Cookies Archives - Page 15 of 16

Halfway There! Pecan Sandies Day 6 Holiday Cookies

By threejamigos | December 15, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

Day 6 of #holidaycookies! Another one bite wonder, this time brought to you by the delightful blog Smitten Kitchen. I have to admit, I love SK but she is making me feel like a slacker. As I struggle to get my 12 days of holiday cookies completed, multiple posts pop up daily from SK. She must have a band of elves that help her every night or perhaps she spent summer trying winter holiday recipes that she is now posting. I have this vision of her baking gingerbread in July in her apartment in one hundred degrees and the AC is broken. I think the Holiday Cookie Countdown is turning me into Grinch.

The recipe is from The Last Course by Claudia Fleming which unfortunately is not in print anymore. If you ever see a copy grab it, the Caramel Chocolate Tarts are worth the purchase alone. Smitten Kitchen + Claudia Fleming + Pecans = Appointment baking.

The key to these cookies is toasting the pecans. It’s a good cookie not great. Like many shortbread cookies they may benefit from sitting a day for the flavor to develop. I sprinkled some sanding sugar on them but I think I may make a blend of Fleur de Sel and sugar to sprinkle on my next batch (my sweet salty fixation) or maybe dip them in chocolate. The cookies are cut into 1 inch squares and 3/16 of an inch thickness. I would prefer the cookie a little larger, say 1.25 inches square and 1/4 inch thick just to give the cookie a little more substance. My little cheats call for using a ziplock bag to roll the dough in for straight edges and a pizza cutter to cut the squares, nifty huh. Still a lovely cookie to present on a platter with other nibbles.

Smitten Kitchen in July + Sand-ies which makes me think of beaches = a tropical holiday song! Mele Kalikimaka by the Brothers Cazimero. Enjoy!

Print Pin

Pecan Sandies

Ingredients

1 cup about 110 grams pecans
2 cups 250 grams all-purpose flour
1 cup 225 grams or 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup 80 grams confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons 10 ml vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons 25 grams turbinado (raw) sugar (I used white sanding sugar)
1 teaspoons of Fleur de Sel

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts out in one layer on a baking sheet and bake them, stirring occasionally, until they are well browned, 10 to 13 minutes (they will smell toasted and nutty). Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool.
In a food processor, grind the nuts with 1/4 cup of the flour. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Sift together the remaining 1 3/4 cups of flour, the salt, and the baking powder, and add it to the dough, mixing until just combined. Stir in the nut mixture. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper to 3/16 inch thick (a rectangle approximately 10 x 14 inches). Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1-inch squares, then cut the squares on a diagonal into triangles (I skipped the last cut into triangles). Sprinkle the cookies with the turbinado sugar. Place them 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets (do not reroll the scraps). Prick the cookies with a fork and bake until pale golden all over, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Sesame Cookies: Day 5 of Holiday Cookies

By threejamigos | December 12, 2015 | Comments 1 comment

It isn’t intentional and may be a blogosphere faux pax for all I know. Like posting multiple pics on Instagram on a single day which my kids tell me I shouldn’t do. But after posting Sally’s Sesame Cookies I stumbled across another recipe for sesame seed cookies on of all places the Huffington Post. I did a bit of sleuthing as I am prone to do and found that the recipe was created by Dorie Greenspan and first published in Food & Wine magazine. That made this recipe a no brainer. After all Cookies + Dorie Greenspan is a slam dunk as far as I am concerned. So here it is a second sesame seed cookie!

This is perfect for cocktail hour. These cookies are salty with just a touch of sweetness and would compliment any happy hour libation. They have the fine crumb of shortbread and ooze buttery goodness. Totally my kind of cookie plus I love the black and white sesame seeds. To top it off they are quick and easy to make. See? SLAM DUNK.

