Coffee Malteds from Dorie’s Cookies a great cookie for all Java Junkies and even those that aren’t coffee lovers. The addition of malted milk powder adds a nutty, vanilla, earthy flavor-a touch of Ovaltine in your cookie. To take them over the top, Jamie dipped them in chocolate, genius!
8tablespoonsunsalted buttercut into chunks, at room temperature
1/2cup100gms sugar
1/4cup50gms packed light brown sugar
1tablespoonground coffeepreferably from espresso beans (or use instant or powdered coffee or espresso)
1/2teaspoonfine sea salt
1large eggat room temperature
1large egg yolkat room temperature
1teaspoonpure vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat it to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Whisk the flour, malt powder, and baking powder together.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, both sugars, espresso, and salt together on medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, return to medium speed and, one by one, beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla, beating for 1 minute after each goes in.
Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once and pulse, just to begin incorporating the flour and malt powder. When the risk of flying flour is passed, mix on low speed only until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough. You'll have a rather crumbly dough, but that's fine. Give the dough a few last turns with a sturdy flexible spatula and then reach in, knead if necessary and gather the dough into a ball.
Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of dough, or use a teaspoon to get rounded spoonfuls. Roll the dough into balls and place them an inch apart on the lined baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets top to bottom and front to back after 8 minutes. The cookies will be soft and golden only around the edges; they won't look done, and they're not—they'll firm as they cool. Transfer the sheets to racks and then, after about 10 minutes, carefully lift the cookies onto the racks to cool completely.
Do Ahead
Packed in a tightly covered container, the cookies will keep for up to 3 days (after that, they get firmer and are perfect for dunking...in coffee, of course). Wrapped airtight, they can be frozen for up to 2 months.
Twelve Days of Cookies Starts… NOW (Saffron, Orange and Honey Madeleines)
This holiday season I am determined to post a Twelve Days of Cookies list and I will only stand a chance if I start now. This month Food 52 Baking Club is featuring Ottolenghi’s book Sweet authored with Helen Goh, his dessert partner in crime. As with all Ottolenghi books, this one is beautiful, worthy of your coffee table, but more importantly, worthy of use in your kitchen.
A long long time ago in a kitchen somewhere far away, I tried to make madeleines. I flopped, and since then my madeleines pans have been relegated to the back of a kitchen cabinet. Looking for a recipe to try for National Cookie Day (yesterday, hope you made a batch) I came across Ottolenghi’s Saffron, Orange and Honey Madeleines. They looked and sounded so delicious I decided to pull out my forgotten pans and give it the old college try.
I’m glad I did. The madeleines are buttery, cakey, tender, everything a madeleine should be and more.
The batter is made in a food processor (oh snap). Eggs and sugar are whirled in the processor, flour and leavening added, pulse a couple more times and then add the saffron infused melted butter. The batter is poured into a WELL BUTTERED AND FLOURED pan (trust me on this) and baked for 7-9 minutes. In those short minutes, your entire kitchen will be blanketed by the aroma of vanilla, butter, and orange, heavenly.
The cooled madeleines are popped out of their shells (haha, get it?) painted with heated honey (watch your fingers, the honey is hot) and one end rolled in ground pistachios.
So good. If you don’t have a madeleine pan you could probably use a mini-muffin tin…they’ll still be delicious but they just won’t be the same (sigh).
You can find the recipe on Bon Apetit but without weight measurements (boohoo). If I were you I’d splurge and get the book, totally worth it!
