Pecan 'Shortbread' Cookies

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Whoa! I bet you didn't expect another post so soon. I didn't, but I did some baking so I thought I might as well tell you about it.

This past weekend my club hosted the Berlin Open Lacrosse Tournament and since I love it when I have an excuse to bake cookies (it feels slightly ridiculous baking four cookies just for myself, I would rather bake two dozen for a group of people), I made cookies on Saturday and Sunday. The first kind were orange essence and almond cookies which I might tell you about at a later point. I'll tell you about the second kind today because I liked them better.

Think super light shortbread studded with pecans.
Think Mexican wedding cookies that haven't been rolled in icing sugar.

And now imagine eating one of those cookies after a semi-late night (cos I'm old) and a 9am game. Those cookies seriously hit the spot.

What can I tell you about those cookies...they come together in a pinch and are as amazing with a cup of tea on a cold afternoon as they are being eaten outdoors with some stale soda water. Oh, and the dough keeps in the fridge for at least 4 days (I used up the remaining dough last night so I don't know whether it would have kept even longer).
Let's make some cookies, shall we?

Pecan 'Shortbread' Cookies
225g Butter, cold, cut into small pieces.
225g All-Purpose Flour
25g Starch (I used potato starch, cornflour or rice flour will work just as well)
30g Icing Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Salt
50g Pecans, toasted and broken into small pieces

75g Granulated Sugar (for rolling the cookies in, don't worry, you won't use all of it)

Cut the butter into the remaining six ingredients. Think shortcrust pastry. Work fast. You can also use the paddle attachment of a food processor. Either way, don't work the dough longer than until it is only just starting to come together. Do you remember the last time someone served you a really gross pie? Do you wanna be that person with the crap cookies? So don't overmix the dough :)

Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. I prepared the dough in the evening and made the cookies in the morning. You have just enough time while they bake to grab some breakfast.

Preheat the oven to 175˚C and line preferably two baking sheets with parchment. I only have one and that worked just fine but it just means there is more waiting time involved when you have to work with two batches...

Form heaped tablespoons of dough into balls and roll them in the granulated sugar.
Arrange the unbaked cookies on the baking sheet, leaving about 4cm between the cookies. Oh, and you also have an option - the cookies barely spread - if you don't want them to be small mounds of cookie awesomeness, now is the time to flatten them slightly.
The cookies will need between 15 and 20 minutes in the oven. If you are using two baking sheets, rotate them after 10 minutes.

They are finished when the cookies feel firm and the edges are golden brown.
Allow the cookies to cool slightly before transferring them to a wire rack. If you move them too soon they might fall apart. Though, that gives you more reason to eat them while they are cooling down. With a glass of milk, or some coffee...

I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week and an even greater weekend!
I know mine will be - my friends Judith and Mimi have invited me over for pork barbecue...I'm trying to convince them that they want to do us all a favour and go for some vinegar-based-barbecue-sauce awesomeness...but even if they don't I'm sure it's still gonna be awesome!

That brings me to a question I have been meaning to ask you guys for a while - what's your favourite barbeque sauce? Are you amazed by all things from North Carolina or are you (shock, horror) more a fan of the tomato and molasses further west? What's your favourite kind?

Game Day Compost Cookies

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I first had these cookies at Momofuku Milk Bar a year ago or so. They were quite amazing but I had been on a sugary-stuff bender and ate one of them after already having eaten a piece of crack-pie with some cereal milk the night before and after having come back for some cereal milk ice-cream and one of those super chocolatey cookies earlier that day. The compost cookie was my mid-afternoon snack and it was good but I was not really blown away. Regardless, I had been meaning to make my own from the cookbook for a while now. I mean you have to give every cookie a second chance. Last week I finally got around to making some and after people in my lab loved them (including me - if you don't eat lots of sugar beforehand they are actually quite amazing :) ) I decided to make some for Saturday because we had a match. It was sunny, it was warm enough for me to contemplate playing without a base-layer and we sat around having a fantastic time eating cookies. We had a fantastic time playing later on but there were no cookies involved so that part is less important for now. 

Because the comments were so amazing/hilarious I thought I should share them with you.

'What is in those cookies?' 

'Why would you put potato chips into cookies?!?' 

