I found it! Buried in my recipe binder, a treasured recipe from my friend Joy’s mom. My favorite holiday cookie, Mrs. S’s Toffee Squares. As soon as we received her plate of Christmas Cookies I laid claim to those Toffee Squares, and truth be told, her Crescents, Pecan Tartlets, and Spritz Cookies… lol.
These delightful toffee squares made their appearance, courtesy of Joy, at our preschool cookie swap last week. A gentle reminder to find and post the recipe. So I dug into my cookie files that haven’t been digitized, lol, and luckily found her recipe. I might have to make a batch today to celebrate!
Our 25th Preschool Cookie Swap not only included a variety of delicious cookies but traditional, made from scratch, eggnog.
I also love Alice Medrich’s Toffee Bars, a recipe very similar to Mrs. S’s recipe. The directions offer a little more detail than Mrs. S’s recipe and are equally divine.
Tips for Mrs. S’s recipe:
Use salted butter. This is an old recipe, I imagine, only salted butter was available. If you use unsalted butter, increase salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
Gold Medal or Pillsbury Flour was and is, the most widely available flour. One of those would have been the flour Mrs. S used, but if you only have King Arthur, spoon it lightly into your measuring cup. I have read that folks compensate for the protein in King Arthur by reducing the amount of flour in the recipe by 1 tablespoon per cup. Haven’t tried it myself yet. Mainly because I’m nuts and have multiple varieties of flour on hand including Gold Medal, King Arthur, Bob’s, White Lily 🤷🏻♀️
Reminder, do not overwork the dough after adding the flour to the butter-sugar mixture.
Go crazy, use different chocolate varieties for the topping, dark, milk or bittersweet. Change up the nuts too. Her recipe calls for milk chocolate and pecans or almonds, my “grown-up version” uses dark chocolate and hazelnuts.
Keyword chocolate cookies, toffee bar recipe, Toffee Bars
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 25 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Cookie Base
1/2cupbutter
1/2cupbrown sugar
1teaspoonvanilla
1cupunsifted all purpose flour
1/4teaspoonsalt
Topping
6 1.2ouncemilk chocolate barsor 2 baker's German milk chocolate bars
3/4cupfinely chopped nutspecans
Instructions
Cream butter, beat in sugar and vanilla.
Combine flour and salt, stir into the creamed mixture.
Pat dough evenly into a 13 x 9 x 2 inch ungreased pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Remove from oven, lay chocolate bars on top. When melted, spread evenly over dough. Sprinkle with nuts. Let cool, cut into diamond shape.Makes 44 cookies.
A couple of months ago I reviewed Rose Levy Beranbaum’s new book, The Cookie Biblefor Net Gallery. Long a fan of hers I was excited to take a peek at her latest work, it did not disappoint. My favorite book is Rose’s Christmas Cookie Book, the bible of Christmas Cookies. Her attention to detail and explanation of ingredients and techniques guarantee success for even the most novice baker.
The Cookie Leap
Rose’s Christmas Cookies expanded my cookie-verse. I went from baking chocolate chip cookies (a damn good one though) to making spritz, cut-outs, and crescent cookies-fancy-schmancy festive cookies. Every Christmas, Rose’s Christmas Cookies is front and center on my kitchen counter.
One of my favorites from this book is Rose’s Crescents. The fact that there are so many variants is indicative of their deliciousness and universal appeal. Austrian Viennese Crescents, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Greek Kourabiedes, and Snowballs-all start with ground nuts, flour, sugar, and butter mixed together and baked into a buttery, blissful bite. Rose tweaked hers, instead of rolling the cookies in powdered sugar, they are rolled in a mixture of superfine sugar and cinnamon. Sublime.
Here’s the Good Part
She includes directions on how to make certain recipes in a food processor. Not all cookies can be made in a processor but the ones you can, simplify the process and shorten the time. No more waiting for the butter to come to room temp. It is essentially a one-bowl recipe, how great is that?
