Alfajores (Bells Rang for this Cookie)

By threejamigos | October 23, 2021 | Comments 0 Comment

I found the cookie of my dreams at a family wedding a couple of years ago. Strolling around the reception, waiting for the happy couple to arrive, I grabbed a glass of bubbly and gravitated towards the table of sweets, a dazzling array of desserts.

In the center of the table was an amazing assortment of cookies. I chose the sugar cookie sheep, so cute I couldn’t resist. In fact, too cute to eat so I chose a second cookie, a petite round sandwich cookie covered with powdered sugar. I popped one in my mouth.

Wowza, Score One for the Round Cookie

HELLOOOO…little cute as a button sandwich cookie. Where have you been all my life? Tender, light, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth crumb with a rich-brown lovely caramel sandwiched in between. The rest of the wedding festivities were a blur as I fixated on the cookie, just kidding, it was a very nice celebration. I did eat as many cookies as I could, lol. I stealthily circulated the room casually asking, friends and relatives about the cookies. Ok, I’m lying…nothing stealth or casual about my inquisition. I learned the cookies were made by the bride’s aunt who had lived in South America for a while. The cookies were her version of Alfajores which originated in Spain and made its way to many Latin countries. A tender shortbread-like cookie filled with caramelized milk and sugar mixture known as Dulce de Leche. So good.

Yep, made by the bride’s aunt! I had an “in”. I was wowed, they were so damn good and she made enough cookies for 300+ people. This put me squarely in the Auntie Hall of Shame.

It did take 5 years to finally get the recipe from her. I badgered my niece occasionally to no avail (in her defense, she was pretty busy). Finally, at her baby shower a couple of weeks ago, gracing the dessert table, a tray of cute sheep and Alfajores-ahhh, those lovely cookies, again.

Lucky for me her aunt was there and I POLITELY (I accosted her) asked for the recipe. She proceeded to rattle it off the top of her head ending with, “it’s the orange rind that really adds to the cookie, don’t forget it”.

Thank you, Auntie

This is actually a pretty simple cookie. Unlike many recipes for Alfajores, no egg in it. It’s flour, sugar in the form of powdered sugar, butter, salt, and a touch of orange rind. The powdered sugar lowers the protein content creating a tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookie.

The other component is the Dulce de Leche. You could buy ready-made dulce de leche but what fun is that? You could also make your own by cooking sweetened condensed milk, in the can, in a water bath. This is simple but takes hours, and the remote chance of the can exploding loomed in my mind. So I made my Dulce de Leche in the microwave. Worked like a charm but it did have some stumbling blocks.

What You Need

A can of sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces) and a VERY LARGE microwavable bowl. The milk will bubble and boil over if your bowl is too small, yep, exactly what happened to me. Use a 2.5-quart bowl. I recently bought microwave ware, Anyday Cookware, which I love, but the bowl was not quite big enough to avoid overflow.

Liquid Gold

The entire process takes 12-15 minutes. In roughly 2 minute intervals you zap the mixture, remove stir and nuke again. The mixture will bubble and then caramelize leaving you with liquid gold aka Dulce de Leche. It will thicken as it cools down, but you do want a nice deep brown color and it shouldn’t be runny to avoid the “ooze factor” in a sandwich cookie. Use oven mitts, stir and let it cool. You can spoon the filling onto the cookies or use a piping bag to fill the cookies. If you like butter & caramel flavor, you are going to love these cookies.

There you have it, the cookie of my dreams. Make a batch, I guarantee it will put a smile on your face.

The finishing touch is optional but nice, roll the edge of the cookie in shredded coconut. Delicious.

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Alfajores

A classic cookie found in many Latin American countries. A tender, buttery cookie with Dulce de Leche, caramelized sweetened milk filling.

Course cookies, Dessert

Cuisine Latin America, Spanish

Keyword Alfajores, cookies, dulce de leche

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 30

Ingredients

Cookie

1 cup unsalted butter softened 2 sticks
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
Orange zest from 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon vailla extract or paste optional
finely shredded coconut, unsweetened preferred but sweetened is ok too

Dulce de Leche

1-14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
Pinch of kosher salt or Fleur de Sel
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon optional

Instructions

Cookie

Combine flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Zest orange.
Cream together butter and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and creamy looking, should not get to the light and fluffy stage. Add orange zest, and vanilla if using, stir to incorporate.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, beat on low speed. Once the flour is incorporated, stop, do not overbeat. Remove dough from the bowl, shape into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Flatten the ball into a disc about 1 inch thick. Chill for at least an hour.
Roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, I use a 2 inch fluted cutter, cut out rounds of dough and place 1 inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
If dough seems soft at any time, re-chill.
Bake at 340 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until the edges just begin to color on the edges. They should be pale color. Remove and place on a rack to cool completely.
Once the dulce de leche is cold, fill a piping bag or use teaspoons to place dulce de leche on bottom side of half of the cookies. Use approximately 1 teaspoon of filling.
Top filled cookies with the remaining cookies and gently press to distribute filling. You want it to come to the very edge of the cookie. Roll edge of cookie in finely shredded coconut if you want. Dust both sides of cookies with powdered sugar.
Filled cookies can be kept for a couple of days at room temperature or in the fridge a little longer. The moisture in the dulce de leche will soften the cookies with time. If you want to make them ahead, don't fill them until you are ready to serve.