[amd-yrecipe-recipe:150]
Will Blog for Food (Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook)
I received an e-mail from a publisher a couple of weeks ago. They had come across my blog and wanted to know if I would like to review a book they had coming out. Me? I was flattered (my aw-shucks, you really like me moment). Wait, this isn’t some ploy to get me to buy another book is it? So I asked “Do I have to send the book back? I hate mailing stuff. I GET TO KEEP IT?! Sure I’ll do it!” The last thing I needed was another baking book as I am the owner of way too many cookbooks. As space on my shelf grows tight I have had to be selective about which books I get and keep. BUT THIS WAS FREE. So what the heck! When I did receive my copy ofMiranda Couse’s Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook I felt like I was getting an extra birthday gift. I flipped through the book for an initial look just to size it up. I noted the extensive section on essentials, ingredients, and how-tos. Great for beginners. The cookies are organized by types such as drops, classics, brownies and bars, slice and bake and holiday treats. There are tips and variations interspersed throughout the book, very informative. Each page is user-friendly with the ingredients and quantities listed on the left and instructions on the right. Every recipe is preceded by a highlighted box with prep time, baking time, how many cookies and shelf life, love that. There are photos every couple of pages but not one for each cookie. Bummers. But the photos included are well-staged and close-up, you know exactly what the cookie should look like.
Now to the serious stuff. I tried two recipes, the Blueberry Lemon Shortbread and Coffee Cheesecake Swirled Brownie. Both were straightforward and easy to make, especially the shortbread. The cookie is buttery, very lemony which really creates a nice contrast with the blueberries. Dried blueberries are used which I think intensifies the flavor. Really delicious cookie. The brownies were a bit more effort with the 2 batters but worth it. They are decadent, gooey and dense. The sweetness is tempered by the hit of espresso powder. Next time I might add chocolate chips to the brownie batter just to amp up chocolate. Double yums.
Despite having a zillion cookie books, I am making room on my shelf for this one. It is easy, straightforward, well organized and more importantly, the recipes work. I know Jamie is going to love it. Holiday baking here we come.
This would be the perfect stocking stuffer for novice bakers and cookie lovers!
A Tale of Two Cookbooks (Coffee Cheesecake Swirled Brownies)
For those familiar with Food52 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks, I received two cookbooks this past week that made me feel like one of the judges for the tourney. In a nutshell, The Piglet is like March Madness, sixteen cookbooks go head to head, winner goes on, loser goes home. Judges are selected by Food52 staff and they are not just from the culinary world, but artists, writers, journalists (no pharmacists yet hint, hint) who read and cook from each book and pick their favorite. Pairings are eclectic and at times exasperating (Robicelli’s Cupcakes vs.The Persian Table, go figure). But that’s what makes it interesting and so much fun.
Tribute to The Piglet
Which brings me back to the two cookbooks I received, Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook and Kristen Kish Cooking. One homey, approachable, familiar and the other dazzling, appealing, intimidating-polar opposites.
I’ll start with the familiar. Miranda Couse’s Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook (not the catchiest title), is a compendium of standard and favorite cookie recipes. I know, do I need another cookie book? Nope. But this one does deserve a spot on my bookshelf and yours. The recipes are well organized, straightforward, and easy to follow. Helpful tips and recipe tweaks are interspersed throughout the book and each recipe starts with a blurb on how many cookies it makes, baking temperature and time and their shelf life. There are photos but not for every recipe which would have been nice. The book is divided into types of cookies including drop cookies, bars and brownies, and sandwich cookies to name a few. I have tried two recipes so far and both have passed the taste test. The first cookie that caught my eye was a Blueberry-Lemon Shortbread which is so good, it deserves its own post. The second recipe I tried, though brownies are not my thing, was the Coffee Cheesecake Swirled Brownies. Chocolatey and decadent, the cocoa brownie layer provided a dense, gooey base for the luscious coffee spiked cream cheese top. I made new friends when I showed up to work with these bad boys.
Pour dollop and swirl, the name of the game.
As I flipped through the book a thought kept running through my mind, Jamie would love this book and I plan to get her a copy of her own.
A nod to Kristen Kish’s cookbook which I will save for a weekend to read, drool over and tackle. Stay tuned.
1.Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray. (or use parchment paper)
2.In a medium mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
3.In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed or a wooden spoon, beat together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and coffee granules until thick and creamy. This will take about 2 minutes if using an electric mixer or 4 to 5 minutes if creaming by hand. Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed or by hand until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
4.Reserve about ¼ cup of the brownie batter for the top. Transfer the remaining brownie batter to the prepared pan and smooth it out into an even layer.