The Food Process
Place almonds and sugar in a food processor bowl and process until almonds are very finely ground. Cut butter into pieces and with the motor running, add butter and process until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides and add flour and salt and pulse to incorporate the flour. Remove the dough from the processor and gather it into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour until firm.
I use a #50 or #60 ice cream scoop (1 tablespoon plus of dough). Roll dough into a cylinder about 2.5-3 inches long. The dough softens quickly so work fast, use your fingers to roll as your palm has more heat. As you roll the dough into cylinders, put a bit more pressure on the ends to taper them. Pinch the ends to fine-tune the shape into points.
I have also made these smaller using a #70 scoop when I want dainty little tea cookies.
I love these cookies. Don’t wait until the holidays to make them!
1⅔c.All Purpose Flour (prefer Gold Medal or Pillsbury AP flour)8.25 ounces or 235 grams See notes regarding flour
¼tsp.Salt
Topping:
½c.Sugar100 grams
½tsp.Cinnamon
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 325º.
Place almonds and sugar in food processor or blender and process until nuts are finely ground; set aside. See notes in post for making in food processor.
Cream butter in large mixing bowl. Add almond mixture; beat until light and fluffy. Gradually mix in flour and salt until well blended.
Shape dough into a large flat disk; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.
For topping, combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.
Work with one-fourth of the dough at a time; refrigerate remaining dough. Shape dough into ¾ inch balls; roll each into a 3-inch log. Place on unbuttered cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Shape into crescents.
Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until set but not brown. Cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. While still warm, remove cookies from cookie sheets. Dip into cinnamon sugar turning gently to coat. Finish cooling on wire racks.
Notes
So, why did I specify Gold Medal Flour. Rose's Christmas Cookies was first published in 1990. At the time, King Arthur Flour and other Small Company Mills were not widely known. The standard, easy to get flour was Gold Medal or Pillsbury Flour, bleached all-purpose flour. The protein content of which is slightly lower than King Arthur or Central Milling. This can impact your cookies in terms of tenderness and spread.For cookie recipes I have that date back quite a few years, I use Gold Medal Flour. If you have Rose's newest book, she will specify the flour to use. Recipes these days, I check to see what the author has specified first. More than likely I'll use King Arthur (that's what I normally have in my kitchen) but during the holidays I always have a stash of Gold Medal too!
NCOTB #2 Orange, Pistachio and Chocolate Shortbread (New Cookies on the Block)
Yay, the TwelveSeven Eight Days of Christmas Cookies!
The best-laid plans of mice and me…sometimes need a tweak. Actually, not to pat myself on the back or anything, I think I did pretty “good”. In between holiday baking we took a quick trip to Seattle. Four days of eating, walking, visiting the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden and Glass, and watching the Forty-Niners beat the Seahawks! I still managed to bake 8 days of Christmas cookies!
The NCOTB (new cookies on the block, a nod to all you boy band fans) include a couple from this year’s New York Times Holiday Cookies. My favorite of the bunch is Eric Kim’s Gochujang Caramel Cookies (I’ve made three batches already). Crispy edges, chewy center, buttery with a sweet kick from the Gochujang paste, it’s different and delightful. My other favorite (can you have two favorites?) is Sue Li’s Orange, Pistachio, and Chocolate Shortbread. Buttery shortbread studded with candied orange peel, green pistachios, and dark chocolate for a visually fun and tasty cookie.
Cookie Caveat
But, the first time I read through the recipe and NOTES (ALWAYS read the notes, foodies are not shy about sharing their opinion of a dish) it became clear that there were a couple of hitches in the recipe. My OCD-Sherlockian-Watson persona took over. I poured over the comments and scrutinized the measurements and directions (occupatinal hazard, I’m a pediatric pharmacist).