Dulce de Leche (Adapted from Food.com)

Microwave directions:
You will need a 2-1/2 quart microwave bowl for this recipe. If you don’t have one that big, make half at a time. Trust me on this unless you like having caramel all over your microwave.
Pour sweetened condensed milk into bowl. If you have a vented lid, put it on. If not, cover bowl with plastic wrap and poke a couple of holes in it so the steam can escape.
The gold standard will be a 1000 watt microwave, adjust accordingly.*
Set microwave to 50% power and microwave milk for 2 minutes. If you are adding the salt and cinnamon, add it now.
Remove, (use oven mitts please!) Stir and put it back in the microwave. Then nuke at half power in two and a half minute intervals, stirring in between each time, for a total of ten minutes. As you cook the milk, it will boil, expel steam and gradually turn a nice rich brown. Keep in mind, you will need a pretty thick sauce for the cookies. You may need to nuke the milk for another 2-3 minutes. You want a deep rich brown. It will thicken a little as it cools.
*If you have a 1200 watt microwave, set it at 40%. I have a tiny 600 watt microwave so I set the power at 60%.
The Other Method:
Requires a lot more time. First, remove the paper label from the can and place it in a heavy duty pot on its side. Fill pot with enough water to cover the can by 2 inches. Bring the water to a boil and reduce heat so the water is at a simmer.
Make sure the water level stays 2 inches over the can at all times!!!!!! Or the can might explode!!!! Why I use the microwave method, lol. This method comes from Serious Eats.
Bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer milk for 2-3 hours CHECKING WATER LEVEL EVERY 30 MINUTES. Add hot water as needed. 2 hours will give you a golden caramel while 3 hours will yield a deep, dark caramel.
Remove can from water. Allow the can to cool completely before opening, about 4 hours.

Hawaiian Butter Mochi (Mo Buttah’ Mo Bettah’)

By threejamigos | August 13, 2021 | Comments 4 comments

Right before the pandemic hit we capped off a year of traveling by going to Maui. A celebration for the hubster’s birthday and his early retirement was our excuse to pack our bags and head out for some sun, fun, and food. Little did we know it would be our last trip for quite a while.

Hawaiian Delights

I am a sucker for Hawaiian food. A fusion of Native, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, Korean and all of it tweaked so it taste great and is easy to eat while sitting on a beach! Our bucket list of food included Spam Musubi, a hunk of rice topped with a fried slice of SPAM and wrapped in seaweed, Poke’ (seasoned raw fish in a bowl with rice), island style bbq, Huli, Huli Chicken. YUM.

Then there are the sweets, Malasadas (best damn donuts), Haupia (coconut jello) and my favorite, Butter Mochi. Hawaiian Butter Mochi is the island’s answer to Blondies or Brownies but better (I know, them is fighting words). Buttery, gooey, sweet and so satisfying. Like our Spam Musubi quest, we went out of our way to find all things mochi.

This isn’t my first mochi rodeo, I posted a Butter Mochi Muffin recipe a while back that peeps really like (so says Google analytics, lol). Since then it has been off to the “rices” trying recipes with Koda Farms Sweet Rice (glutinous rice flour). Mochi now merits its own category in my recipe index. These muffins started it all, dense, chewy, with a touch of familiar cakiness, and the perfect amount of sugar. They are a great introduction to mochi-based desserts. BONUS: Mochi is gluten-free!

Butter Mochi Muffins — The Muffins that started it all!

Mochi Mania-Island Style

Hawaiian Butter Mochi takes mochi back closer to its Japanese roots, lighter, springier, and less cakey. The recipe calls for coconut milk and regular milk. The regular milk and less mochi flour are the “denseness” buster and gives the mochi its characteristic texture. Butter adds flavor. It is usually baked in a pan and then cut into squares but I decided to bake them in muffin tins. All for the edges folks. Each person ends up with their own gooeylicious mini-cake highlighted by a crispy, buttery edge, and finished with toasty shredded coconut and a sprinkle of Fleur de Sel, soooooo yummy.

Inspired by Aloha Kitchen and the website Catherine Zhang, these Butter Mochi Mini-Cakes are onolicious. I hope you will try them!

The two key ingredients you can find at most Asian stores, sweet rice flour and coconut milk. My go-to brands are Koda Farms Mochiko and Chaokoh or Arroy-D for coconut milk.

The batter will be very pourable due to the use of milk as part of the liquid and less mochi flour.

Don’t be afraid to fill the cups to 7/8. The mini-cakes will puff up but will fall as they are cooling. You will end up with a flat top or sometimes even a slight depression, it’s all good.

Enjoy!

