Yes, you are not seeing double, this is a different recipe for Ted Lasso’s biscuits! AND it’s a good one. I am a Johnny come lately to Ted Lasso having ignored the initial buzz about the show until…
Biscuits with the Boss
…recipes and articles started popping up on the internet for Ted’s Biscuits. That’s when I took notice. The show is funny, endearing, cute, and a bit bawdy, just the escape we all need. All that and biscuits, made it irresistible.
It seemed only fair that I try the “official” Ted Lasso Biscuit from Apple TV first. The biscuits had a smooth texture, were a bit crumbly and not too sweet. The second day brought out the buttery flavor making this a very respectable shortbread biscuit. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. I would make these again, say, if I didn’t have eggs for Christina Tosi’s version or if I wanted an easier, simpler, cookie.
I have been a fan of Christina Tosi for a long, long times since her days at Momofuku. Her Corn Cookies, Crack Pie and Compost Cookies are iconic. Soooo, when she posted her version of Ted’s Biscuits, yeah, I ran not walked to my kitchen and got busy.
Tosi’s version is more typical of a shortbread recipe, beat the butter and sugar just until smooth and creamy, not fluffy. Atypical are the addition of egg yolks to the batter. This adds fat and moisture to the cookies making them softer, moister than shortbread. The powdered sugar lowers the protein for a tender cookie. Adding a touch of brown sugar gives the cookie a caramel finish. The cookie is rich, buttery, with a super fine, tight crumb almost like a dense pound cake.
The addition of egg yolks makes for a soft dough. Try not to overmix dough, I stopped mixing once the dough starting clumping. Press the dough into the pan. You can dampen your hand which helps with the stickiness. Use an offset spatula to smooth the top.
It isn’t necessary to line the pan with parchment, but I did, it’s easier to remove from the pan. The baking temperature varied on different sites between 315 and 325 degrees. At 325 degrees, the cookies were ready in 35 minutes. Force of habit, I docked the dough with a fork for even baking. Unlike traditional shortbread, during baking, the holes disappeared, probably due to the egg yolks. Docking shortbread allows steam to escape, no bubbles, and even baking, is it necessary with this recipe, not sure.
During baking, the top of the dough forms a shiny, golden brown layer, the edges will be a deeper brown. Completely cool the cookies before cutting. The texture is soft, and cutting was not a problem. Cut cookies out to desired size and shape, rectangle or square. I divided the dough into 3 then cut each third into 8-9 rectangular cookies. Perfect pink box size. Make these cookies now.
Christina Tosi’s version of Ted Lasso Biscuits. It’s a winner!
Course bar cookies, cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword biscuits, Shortbread, ted lasso
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Ingredients
1cupunsalted butter, 2 stickssoftened
1 ⅓cupconfectioner’s sugar
3tablespoonslight brown sugar
3largeegg yolks
1 ¾cupAll purpose flour
1/2tspscant kosher salt
Instructions
Heat the oven to 325F Line a 8x8” baking dish with parchment, grease pan
Using a mixer, beat butter, sugars and salt together on medium speed until smooth and creamy
Stir in the egg yolks
Add the flour and mix just until the dough just comes together. Do not over mix.
Press dough into an even layer in the pan. The dough will be sticky, dampen hands (just a bit) to press dough in. Spread and level dough with an offset spatula. Dock dough with a fork 2 inches apart.
Bake at 325F for 35 minutes or until a thin, golden brown layer forms on top.
Cool completely before cutting into 3 rows. Cut each row into 8 pieces.
Notes
Can be baked at 315 degrees for 45 min or until golden brown
I LOVE Shortbread cookies and have quite a few recipes on 3jamigos that are shortbread-centric. I live by the motto “more butter, more better”. Food52 shared the recipe for biscuits from the Ted Lasso show, of course I made them. It was a no-brainer, an automatic cookie bucket list entry. In fact, it was The “biscuits” that enticed me to watch the show. Up to that point, Ted Lasso was not even on my radar despite friends and family buzzing about it. Well, I started watching Ted Lasso and the buzz is justified. Optimistic, empathetic, decent and endearing, qualities we seemed to be in short supply of these days. Ted Lasso is the perfect escape and the biscuits are pretty darn good too.
The Premise
American football coach goes to England to coach FOOTBALL. LOL
Biscuits with the Boss
Each day Ted brings a box of biscuits (cookies) to his boss, Rebecca. A tiny pink box filled with buttery goodness. Scrumptious biscuits, solid acting, a funny storyline, and Jason Sudekis, 🍿🍿🍿🍿.
The recipe is the “official one” provided by Apple TV, the distributor of Ted Lasso. There are other “me too” recipes out there (that of course I am going to try) like Christina Tosi’s version, but I figured this was a good place to start. These are essentially shortbread cookies. Did I like them? Yes. Do I think they are the be-all-end-all? Probably not.
