Tag: #holidaybaking
Nutty for Almond Meltaways

Nutty for Almond Meltaways

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I contemplated using the tiniest font size possible when I typed “cookie #12 of my 12 days of cookies” when I realized I actually can’t change the font size. Damn! It’s the second week in January and here I am finally posting the last holiday cookie.

At least it is a good one, Almond Meltaways.

I would not be surprised if one of the first cookies I ever nibbled on was an almond cookie.   Every bakery in Chinatown makes a version of the egg-washed, crinkly cookie with a hallmark whole almond pressed in the center of each.  Made with lard or shortening these cookies are crumbly, sandy, crisp, and redolent of almonds. In a nutshell-yummy.  While friends pulled out sugar or chocolate chip cookies from their lunch bags, I pulled out almond cookies from mine.  Those days are a distant memory but I still love eating almond cookies.

On my last jaunt to Los Angeles, I made a quick pitstop at a family favorite in Chinatown, Phoenix Bakery.  When we were kids, my mom, distantly related to the owners, always made it a point to stop there when we were in LA.  After catching up with the latest news of our families, they would pack boxes of Almond Cookies and Butterflies for us to bring home.  I love their Butterflies, a bow-shaped sheet of dough deep-fried to make them shatteringly crisp and covered with a sweet, sticky, gooey syrup-a dentist’s dream.  If you are ever in LA, do yourself a favor and pick up a box.  The bakery just celebrated its 80th anniversary, no small feat for a family-run business and a testament to their delicious sweets.

I enjoy almond cookies anytime. But almond cookies are a must during New Year and an integral part of any New Year’s celebration.  Symbolizing coins, they represent good fortune and prosperity in the New Year.

Although it would be hard to beat the almond cookie of my youth, I am always trying new recipes for almond cookies. I’m glad I tried this one.  They’re delicious.  The recipe comes from the blog The Beach House Kitchen and is a wonderful stand-in for Chinese Almond Cookies. The fine grain texture and tenderness come from the use of cornstarch, confectioners’ sugar, and shortening while the butter and almond extract provide the flavor.

The dough comes together in a snap. Use a tablespoon ice cream scoop (#70 scoop) to portion out the dough.

The dough is flattened with a glass dipped in sugar and a whole almond pressed in the center.  After baking, a quick dusting of powdered sugar is the final touch before serving these gorgeous cookies.

I can’t wait to bring these to this year’s celebration, Happy Year of the Pig!

Like Almond Cookies?  Here are  a couple of other favorites, Almond Clouds from King Arthur’s Flour and Almond Cookies from B’s Patisserie in San Francisco.

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Almond Meltaways


Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Almond Cookies
Prep Time 16 minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/3 cup all­ purpose flour 167 gm
  • 1/2 cup whole almonds finely ground 75gms
  • 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar 71gm
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch 56gm
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature one stick
  • 1/2 cup shortening room temperature
  • 2 tsp. almond extract
  • whole almonds for garnish
  • granulated sugar for dipping
  • confectioners' sugar for garnish

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together flour, almonds, confectioners' sugar, corn starch and salt until well combined. Set aside. 
  • Combine butter and shortening in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, on medium speed beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add almond extract. 
  • Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, beating until the dough begins to clump and form a ball around the paddle.
  • Shape the dough into balls, about one tablespoon each and place on baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in some granulated sugar and then press a whole almond into the center of each cookie.
  • Bake for 12­-14 minutes, until just lightly browned and firm when gently touched. Let stand on baking sheet for 5 minutes, before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
  • Shake confectioners' sugar on tops of cookies
A Crinkle Just In Time: Cookie #11 Lemon Crinkles

A Crinkle Just In Time: Cookie #11 Lemon Crinkles

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Jamie is home and decided it was time to bake and bail me out, as she always does, on my attempt to post 12 Days of Cookies.  I’m soooo close, this is cookie number 11.  If it wasn’t for “being under the weather”, I would have posted this yesterday. We definitely needed a citrus cookie so she picked a Lemon Crinkles.  The recipe comes from Fresh April Flours by Lynn.  I think it was karma that Jamie picked this recipe, Lynn is a scientist by trade and a field hockey player. Imagine that?  Fate.

A riff on Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, these gems are bursting with lemon flavor, a delightfully refreshing cookie that’s easy to make and sure to appeal to any citrus lover.

If you are a lemon FREAK.  You could up the amount of zest or play with the amount of lemon juice (just a bit since adding liquid can effect the texture).  Remember, adding zest ups the lemon flavor while adding lemon juice will increase the tartness.  Baking soda also tempers sourness (which is why I add baking soda to my buttermilk biscuits, I don’t want the tang).  You could play around with leaving out the baking soda and adding more baking powder…but this is speculation on my part, so you are entering the change at your own risk zone.

Using you handy dandy ice cream/cookie scoops.  Use a 1.5 tablespoon scooper for a good size cookie.  Roll the scoops into smooth uniform balls before LIBERALLY rolling in the powdered sugar.  Some of the sugar will be absorbed by the moisture in the dough.  For that nice white jagged snowy cap, keep on rollin’.

Cookies spreading too much?  Chill-out and chill the dough well.  This means on warm days, chill the dough, scoop out the balls, if they are soft, chill again.