5 from 1 vote

Hawaiian Butter Mochi Muffins

This muffin is a mash-up of Hawaiian Butter Mochi and Butter Mochi Muffins! Gooier and less cake-like than my butter mochi muffins. Baked as muffins they have crispy edges and a soft center-onolicious!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Asian, Fusion

Keyword butter mochi, hawaiian, Mochi, muffin

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Ingredients

Da Wet Stuff

1/4 cup Unsalted butter 55gm
3/4 cup Coconut milk 170gm
1 cup Whole milk 240gm
2 Eggs

Da Dry Stuff

1 3/4 cup Glutinous rice flour 225gm
1 cup Granulated sugar 200gm
1 tsp Baking powder
Flaked or shredded coconut for garnish, preferably unsweetened but use what you like

Prep Yo Pan

Butter
Rice flour optional

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Generously grease 12-cup muffin tin with butter and dust with rice flour, if you don't have rice flour, skip it. The flour does help the batter rise in the pan and getting crispy edges.
In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the coconut milk and butter, heat in the microwave for 1 minute
Add the milk and 2 eggs, whisk until combined. I like whole milk but you can use 2% milk or alternative milk like oat milk.
In a medium sized bowl combine the glutinous rice flour, sugar and baking powder
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth
Pour the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups
Sprinkle with coconut and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown
Remove and cool. Muffins will keep for a couple of days on the counter. Pop them in a toaster oven to re-crisp edges. They also freeze pretty well.

Grocery Store Cookies! Sprinkle a Little Holiday Cheer

By threejamigos | December 29, 2020 | Comments 1 comment

My favorite holiday cookie of the season is Eric Kim’s (check out his site, wonderful essays, beautiful writing) Lofthouse Style Grocery Store Cookie. It’s surprising since I am not a fan of those ubiquitous cookies with the toothachingly sweet, artificial tasting frosting and eye-popping sprinkles. But his homemade rendition looked so appealing, I had to try them.

Eric’s homage to the grocery store cookies is part of NYTcooking’s week-long video series on Holiday Cookies. He takes the concept of the grocery store cookie and creates a small-batch, no preservatives, all-butter, cream cheese, tender cakey-cookie topped with a sweet, slightly tart raspberry buttercream. The only resemblance to the supermarket cookie is the sprinkles on top!

These cookies are simply DIVINE

The directions are straight forward and if your ingredients are at room temperature, a bowl and a wooden spoon are all you need to make these cookies. How easy is that? But you can be lazy like me and use your stand mixer, especially for the frosting.

Though hand mixing the dough is very doable, if time is short, go ahead and bust out your Kitchen Aid mixer. Combine cake flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. Cream butter, cream cheese, salt, and sugar at medium speed until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract (yes, 1 tablespoon) and beat mixture on medium for approximately 1 minute to aerate and incorporate sugar. Reduce mixer speed to stir or low setting and add flour mixture. Mix just until flour is incorporated. The dough will be very very soft. Toss the bowl into the fridge for 15 minutes to chill the dough so it is easier to scoop.

Use a two-tablespoon ice cream scoop to measure out the dough. Scoop all of the dough and place it on a pan that will fit in your freezer. Place the pan in the freezer to chill the dough (min 10-15 minutes). Do not skip this step, makes the dough much easier to work with, keeps it from spreading, and gives the flavors time to meld.

Frosting Goodness

While the dough is in the freezer, make the frosting. Freeze-dried fruit is the magic that provides both color and flavor to the frosting- it is this tweak that provides the spark in this cookie. The recipe calls for raspberry but strawberry, blueberry or mango freeze-dried fruit would work. I like raspberry not just for flavor but for color, it gives the frosting a hot pink happy glow. Freeze-dried fruit can be found at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Target. Grind the fruit into a powder in a mini food processor or place in a Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to pulverize it. Sift to strain the seeds out of powder. The frosting is sweet, tart, and fruity, just delightful.

Combine the softened butter, fruit, vanilla, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Blend on low speed until the ingredients are mixed together then increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, a couple of minutes, and about double in volume. Set aside.

Take the cookies out of the freezer and roll them into balls (eminently doable thanks to freezing). Place each ball on a parchment-lined cookie sheet 2-3 inches apart. If the dough gets too soft or sticky to work with, return it to the freezer. Flatten each to approximately two inches in diameter and one-inch thickness. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or just until the edge starts to color, don’t over bake. You will be rewarded with a tender, buttery, light cakey-cookie with a wonderful vanilla punch.

The Finale: Cookie + Hot Pink Frosting x Sprinkles = Happy

Swirl a generous amount of the frosting on each cookie and then SPRINKLE-FY each one. These cookies are so indescribably good, put them on your BAKE THESE COOKIES list now.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the 2020 Holiday Cookie Box!

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Eric Kim's Grocery Store Cookie

Remember Lofthouse Cookies from the Supermarkets? Every little league game, school bake sale featured those sprinkle adorned, frosting laden, cakey cookies in the plastic trays. Imagine a homemade, luscious, delicious, version.