My absolute favorite Shortbread is from an essay in Cuisine Magazine (sadly gone), “My Father’s Shortbread”. A Classic Scottish Shortbread–buttery, sandy texture, nice crumb, melts in your mouth and yet has some substance to the bite. It is the cornerstone of every holiday box of cookies we give out at Christmas. It is my be-all-end-all shortbread.
My second favorite is Bouchon’s Shortbread, tender, melt in your mouth, screams butter. It is a beautiful cookie. A little sweeter from the dusting of sanding sugar on the cookie.
Back to Ted
Don’t get me wrong. I will make Ted’s Biscuits again. They have a smoother texture than classic shortbread and a softer bite. I’m guessing it has to do with beating the butter much longer than the other shortbread recipes, the addition of powdered sugar and baking at a higher temperature than classic shortbread. The crumb is much more uniform so you don’t get that same sandy texture.
The cookies are baked in an 8 inch pan and cut after they are cooled. Start checking at about 40 minutes during baking. My batch turned a nice golden brown at 45 minutes. Cool cookies on a rack. The cookies are cut after they cool. Use a sharp serrated knife to keep the cuts clean and minimize breaking. I’m not sure why they aren’t cut warm, I might try that next time.
The cookie tastes better the next day, the butter flavor shines when given the chance to sit. Patience has its rewards.
So if you are sitting down to watch Ted Lasso, make a batch of any of these biscuits. It will make the show that much more fun and enjoyable. If you are like Ted, have a cup of coffee not a cup of garbage water (according to Ted). Me, I would love a steaming hot cup of tea.
Ted’s a simple man as are his biscuits. A classic, buttery shortbread.
Course biscuits, cookies
Cuisine American, European
Keyword butter, cookies, Shortbread, ted lasso
Prep Time 15 minutesminutes
Ingredients
2cupsall-purpose floursifted
¾cuppowdered sugar
1cupunsalted buttersoftened
¼teaspoonkosher salt
Sanding sugar optional
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 300℉
Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and set it aside
Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter for three to five minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar.
Add flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together. Do not overmix.
Press into baking pan, keeping the dough as even as possible. I use an offset spatula and a tamper to even out the dough. Chill for a minimum of 30 minutes in the refrigerator before baking.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until it looks golden-brown but is still a little soft to the touch. Take the pan out of the oven. Sprinkle with sanding sugar now if using. Let it cool completely on a rack before cutting them.
Remove from pan and use a serrated knife to cut slices to the dimensions you like. Ted cut his into squares, I cut mine into rectangle shape like Walker Shortbread. Go find some cute pink boxes too!
The release of Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook guilted me into getting on the J-O-B and writing this post. It seems like only a nanosecond ago I made them when actually, the recipe for these Breton-Style Palets is from her newsletter a couple of months ago. At the time, I posted a pic of these delicious morsels on IG. The caption of course read, ‘notes, coming soon on 3Jamigos. I do abuse the ambiguity of the word “soon” a little too frequently.
Without Further Ado
Breton-Style Palets. Ah, one bite had me singing “Smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover, breaking into my heart like that”. A tender buttery cookie that sits at the intersection of shortbread and Madeleine. An absolute delight, not too sweet with a little pop of salt in each bite.
These cookies are very straightforward with a genius tweak from Dorie. First, start with great butter, this is the cornerstone of these cookies, no skimping. The other essential ingredients are flour, and powdered sugar, which tenderizes the cookie and gives it that sweet kick. Egg yolks which add another layer of richness, and finally, salt, for that burst of contrast at the end. According to Dorie, you can add vanilla and or citrus zest, but I’m a purist, I didn’t.
If you start with soft, NOT melted butter, you can actually make these cookies by hand with a bowl and wooden spoon. I used a mixer, being very careful not to overbeat the butter or the dough after adding the flour. Overmixing the butter adds too much air. Aim for a smooth and creamy mixture, NOT light and fluffy. Over-beating the dough after adding the flour, develops the gluten creating one tough cookie. So a light hand peeps.
Logging In with Dough Boi
The dough is very soft and sticky after mixing. I leave the dough in the mixing bowl, press Saran Wrap on top, and chill it for 30-60 minutes before shaping it into a roll. It makes life easier, trust me. Take the dough out of the fridge and shape it into 2 logs about 6 inches long, wrap, and then throw those bad boys into your freezer for at least two hours. When they are thoroughly chilled, it is “slice and bake” time.
Don’t look too closely, this roll is not the butter babies of this post. It is here to illustrate how to make a slice and bake roll round. Roughly shape your dough into “a just short of” the size log you want. Place the dough on parchment or wax paper ( a large enough piece to surround the dough and then some), fold it over the roll, place a straight edge on top of the parchment, tucked right into the bottom part of the roll. Hold onto the bottom edge of the parchment and pull while simultaneously pushing on your straight edge. This creates pressure and forces the dough to form a nice round log, ta-da. Why didn’t I make a video? That would have been so much easier.
The Dorie Move
Here come the Dorie pearls of baking wisdom and technique. This is a soft dough, which will spread when baking. So to get those perfectly round, lovely cookies, Dorie bakes the slices of dough in a muffin tin, that’s right Buttercup, in a cupcake pan. Genius! Beautiful, perfectly round, how did you do that-cookies.