I chose a duet to go along with this cookie since it has 2 kinds of sesame seeds and drinks are mentioned in the song. Its a classic with about a billion renditions out there. I like the version by a favorite artist of mine James Taylor. Here it is, JT (the original one) with Natalie Cole, Baby It’s Cold Outside.

A food processor makes quick work of the dough (snap) which is then chilled for couple of hours (time to cyber-shop). I originally thought I would cut the dough into little bars but they look better round. I used a 1.5 inch cutter which made them the perfect one bite cookie. Don’t be alarmed by the amount of salt, it is suppose to be salty but is not overly so. The recipe in Huffington Post calls for adding water to help the dough clump but Food & Wine does not. I was able to get the dough to clump without using water. I poured the dough into a ziplock bag and smooshed the dough just until it came together. Don’t overmix! Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness using the sides of the bag to create a nice straight edge. It may not fill the entire zip-lock bag but at least you will have 3 even sides. Chill dough until firm. If the dough gets too soft as you are cutting out the cookies, place in fridge or freezer for a couple of minutes to firm it up. You can find almond meal in most markets now a days thanks to the gluten free movement. Two pound bags are available at Costco and are quite reasonable. Black sesame seeds can be found at most Asian markets and probably at Whole Foods.

Print Pin

Sweet & Salty Sesame Cookies

Ingredients

From Food & Wine Magazine by Dorie Greenspan
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup almond meal or ground almonds see Note
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 large egg beaten
Black and white sesame seeds for sprinkling ( 1:1)

Instructions

In a food processor, pulse the flour, almond meal, sugar and salt until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture forms large clumps.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead gently until it comes together. Divide the dough in half and press each half into a disk. Roll out each disk between 2 sheets of wax paper to 1/4 inch thick. Slide the wax paper–covered disks onto a baking sheet and freeze for at least 1 hour, until firm.
Preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with one piece of dough at a time, peel off the top sheet of wax paper. Using a 1 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out the cookies as close together as possible. Arrange the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Lightly brush the cookies with the egg and sprinkle with the black and white sesame seeds.
Bake the sesame cookies for 17 to 20 minutes, until they are lightly browned; shift the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

MAKE AHEAD

The rolled-out frozen cookie dough can be wrapped in plastic and kept frozen for up to 2 weeks; thaw the dough slightly before using. The baked cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

NOTES

Almond meal is available at health food stores and at many grocery stores. To make your own, process 4 1/2 ounces blanched almonds until finely ground.

SUGGESTED PAIRING

Green-appley California sparkling wine: NV Scharffenberger Brut

Cookie Sleuth (Sally’s Sesame Cookies)

By threejamigos | December 8, 2015 | Comments 2 comments

Day 4 of the 12 Days of Cookies..surprisingly I’m on schedule…I think

I wanted to choose a song that fit this cookie recipe but instead, I picked a beautiful song that is so relevant to what is happening in our world right now. Someday at Christmas sung by Jack Johnson.

When it comes to cookies I border on obsessive. If a recipe doesn’t turn out as expected, I turn into Sherlock Holmes. The game is afoot to solve the mystery of why a cookie doesn’t taste quite right, why it spreads too much or too little. I tried different baking sheets and tested parchment versus Silpat. Maybe it’s the butter, did I cream it too much or too little? Auugh, enough to drive me bonkers. I do have a few friends that I commiserate with who will leave no cookie unturned. My friend Kristine is like that. In another life we would both be happily ensconced in America’s Test Kitchen furiously measuring, testing, mixing, tasting.

Swap Cookies and Tips

For our cookie exchange, Kristine made her always-popular sesame cookies. The recipe was given to her by her mother-in-law Sally. Much like Benne wafers of the South, these little gems are crispy, buttery, and jam-packed with sesame seeds, a sesame flavor bomb. Kristine first shared Sally’s cookies and recipe at our inaugural preschool cookie exchange. I loved them. I made a batch but they just weren’t the same. The bottom looked lacey with lots of holes, the texture was different, and the cookie was much too crunchy.