'Did Katharina make those cookies? Only Katharina would put mini pretzels and potato chips into a cookie!' (well, no, Christina Tosi obviously thought about that one first, but over here people are a lot less adventurous where cookie flavours are concerned).

And my favourite of all times: 

'I ate too many cookies! I think if I run too fast I'll end up throwing up cookies all over the field' 

'As long as you puke in the direction of the other team that should be fine'

You see, it was a good Saturday :)


Compost Cookies (adapted from Tosi)

Before we start, I know that is the longest ingredient list in quite a while. If you can't be bothered to make cornflake crunch you could also leave out the cornflakes. You could also use butterscotch chips or peanut butter ones…or mini marshmallows. That's what is so fantastic about these cookies. I can't think of many combinations that I wouldn't want to try. The coffee adds depth of flavour and a really interesting texture. Also, the combination of sweet and salty with some maltiness from the cornflake crunch turns these cookies (as some of the quotes might have already given away) into something else. 

225g Butter (at room temperature)
200g Granulated Sugar
200g Light Brown Sugar
1 Egg
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
225g Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Bicarb
4g Salt
150g Chocolate Chips
100g Almonds (toasted in your oven until they are fragrant, then broken up into pieces)
40g Rolled Oats
5g Ground Coffee (yes, you are not dreaming, trust me on this one. DON'T USE INSTANT!!!) 
40g Cornflakes or Cornflake Crunch (see this recipe or better: buy the cookbook because it's awesome!)
50g Potato Chips (the simple salted kind, kettle chips work better because they are more sturdy)
50g Mini Pretzels

Cream the butter and the sugars (give them some time to become all fluffy), then add the egg and the vanilla extract and beat until the mixture has nearly doubled in size. This will take some time. Give it 5 and things will look good, apparently if you give it 7 or 8 minutes things will be amazing but I'm always too lazy to do that.
Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. And mix until just combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips, almonds, rolled oats, and ground coffee.
If you are using a food processor for this be careful to not overmix things and be very careful to definitely not overmix things when you add the cornflake crunch, potato chips and mini pretzels.
If you are using a spoon or spatula by now, I would crush the potato chips and pretzels just a tiny bit. I don't know about you, but I don't like having a cookie that has more potato chip than cookie dough to it and they didn't break down at all when I mixed them in - I had to specifically break down some of them with the spatula which was a bit of a pain.
Scoop out 2 tbsp size portions, slightly flatten them and either set them on a sheet pan or stick them in a tupperware box. Cover and refrigerate for an hour. They last for up to a week in the fridge. That way you can have fresh cookies whenever you feel like it! How cool is that?!?
Apparently this step is crucial. I haven't tried baking them sooner but what's the point in trying to find out whether that's true if you can just clean your kitchen or watch some TV while you are waiting...
Preheat your oven to 190˚C.
Stick the cookie portions onto a lined baking sheet. Leave at least 2.5cm between them, I would probably go for something closer to 5. 
Bake until the tops are nice and golden and your kitchen smells amazing. This should happen after 15-17 minutes but check before. I took mine out after 17 minutes in the end but I didn't feel like my oven was actually giving me the temperature it said it was giving me. 

Now, go and make some cookies and then tell me all about it!
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week!

Granola Cookies

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Lately I have been on a slight cookie bender. I think the people in my lab find this quite exciting. What happens most of the time is that I throw random things together and hope for the best. Generally this works really well (at least according to Torsten and Gina who I share an office with). Sometimes we learn things the hard way. Like that replacing all the granulated sugar in your cookie recipe with rapadura sugar is a stupid idea. Or that leftover peppermint bark pieces added to chocolate chip cookies is like my least favourite flavour of all times. Oh well.
Anyhow…a few weeks ago I made the granola cookies Todd and Diane wrote about on White on Rice Couple. And then I made them again. And again. And whenever someone in the lab hears the telltale rattling of my super awesome royal-wedding cookie tin they ask whether I have made the granola cookies again. 
So, what else can I tell you about these cookies. I think they are best still slightly warm. Depending on how long you bake them they are either still chewy or really nice and crispy. Because you soak the dried fruit in booze before you make them I have never managed to bake them so they were actually 'dry' (and I went for something resembling a member of the Jersey Shore cast in one batch because I completely forgot that I was actually baking cookies). The original recipe calls for rum or kaluha. I don't like kaluha for anything other than white russians and I didn't have any rum in the house so the first time I used bourbon and it was really really nice. A few batches later I moved onto southern comfort and I think that is what I'll keep using - the spices work really well with the dried fruit and give the cookies a bit of a kick.
Oh, and instead of apricots I'm using dates (cos dried apricots are evil and vile and gross…and I'm that grown-up…) and raisins but I have been thinking about using dried cherries for a while. I think they would be really nice. 
Are you convinced yet?
Make some cookies! :)