My dear NYTCooking – Something is afoot, there are discrepancies in the volumes and weights for this recipe, where are your editors? LOL. 3 cups of flour is not 419 grams. 3/4 cup of granulated sugar is not 175 grams. So, I set about to modify the recipe as best I could:
I used 375 grams of King Arthur AP Flour aligning with std measurements for a cup since there were quite a few comments that the dough was too dry & crumbly.
Sue Li commented once to use 175 grams of sugar, so that’s what I used. If there is wiggle room it would be with the sugar, use 150 grams for a not-as-sweet cookie.
The butter is also off, I opted to go by weight not volume.
I added 1 tsp vanilla, which couldn’t hurt plus added a bit more moisture.
The dough came together nicely. Do not overmix, once it starts to clump, stop and gather together.
The 8-hour chilling time in the original recipe allows the flour to absorb moisture and hold together. The modifications result in a nice, moist dough. You may not need an 8-hour chill time. The dough needs to be solid enough to slice and still hold its shape.
See how “purdy” the orange, green, and brown specks are?!
The finished cookie was buttery, with a fine crumb texture, with the candied orange, pistachios, and chocolate taking it over the holiday top. Luckily I squirreled away some dough in the freezer (the beauty of slice-and-bake cookies) that will be lovely on New Year’s Eve with a glass of bubbly!
Whisk together flour and salt in a medium bowl. Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using an electric mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), beat at medium-high speed until the mixture is pale in color, about 2 minutes, periodically scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula (don't skip this, it makes a difference). Add egg yolk and blend until combined.
Add flour mixture and mix on low until combined. If there are dried bits of flour left around the bowl, use a rubber spatula to smoosh them in with the dough. Add orange peel, pistachios and chopped chocolate, fold in with a rubber spatula. (The dough will be crumbly (although with the modifications, less so). If necessary, use the electric mixer to add the mix-ins, or work them in with your hands until fully incorporated.)
To form the cookies, line an 8 by 8-inch baking pan with plastic wrap and leave a generous amount of overhang on all sides. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan and press firmly to flatten in an even layer. Cover with plastic wrap and chill dough for 8 hours or overnight before baking.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using the plastic wrap overhang, remove the dough from the pan and cut the square into three equal rectangles. It's going to be tough to get out of the pan but just be patient and pull gently on the plastic to gradually remove from pan.
Cut each rectangle crosswise into roughly 1⁄3-inch-thick slices and lay them flat on the prepared baking sheets, about 3⁄4-inch apart. (If the dough crumbles when slicing, simply push the mixture together to reform the cookie.) Bake until lightly golden on the bottom but still blonde on the edges, 15 to 17 minutes.
Remove from the oven, allow cookies to cool on the sheets. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Last year my absolute favorite cookie was Eric Kim’s Grocery Store Cookie. I called it my Marie Kondo cookie, it brought me JOY. The original Lofthouse cookies, a cakey blob, packed in plastic trays covered with copious amounts of fake frosting and sprinkles…elevated to a wondrously delicious cakelike, buttery, tender cookie topped with raspberry buttercream frosting. The only thing the two cookies had in common was the SPRINKLES.
Guess which one is the Grocery Store Cookie?
As soon as NYTcooking posted this year’s Holiday Cookies, I looked for Eric’s cookie. It wasn’t hard to find, his was first on the list. For the kid in all of us, Eric developed a recipe for festive M&M Cookies. (Bonus: Video of Eric making these!) Simple, nostalgic and YUMMY. A hint of crispiness on the edge, surrounding a chewy cookie dotted with M&Ms. The M&M’s are cut into pieces so you get this really nice distribution of the candy coating and chocolate center. With the first bite, I was transported back to my 9-year-old self.
M&Ms aren’t easy to cut and not bounce around! My dough bowl and mezzaluna came in handy!
Cookie Workout
The cookies can be made with one bowl, whisk, and spatula (or wooden spoon) with the caveat that you start with soft butter (not melted) butter. If you have a thermometer, it’s around 65-68 degrees. You will also need some arm power as the recipe calls for beating the mixture for one minute to smooth and fluffy. One minute, whisking a dough by hand is pretty long. Opt for your mixer unless you haven’t done your workout for the day.