To make the cheesecake
1.In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed or a wooden spoon, beat together the cream cheese and sugar until light and creamy. This will take about 1 minute if using an electric mixer or 2 to 3 minutes if creaming by hand. Add the egg and instant coffee, and beat to incorporate.
2.Using a spoon, dollop the cheesecake batter on top of the brownie mix. Add a dollop of the reserved ¼ cup of the brownie batter in the center of each cheesecake dollop. Using a skewer or butter knife, swirl the batters together.
3.Bake for about 35 minutes, until the top is set.
4.Let the brownies cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to set.
To serve, cut into 9 bars. Serve the bars chilled or let them come to room temperature before serving.
Add more chocolate to create a rich, dense brownie. Do so by melting 4 ounces of semisweet baking chocolate with the butter or add 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to batter.
I love cookies and every year I look forward to baking holiday cookies to share with family and friends. The process for which cookies end up in my annual holiday platter starts..well, the day after Christmas. Throughout the year I keep an eye out for new cookie recipes to go along with my tried and true traditional shortbread and Jan Hagels that I make every year.
So of course I jumped at the chance to review a new book from Blogging for Books aptly titled Holiday Cookies by Elisabet Der Nederlanden. The collection is filled with classic, traditional cookies like Spritz cookies, green and red pinwheels and gingerbread. She does add a twist to many by varying the spices and flavors-eggnog madeleines, saffron biscotti or fig and cardamon rugelach which definitely add interest. I chose the Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies to try. It called to the kid in me and conjured up images of Malt-o-meal, Ovaltine and Whoppers. This is the only recipe I have tried so far and unfortunately the cookie was pretty nondescript. Neither the malt flavor or chocolate were stood out. The cookies did not spread or crack as much as the cookies pictured, perhaps too much flour on my part (weights people). I will try other cookies in the book hope I find one for my annual holiday assortment. l’ll update my review when I do. The recipes depend solely on volume measurements and not weights, bummers. I love cookbooks that contain both weight and volume measurements. I am a big fan of having a scale it is much more accurate and reliable.
The book starts with a section on how to pack cookies and decorate your cookies with a festive flair. Chapters are organized by classics, exchange cookies, spice and around the world. She also includes a chapter on candy and decorating. The recipes are organized with ingredients in the column on the left and directions on the right, very easy to follow. THE PHOTOS ARE GORGEOUS and the book is worth its weight in presentation ideas. Can’t wait to try a couple more recipes.
A Cautionary Tale with a Sweet Ending (Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies)
I can’t resist perusing the racks at airport bookstores. Even though I always carry an Ipad, book, or magazine, I still stop and browse. While waiting for my flight to Nashville I flipped through a copy of People Magazine that had an article with Stella Parks of Serious Eats. Her recently published book BraveTart, an homage to iconic American desserts, was already on my radar of course. The article included a recipe for Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies. They looked and sounded delicious. Trying to be as stealthy as possible I took out my phone and quickly snapped a shot of the recipe, mission accomplished I tucked my phone back in my pocket and left to catch my flight.
A bake sale to benefit a bird and butterfly sanctuary directly in the path of that ridiculous wall Trump wants to build was the perfect opportunity to make Park’s Honey Roasted PB Cookies. The recipe called for processing honey roasted peanuts for a minute until finely chopped. Uh-oh, I don’t think so, a minute in a food processor does not result in finely chopped nuts more like pulverized nuts. Quick, to my laptop to fire off a tweet to Stella Parks..please clarify. A couple of minutes later..yay, a response- “should be like flour, length of time variable depending on your processor”. First hurdle cleared. Surveying the recipe I noticed some of the ingredients had weights, some didn’t. Auugh! This started my rant to the hubster on the inconsistencies in the recipe.
Me yelling: Why would you put the weight for butter but not the flour? WTH! This is silly! And the finely chopped nuts, that wasn’t right! Wow, and she writes for Serious Eats?! Boy, this book has been getting a lot of press!
I continued to grumble. After making the dough I decided to look for the recipe online, lucky for me the page for her Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies is available on Google.