This happens randomly with both tried and true recipes and new recipes. I would then e-mail the author of the recipe, call King Arthur Flour’s hotline, or run it by fellow bakers. At our most recent exchange, though we hadn’t seen each other in quite a while, Kristine and I immediately launched into a conversation about the texture change in my batch of cookies. Obsessive? Crazy? You be the judge.

Luckily, Kristine’s batch was perfect!

This is the perfect holiday recipe. It is a slice-and-bake cookie. You can make the dough in advance, throw it in the fridge or freezer, and bake off cookies when you need them. It makes a boatload of delicious cookies (~ 100 of those bad boys).

Print Pin

Sally's Sesame Cookies

Also known as Bennes, these southern favorites are crisp, light and redolent of sesame

Course cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Benne Wafer, black sesame seeds, cookies, slice and bake, Southern

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Ingredients

1 lb. butter 4 sticks
1 ½ c. sugar.
3 c. all purpose flour
1 c. sesame seeds
2 c. Angel flaked coconut sweetened
½ - 1 c. chopped almonds or walnuts.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300F.

Cream 1 lb. butter and 1 ½ c. sugar until blended and smooth. Do not over overmix.
Add all purpose flour, sesame seeds, coconut, chopped almonds or walnuts. Mix well. Chill; divide dough into four equal logs. Wrap each roll in plastic and keep refrigerated (may be frozen).
Take out one roll at a time and slice ¼ inch. Leave ½” space between cookies.
Bake for approximately 30-min. being careful not to over brown. I’ve never baked them the full 30-min.

Makes over 100 cookies.

Notes

Recipe is easily halved

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (Almond Clouds)

By threejamigos | December 6, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

I manage to combine everything I love in one trip. How cool is that? Crew, travel, photography, food..life is good, eat pie.

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow by Diana Krall

New England Bucket List

Row at Head of the Charles in Boston: Check
In Boston:

Delicious dinner at Amelia’s Trattoria in Cambridge
Sticky buns and Jam Pop-tarts at Flour
Survive Boston traffic

Jane, Mary and Debbie’s Excellent Adventure: Check
Experience New England Fall colors Semi-check (a little too late)
Visit Quechee, Vermont.
Walk the covered bridge to get to Simon Pearce Glass
Listen to SiriusXM Radio They play 6 artists from each decade over and over and over
Chocolate-covered oyster crackers? Yep, Cocoa Bean Montpelier, Vermont

Find obscure pie shed in the middle of nowhere and eat scrumptious pie: Check

Poorhouse Pies Underhill, Vermont, get the Key Lime Pie, you won’t regret it. After watching A Few Good Pie Places on public television, this was our destiny….

Visit baking mecca King Arthur Flour: Check

Is this Heaven? No, it’s Vermont. Is it possible to pack 15 pounds of flour in my suitcase and not exceed airline weight limit? Apparently not.

And now for that cookie recipe I promised. Straight from King Arthur Flour, Almond Cloud Cookies. Yes, gluten-free and ridiculously easy, child’s play…just saying. I recommend a food processor to make the batter, an idea from Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake, making it incredibly easy to make.

I used almond paste from the King Arthur Flour catalog. It calls for bitter almond oil, but, you can substitute vanilla extract and still taste the almond.

The dough is fairly stiff. I made my cookies a little smaller using a tablespoon ice cream scoop. Instead of sifting powdered sugar over the batter before baking, just roll the balls of dough in the sugar.

Do not skip the 3 finger indentations. The cookies look better. Baking time was approximately 15 minutes. The edges will be crisp and light brown and the centers soft and chewy. If you love almond and have a sweet tooth, this is the cookie for you.