Granola Cookies (adapted from Porter & Chu)
70g dried, pitted Dates
70g Raisins
Enough Bourbon, Southern Comfort, Rum, or whatever else you like to cover the fruit
60g Walnuts
60g Almonds
155g Flour
1tsp Bicarb
1/2 tsp Salt
180g steel-cut Oats
170g Butter, at room temperature
175g Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
125g dark Chocolate Chips
125g white Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 175˚C.
Cut the dates into 1cm pieces, put them into a small bowl with the raisins and cover them with booze.
Toast the nuts until they are starting to brown and your kitchen smells amazing. 
In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, bicarb, salt and oats and set aside.
Don't forget about the oven - take the nuts out of the oven and allow them to cool before you either chop them coarsely or simply crush them a bit using your fingers (you can probably guess which approach I favour).
Take out a larger mixing bowl or your fancy kitchen aid mixer bowl and beat the butter for a minute or so until it starts to fluff up a bit, add the sugar and keep beating for another two minutes or so. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and give things another 4 minutes or so. What all of this does is incorporate more air into the mixture and bond the sugar and butter together (at least that's what I'm told). Irrespective of how this whole thing works, what it does is give your cookies a certain lightness while also giving you crispy edges and an amazingly chewy centre. So ignore the fact that you are probably dying from boredom, listen to one of those new super long Justin Timberlake songs and you will barely notice all that waiting :)
Ideally the butter-mixture should have nearly doubled in size and will look a lot paler than before.
Switch to a spatula or wooden spoon so you don't overmix in the next few steps. 
Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Then add the chocolate chips, nuts, and boozy fruit (without the remaining liquid - save that to make a drink or dip the cookies into it later or whatnot). 
Scoop two tablespoons of dough (what I do is use my tablespoon measure and scoop up enough dough so it forms a dome on top of the filled spoon that is the same size) per cookie onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 3cm between them. I can normally fit 18 cookies onto my full-size baking sheet if that helps with the spacing between the cookies at all.
Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until the cookies are starting to brown. 
Don't even think about letting the cookies cool completely, give them a few minutes before you transfer some of them onto a wire-rack, then eat the others while they are still warm on the inside.
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your weekend!
You could make some cookies :)

Grown-Up Chocolate Chip Cookies

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When I moved into my flat, 6 other people moved into the building as well. A few of us bonded over the fact that whoever did the renovations had a different concept of what a finished flat should look like (we think it should include ceilings without holes, working lights, oh, and warm water and working radiators tend to be a plus as well...) anyhow in the midst of stressing about builders and not being able to go and buy furniture, I met some really lovely people.

The cool thing about this rather lame story is that a few of us have started inviting each other over for dinner. This week we had a mean shepperd's pie one floor down and I made cookies. But I decided to make cookies 45 minutes before I dinner started and had no eggs or butter left. That's when I remembered that I could just make vegan cookies (well they would have been vegan if there had been soy milk in my kitchen...this way they were just egg free).
These cookies feel somewhat more grown-up than normal chocolate chip cookies because the chocolate flavour plays really nicely with the peppery notes and they are not overly sweet (that said....they're cookies, you'll still get over any kind of afternoon-lull with one or two of these).
The recipe mine is based on is the 'Chocolate Chocolate Walnut Cookie' (cool name, isn't it?) recipe from the fantastic Veganomicon (the original is lovely as is but I didn't have walnuts or almond extract either...) and  in case you are wondering - I like using fleur de sel in cookies because it seems to stay somewhat separate from the dough and you get those lovely bursts of saltiness (not excessively so, but enough to bring out the sweetness of the other ingredients).  