I ATE HUMBLE PIE
My rant was misplaced. The recipe in the book contained weights for every ingredient and the description for the peanuts was to grind them until they were fine, like flour.
So naturally, I did what anyone would do in this situation..I started to complain about People Magazine and how they messed up the recipe. The moral of the story, do not depend on a celebrity gossip magazine for a recipe. It also gave me an excuse to add BraveTart to my cookbook collection.
I still didn’t grind the peanuts enough which I believe changed the texture of the cookie…I was fixated on the finely chopped verbiage. The cookies did not spread like traditional cookies and ended up looking like little cracked hockey pucks. I’m guessing too much flour (no weights-grrrr) I was looking for a flat, classic-looking cookie, ironically, like the picture in People magazine.
I ended up smushing each cookie like old-fashioned PB cookies. I will definitely try these again but next time I will grind the nuts longer and weigh my flour and use the book, lol. They are YUMMY and besides, I still have half a jar of honey-roasted peanuts left! Below is the recipe from her book, BraveTart. You should get it, it’s that good.
Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies from BraveTart
Stella Park's Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies, just make them, you'll thank me
Course cookies, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies, stella parks
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 16 minutesminutes
Ingredients
Dry Stuff (Flour Mixture)
1cupAP flour4.5 ounces USE Gold Medal flour
1-1/4cupshoney roasted peanuts6 ounces
Next Step: Butters + Leavening Agents
1-1/4cupscreamy peanut butter10 ounces
1stickunsalted butter4 ounces,soft rt cool (65 degrees use an instant thermometer)
1.5cupsgranulated sugar10 ounces
3/4tspkosher salt or half that amount if using regular table salt
3/4tspbaking soda
1/2tspbaking powder
Wet Stuff
2tspvanilla extract
1large eggstraight from fridge, well beaten
3Tbspmilk1.5 ounces
Instructions
Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift flour into bowl of a food processor (scoop and sweep method if not using a scale)
Add peanuts and pulse until fine (approximately 1 minute) almost like flour
Combine peanut butter, butter, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and vanilla* in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. I'm lazy, I add the vanilla to the milk and add it later.
Mix on low speed to moisten then increase to medium and beat until soft and light ab out 3 minutes
With mixer running add the egg in 2 additions, mixing untile ach is incorporated
Reduce speed to low and add peanut flour, followed by milk, mixing to form a very soft dough
Divide into 34-2 T (1.125 ounce) portions
Arrange on parchment lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart
Bake until the edges are firm and just beginning to brown but cookies are still puffy and steamy in the middle about 16 minutes
Cool on baking sheet until cookie is set about 10 minutes
Store in airtight container for up to 1 week at room temperature.
I wonder who came up with thumbprint cookies? Was it intentional or a happy accident? A baker grabbing a cookie sheet only to find she (he) had inadvertently stuck her thumbs in the cookies and thought, well heck might as well fill it with some jam. And the rest is history as they say. I actually googled thumbprints but alas no specific info on how they came about, just European in origin perhaps Swedish or Polish. All I know for sure is the variations are infinite and each and every one is DELICIOUS. It can be dolled up with nuts or not, filled with any flavor jam or jelly, or fancied up with lemon curd or chocolate ganache filling. Sky’s the limit. The cookie is buttery, with a sandy texture like a shortbread and easy to make. When my kids were little they were in charge of the very important task of making the “the thumb holes”.
While I was flipping through Vivian Howard’s book Deep Run Roots (love, love, love) I came across a cookie that had BAKE ME written all over it, Hot Apple Jelly Thumbprints. The twist, no sugar in the dough? A savory thumbprint made with smoked gouda or sharp cheddar and filled with a spicy apple jelly. I stuck two post-it notes on the page to make sure I try this recipe. Here is a linkto the recipe when she made them for a Tabasco Sauce function, yep a hot sauce jam-get it?
Okay, full disclosure. I made the cookie but not the jelly. The jelly seemed infinitely more time consuming so I CHEATED. A jar of Peachy Siracha Jam jumped out at me at the market. It was fate.