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword Grocery Store Cookie, Lofthouse Cookie, sprinkles, Supermarket

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Equipment

Small sheet pan that will fit in your freezer I have a side by side so sadly a regular-sized cookie sheet will not fit
Cookie sheets
2 Tablespoon Ice cream scoop #40 the size of the scoop will be on it somewhere! Sometimes on the handle or the rim of the scoop, even on the little thing-a-ma-jigger that pushes the dough out of the scoop

Ingredients

Cookie

Da Dry Stuff- Combine in small bowl and set aside

2 ¼ cups cake flour (285 grams)
2 teaspoons baking powder

Da Wet Stuff

½ cup unsalted butter (115 grams) 1 stick, at room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese (85 grams) at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Frosting

1 cup freeze-dried raspberries (30 grams) finely ground in a food processor or spice grinder
1 cup unsalted butter (225 grams) 2 sticks, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar (245 grams)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of kosher salt

Da Bling

Multi-colored Sprinkles Happy dust!

Instructions

Make the cookies: In a large bowl, using a spoon, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk to incorporate some air and to dissolve the sugar crystals, about 1 minute. Stir in the flour and baking powder until just incorporated.
Heat oven to 350 degrees and line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper. Using two spoons or a cookie scooper, plop out 2-tablespoon/50-gram rounds spaced a couple of inches apart. (You should get about 7 to 8 cookies per sheet pan.) Place the sheet pans in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky and easier to handle.
While the dough chills, make the frosting: In a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium bowl, sift the ground raspberries, using a spoon to help pass them through, until most of the ruby-red powder is in the bowl and most of the seeds are left behind in the sieve. (Discard the seeds.)
To the bowl, add the 1 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt and, with an electric hand mixer, mix on low speed until the butter absorbs the sugar. Then, turn the speed up to high and beat until the frosting doubles in size, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated. Transfer the frosting to a small container, cover tightly, and set aside. (You should have about 2 cups of frosting.)
Remove the sheet pans from the freezer. Roll the chilled dough into even balls and flatten them slightly with your fingers so they’re about 2 inches wide and 1 inch high. Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans and switching racks halfway through, or until they no longer look wet on top, are still light in color and spring back to the touch. They will puff up and crack slightly. Let cool completely on the sheet pan. (They will continue to cook as they sit.)
Using a butter knife or offset spatula, frost each cooled cookie with the raspberry frosting and adorn with the sprinkles.

Pineapple Pockets to the Rescue-Pining for a Cookie

By threejamigos | December 25, 2020 | Comments 1 comment

There are a couple of baking books that are my go-tos for cookies, especially during the holidays, like Rose Levy Berenbaum’s Christmas Cookies, Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies and Flo Bracker’s Sweet Miniatures. I find myself reaching for Sweet Miniatures when I want an elegant, fancy cookie. Yes it will probably require a bit more effort than drop cookies, but it’s Christmas, when else are you going to pull out all the stops?

Pineapple Cakes from Taiwan inspired me to make the Pineapple Pockets from Sweet Miniatures. Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes are little bite-sized squares of pineapple jam cloaked in a sweet, buttery pastry crust. I’m obsessed with these little cake-like cookies. My introduction to these treats came years ago when a friend returning from a trip to Taipei brought back Te Chia Pineapple Cakes. It was love at first bite. The sweetness from the pineapple offset by the buttery shortbread crust…needless to say, I was smitten. I casually mention pineapple cakes to every friend that goes back to Taiwan while giving them my best wistful look.

While these Pineapple Pockets are more complicated than your average drop cookie, the resemblance to Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes put these on my must-bake holiday cookie list. The process begins with making a caramelized pineapple jam then a pastry dough. The dough is rolled and cut into circles, dotted with the jam, and then shaped into cones. Labor-intensive, but in the end, you are rewarded with a meltingly tender cookie highlighted by the dollop of golden, caramelized pineapple preserves. They are absolutely delicious and well worth the effort. But most importantly, they are delicious enough to satisfy my Pineapple Cake craving. Now I don’t have to wait for friends to take pity on me and bring them back from Taiwan!

The jam is made first and set aside to cool. I added 1/2 tsp of vanilla to the jam and a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor. Make the dough, chill it, then roll it into a circle. The dough should be about 1/8-3/16 inch thickness. Use a 2 inch round cutter for the circles. Your best friend is your refrigerator. If the dough gets soft or sticky during the process, put it back in the fridge to chill. This will make it easier to handle.

Position the jam off-center. Using a butter knife or thin blade spatula, flip the edge closest to you over the jam. Angle your spatula on the opposite side and flip towards you, overlapping with the first.

Ta-da, ready to bake! Sprinkle powdered sugar on the finished cookies for a festive look. In a pinch, you could use jarred preserves, make sure whatever you use is not too runny or thin.

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Pineapple Pockets

Flo Bracker's delicious Pineapple Pockets. Caramelized Pineapple Jam encased in a buttery, tender pastry and shaped into a cone.

