around the Blogs

Baking Bites – Gingerbread Men

Elana’s Pantry – Gluten-Free Gingerbread

Kitchen Parade – Chocolate Gingerbread

Enlightened Cooking – Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cookies

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

Last year a small group of bakers joined together to do a The 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza using recipes from a Gourmet magazine feature of their favorite cookies from 1941 to 2008. This year a few more people have joined us and today is the first day of 12 Days of Cookies 2009. Each baker chooses 12 cookies to make but doesn’t tell anyone else what they chose, so it’s a fun little surprise for us to see what everyone else made. Due to family obligations I cannot participate on all 12 days this year but I wanted to join in for at least one day and try some of the cookies, and if I can sneak it in I might be able to do one or two more hopefully.

This year the cookies all come from a Bon Appétit feature about holiday cookies that had us ooing and aahing. While several of the cookies caught my eye, these simple snowball butter cookies with toasted coconut and orange zest were my biggest temptation. They are very simple to make, just toast the coconut, mix the ingredients, chill the dough, roll into balls, and bake. I baked them after the boys had gone to bed so they were surprised to find them in the kitchen the next morning. Top Gun repeatedly asked me about those cookies; he just couldn’t stand to wait until after school.

The flavors seem to balance each other pretty well, though I don’t notice the orange as much as the coconut. These could easily become dry, so I stopped them one minute short of full baking time, and the texture was slightly crumbly, just right. Michael dove into them after dinner and kept eating them while saying, “Wow.” We would definitely make these again.

Be sure to visit all the members of the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Bon Appétit website to see all the cookie recipes.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Sandy of The Baker’s Bench

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen (Thanks for making our logo!)

Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook

Michelle of Big Black Dog

RJ of Flamingo Musings

Tiffany of The Nesting Project

COCONUT-ORANGE SNOWBALLS

Adapted from Bon Appétit, December 2003.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Equipment

2 large baking sheets
parchment paper
stand mixer with paddle attachment (or hand mixer and large bowl)
wire cooling rack

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups (111 g) sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup (2 sticks/226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2-1/4 cups (293 g) sifted powdered sugar, divided (sifted, then measured)
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
2-1/4 cups (270 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F/175° C. Toast the coconut on a rimmed baking sheet until light golden, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 12 minutes.

2. In the bowl of the stand mixer beat the butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and both extracts to blend well. Beat in flour, orange peel, and salt. Stir in toasted coconut. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Soften dough slightly before shaping.

3. Preheat oven to 350° F/175° C. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Using 1 level tablespoon dough for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into balls. Place on prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until golden on bottom but pale on top, about 16 to 18 minutes. The trick is to make sure they don’t dry out, so don’t let them overcook. Transfer cookies to racks and cool 5 minutes.

5. Place remaining 1-3/4 cups powdered sugar in a bowl. Roll hot cookies in powdered sugar, covering completely. Cool cookies on rack. Roll cookies in powdered sugar again, coating generously. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

More Christmas Cookies

See all the cookies from The 12 Days of Cookies.

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

When I made pizzelles for the first time last Christmas, Michael immediately suggested I come up with a chocolate version. We really liked the krumkake recipe we tried from Gourmet this year, so I decided to base my chocolate pizzelles on that recipe. The orange zest is optional and adds a nice hint of citrus with the chocolate.

The cookies are easy to make but do require a pizzelle maker. They can be served flat or rolled into a cone or tube shape, and both the rolled shapes just beg to be filled with some kind of cream or marscapone filling. Michael was delighted to come home and find these all ready for him to sample, and Top Gun couldn’t keep his fingers away. We think these crispy chocolate cookies are addictive.

I missed the deadline, but Susan of Food Blogga is celebrating her Christmas Cookies event. Susan has a big round-up of favorite Christmas cookies from around the world, so be sure to check it out.

[Updated December 1, 2009.]

CHOCOLATE PIZZELLES

Inspired by Gourmet.

Makes about 25 cookies.