Grown-Up Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Bicarb

1/2 tsp Fleur de Sel

1/2 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper (if you use already ground pepper, you might want to use more)

2/3 cup Vegetable Oil (go for one that has a mild taste, canola is a good option)

1 1/2 cups Sugar

4 tbsp Ground Flaxseed

1/2 cup Milk (if you use a non-dairy alternative these cookies are vegan)

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 cup Pecan Halves

1 cup Dark Chocolate Chips (again, go for non-dairy and your vegan and lactose intolerant friends will love you)

Preheat your oven to 180˚C and line two baking trays with parchment.
On one of the trays lay out the pecans and roast them until they are dark brown (but not burned!). Allow them to cool slightly while continue with the next few steps.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, fleur de sel and pepper in a bowl.
In a large bowl mix the oil and sugar, once you have a smooth mixture, add the flaxseed, milk, and vanilla extract.
Crumble the pecans into smallish pieces.
Mix the wet and the dry mix. If you start having issues combining them using a fork or whisk or spoon (or whatever you are using) switch to your hands :)
Add the pecan pieces and chocolate chips and make sure they are somewhat evenly distributed across the dough.
If you use a tablespoon measure and use it like you would use an ice-cream scoop (i.e. pile the dough up so you have something resembling a circular sphere) you should end up with 32 cookies. That means you end up with 16 cookies on each sheet and they'll be spaced out far enough.
Pat the cookie balls out a bit so you have cookie disks and bake them for 10-15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through.
I found that these cookies set quite late so even after 15 minutes I had perfectly gooey cookies after dinner. The next day at lunch I felt like I should have taken them out slightly earlier. So I guess the message is that it depends on when you are planning on eating the cookies.
Obviously, milk is amazing with these cookies, but they work really well with some red wine as well (since we're being all grown-up and stuff).

Do you have a favourite cookie recipe?

Cranberry, Walnut, Oatmeal & White Chocolate Cookies

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I know I've been a bit absent lately, but to be perfectly honest I haven't been cooking a great deal - I mean I could tell you about pasta with humous and tomato puree or how I believe that sometimes eating cinnamon toast crunch 5 times a day is what gets me through the day, but then again let's face it I might as well not write at all, so while I'm hoping that things will get less hectic and that I'll cook more sensible things, you might not hear that much from me for the next month or so.
That said, I do actually have a recipe for you today.
A couple of weeks ago Katie got a parcel full of cookies in the mail and when I tried one I was blown away. They were incredibly moorish oatmeal cookies, filled to the brim with dried cherries, roasted pecans and white chocolate chips. The kind of cookies that make you eat not one or two but more like your own weight in cookies. So I made some last week but since I couldn't find dried cherries they got swapped for cranberries and then I started doubting my sanity when I went to the supermarket with one item on my shopping list - pecans - only I came back with a bag of cashews. While I'm still wondering what went on there, the cranberry and cashew version worked out beautifully as well.
The version I'm using in the recipe today is yet another one which I made this weekend. I think I've found my favourite combination and I hope you like it just as much as I do. Otherwise, try the other combinations because they're lovely as well.
Oh, and you can easily make a double recipe of these, they'll keep just fine and chances are they won't last that long anyway :)

Cranberry, Walnut, Oatmeal & White Chocolate Cookies (about 15)
150g Walnuts
150g Cranberries
125g Butter (at room temperature)
100g Light Brown Sugar
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg (at room temperature)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Plain Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Cinnamon
135g Porridge Oats (I like using the jumbo ones for these cookies, but normal ones (non-instant) work just fine)
100g White Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 175˚C.
Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet for about 5 minutes until they go brown and the smell of roasting nuts fills your kitchen. Take the walnuts out of the oven and let them cool.
In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and set aside.
In a large bowl cream the butter for a couple of minutes, then add the sugar and cream everything together for anther 3-5 minutes until the mix goes slightly fluffy. Then add the egg and whisk until everything is well combined.
Take the cooled nuts and chop them into fairly large pieces.
Now add the vanilla extract to the butter mixture and then start adding the dry mix in 3 parts.
Once you have a smooth batter, stir in the oats, the cranberries, walnuts and chocolate chips. I tend to have issues stirring everything together using a spoon (probably partly because I tend to make a double recipe and partly because my fine-motor skills are pretty much non-existent (have you seen my handwriting???)) so I inevitably end up mixing things together with my hands.
Spoon 2 tablespoon-sized bits of dough onto a lined baking tay and flatten them slightly.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the outside edges are a lovely golden colour.
These cookies are amazing on their own, but with a cup of coffee they make even the most annoying day slightly less so.
What's your favourite cookie recipe?