Now go and make these cookies, they are a ray of sunshine to combat the coming winter weather. Come back to this blog when you’re done, by then I will have posted Dorie’s Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies baked in that very same cupcake pan you used for these cookies… You’re welcome.
*Hmmm, made the Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies yesterday night, they were not up to expectations so I’ll have to tinker with the recipe a little…Stay tuned!
Another delicious cookie from Dorie Greenspan in the shortbread camp. Buttery, tender, slightly sweet, with a sprinkling of salt for that Breton signature.
8ouncesvery soft (but not oily) unsalted butter226 grams
3/4cupconfectioner’s sugar, sieved or sifted90 grams
1/2 to 3/4teaspoonfleur de sel or 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon fine sea saltto taste
2large egg yolksat room temperature
1 1/2teaspoonspure vanilla extract, optional
Instructions
Whisk the flour, baking powder and baking soda together; set aside.
In an electric mixer on low-medium speed or with a flexible spatula (if your butter is soft and creamy, the dough is very easy to make by hand), beat the butter, sugar and salt together until very smooth. If you’re using a mixer, go easy – try not to beat air into the mixture. One by one, add the yolks and beat to blend. Beat in the vanilla, if you’re using it.
Add the dry ingredients in two additions, beating each until just incorporated. The dough will be soft and sticky. Cover dough with Saran Wrap and chill for 30-60 minutes.
Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a log that’s about 5 1/2 to 6 inches long (get the length and the width will be fine). Freeze the logs for at least 2 hours.
Just before cutting and baking, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. The rack should be in the center of the oven.
Working with one log at a time, unwrap the log and score it so that you can cut 12 rounds. If a round cracks or slivers when you cut it, just press the pieces back into shape. Drop each slice into each cupcake hole of a standard-size muffin tin.
Bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes – rotating the tin front to back after 10 minutes. Bake until the cookies are beautifully golden around the edges and just firm to the touch in the centers. Remove the tin from the oven and place on a rack, carefully run a knife around the edge to loosen each cookie, invert the pan onto a cooling rack to release them. The cookies are very fragile, so be gentle with them. Cool to room temperature on racks before serving.
Notes
Storing: Packed in a covered container, the cookies will keep for at least a week.
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.
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 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Cookie
1cupunsalted buttersoftened 2 sticks
6tablespoonspowdered sugar
2-1/4cups all-purpose flour
1/2tsalt
Orange zest from 1/2 orange
1teaspoonvailla extract or paste optional
finely shredded coconut, unsweetened preferred but sweetened is ok too
Dulce de Leche
1-14ouncecan of sweetened condensed milk
Pinchof kosher salt or Fleur de Sel
1/4-1/2teaspooncinnamonoptional
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.
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!
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.
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 minutesminutes
Cook Time 45 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour
Ingredients
Da Wet Stuff
1/4 cupUnsalted butter55gm
3/4 cupCoconut milk170gm
1 cupWhole milk240gm
2Eggs
Da Dry Stuff
1 3/4 cupGlutinous rice flour225gm
1 cupGranulated sugar200gm
1tspBaking powder
Flaked or shredded coconut for garnish, preferably unsweetened but use what you like
Prep Yo Pan
Butter
Rice flouroptional
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
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!
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 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
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 ¼cupscake flour(285 grams)
2teaspoonsbaking powder
Da Wet Stuff
½cupunsalted butter (115 grams) 1 stick, at room temperature
3ouncescream cheese (85 grams) at room temperature
1cup granulated sugar(200 grams)
½teaspoonkosher salt
2large eggsat room temperature
1tablespoonvanilla extract
Frosting
1cupfreeze-dried raspberries (30 grams) finely ground in a food processor or spice grinder
1cupunsalted butter (225 grams) 2 sticks, at room temperature
2cupsconfectioners’ sugar (245 grams)
1teaspoonvanilla extract
Pinchof kosher salt
Da Bling
Multi-colored SprinklesHappy 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
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.
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.
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 Thumbprintsinstead 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
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 Recipesboth 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.
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 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Ingredients
1 ¾cupsall-purpose flour225 grams
¾teaspoonbaking soda
½teaspoonbaking powder
½ cupunsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature115 grams
1cuplight brown sugar220 grams
½cupgranulated sugar100 grams
⅓cup white miso paste80 milliliters
¼chunky peanut butter60 milliliters
1large egg
1 ½teaspoonsvanilla extract
½cup105 grams Demerara sugar, plus more as needed
2/3cupwhite chocolate chips or butterscotch chipsoptional
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.
It seemed only fair that I try the “official” Ted Lasso Biscuit from Apple TV first. The biscuits had a smooth texture, were a bit crumbly and not too sweet. The second day brought out the buttery flavor making this a very respectable shortbread biscuit. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. I would make these again, say, if I didn’t have eggs for Christina Tosi’s version or if I wanted an easier, simpler, cookie.