Geeking Out
The baked cookies ended up with crevices that weren’t apparent in Eric’s batch. I have a theory, I chilled my dough overnight which meant the dough was pretty cold, the butter had solidified and the dough had additional time to hydrate. The chilled dough is a tad more resistant to spreading and collapsing thus creating fissures. Here’s a great geek article on chilling your dough from Buzz Feed. Next time I’ll bake them off with just a short chilling time to see if they don’t develop cracks. I don’t think it impacted the flavor or texture too much. If you try different M&Ms please leave a comment! I think it would be amazing with peanut M&Ms or almond M&Ms.
I like these, I LOVE the Grocery Store Cookie. I’ll be making both for the holidays.
So, make these cookies, pour yourself an ice-cold glass of milk, grab a cookie and enjoy the holidays. I’m going to watch BIG, the perfect movie to go with these cookies!
Straight back to childhood, M7M Cookies, are chewy and a delight to eat.
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Almond Cookies, ERic KIm, M&M Cookies, NYTcooking
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Ingredients
½cup(115 grams) unsalted buttervery soft
1cup(200 grams) granulated sugar
¼packed cup(57 grams )dark brown sugar
1large eggat room temperature
1tablespoonvanilla extract
1teaspoonkosher saltDiamond Crystal or ¾ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
¼teaspoonbaking soda
1 ½cups(185 grams) all-purpose flour
½cup(96 grams) M&M’s
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 large sheet pans with parchment.
In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla and salt by hand until smooth and fluffy, at least 1 minute. Whisk in the baking soda, then switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Add the flour, then carefully and coarsely chop the M&M's, and add them, too. Gently stir to combine. Place the bowl in the refrigerator while you wait for the oven to finish heating.
Using two spoons or a cookie scoop, plop out 2-tablespoon/50-gram rounds spaced a couple of inches apart on the sheet pans. (You should get about 8 cookies per pan.) Bake until lightly golden at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on the sheet pan; they will continue to cook as they sit.
Notes
If you really want to use your ixer. The key is not to overmix. On a Kitchen-aid when making cookies I rarely go above setting 4 (medium) when mixing cookie dough. YOu don't need turbo which would increase the chance of overbeating.YOu might want to fold in the flour and M&Ms to avoid overmixing. If not, set mixer to stir and mix until you don't see any flour and stop. Finish it off with a spatula.
Here we go, Twelve Days of Cookies to kick off the holiday season!. From one of my favorite cookbooks this year, Kristina Cho’s Mooncakes and Milk Bread, her Grandfather’s Almond Cookies. If you are looking for a great holiday gift, her book is amazing. Literally, recipes of your favorite Chinese Bakery goods, Pineapple Buns, Cocktail Buns, Cha Siu Baos, Egg Tarts. I was over the “moon” when her book came out.
Hoping for a return to a bit of normalcy (thankful for vaccines), I headed to my favorite bookstore, Omnivore Books in the City, for an in-person meet and greet with Kristina. She came with a batch of Almond Cookies to share. My first bite, buttery, crispy edges, almond-ny, absolutely delicious, I made a mental note to put this cookie on my bucket list.
These cookies can be made entirely by hand. Classic cream butter and sugar until smooth. Don’t overmix. Add egg and almond extract and then dry ingredients. Chill the dough as these cookies tend to really spread. Paint them liberally with the egg wash. I bake them on parchment.
From Kristina Cho’s Mooncakes and MIlk Bread, delightful, crisp, buttery almond cookies.