Bake these bad boys off and sit down with a nice cup of tea and enjoy! Or tease your Dog…

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Lemon Crinkle Cookies

A citrus riff on the classic chocolate crinkle cookie.  A refreshing change of pace.
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword Crinkles
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
1 hour
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 18 cookies
Author April Fresh Flours

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature = 1 stick
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg room temperature*
  • 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 T for more tartness
  • zest of one lemon can increase for more lemon flavor

Instructions

  • In a medium size bowl, toss together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl with a hand mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (approximately 2-3 minutes). Beat in vanilla, egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
  • Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Cover bowl and chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour and up to 3 days. If chilling longer than 1 hour, allow to sit at room temperature about 15 minutes before rolling into balls.
  • When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
  • Pour the powdered sugar onto a large plate. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop the dough out of the bowl and roll into a ball with your hands. Dough ball does not need to be perfect. Roll the ball of dough generously in the powdered sugar. Place no more than 8 balls of dough on a baking sheet at one time (4 rows of 2). Chill dough you are not using.
  • Bake cookies for 13-14 minutes or until cookies look mostly matte (not wet or shiny). Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 10 days. Baked cookies freeze well, up to 2 months. Rolled cookie dough can be frozen up to 3 months. Roll in powdered sugar before baking and bake frozen. Add another 1-2 minutes to baking time.

Forward Progress…courtesy of Jamie….an Instagram Story on making Lemon Crinkles! It gets a little loss in translation on the blog but it’s a start..onto 2019!

Ashure Cereal
Crazy 8 Day: It’s Crack Not A Cookie but It Deserves to be on the List

Crazy 8 Day: It’s Crack Not A Cookie but It Deserves to be on the List

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This year I joined in on Food52’s Holiday Gift Swap. It was simple, all I had to do was  make a donation to their designated charity and promise to send a food-centric gift by Dec. 10th.  A couple of days later, I received my “Secret Santa” swapee’s name and address.  My swappee lives in Colorado, I already had a list of go to items I wanted to send her like Jule’s granola and my cousin’s spiced pecans.

My box of goodies came from Catherine of Salt Lake City.  Like a kid in a candy store, I quickly tore the box open and discovered a treasure trove of gifts, sweet and salty chocolate sprinkles, popcorn seasoning, salad toppings, a too cute kitchen towel and a delicious cereal mix- Ashure Cereal that I started munching on immediately.  Luckily, Cathy included the recipe by Saimin Nosrat in the NY Times. It starts with a base of puffed wheat, nuts, and sesame seeds.  Then spiced with cinnamon, cardamon and mahaleb, (a middle eastern spice from cherry seeds, think bitter almond) and finally toasted in the oven with brown sugar, honey and oil.  It is addictively delicious.

After scarffing down the bag, I knew I had to make my own batch.

This is where the search begins…

I head to my favorite market, International Food Bazaar.  I unwittingly thought that the spices would be the hardest to find. Surprisingly not true.  Most of the ingredients and spices can also be found online.

With Mahaleb in hand, I head to my neighborhood grocery for the puffed wheat cereal…

4 STORES later, I walk out empty-handed and dejected.  Not a bag or box of puffed wheat to be found.  Apparently it is really hard to find puffed cereals without sugar added.  Who would have “thunk” it?

I took to the internet, and found Vitacost, a supplement/health food site where I not only find Puffed Wheat, but Puffed Kamut (an ancient grain), Puffed Corn and Puffed Rice. You can find Puffed Rice by Quaker Oats in the supermarket, a great alternative for a gluten free version. I like Puffed Kamut. I would definitely cut a bit of the cereal and add more nuts and Mahaleb.  Watch carefully when baking as it browns fairly quickly.  I love it over yogurt and fresh fruit or straight out of hand.

So be forewarned, the most difficult ingredient to find will be the cereal.  But it will be well worth it, Ashure Cereal is absolutely delicious.

Here, for you to drool over, my Food 52 holiday swap gift  from Cathy!

Ashure Cereal
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Ashure Cereal

Course Snack
Cuisine Middle Eastern
Keyword cereal
Cook Time 15 minutes
30 minutes
Servings 10 servings
Author Adapted from NYT

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup /85 grams neutral-tasting oil such as canola
  • 6 tablespoons /110 grams honey
  • 1⁄2 cup /110 grams dark brown sugar packed
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon ground mahaleb increase to 3/4 -1
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 10 cups /160 grams puffed wheat sub Puffed Kamut or Rice
  • 3/4 Scant cup /85 grams halved pecans increase to 1 cup
  • 1⁄3 cup /50 grams pumpkin seeds
  • 3 tablespoons /30 grams sesame seeds
  • 1⁄2 cup /85 grams almonds very roughly chopped, or left whole with skin

Instructions

Step 1

  • Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions. Heat to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.

Step 2

  • Combine oil, honey and sugar in a medium saucepan, and set over medium-high heat. Whisk well, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.

Step 3

  • In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients, and mix well. Once the honey mixture comes to a boil, carefully pour it over the dry ingredients. Working quickly, use a large silicone spatula to stir, turning the contents of the bowl over until everything is coated evenly with the syrup. Transfer mixture to baking sheets, and use spatula to flatten out cereal into an even layer.

Step 4

  • Place baking sheets on prepared oven racks, and bake for 10 minutes.
  • Carefully remove 1 tray at a time, and use spatula to stir cereal around. Rotate trays 180 degrees, and switch oven positions to ensure even baking. Bake for 4 to 6 minutes longer, until golden brown and well caramelized. Remove from oven, and allow to cool entirely on the trays before breaking cereal into large clusters.

Step 5

  • Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Happy holidays and happy baking!