Print Pin

Almond Cloud Cookies

Ingredients

1 10 ounce can of almond paste
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites lightly beaten
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp. bitter almond oil substitute vanilla extract for this
1/4 salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Place almond paste and sugar in food processor bowl. Pulse to blend until mixture looks crumbly
Add egg whites, salt, extracts to almond sugar paste.
Blend until smooth. Batter will be fairly stiff, should be able to scoop batter out with tablespoon ice cream scoop.
Roll in powdered sugar until evenly coated
Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Gently press three fingers into the top of each dough ball.
Bake 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the center still chewy.

A Ridiculously Easy Peanut Butter Cookie

By threejamigos | December 5, 2015 | Comments 2 comments

Are you ready to start baking for the holidays? I tried two new cookie recipes yesterday to take to our annual holiday cookie swap and both are winners. We started our swap way back when the kids were in pre-school and through the years we have managed to keep the tradition alive. Our early gatherings were during the day with kids and babies in tow but have now morphed into a mom’s happy hour. We eat, drink, catch up on what we are doing as well as the kids and of course trade cookies. Amazing how quickly 17 years have flown by.

The first thing you should know is that both recipes are STUPID EASY. My favorite cooking category. If you are looking for cookies that are delicious and will illicit oohs and aahs, look no further. Oh, did I mention they are both GLUTEN FREE? BAM! The trifecta. I did not choose them because of that, they just happen to be gluten free. Here is the first one, Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.

To go along with these crazy good cookies here is a Peanuts favorite The Charlie Brown Christmas Song sung by Mariah Carey.

As the song is playing, pullout the peanut butter (smooth or chunky), brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, vanilla and 1 egg. That’s all you need for this recipe! I found multiple versions of this recipe online and adapted the one from Our Best Bites. These cookies are soft, chewy and scream peanut butter flavor. You can add chocolate to take it to another level, its entirely up to you. Enjoy!

Print Pin

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter smooth or chunky
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I use 1/2 cup white sugar & 1/4 cup golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
Sugar for rolling
Chocolate chunks I use the chunks from TJs, you can use chips if you like
optional: heaping 1/2 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips I recommend dark or semi-sweet

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine peanut butter and sugars and until smooth (1-2 minutes on medium speed).
Add egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix for about a minute.
If adding chocolate, fold into dough now. Chocolate is optional, really.
Using a tablespoon ice cream scoop, scoop and shape dough into balls, roll in sugar.
Place balls on parchment lined cookie sheet, approximately 11/2 inches apart.
Using a fork, flatten with a criss cross pattern, or simply flatten with the bottom of a glass.
Press one chocolate chunk or chip into the center of cookie after flattening the dough.
Bake for 8-9 minutes, don’t overbake!
Let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies. Recipe can be doubled easily.

Feed the World…Cookies! (Dorie’s Jammers)

By threejamigos | December 4, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

Is it December already? Time to get in the holiday spirit. In my book that means baking cookies and listening to holiday tunes. I am an unabashed lover of Christmas music. You won’t find me anywhere near a mall on Black Friday. Instead, I’ll be home pulling out my favorite Christmas CDs and kicking back. I’ll wait for CyberMonday to get serious about shopping. For my first holiday season blogging, it seems fitting to create a top 12 days of Christmas cookies list with holiday tunes to go along. If you have a tried and true delicious recipe you make every year, I would love to post it here to share with everyone. Just email or message me on Facebook. A virtual cookie swap! Don’t forget to include your favorite Christmas song, a picture of your creation, and if there is a special story behind the recipe.

I’m Excited, Lets Get Started!

Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid just for you.

Just like her World Peace Cookie, this is another yummy cookie by Dorie Greenspan (how does she do it?) aptly named Jammers. These edible jewels start with a tender shortbread cookie base topped with a nice dollop of jam and finished with a buttery, crumbly streusel topping. Before Dorie released her recipe Tim of Lottie + Doof created his version. The original Jammers are made in 3-inch ring molds. I opt to make them smaller in mini-muffin tins, an idea I found on another blog. Either way, they are delicious.