As simple as thumbprints are to make a question arose while I was making the cookies. Hmmm, 1-1/2 cup grated cheese. Is that finely grated? Coarsely grated? Enquiring minds want to know. What to do? Fire off an e-mail to Ms. Howard hoping she will answer? I did a search which did not turn up anything. I then looked at Dorie Greenspan’s Cookie book knowing she had a savory section. Bingo, Smoked Cheese Cocktail Cookies. (She is my cookie hero). Her process called for coarsely grated/shredded cheese which is then pulsed with cold butter in a food processor. The cookie becomes even easier to make. Butter pulsed with the cheese and then add the flour and pulse into the dough starts to clump..done. How easy is that? The texture is similar to shortbread with a tiny bit of crunch which I am guessing comes from the cheese caramelizing as it bakes. I posted the question regarding grating the cheese on Food52 Baking Club and another member told me she finely grated the cheese before mixing the dough in a Kitchen Aid. The tip came from a Serious Eats article she had read, her cookies came out beautifully, much like a shortbread. I leave it to you to decide which method you use.
With a 2 teaspoon ice cream scoop I portioned the dough into balls and used my handy-dandy thumb of course for the centers (sadly my kids have flown the coop so I had to use my own thumb). The original recipe calls for piping the dough out with a pastry bag. I opted for the scoop method. The touch of sweetness and spice comes from the jam while the cookie is infused with a savory smokey flavor from the gouda. A beautiful balance of flavors. I plan to make these for my next happy hour to go along with that bottle of Cava parked in my fridge. Can’t wait.
2 1/2cupssmoked goudashredded, at room temperature
Tabasco Jelly (recipe below)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Sift the dry ingredients. Using a stand or hand mixer, cream the butter and cheese well. Slowly add the dry ingredients and continue to paddle until nice and fluffy; about 3 minutes.
Using a piping bag, pipe about 2 tsp. of the cookie dough onto a nonstick baking surface. Using your thumb, make a small indentation in the center of each round. (You may want to have a little flour on hand to prevent your thumb from sticking.) Pipe or spoon about 1 tsp. Tabasco jelly into each indentation.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom.
Yields approximately 5 dozen small cookies.
Hot Apple Jelly
10 lbs. apples of your choice (If you can find slightly unripe apples, use 5 lbs. ripe and 5 lbs. unripe, as unripe apples have more pectin)
8 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 – 1/3 cup Tabasco brand Original Red Sauce, depending on your preference for heat
Roughly chop the apples. Include everything—the stems, core, seeds, and skin are all important for pectin. Place the apples in a large pot and cover them with water. Bring the apples up to a boil and cook 10–20 minutes, until they are soft but not falling to pieces. Drain the water off quickly.
Place the apples in a colander lined with cheesecloth, and place the colander inside a larger bowl to catch the liquid that drains off. This liquid will be the “meat” of your jelly, so allow it to drain overnight for best results. You should be left with roughly 9–10 cups thickish apple nectar. (If you have more, it’s not a problem; you will just have to increase cooking time.)
Place a small plate in the freezer for testing your jelly. Transfer the apple liquid and the sugar to a heavy-bottomed pot and bring it up to a boil. Let this simmer for about 15 minutes. Check where you are by spooning a little of the jelly onto your super cold plate. If it firms up and wrinkles when you nudge it, you’re good to go. If not, cook it longer, testing every ten minutes or so.
Once you’ve reached the desired set, stir in the lemon juice and the Tabasco Sauce. The jelly should be a beautiful amber color and should be completely clear. Taste and adjust with more of either. Transfer to a container to chill.
In addition to using the Tabasco jelly in these cookies, it would be great served with goat cheese and crackers, or as a glaze over pork chops or ham, or as a sauce for chicken wings. It’s very versatile.
In life there are two sides to everything. The yin and yang of the universe. There are those that twist their Oreos apart, lick the frosting off the cookie and then eat each cookie (seems kind of silly to me) versus those that absolutely never take Oreos apart but eat the cookie and frosting together. Or how about vanilla or chocolate? Coke or Pepsi?