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword cookies, flo bracker, holiday cookies, Pineapple cakes, Pineapple Pockets

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 14

Ingredients

Dough

6 ounces unsalted butter, room temp 1-1/2 sticks
1/4 cup granulated sugar 50gms
1/2 cup unsifted powdered sugar 50gms
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1-2/3 cup unsifted all-purpose flour 235gms

Pineapple Filling

2 tbsp water
1/3 cup granulated sugar 65gms
8-ounce can crushed pineapple in natural juice
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions

In bowl of mixer, cream butter at medium low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in sugars at medium speed until creamy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, then vanilla, beating until well combined and slightly fluffy. Scrape down the sides of bowl. Lower mixer speed, and gradually add flour and mix just until it is combined.
Gather dough into a disc and chill 15-30 minutes. Divide dough in half and on parchment or wax paper, roll each piece into a circle. approximately 11 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a baking sheet, cover top with parchment and refrigerate until firm about 2 hours.

Pineapple filling

In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar over low heat. Swirl occasionally and wash down any sugar crystals that form on the side with a brush dipped in cold water to dissolve them. Increase heat to medium-high and cook without stirring until sugar thickens and turns amber in color about 8 minutes. Take it off the heat and add crushed pineapple and juice all at once. Careful as mixture will bubble up. Stir to combine and return the pan to stove and cook over med-high heat until mixture is golden and syrupy. Remove from stove and stir in butter. Place in bowl and set it aside to cool.

Putting It All Together

Preheat oven to 325
Remove one piece of dough, peel off parchment. Put parchment back on dough and flip dough over and peel off bottom parchment.
Use a 2 inch round cookie cutter cut out circles and place on lined baking sheets. Place 1/2 teaspoon of cooled jam off-centered on circle. Fold over one edge of dough over jam, then overlap the opposite edge at an angle to form a cone. See pics.
Bake one sheet at a time, for 12-14 minutes until edges ar light golden.
Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Lift cookies off and place directly on cooling rack.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar. optional)
Store at room temp for up to 10 days.

The 2020 Holiday Cookie Tin

Jest Jammin’ (Christmas Cookies)

By threejamigos | December 24, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

I remarked to hubby the other day, “I ‘ve been pretty bad about baking holiday treats the last few years, huh”. It was a rhetorical question as I pulled out more than a few jars of expired jams. I love filled cookies-Thumbprints, Linzer bars, Raspberry Oaties so I have a penchant for stocking up on “stuff” like preserves, sprinkles, holiday cupcake liners…in preparation for the holiday season.

Somehow I curtailed my cookie baking tradition a “few” years ago. Homemade granola and Candied Spiced Pecans were so much easier. I finally resurrected the cookie baking last year. I eased my way back with an assortment of slice and bake cookies (check out my index for slice and bakes!) but this year, as I guiltily tossed several jars of raspberry preserves, I exclaimed…

JAM IT, I’m baking filled cookies this year!

So without further ado, here is the line-up for this year’s holiday cookie jam-stravaganza.

Cranberry Cherry Ribbon Cookies– Sweet-tart cranberry cherry jam sandwiched between buttery shortbread. I hope Nancy Baggett doesn’t mind, I construct these cookies differently than in her All American Cookie Book- this one is for you, Joe B. (Recipe link soon!)

Raspberry Cheesecake Thumbprints– Good, but I’d make my Thumbprints instead if you like walnuts, or Emeril’s Thumbprints that have a hint of citrus. Yummers.

Dorie’s Jammers – filled with recently bought jams (strawberry, peach and cherry) from Sunblest Orchards. Dorie, my baking hero.

Pineapple Pockets – Flo Bracker’s Sweet Miniatures. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookie with a little scoop of caramelized pineapple jam. Mele Kalikimaka!

Not jam-filled but a holiday imperative I make these

Eric Kim’s Grocery Store Cookie– These cookies make me happy! I don’t even like the supermarket ones, but these? Make them now, you’ll thank me. A soft, tender cake-like vanilla cookie with hot pink raspberry frosting-SO DELICIOUS. Here is his video on making these little smiles. Recipe with my notes posted thru link. Shhh, don’t tell NYT cooking. I subscribe-it’s all good.

Traditional Scottish Shortbread-because it’s my favorite and if I’m making cookies, I’m making these. Looks are deceiving, they are scrumptious.

Pecan Tartlets-not a jam but it is a filled cookie and oh so good. Hubby would disavow me if I didn’t make them.

Yes, this is my holiday cookie run-down. Any of these would make an awesome sweet treat to ring in the New Year, kick 2020 to the curb and usher in 2021. But don’t just bake them during the holidays, make them for Ground Hog Day, Valentine’s Day, MY birthday, YOUR birthday, because it’s Tuesday. Anytime you want to make someone smile. Jamie made Sally’s Baking Addiction Best Sugar Cookies for the delicious beauties below!

Or For A Great Cause!

Happy Holidays

Peanut Butter Miso Cookies -Kool, Bake Me Some of that Funky Stuff

By threejamigos | December 19, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Always on the lookout for cookies with a twist, I came across these cookies in New York Times Cooking. There I was nonchalantly scrolling through my feed when it popped up on my screen PEANUT BUTTER MISO COOKIES. Say what? Miso? In a cookie? Like a lot of folks, I have had Miso Soup, but in a cookie? I was intrigued.

This is essentially a peanut butter cookie that sneaks in miso paste to add umami. It will have your cookie tasters guessing…what’s that yummy salty, edgy flavor? A cookie with a twist, something different but familiar.