A Couple of Tips When Making these Cookies

Feel free to use your favorite jam. I often use a couple of different ones for the color appeal. Butter or spray the tins well or the cookies will stick to the pan. I use a tablespoon ice cream scoop to measure out the dough into each cup and lightly tamp the dough into the tins. This is not like a tartlet or mini piecrust. The dough should be a thick layer (~1/2 inch thick) filling approximately 2/3 of the cup. I would leave some space at the top or the jam will spill out as the cookies bake. Top with a generous sprinkle of streusel but try to leave spots of jam exposed. It is prettier that way.

Go Big Or Go Home

Christmas Eve 2022: So I decided I wanted to get closer to the original Jammer, that is, a bigger cookie. I pulled out my regular muffin tin to make Dorie’s Jammers. Through experimentation, I settled on 25 grams of dough that I tamped into each muffin cup. Yep, no rolling and cutting. This should give you a disc of dough about 1/2 inch thick that pretty much fills the tin.

The rest of the recipe is pretty much the same. Baking time is a little longer, approximately 20-22 minutes until the edge is golden brown.

Print Pin

Dorie Greenspan's Jammers

Ingredients

Adapted from Lottie & Doof's version of Dorie Greenspan's Jammers by Blackjack Bakehouse

Makes about 42 cookies

Cookie dough

1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt heaping
2 large egg yolks at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

Streusel Topping

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt heaping
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

Directions for dough:

In large bowl or in bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until very creamy. Add the sugars and salt and beat until well combined, about 1 minute. With mixer on low, beat in egg yolks and vanilla until well blended, about one minute.
Add all of flour at once and with mixer on low, blend with butter mixture until just combined. Do not overmix! (I barely beat it in and then combined the last few streaks of flour with a spatula.)
Press dough into a mound and cover dough in bowl with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap against the dough. Cover bowl tightly with more wrap or foil and chill for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

Directions for Streusel:

Place butter in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in microwave. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well-combined and pebbly. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

When ready to bake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray thoroughly. These babies like to stick a little, so grease the cups well.
Break up the streusel crumb topping mixture with a fork until pebbly and set aside.
Press small mounds of cookie dough, about 1 tablespoon-size, into each cup as though making a thick cookie crust (as opposed to a thin pie crust that will just crumble when you try to remove it from the mini muffin pan). The crust should come up to just below the rim of the cup and there should be a small indention in each cup for the filling.
Place about 1 teaspoon of jam/pie filling in each indentation, then top the filled cookies with a generous sprinkle of streusel mixture.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the top edges of the cookies are golden brown and the crumb mixture is golden.
Allow cookies to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then carefully remove and allow to cool directly on wire rack until completely cool.
Store, uncovered or lightly covered, at room temperature

Worlds Best Cookies (Kid Approved Cookies)

By threejamigos | November 19, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

There are two types of cookies in this world, kid cookies and adult cookies, and lately, I’ve been baking lots of kid cookies like chocolate chips. Tired of making chipsters, I pulled my copy of San Francisco a la Carte, a junior league cookbook that’s easily 25 years old, to find the recipe for World’s Best Cookies. It’s a classic and family-favorite non-chocolate chip cookie.

I needed lots of cookies (enough to feed a hockey team, lol) and these fit the bill. The cookies are crispy, crunchy, chewy, buttery, and nutty. Cookie Nirvana. The crisp texture comes from using oil in the cookie. Cornflakes give it additional crunch while the flaked coconut and oatmeal add chewiness. After creaming the butter and sugar, oil is added, keep mixing, the dough will look curdled but will smooth out. Add the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is incorporated. The dough is soft, chill it so it is easier to handle. Use a tablespoon ice cream scoop to form the dough. Press the cookies flat with a fork dipped in sugar. This also gives them that distinctive crosshatch mark found on old-fashioned peanut butter cookies. The recipe makes approximately 6 dozen cookies, plenty for a crowd.