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Ok, before we go any further, these are hands down the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made.
I don't think I was made for cookie baking - I don't tend to want to have 3 dozen cookies sitting around in my kitchen (I won't eat them and, unlike what some people have been suspecting, I don't want to make everyone around me obese) and I seem to go for a hit-and-miss approach when I'm making cookies.
Unlike cake when I can just try a new recipe and will change quantities that sound slightly off, I can try two cookie recipes that appear both sensible and end up with an amazing one and another one that makes me want to throw them out the second they have cooled down.
But these cookies didn't just look the way I want cookies to look, they also tasted like I had died and gone to cookie heaven. So you might wonder what I did different this time - at least I hope you are because I'll tell you anyway.
I went back to basics and adapted Ree's chocolate chip cookie recipe (have you ever had a recipe on PW not work out? I haven't) and I started wondering why I hadn't done so years ago. I think this will turn into one of my standard recipes because it was super quick and the cookies are just plain amazing.
Anyhow, enough talking...let's make some cookies!

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 12)
100g Butter, at room temperature
100g Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
65g Plain Flour
35g Buckwheat Flour
1/2 tsp Instant Coffee
1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda (slightly) heaped
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Flaxseed, ground
100g Chocolate (I used 75% cocoa), broken into pieces

Preheat your oven to 190˚C
Cream the butter and the sugar, then add the vanilla extract and egg and keep mixing until they are well combined. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, salt, instant coffee and bicarb. Add the dry mix to the wet mix in 3 parts, stirring after each addition, then add the flaxseed (do not over-beat but make sure the ingredients are well-combined). Finally add the chocolate chunks and stir until they are relatively evenly distributed across the batter.
Using a spoon put little lumps (about the size of 2tbsp measuring spoons) of batter onto a lined baking tray leaving enough space between the lumps so the cookies can spread out.
Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, allow them to cool slightly before transferring them onto a wire-rack and eating them either still warm or cold, but always with a big glass of milk.

Peppery Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

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We made these for our board-game night and while I would like to be able to tell you how well they keep, we didn't have any leftovers so the answer is - I don't have a clue :)
I found these in 'Baked Explorations' and while it's already been out for a couple of months, I think if you're going to buy only one cake-related cookbook this year, make it this one!
Anyhow, let's get back to the cookies :)
The description in the book talks about how they are a grown-up version of Oreos but they keep reminding me of Prinzenrolle and being a kid (even though that has vanilla cookie on the outside and chocolate on the inside), but either way, they are amazing and out of the cookies I have made recently they have received the highest praise from my testers (so high that I am not quite comfortable repeating Manuel's comment).
Oh, and the general consensus was that while they are amazing if you use a 5cm cookie cutter, they would probably be even nicer if they were slightly smaller (and try sprinkling the fleur de sel evenly across the tops, not just the middle).

Peppery Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
450g Flour
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Fleur De Sel + more for decorating
11/2 tsp White Pepeper
30g Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
350g Butter, cut into cubes, not cold but not at room temperature
250g Granulated Sugar
225g Icing Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
100g Dark Chocolate, melted

For the filling:
150g Vegetable Shortening
50g Butter, both at room temperature
400g Icing Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Dark Rum (I know it's not gonna be super white, but think about the flavour)

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl and set them aside.
Cream the butter and both sugars. Then, add the egg yolks, one at a time, followed by the vanilla and the melted chocolate. Whisk until things are properly mixed in.
Add half the dry ingredients, beat for about 15 seconds, add remainder beat until incorporated, don't overbeat at this point.
Chill the dough for at least 3 hours (I would just go for overnight, though creaming the butter in my flat at 10pm was a bit of a challenge).