Miso Primer

Before getting to the recipe, let’s talk about Miso. Miso is made from soybean that has been fermented with Koji, (the fungus Aspergillus oryzae). It is a cornerstone of Japanese cuisine. It adds a salty, earthy flavor to soups, marinades, and salad dressings. There is white miso or Shiro Miso, red miso or Aka Miso and mixed miso or Awase Miso (red and white). White miso is mild and sweet while red miso is aged longer and develops a much saltier, earthy taste, and is darker in color. Awase. Miso is a blend of both red and white miso. Shiro Miso is the most popular, so if you had to pick just one, this is the way to go. Try Hikari White Organic Miso which can be found in most Japanese stores. Miso Honey Ribs, and Japanese Cha Siu from No Recipes both use white miso and are really delicious.

These cookies follow the standard cookie-making process. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add white miso and peanut butter and cream mixture again, add egg and vanilla and stir in flour. Pop the dough into the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes. The dough will firm up and be easier to handle. Use a 2 tablespoon ice cream scoop (#30-#36) to scoop out portions of dough, and hand shape to form a nice smooth ball. Roll cookies in Demerara sugar or raw sugar which provides a nice crunch. Place on a baking sheet.

The KEY to this recipe, let the cookie dough rest. Put it in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours to allow the miso to mellow. The longer you let it rest the mellower the miso gets.
A great addition to these cookies would be white chocolate chips to compliment the miso or butterscotch chips.

Pan Rapping

A trick from Sarabeth’s baking book. When the edges of the cookies are just beginning to set and the centers puff up, reach in the oven, lift the cookie sheet up, and rap or drop it on the rack. This will cause the cookies to deflate and create those characteristic cracks. Bake until the edges are set. Yes, the precursor to pan banging cookies.

The sweet, salty, earthy flavor of these cookies pairs well with a nice cup of tea. The edge is crispy, the center is chewy and every bite has a nice crunch from the sugar. It’s different, it’s delicious, and a great addition to any holiday box of treats.

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Peanut Butter Miso Cookies

A sweet, salty, earthy, crispy-edged, cookie with a chewy center and a miso twist. Delicious!

Course cookies

Cuisine American, Asian-American

Keyword Peanut Butter Miso Cookie

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 15

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 225 grams
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature 115 grams
1 cup light brown sugar 220 grams
½ cup granulated sugar 100 grams
⅓ cup white miso paste 80 milliliters
¼ chunky peanut butter 60 milliliters
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup 105 grams Demerara sugar, plus more as needed
2/3 cup white chocolate chips or butterscotch chips optional

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and baking powder, and whisk until incorporated. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add miso and peanut butter to the mixing bowl, and continue to mix at medium speed, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of the bowl to make sure all of the ingredients are evenly incorporated, and mix a bit more if needed. Add egg and vanilla extract, and mix until just combined.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, and mix on low speed until flour mixture is incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour mixture in two batches until all of it is incorporated.
Place 1/2 cup Demerara sugar into a small bowl. Scoop out a ball of dough (about 50 grams per cookie-use a 2 T ice cream scoop), and roll each portion between your hands until it is nice and round. (If the dough is too soft to roll, you can pop the mixing bowl in the refrigerator for 5 to 10 minutes to firm the dough up slightly.) Roll the piece of dough into the bowl of Demerara sugar and turn to coat. Transfer each ball to a parchment-lined baking sheet, arranging them about 3 inches apart. Repeat with all of the dough.
Refrigerate for 2 hours and up to overnight. (Even 15 minutes of refrigerator time will help the dough firm up, and the flavors meld. The longer the dough is refrigerated, the more mellow the flavors will be.)
When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes, until crisp at the edges and slightly puffed in the middle. They should still be a bit underdone in the center. Pull out the baking sheet and hit it against a counter. Place back into the oven to finish for about 3 to 4 minutes. When cookies are firm at the edges and slightly puffed in the center, pull them out and again hit the baking sheet against the counter. The cookies should appear flat and crinkly at the center.
Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Store fully cooled cookies in an airtight container; they should retain their chewy texture for a few days.

Thin, Crispy, Gooey, Chocolate Chip Cookies-Get It On, Bang a Pan

By threejamigos | December 11, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

I have been a slouch when it comes to holiday cookies this year. LUCKY FOR ME, Jamie is home and baking up a storm…I get the difficult task of eating and posting about whatever deliciousness she has baked up.

I had all this planned of course. My copy of Sarah Kiefer’s 100 Cookies finally arrived which I then strategically left on the kitchen island in full view. Heh, heh, heh. The book is a beauty both in content and style.

She took the bait. Flipping through the book, Jamie landed on the Neopolitan Cookies exclaimed “so making these”. I kept nodding enthusiastically with every cookie she mentioned. We loved the Neapolitans, buttery, chewy, flavored with vanilla, strawberry, and cocoa. These are definitely going in the rotation. The Smores Bars were labor-intensive but worth the effort. Imagine a blondie base, coated with chocolate and topped with a layer of toasty homemade marshmallow fluff.