Print Pin

Worlds Best Cookies

Delicious, buttery, crispy cookie made with cornflakes, coconut, oats, and nuts adapted from the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco a La Carte

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword cookies, cornflakes, oatmeal, World's Best Cookie

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 17

Ingredients

Creamed Mixture

1 cup butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil

Dry Ingredients

3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Additions

1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup crushed cornflakes
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal not quick cook
1/2 cup chopped nuts walnuts or pecans

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F.
Cream butter and sugars until smooth and light. Add in egg and vanilla. Add in oil and mix well. At this point, the batter will look a little strange, but keep going.
Add in the cornflakes, oatmeal, coconut, and nuts. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt and add to mixture. Mixture will be soft, chill for 30-60 minutes.
Using a cookie scoop, measure 1 tablespoon of dough and drop onto a parchment lined cookie sheets. Using a fork dipped, flatten the top of each cookie. If the fork begins to stick, dip it into a glass of cold water.
Bake 15-18 minutes (the recipe in the paper said 12 minutes, but in my oven, that was not enough time, or else, I like my cookies a little crispier!). Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely.

Milk and Cookies Anyone? (Peanut Butter Cookies)

By threejamigos | October 31, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

Lately I have been on a peanut butter kick. Slathered on apple wedges, chunks of banana, in celery to make it edible, or a pbj sandwich when I am off for a bike ride or at a regatta. It is eminently convenient, a great energy and protein source and the added bonus, a pbj sammie makes me feel like a kid again. If you are old enough, you’ll remember the giant peanut butter cookies that every self-respecting school cafeteria sold back in the day. Peanut Butter Cookies from the Buttery in Santa Cruz remind me of those cookies, big, chewy and peanutty. The recipe first printed by the LA times can be found via the blog, Ipso Fatto. What sets these cookies apart is rolling the dough in peanuts before baking. It adds extra texture to an already buttery, salty, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside cookie, double yums. The recipe calls for pastry flour, I used White Lilly AP flour, a soft wheat flour found in the South (perks of having a kid in Nashville). Used for biscuits, it has a lower protein content similar to pastry flour. I also used a low sodium crunchy peanut butter, not a health conscious decision, I just picked up the wrong jar at the market! I did add some salt because of this, but I don’t think it is necessary, my batch was pretty salty. I plan to use the low salt peanut butter and omit the extra salt next time. For the sake of my waistline the days of eating giant cookies are over so I rolled the dough into a 12-14 inch log with a diameter of 1-3/4 inches with each slice about 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick. This made approximately 2 dozen cookies. Bake for 12-14 minutes. If you like peanut butter cookies put this one on your need to bake list!

Print Pin

Peanut Butter Cookies The Buttery

Ingredients

Adapted from the LA Times and Ipso Fatto Blog
1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon baker's sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1/2 cup low salt chunky peanut butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups 6.4 ounces pastry flour or White Lily All purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dry-roasted peanuts or honey roasted peanuts I used low salt peanuts)

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream the butter over medium speed just until creamy. Add the sugars to the butter and cream together, careful not to over-mix. Scrape down the bowl to make sure the sugars and butter are evenly combined.
Beat in the egg just until incorporated, then beat in the peanut butter, scraping down the bowl again after mixing.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, beating until smooth and the flour is evenly incorporated. Scrape down the bowl, making sure the ingredients are combined and smooth.
Remove the dough from the bowl and form it into a rough log, approximately 2 1/2 inches thick. Place the dough in a sheet of parchment paper and roll the dough in the paper so it is smooth and a consistent 2 1/2-inches thick throughout the log. The log will be about 9 inches long. If the dough is a little soft, chill in fridge for 15-30 minutes.
Place the peanuts in a rimmed cookie sheet and gently roll the dough in the peanuts to coat on all sides. The peanuts should stick to the log; if they don't, brush the roll with a beaten egg, then roll it in the peanuts so they stick. Wrap the finished log in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate until well-chilled, at least 2 hours, up to overnight.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the cookies into 1-inch-thick slices and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them at least 3 inches apart, as the cookies will spread while they bake. Bake the cookies until set and browned around the edges, about 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking for even coloring. Cool the cookies, still on the baking sheet, on a rack until set and cool enough to handle.
Serve with an ice cold glass of milk!