Course cookies
Cuisine Asian-American
Keyword Almond Cookies, Kristina Cho
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Ingredients
125g1 cup all purpose flour
1/4teaspoonbaking soda
1/2teaspooncoarse salt
113g1/2 cup; 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
130g2/3 cup sugar
1large egg
3/4teaspoonpure almond extract
1large egg yolk
15sliced almonds
Flaky saltfor topping
Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine the butter and sugar with a spatula or wooden spoon until smooth. Add the egg and almond extract and continue to mix until fully incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a thick dough is formed (it will be sticky). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until slightly firm but scoopable, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a 1 1/2-tablespoon cookie scoop, measure out 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and place on the prepared sheet. (Or use a spoon to
scoop and roll the dough into a smooth ball, wetting your hands if the dough is still sticky.)
Repeat with remaining dough, spacing them 3 inches apart. Wet your fingers with water to prevent dough from sticking and gently press down on the dough balls with your fingers until they are 1/2 inch thick.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and use to lightly brush the tops of the cookies. Place an almond slice on each cookie.
Bake until cookies are golden brown and crisp around the edges, 16 to 18 minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack, sprinkle with flaky salt, and allow cookies to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to the rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Directions to make cookies with a mixer. The key is to not overbeat! As easy as these are to make by hand, some of us just love our mixers. Combine butter and sugar in mixer bowl. On medium speed, beat mixture until smooth and creamy. It should not reach the light and fluffy stage! Add egg and almond extract and beat on medium until combined. Add dry ingredients, combine on stir or lowest speed until the flour mixture is incorporated and you don’t see any dry spots. You can always stir in the flour by hand. The cookies spread quite a bit so don’t crowd them on a baking sheet. Use an ice cream scoope to portion out your dough.
So, let the TOC begin!
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.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar. optional)
Store at room temp for up to 10 days.
The 2020 Holiday Cookie Tin
Jan Hagels, Anyway You Slice It, That’s the Way I Want It
Bah Humbug, for some reason I have not been able to get into holiday “drive”. Maybe I’m still jet lagged from our trip to New Orleans or I am still in a Creole butter coma.
The Cookie Cure
Gotta Snap Out Of It. Maybe baking tried and true recipes might work. I dug out my Christmas cookie journal to peruse and get in the cookie mood. A binder filled with cookie recipes from magazines, photocopies of recipes from books along with my own notes, and pictures drawn by my kids when they were little. It’s my cookie bible.
I flipped to “Our Favorite Cookies”, from an old issue of Ladies Home Journal. Ninety percent of you are thinking, what? It’s a Women’s magazine, think, Better Homes and Garden with dresses and makeup tips. Raise your hand if you remember it (seriously dating yourself now). This is the epicenter of my annual holiday cookie extravaganza.
Jan Hagels are on the “gotta make them every year” part of the list. Which is always a good way to start to find your cookie groove. These little Dutch gems are thin and crispy, spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice, and flecked with sliced almonds. They are my mom’s favorite and the first one she will reach for on the cookie platter. How can I not start with these?
Options, roll out the Jan Hagel dough and emboss the dough for traditional Jan Hagel OR form the dough into a log, chill, slice, and bake. Yeah, picking option #2. Chill the dough well, which makes it much easier to slice into the prerequisite 1/8-inch slices. Bake on parchment as the cookies will stick to the pan as they cool. Trust me on this one.
This recipe makes quite a few cookies and the finished cookie keeps very well. Stash a log in the fridge or freezer for freshly baked cookies at a moment’s notice.
Just Can’t Put My Finger On It
The Walnut Thumbprintsfrom the same article also find their way onto my annual baking list. They’re buttery, nutty, tender, a little bit crumbly, and absolutely delicious. Last year I switched hazelnuts for the walnuts, a genius move. Find toasted hazelnuts at TJ’s, which makes life infinitely easier. As much as I love pecans, they aren’t a good choice, they don’t have that pronounced bite walnuts and hazelnuts have.
Slice, Slice Baby
On a roll with slice and bake cookies. Next up, Ginger Oaties from Grand Central Bakery cookbook, a book that has languished on my shelf for years.
Lovely slice and bake Dutch cookie made with almonds, butter, and brown sugar. Flavored with allspice, cinnamon, and ginger. Sweet, spicey, crisp, perfect with a cup of tea.