Despite the many CCC recipes we have, her Chocolate Chip Cookies and the pan banging technique proved irresistible. All we can say is make room for this bad boy in your chocolate chip cookie file, it’s that good. The cookies are thin, crisp-edged yet soft in the center. They’re dotted with chopped dark chocolate bits and finished with a sprinkle of Fleur de Sel. The dough is sweet so don’t skip the Fleur de sel and definitely use dark chocolate for balance.

You should be running to your kitchen now to make these.

Pan-banging

No, not headbanging which is what I have been doing all year, it’s been that kinda year. I first came across pan-banging in Sarabeth’s Bakery cookbook (a beautiful cookbook) Sarabeth’s Kitchen is a New York institution known for their breakfasts, jams, and baked goods. Her version of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Clouds, calls for rapping the pan on the oven rack with a couple of minutes left in baking. This causes the cookies to deflate and develop their signature cracks. I adopted this rapping the pan for several of my drop cookie recipes including the Oatmeal Apricot Cookies from Dahlia Bakery. Love the way cracks and crevices look in drop cookies.

Sarah takes it to a whole new level, by repeatedly banging the pan in 2-minute intervals, you get these super cool circular ridges that look like a tree’s age rings. The cookies bake thin and flat, they spread quite a bit, so plan on about 5 cookies per baking sheet.

So take your 2020 aggressions out by making these pan banging chocolate chip cookies and end up with beastly cookies. Win-win.

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Chocolate Chip Cookies (100 Cookies)

From 100 Cookies Thin and Crispy, Ridged Chocolate Chip Cookies

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate chip cookies

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10 14

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (284 grams) Gold Medal AP Flour will give you better ridges
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
½ pound unsalted butter (227 grams) 2 sticks, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar (300 grams)
¼ cup brown sugar (55 grams) dark brown preferred
1 large egg
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (170 grams) about 60 percent cacao solids, chopped into coarse pieces, bits and shards. We used TJ's Pound Plus Dark Chocolate
Fleur de sel or Maldon Salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium until creamy about 1 minute. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla and 2 tablespoons water, and mix on low to combine. Add the flour mixture, and mix on low until combined. Add the chocolate and mix on low into the batter. (At this point, the dough can be refrigerated for several hours or overnight.)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Form the dough into 2.5 ounce (~70 gram) balls (#24 ice cream scoop 1/3 cup each). Place 4-5 balls an equal distance apart on pan.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake 7 minutes, until the cookies are puffed slightly in the center. Lift the baking sheet and let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the inside falls back down. (This will feel wrong, but trust me.) Bang it down, if necessary, to make the center fall.
After the cookies puff up again, 2 minutes later, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times, every 2 minutes, to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake 13 to 14 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out, and the edges are golden brown, but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and sprinkle with Fleur de sel or Maldon salt. Let cool10-15 minutes before removing the cookies from the pan.
Repeat with remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

We used a #24 ice cream scoop, ~2.5 ounces and baked for 14 minutes. The original recipe calls for 3 ounces of dough and bake for 15-16 minutes.

You can use King Arthur Flour (higher protein) but it may not develop as many ridges.

I would recommend weighing ingredients, esp flour, for accuracy.

Ah-mazing Toffee Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

By threejamigos | October 29, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Posted on one of my favorite blogs, Ipso Fatto, are a couple of sweets she tried from Food & Wine’s article, The Bake Sale Returns to Its Political Roots. In the current climate, this is right up my alley, political activism through food. A win-win. Her photos and reviews of goodies from the article had me running to my kitchen to get busy and bake.

First up were these fabulous cookies from State Bird Provision in San Francisco. I guarantee they will be a hit at any bake sale or socially distanced gathering. The cookies have a crispy edge, are slightly chewy in the middle, and are a flavor and texture party in your mouth. The apricots provide tartness to balance out the sweetness of the milk chocolate and toffee. The toffee not only adds to the buttery flavor but a wonderful crunch. So good. It’s been a while since a cookie has really wowed me. It was worth the wait.

One of my favorite farmers market stops is Sunblest Orchards. Their beautiful plums and peaches are now distant summer memories, but in their place are jeweled tone dried fruits and a variety of delicious preserves and sauces. I picked up dried apricots, peaches, and their Apricot Habanero Ketchup, so yummy it has replaced my regular ketchup at home. This past weekend they also had persimmons, fresh and dried-yum. Autumn definitely has an upside. Their apricots were perfect in these cookies.

Initially, I was happy that this recipe only makes half a batch of cookies. But they disappeared so fast I wished I had doubled it!

A couple of swap-a-roos

I didn’t have toffee bits but I did have SKOR bars so I chopped up the bars and used a smidge less milk chocolate in the cookies, NBD. A stash of milk chocolate chips was in the pantry so taking the path of least resistance, I subbed them for chopping chocolate. A good trade-off. The dough can be baked immediately but I like to chill the dough. The flavors have a chance to develop (especially the butter flavor) if the dough rests awhile and the cookies tend not to spread as much. Personal preference. I baked the cookies for about 16 minutes (chilled dough) rotating them in the middle of the baking time. They will brown pretty quickly so start checking at 13 minutes.