Heat your oven to 350 degrees and line bakingsheets with parchment.
Take out 1/4 of the dough,put rest back into fridge (this is important, I tried to get around this and didn't succeed...it's a lot easier if the dough is properly chilled).
Knead the dough until pliable, then roll it out until 1/4 inch thick, the surface gets a bit sticky so keep some flour handy in case you have to dust the surface with flour.
Cut out the cookies and transfer them to the baking sheet.
Continue with rest of dough. If you have scraps, put them back into the fridge for a while before you reuse them (don't try using them straight again...bad idea...trust me....)
Sprinke the tops of cookies with fleur de sel (an even distribution was advocated by my trusty testers :) )
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, rotating the sheet(s) halfway through.
Let  them cool for a bit, then, using a spatula, move the cookies from the sheets onto a wire rack and allow them to cool completely.
Beat the shortening and butter until smooth. Add the icing sugar in 3 parts. Then add the salt, vanilla and rum and beat again (while you stop youself from eating all the icing).
If the icing is too thick, add a drop of water and beat it again.
Fill the cookies with about 1tbsp icing each, then get some lovely people together and enjoy the cookies and their company :)

Sand-Dollar Cookies

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How many batches of cookies have you gone through so far? Are you sick of them yet?
I thought I had reached that stage on Saturday when I was sitting in Katie's living room with that blank state of mind you get to when you've eaten waaay too much sugar...
Anyhow, it's been two days since then so I thought I'd give you another cookie recipe :)
I made these cookies because was in the need of something not too Christmassy, something sweet but not too sweet, and above all, something that would be easy to prepare. Which is exactly what this recipe is :)

This recipe is a spin on Kim Boyce's Sand Cookies and you should have most of the ingredients in your cupboard. If you are wondering whether they are the same thing as 'Heidesand', the answer is no.
These cookies are just sheer amazingness. The sugar at the bottom caramelizes and turns them into a sandy-chewy-caramelly thing of beauty (ok, that doesn't sound as amazing as it did in my head).
If you are looking for a grown-up take on cookies, these are the ones for you :) and the fact that they look a bit like sand-dollars makes me think of the seaside in the summer (how more awesome could a cookie be?!?!?)

Sand-Dollar Cookies
2 cups Kamut Flour
1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 tsp Salt
6 oz Butter

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees.
Mix the dry ingredients, then rub the butter into them until the crumbly mixture you get at the beginning turns into a coherent dough.
Roll pieces of about 1tbsp of dough into balls and then press them flat until they're about just over half a cm thick.
Put the cookies onto a baking sheet and bake them for 18 to 20 minutes. They will be darker than your average Christmas Cookie but be patient, you we be rewarded :)
Allow them to cool before you take them off the baking sheet (I wasn't planning of eating the edge of the cookie in the picture above, it came off when I tried to move them and then I obviously had to eat it...) but they definitely taste better on the day you make them.

Cinnamon Cookies

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© Sandra Reisinger

Making these cookies is one of my worst nightmares. You have to prepare the dough in advance, you have to chill it, it goes all crumbly when you're trying to roll it out, it takes forever to cut out the cookies...do you want me to continue? ;)
BUT, once you've had one of these you'll understand why I still make them.
If you like cinnamon, these are your best friends!
Don't tell anyone, but when Sandra made them the first time I ate every single one that she left at my place within the next 12 hours (and there was a lot of self-restraint involved in getting to that time-span...) this time I did a bit better but that might have been because I hid them under tin-foil so I couldn't see them..
Anyhow, they are well worth the effort, so give them a try!

Cinnamon Cookies
250g Flour
75g Sugar
1 pack Vanilla Sugar (if you can't get hold of that, use 1tsp vanilla essence instead)
1 tbsp Rum
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1 Egg, separated
A pinch of Salt
125g Butter (cold, cut into cubes)
2 tbsp Cinnamon-Sugar (mix 2 tbsp sugar with 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
Ice cold water

Mix the butter, sugar, salt, and flour until you have something that resembles breadcrumbs.
Quickly add the egg-yolk, rum and vanilla essence (if you're using any).
If this mix doesn't stick yet add a teaspoon of water at a time until you have a dough that holds together. You'll want to work quickly, so the butter doesn't start melting.
Form into a ball or disk, cover with cling-film and let it chill in the fridge for an hour or two (you could also make the dough the night before, perhaps I should try that the next time).
Preheat your oven to 175 degrees.
Beat the egg-white until soft peaks form (I love writing this), then mix in the cinnamon sugar (DON'T overdo it here, just mix it in and then move the whisk away from the egg-white :) )
Take the dough out of the fridge, cut off a chunk and roll it out on a floured surface (I am told that using very little pressure on the dough stops it from breaking, but I guess I don't have enough patience for that) and have fun with your cookie cutters :)
Lay the cookies on a cookie-sheet that has baking parchment on it, spread some of the egg-white mixture on the cookies and then bake them until they look done (depending on your oven that should be 10-15 minutes.