Equipment

stand mixer with paddle attachment (or hand mixer and mixing bowl)
pizzelle maker

Ingredients

1/2 cup (175 g) granulated sugar
zest of one orange (optional)
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup (60 mil) cold water
1/2 cup (1 stick/113 g) butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup (120 g) sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder

Preparation

1. Warm the pizzelle maker while you mix the ingredients.

2. In the small bowl, work the orange zest into the sugar with your fingers. (optional

3. In the bowl of the stand mixer (or bowl with hand mixer) beat the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is light.

3. Add the cold water, cooled butter, and vanilla. Whisk together the flour and cocoa powder, making sure there are no lumps, then add to the wet mixture. Mix on low until the batter is smooth and the chocolate color is even throughout.

4. Pour 1 tablespoon of the batter for each cookie onto the heated pizzelle maker and close the top. Cook according to the manufacturer’s directions, usually 30-60 seconds. Gently lift with a fork or silicone spatula and transfer to a wire rack. Store in a tin, not airtight, away from other cookies. They need some exposure to air to stay crispy.

More Cookies

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

Day 12, the final day of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I have had a ball making all of these. A few late nights, to be sure, but it’s been a wonderful experiment forcing myself to tackle a dozen new things for 12 days in a row. And it was even more fun because I had some great company along the way. Kelly, Courtney, Judy, Sandy, Claire, and Jerry, thanks for joining me and for keeping your spirits up even when we hit a few stumbling blocks with some of these cookies! To the folks at Gourmet, thanks for putting up your favorite cookies feature and inspiring us to tackle this project.

Now for the 12th and final cookie, thin Moravian Christmas Cookies (1946). They are supposed to be white but we decided to make Christmas trees out of them. I had chosen another cookie for the finale, but as my time for Drop In and Decorate neared, I decided to combine 12 Days of Cookies and give away the cookies to some families that would enjoy them. Our moms group adopted 17 families this season, and several of us decided to decorate cookies for Drop In & Decorate and share the cookies with the adopted families. We made the Moravians and our family ginger bread cookies. Several moms and our kids planned to get together at Chateau Meyers this afternoon and decorate as many cookies as we could in 90 minutes, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. Even though some members of our crew were sick, we managed to decorate well over 100 cookies and then Michael and I finished the rest.

The children, ages 2 through 10, had a great time and enjoyed putting their own creative twist on the cookies.

These Moravian cookies have to be one of my favorite cutout cookies ever. We had a bottle of dry Spanish sherry, though not as fancy and nice as Kelly’s, and added some of it to the dough. We didn’t taste the sherry, just a richer fuller flavor in the cookies that was so worth it. The dry seemed to balance the sweetness, which helps with all that sweet royal icing on top. The cookies are rolled very thin between sheets of plastic and require some gymnastics with flipping the whole round of cut rolled dough onto parchment then peeling back the extra dough, but trust me it’s so much easier than trying to nudge these loose from the plastic and transfer without breaking or sticking. The dough is soft and delicate and easy to work with and tasted good uncooked, too, a bonus for cleaning the bowl.

Be sure to visit all our friends in the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Gourmet website to see all their favorite cookies from 1941-2008. You can find all of the cookies I chose for this marathon in the sidebar. Thanks again to all of the bakers who joined me. You made it even more fun than I expected. Happy Holidays!

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Sandy of The Bakers Bench

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Jerry of Cooking by the Seat of My Pants

MORAVIAN CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Adapted from Gourmet.

Equipment

stand mixer with paddle attachment (or hand mixer and large mixing bowl)
plastic wrap
cookie cutters
parchment paper
baking sheets
piping bags (or quart freezer bags)
couplers
decorating tips (We used #16.)

Ingredients

COOKIES
2 sticks (226 g) unsalted butter, cold
2 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
3 cups (360 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons good dry sherry
more flour, 1-2 cups (120-240 g)

ROYAL ICING
16 ounces (454 g) confectioners sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons powdered egg whites
1/3 cup (80 mil) cold water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. COOKIES: In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream the butter, adding the sugar gradually. Cream the mixture until it is light.