When Life Gives You Lemons…Make Lemon Bars!

By threejamigos | August 16, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

Who doesn’t love lemon bars? But just to be sure, I do have two recipes for lemon bars to cover just about everyone.

For the longest time, my favorite Lemon Bar was from Michael Bauer’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle. A classic lemon bar with a meltingly tender crust topped with a sweet lemon curd and dusted with powdered sugar. These bars were the hidden gems in a summer picnic basket or the citrus foil to the chocolate cookies on the holiday cookie tray.

Along came Alice

….Medrich that is, the chocolate maven. She penned a wonderful little cookbook simply titled Cookies and Brownies (still available luckily). Fifty recipes of classic cookies to cookies with a twist. Hands down the best snickerdoodle, delicious butter cookies with pecans and cocoa nibs, and Steve’s brownies, fudgy and decadent. For years I shied away from the bar cookies in her book. The recipe started with melting the butter for the crust. Whaaat? Melted butter for a shortbread crust? Just didn’t seem right. I finally gave in and I am glad I did. These lemon bars are a party in your mouth, the classic lemon bar amped up. The crust is buttery and crispy crunchy not soft, the perfect foil for the filling which is sweet but tart enough to make your taste buds stand up and take notice.

The next time you make lemon bars, make the classic bars if you are feeding a swarm of little kids. They’ll love them. But if you are taking them to your friends, make Alice’s version, all grown up with attitude, just like us!

This recipe can be baked in a tart pan, once again upping the wow game on these bars. After pressing the dough into the pan, freeze for 15 minutes before baking. If the crust puffs while baking, poke it back down with a fork. To ensure it keeps its shape weigh the crust down with pie weights and remove about halfway through baking. Remember to bake to a rich deep golden brown for a crispy, buttery crust.

Alice's Lemon Bars

A grown-up version of Lemon Bars from Alice Medrich. Tart lemon filling in a buttery, crisp base, absolutely delicious.

Course bar cookies, cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword alice medrich, buttery, lemon, Lemon Bars, lemon curd, tart

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Ingredients

For crust:

8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted 1 stick
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp regular table salt or sea salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

For topping:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 -1/2 tsp finely grated lime or lemon zest
1/2 cup strained freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

Position a rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of 8- by 8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil.

To make crust:

In a medium bowl, combine melted butter with sugar, vanilla and salt. Add flour and mix until just incorporated. Press dough evenly over bottom of pan. Freeze dough for 15-20 minutes until firm. Start filling while dough chills.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until crust is fully baked, well-browned at the edges and golden brown in the center. If dough bubbles poke a few holes in it andpat it down.

To make topping:

While crust is baking, stir together sugar and flour in a large bowl until well-mixed. Whisk in eggs. Stir in lime or lemon zest and juice. When crust is ready, reduce heat to 300 degrees, slide rack with pan out and pour filling onto hot crust. Bake 20 to 25 minutes longer, or until topping no longer jiggles when pan is tapped.
Remove from oven to a wire rack to cool completely. Lift up foil liner and transfer bars to a cutting board. If surface is covered with a thin layer of moist foam (not unusual), blot surface gently with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture; repeat with a fresh piece of paper towel if necessary.
Using a long, sharp knife, cut bars into 16 or 24 daintier bars and sift powdered sugar over bars, if desired. Stored in an airtight container, bars can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
I bake my lemon bars in a rectangular tart pan with removable bottom. It gives the bars a nice side crust and a nice finished look. The idea came from the blog Baking Obsession Check it out for instructions to bake in a rectangular pan.