Sesame Wafers

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Ok, I'm blatantly procrastinating :)
But you're getting a recipe out of it, so no complaining ;)
I got today's recipe from Luisa's post on The Wednesday Chef. After reading her rave about them I obviously had to include them in Saturday's shenanigans and we weren't disappointed...quite the opposite...

Here are some reasons I like them
- you only need one bowl
-you only need 7 ingredients, most of which you'll have in your pantry
-no cookie cutters required
-they only take 7 minutes to bake
-they are super yummy :)

So get out your mixing bowl and get going!

Sesame Wafers
11/2 tbsp Butter
1 cup Light Muscovado Sugar
1 Egg
2 tbsp Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Sesame Seeds

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees.
Cream the butter and the sugar, then mix in the egg. Now mix in all the other ingredients.
Put some baking parchment onto a cookie sheet and, using a teaspoon, drop the dough onto the parchment.
These cookies will expand quite a bit so give them space.
Dip a knife into cold water and flatten the dough drops out a bit.
Bake the wafers for 7 minutes, then give them about the same amount of time to cool down a bit (still on the parchment but off the cookie sheet) before you peel them off the baking parchment.
Luisa suggests they keep for two weeks if you put them into a airtight container (like a pretty cookie tin) but the way ours are going you won't have to worry about them going off :)

Christmas Ninjas

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I don't like Christmas Cookies.

Here, I said it.

I can't stand standing at a work surface that was clearly designed for tiny people, I can't stand having to make the dough a gazillion hours in advance so it can chill, I can't stand crumbly, chilled cookie dough, and most of all, I can't stand how long it takes to cut out the cookies.

What I do love, however, is spending an afternoon with friends with the oven on for the entire time, a competition for who has the worst iTunes collection, a glass of nice desert wine to go with the cookies once they're done (or to stop me from swearing when yet another angel loses it's wings or another dinosaur looses it's head) so as much as I hate the cookies themselves, I love everything that goes with making them.

This year I have another reason for disliking them slightly less - ninjas :)

I found the most amazing ninja cookie-cutters in Austin. They are awesome! And beat even the dinosaurs, the lobsters, Tigger, and the one-legged pirate (Christmas-Lobsters are so 2003 anyway...). 

So yesterday we spent the afternoon making Christmas Ninjas (and some squirrels, pirates, and stars).

The recipe today is an adaptation of Jenna's gingerbread cookies which are an adaptation of a Gourmet recipe, and let me tell you - they are absolutely lovely!

Gingerbread Ninjas

33/4 cups White Spelt Flour

1tbsp Ground Ginger

1/2 tbsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Ground Pepper

1/2 tsp Salt

2 sticks Butter, cubed

2/3 cup Molasses

2/3 cup Muscovado Sugar

2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 Egg, slightly beaten.

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees.

Then get out a large, heavy bottomed sauce-pan and mix the spices, sugar and molasses in it. Bring the mixture to a boil (personally this is where I got a bit scared because I really don't like boiling sugar, but it's worth it, just be aware that boiling sugar is a lot hotter than boiling water and if you get it onto your skin it will stay on there (and yes, let me tell you, all the amazingness of what you can do with hot sugar is not worth that trip to the ER on a weekend) so proceed with caution) and keep it there for about 3 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in the bicarb. This was one of the most amazing sights I had baking in a while, the bicarb turns the molasses and sugar into a very hot bubbly mousse thing.

Stir in the butter and once it's mixed in add the egg as well.

Now add the flour and salt and once that's properly incorporated you are ready to go.

The dough will still be warm but as long as you're not burning your fingers, start rolling it out on a floured surface and attacking it with cookie cutters :)

The cookies take about 12 minutes and as I mentioned before, they go amazingly well with a glass of desert wine...