2. Add the beaten eggs and beat the mixture thoroughly at medium speed.

3. Sift 3 cups of flour with the salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and add it alternating with the sherry. The mixture will be very wet.

4. Add more flour, 1 to 2 cups, to stiffen the dough, though it should not be very stiff, just enough to roll it out and hold its shape.

5. Divide the dough into four pieces and press into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill for several hours.

6. Preheat the oven to 450° F/230° C.

7. Between sheets of plastic wrap, roll the chilled dough very thin, about 1/16 – 1/8 inch (~1.5 – 3 mm) and cut it out with cookie cutters in star, diamond, or heart shapes.

8. Keep the dough on the plastic wrap and lay a piece of parchment on top of it, gently pressing onto the cut dough. Flip it over onto the baking pan, leaving the plastic on top. Chill the dough for about 5 minutes or more depending on the temperature of your home and how soft the dough is. If it’s too soft, you might have difficulty peeling away the excess dough.

9. Once it has chilled, carefully peel away the plastic and dough trimmings leaving the cookies on the parchment.

10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 7 minutes, watching carefully to make sure the edges don’t burn. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on wire racks.

11. ROYAL ICING: In the bowl of the stand mixer, add the sifted confectioners sugar and the egg white powder, stirring to mix.

12. In a measuring cup, stir together the water, lemon juice, and vanilla. (If you want to color the icing, add some liquid coloring at this point. Reduce the amount of water slightly to compensate for the extra liquid.) Pour the mixture into the sugar and mix on low until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, about 1 minute.

13. Increase mixer speed to high and whip for 3 minutes until the icing has stiff peaks.

14. Spoon into prepared piping bags and decorate as desired. Allow the cookies to rest uncovered for an hour or so to make sure the icing hardens and becomes stiff. Wrap cookies individually for gifts.

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

Day 11 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I can’t believe it’s almost over. I had my eye on these mocha toffee bars because I adore chocolate and coffee together, and after making and enjoying them I’ve converted Michael as well. He even asked if we could add these to our annual Christmas cookie list along with the Cajun macaroons, so we have found a couple new favorites.

The cookies are straightforward and easy to make. The only trouble I ran into was baking time. My oven tends to run cool, plus my jelly roll pan doesn’t exactly heat evenly so the sides were done before the middle was even set. I ended up with crispy edges and chewy middle.

The coffee flavor is in the shortbread crust, and I simply use instant coffee and add a little extra coffee to the hot water. The original recipe calls for espresso powder, which isn’t always easy to find. The chocolate topping is simply melted semi-sweet chocolate chips poured right onto the hot shortbread, though I mixed dark and semi-sweet chips. The chopped cashews are roasted and salted, a nice contrast to the slightly dark chocolate topping.

Makes 48 cookies.

Be sure to visit all our friends in the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Gourmet website to see all their favorite cookies from 1941-2008.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Sandy of The Bakers Bench

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

More Holiday Goodies From This Blog

MOCHA TOFFEE BARS

Adapted from Gourmet.

Equipment

stand mixer with paddle attachment (or hand mixer and large bowl)
15-1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1 inch jelly-roll pan
large angled spatula (optional, but helpful for spreading the shortbread)

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup/226 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (110 g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder (or 4 tablespoons instant coffee), dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (240 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
8 ounces (227 g) semisweet chocolate chips (or half semisweet + half bittersweet), melted
3/4 cup (83 g) salted roasted cashews, chopped

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F/175° C.

2. In the bowl of the stand mixer cream the butter, then add the brown sugar and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy.

3. Beat in the yolk, then add the vanilla and the espresso mixture a little at a time, beating between additions. Continue to beat the mixture until it is combined well.

4. Add the salt and the flour, and beat the mixture until is combined well.

5. Spread the batter evenly in a jelly-roll pan, 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 by 1 inch, and bake it in the middle of a preheated 350° F. oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it pulls away slightly from the edge of the pan.