I really enjoyed these cookies and intend to make them again soon. Hope you’ll try them too. Next…from the same article, a luscious Almond Plum Cake before plums are done for the season.

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Toffee-Apricot Oat Cookies

A delicious buttery, crisp-chewy cookie that has it all, sweet, tart and chocolatey.

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword Toffee Apricot Oat Cookies

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 16

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter 4 ounces, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour about 4 1/4 ounces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup uncooked old-fashioned regular rolled oats about 2 ounces
1/2 cup chopped milk chocolate feelin' lazy ? Use chips
1/3 cup finely chopped toffee can substitute chopped Heath or Skor candy bars
1/3 cup dried apricots about 2 ounces, finely chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325°F with oven racks in top third and lower third of oven.
Combine butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on medium speed until light and creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add egg, salt and vanilla, beat until combined.
Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl. With mixer running on low speed, gradually add flour mixture beating until just combined, about 30 seconds. Stir in oats, chocolate, toffee, and apricots. You can use the dough immediately or cover with plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours.
Line a baking sheet with parchment, using a 1 3/4-inch scoop, arrange balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons each) onto baking sheet, spacing about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake in preheated oven until cookies are lightly browned, 12 to 16 minutes, rotating pan after 8 minutes. To create cracks in cookies, after rotating pan, rap pan on the oven rack. This causes the cookie to deflate and create ridges on the cookie. Optional.
Let cookies cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack, and let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Notes

These lacy cookies are studded with tart dried apricot, salty-sweet chunks of toffee, and sweet milk chocolate for the perfect combination of flavors and textures. Be sure to rotate the pans during baking to ensure evenly baked, perfectly crisp-chewy cookies.

Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies-Take Two

By threejamigos | August 22, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

The search continues for a thin, crispy chocolate chip cookie just like my grandmother use to make. My first try was a Tate’s Chocolate Chip Cookie facsimile by that guru of American desserts, Stella Parks. While absolutely scrumptious-buttery, caramelized, slightly chewy in the middle with crispy edges, they just weren’t my grandma’s cookies. So…

I took a different tack

I googled, buttery, crispy, thin cookies, leaving out the chocolate chips. Surfing the Pinterest pics that popped up, I came across a photo for Crisp Almond Cookies from Chocolate, Chocolate, and More. It looked promising. The cookies were thin with golden edges and a light, flat, center. They looked a whole lot like my Pau Pau’s cookies but without the chocolate.

So I made the recipe for Crisp Almond Cookies and added mini chocolate chips to the dough. The recipe is straight forward, classic cookie making protocol. Cream the butter and sugar, add eggs, dry ingredients, nuts and finally fold in chocolate. Tips for this particular recipe include soft butter (not melting) and room temperature eggs since you want the cookies to spread. Once again I used a tablespoon ice cream scoop to portion out the dough leaving 2-3 inches between each scoop.

The Grandma Test

These cookies looked a lot more like my grandma’s cookies. These were crisper than Stella’s and buttery, without the caramelization. (My test group actually LOVED the caramel flavors of the Stella Park cookies) I think the inclusion of almonds lightened the cookie and make it less chewy and a touch crisper, again more like Grandma’s. I liked them a lot, definitely getting closer to ground zero for Pau Pau’s cookie. I will try it with walnuts next time since that is the nut she used in her recipe. I don’t think it will change the texture but may add that characteristic walnut flavor. The use of baking powder instead of baking soda also reduces browning. It didn’t make these cookies cakey, which you might expect.

I arbitrarily added 1 cup of mini-chips to the dough. I didn’t want to overwhelm the cookies with chocolate. I ended up with more than 3 chips a cookie but I think Grandma would be okay with a bit more chocolate. I would not put more chocolate. In fact, I might decrease the amount to 3/4 cup in the spirit of her cookies. You could substitute a good quality chocolate sprinkle instead, a suggestion from my kid- the Sprinkle Cookie King. The recipe makes quite a few cookies but luckily you can easily half the recipe.

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Crisp Almond Cookies with Chocolate Chips

I took a recipe for Crisp Almond Cookies and added Chocolate Chips! Buttery, crisp with a hit of chocolate, a delicious combination.

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword Crisp Almond Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter softened (337 g) (salted butter)
1 cup light brown sugar 200 g
1 cup granulated sugar 200 g
2 large eggs room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 10 ml
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 280 g Use a moderate protein flour like Gold Medal
1 teaspoon baking powder 4 g
1/8 teaspoon salt 0.7 g If using unsalted butter increase salt to 1/2 teaspoon
1 cup finely chopped almonds 112 g
1 cup mini chocolate chips sub good quality chocolate sprinkles

Instructions

Cream together butter and sugars, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add in eggs and vanilla and beat again.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to dough, one third at a time until all added. Stir in almonds.
Fold in chocolate chips
Using a small cookie scoop (1 tablespoon), place dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet three inches apart (these cookies spread.) Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 8-9 minutes. Until edges turn golden. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe is easily halved. If you are looking for a crisp almond cookie, buttery and sweet, just leave out the chips!

The search continues…but we are headed in the right direction.