Course cookies
Cuisine Dutch
Keyword Dutch Almond Cookies, holidays, Jan Hagel
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Da Dry Stuff
1-1/2cupAll purpose flour
1 tspbaking powder
1tspcinnamon
1/2tspginger
1/4tspsalt
1/8tspallspice
Cream the Following:
1/2cupbutterreg salted (its an old recipe), if using unsalted increase salt to 1/2 tsp, 1 stick or cube
1/2cupdark brown sugar
1/4 cupgranulated sugar
Da Wet Stuff
`1large egg
1tspvanilla extract
Adds
3/4cupsliced almonds
Instructions
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and allspice in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugars in mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture until blended. Stir in almonds.
Gather and shape dough into 8x2-1/2 -1-12 inch brick. Wrap in wax paper or parchment and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cut brick crosswise into 1/8-inch thick slices. Line cookie sheet with parchment and bake 8-10 minutes until firm.
My brother-in-law’s mother passed away unexpectedly a few days ago. Through the years we would see her at family functions and exchange pleasantries. Every Christmas we were the lucky recipients of one of her signature pink cake boxes filled with a variety of delicious homemade holiday cookies. We all had our favorites. Me, I loved her almond cookies. They were just like the ones in the windows of Chinatown bakeries, crumbly, full of almond flavor and finished with an almond pressed into the center.
Unfortunately I do not have her recipe but I do have one by Belinda Leong of B patisserie in San Francisco. Bursting with almond flavor and buttery goodness this is an amazingly delicious cookie that for me pays tribute to Mrs. F. Baking these lovely morsels conjures up the image of her pink boxes stacked on the holiday table. Most of all it reminds me of her warm smile and her kind and generous spirit. She will be missed.
Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace)/Auld Lang Syne performed by Yo- Yo Ma and Chris Botti
The recipe for these wonderful almond cookies is from Andrea Nguyen’s blog post Viet World Kitchen. The recipe was first published in the book Chef’s Table by Carolyn Jung. There were some glitches in the recipe and luckily food people are of the most generous spirit. No sooner had I emailed Ms. Nguyen she responded answering all my questions and updating her website. Here is the link to the recipe on her blog, Viet World Kitchen. I weighed the flour using the 8.75 ounces and used 1/2 cup volume measurement for the sugar. Start checking the cookies early. My batch only took 12 minutes to bake. If you like crisp, buttery, almond flavored cookies..BAKE THESE, you won’t regret it.
Buttery, crispy, full of almond flavor. These cookies from B's Patisserie are a winner.
Course cookies
Cuisine Asian
Keyword Almond Cookies
Ingredients
1 3/4cups8.75 oz / 250 g all-purpose flour
1/4teaspoonbaking powder
1/2teaspoonfine sea salt
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
4ounces120 g almond paste
1/2cup3.5 oz / 100 g sugar
2sticks8 oz / 225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
4ounces120 g sliced or chopped slivered almonds
Powdered sugar
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C / gas mark 4) with a rack in the middle position. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and soda. Set aside.
Use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment to make the dough. Cut the almond paste into thick slices or big chunks. Put them in the mixer with the sugar. On low speed, mix the ingredients together until the almond paste has broken up into big pea-like pieces.
Pause to add the butter. On medium-low speed, beat the ingredients until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until just combined (you no longer see flour bits). Add the almonds and use the lowest speed (“Stir” on a Kitchen Aide) to mix into the dough.
Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar in a small bowl or on your work surface. For slightly gnarly/textured cookies, pinch off balls of dough – each the size of a big cherry tomato (1.5 inch / 3.75 cm wide). Roll in powdered sugar, then place on the prepared sheet pan, spaced 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Flatten each ball slightly as you work. (If you want neater cookies, squeeze and roll the dough into a fat log and cut crosswise into pieces. Roll them into balls, coat in the sugar, etc. See the photo above.)
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown at the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for several days.