6. Spread the melted chocolate evenly over the baked layer and sprinkle the chopped cashews over it. Let the mixture cool in the pan on a rack, cut it into 48 bars, and chill it for 15 to 20 minutes or until the chocolate is firm.

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

Day 9 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I was craving biscotti, one of my very favorite cookies. These beauties combine cranberries and pistachios for a red and green festive look and taste. These are like traditional Italian biscotti which don’t use butter and they are not soft and crumbly. They are true dunkers, ready for your coffee, tea, or milk. If you want to feel Italian, try them with some Vin Santo or other dessert wine.

I started baking biscotti several years ago and fell in love with the cookies because of the wonderful crunch, the nutty flavor, and how easy they are. If you don’t have a stand mixer, they do require a strong arm to mix the dough to the proper consistency, and I would avoid a hand mixer unless you just want it for the very beginning of mixing the dry and liquid ingredients together. Once the dough starts forming, hand mixers start rebelling.

With all the fruit and nuts, this batch really takes some muscle to work it together and evenly distribute it all. The soaking step is important for dried cranberries because they tend to really dry out otherwise, though I would soak it in some other liquid next time, perhaps some wine. I thought some of the flavor of the cranberries was left in the water. Otherwise, we thoroughly enjoyed these and will add them to our Christmas rotation.

Makes about 36 biscotti.

Be sure to visit all our friends in the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Gourmet website to see all their favorite cookies from 1941-2008.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Sandy of The Bakers Bench

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

CRANBERRY PISTACHIO BISCOTTI

Adapted from Gourmet.

Equipment

small bowl
stand mixer with paddle attachment (or mixing bowl and wooden spoon)
baking sheet lined with parchment
wire rack (bonus points if it fits your baking sheet)

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups (about 1/4 pound) dried cranberries
hot water
2-1/2 cups (300 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (175 g) sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (4.5 ounces/128 g)shelled pistachio nuts
egg wash (1 large beaten egg + 1 teaspoon water)

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F/165° C.

2. Put the cranberries in the small bowl with enough hot tap water to cover and let them soak for 5 minutes. Drain the cranberries well and pat them dry with paper towels. The cranberry juice will stain so don’t use your best kitchen towels.

3. In the bowl of the stand mixer blend the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until the mixture is combined well.

4. Add the eggs and the vanilla, beating for about 5 minutes until a dough is formed. It will come together slowly, and look crumbly for the first few minutes.

5. Add the cranberries and pistachios and mix on low until they are distributed throughout the dough. You might need to hand mix it if your mixer seems to be straining.

6. Flour your hands. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead it several times, and halve it. Roll each piece of dough into a log 13 inches long and 2 inches wide, place the logs at least 3 inches apart on the lined sheet pan, and brush them with the egg wash.

7. Bake the logs in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes and let them cool on the baking sheet on a rack for 10 minutes. On a cutting board, cut the logs crosswise on the diagonal into 3/4-inch-thick slices, arrange the biscotti, cut sides down, on the baking sheet, and bake them in the 325° F. oven for 10 to 12 minutes on each side, or until they are pale golden. Transfer the biscotti to racks to cool and store them in airtight containers.

More Biscotti

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Day 8 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I decided to try something brand new. I felt fairly certain that I had not had kourambiedes before, though I’ve had many variations on the butter cookie, so gave these a go. The discussions on Gourmet regarding this recipe are quite lively, and it seems apparent that these are a beloved cookie and each Greek family probably has it’s own secret version.

After choosing these, I read the first instruction which says to cream the butter for an hour. Whoa! Good thing the instructions call for a stand mixer, because I’m not sure I’d want to stand in one spot moving a hand mixer around for an hour. In the end, I felt the butter had met the “almost white” criteria at 20 minutes and moved on with the rest. They are very easy to shape and work with. The original recipe doesn’t mention removing the cloves, but one commenter mentioned the necessity of that—try biting into a whole clove and see what you think—so I did it as soon as they were cool enough to handle.

We liked the cookies, which have subtle flavors and a slightly dry texture, though we felt they needed something. They aren’t overly sweet, a welcome break from the sticky sweetness of the bar cookies, but they needed another touch of flavor. One commenter mentioned that instead of rolling in powdered sugar, his grandmother drizzled orange juice over them as soon as they cooled, and we thought that was a grand idea but didn’t get a chance to implement.

Makes 48 cookies.

Be sure to visit all our friends in the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Gourmet website to see all their favorite cookies from 1941-2008.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Jerry of Cooking By the Seat of My Pants

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Sandy of The Bakers Bench

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

KOURAMBIEDES, GREEK BUTTER COOKIES

Adapted from Gourmet.

Equipment

stand mixer with paddle attachment
baking sheets

Ingredients

4 sticks (453 g) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (33 g) confectioners sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon orange liqueur or brandy
4-1/2 cups (540 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (3 ounces/85 g) finely ground blanched almonds
whole cloves, 1 for each cookie

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F/175° C.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the softened butter at low speed for 1 hour, or until it is almost white.

3. Add the confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, the egg yolk, and the orange-flavored liqueur and mix until combined.

4. Blend in the flour and almonds, 1/2 cup at a time, to form a soft dough. If the dough seems sticky, chill it, wrapped in wax paper, for 1 hour.

5. Form the dough into 1-1/2-inch balls and press 1 clove into each ball. Put the balls on baking sheets and bake them in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until they are pale golden. Transfer the cookies to a rack, let them cool for 2 minutes. Remove the cloves and dredge them in sifted confectioners’ sugar.

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.

Day 7 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and the cookie of the day is pecan treats from Cloudt’s in Atlanta. Pecan bars are a Southern delicacy, kind of like eating pecan pie on a shortbread crust, and these are absolutely to die for. Michael kept mumbling “wow” with a mouthful of pecan bar and we understand why they are so popular.

The next time I make these, and oh yes there will absolutely be a next time, I will substitute maple syrup for part of the honey just because maple and pecan is one of my favorite flavor combinations. Also I thought the instruction to use 1 large egg plus 2 additional tablespoons beaten egg was a bit fussy, especially since I don’t keep cartons of egg replacer on hand. In the end I just added a smidgen of oil to make up for the lost liquid and moved on.

Be sure to visit all our friends in the cookie clan to see what cookies they chose as well as the Gourmet website to see all their favorite cookies from 1941-2008.

The Rest of the Cookie Baking Clan

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Sandy of The Bakers Bench

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Jerry of Cooking By the Seat of My Pants

CLOUDT’S PECAN TREATS

Adapted from Gourmet.

Equipment

stand mixer with paddle attachment
15 1/2- by 10 1/2-inch jelly-roll pan
large heavy sauce pan

Ingredients

CRUST
1-1/2 (170 g) sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup (131 g) granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg + 2 tablespoons lightly beaten egg (I used canola oil instead of the extra egg.)
2-3/4 cups (330 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

PECAN TOPPING
1-1/3 cups (146 g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons/113 g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup (120 mil) honey
1/4 cup (60 mil) half & half
3-3/4 cups (14 ounces/397 g) pecans, chopped

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375° F/190° C.

2. CRUST: In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, and salt until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs.

3. Add the flour and stir the mixture until it is just blended.

4. Press the mixture evenly into the jelly-roll pan and bake it in the middle of the preheated for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it is lightly golden. Remove and allow to cool in the pan on a rack.

5. PECAN TOPPING: (Make while the crust bakes.) In the saucepan combine the brown sugar, butter pieces, honey, and half-and-half. Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate heat, stirring. Stir in the chopped pecans and let the mixture cool a little. If it cools for too long, it will be hard to spread.

6. Spread the cool pecan mixture evenly over the shortbread base and bake the dessert in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes, or until the top is bubbly. Let the dessert cool in the pan on a rack and cut it into pieces about 2 inches square. Makes about 35 pieces.

More From the 12 Days of Cookies

Thanks for subscribing to this blog! Copyright © 2005-2012 Andrea Meyers: making life delicious.