Crust or filling? ……….CRUST OF COURSE, DUH.
So, what does one do with the scraps of dough left from the pie that’s baking in the oven? It would be a shame to let it go to waste. Not quite enough for another pie but enough to make you feel guilty if you toss all that buttery, flaky goodness out.
Tasties to the rescue. One of the many delightful recipes from The Art of the Pie by Kate McDermott. This is my new bible on pie. Detailed instructions on everything you ever wanted to know about pie crusts and fillings written in a warm easy style. The majority of recipes are fruit based and pretty classic, apple, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb. A small section on hand pies, mini pies and savory pies. Photos are gorgeous. As a bonus, stories by the author add a very personal feel to the book. Plus…she has a blog The Art of the Pie, definitely worth checking out.
Back to the Tasties. The dough is formed into a rectangle and sprinkled with generous amounts of cinnamon & sugar. It is then rolled into a log and sliced into 1 inch thick segments. Sprinkled with more sugar and baked. So simple, why didn’t I think of that? I’m already dreaming of the next time I have leftover dough, maybe I’ll add nuts or use jam instead.
Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar, add nuts if you like.
Parchment underneath pastry makes rolling into a log much easier.
Remember that number. Way back in January we took an impromptu trip to New York for my cousin’s birthday. My cousin’s wife Kathy, baker, crafter, home chef extraordinaire made all of the scrumptious desserts – birthday cake, lemon parfaits, and an amazing assortment of cookies for the shindig. We ate, we danced, we laughed. Not surprisingly I was enamored with all of the desserts Kathy made, one in particular, stood out. A cinnamon-y, crispy-crunchy cookie with almonds scattered throughout.
When we returned home from our NY jaunt I fired off an e-mail to Kathy.
Me: Hey Kathy, Great party! As usual delicious food, great company, and so much fun! Loved those crunchy almond cookies! Mind sending me the recipe?
Kathy: Still recovering from the party. Yep, those are good cookies. The recipe is from Nick Malgieri’s Cookies Unlimited, they’re called Dutch Almond Cookies.
Me: Wait, I think I have that book (surprise, surprise)
…I scurry off to find said book
Seize the Dough
The first time I made them was a total disaster. The recipe is actually pretty simple. Butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and a touch of water are heated until the sugar is melted. Once the sugar has dissolved toss in the whole blanched almonds. The almond mixture is then combined with the dry ingredients. All was fine until I stirred in the flour and bam! It seized and instantly transformed into a crumbly dry mess. Ugh. Disappointing. I tried to salvage it by pressing it into a baking pan and chilling it. Unfortunately, even after chilling, it was not workable and it ended up in my compost bin. Where did I go wrong?
I turned to my trusty laptop, googled Nick Malgieri, and fired off an e-mail lamenting my disaster. True to form and further validating how nice bakers are, I received a response from him shortly. After some mulling, he concluded that I had probably used too much flour.
One hundred and twenty-ish
When you try these bundles of crispy crunchy goodness use a scale if you have one. It may save you from the “un-malleable mess” I had the first time. If you don’t have a scale, be gentle with your flour, don’t pack it in the cup when you measure.
I revisited these cookies for the holidays 2021. This time I decided to go with the standard weight of 122gms for a cup of flour. Worked like a charm. I think anywhere between 120-125gms of flour should work for these cookies. If you don’t have a scale, fluff your flour and lightly scoop it into your measuring cup with a spoon. Don’t pack it.
Sugar, butter, almonds, mixture on the stove before adding the flour.
Added the flour, this is the step I always approach with trepidation…and where I implore you to get a scale!
This batch actually has a smidge to much flour…see the dry parts? But no seizing of the dough, Yay! Use parchment or heavy-duty foil with plenty of excess to grab, it was a b*tch trying to remove it, the regular-weight, too-short foil kept ripping.
Ready for the oven, be generous with the cinnamon sugar.
This time the dough did not turn into a chalky brick, instead, it was very thick and almost pourable. I put it in an 8×8 pan lined with foil (very important) covered it with plastic wrap and chilled the dough overnight. Once chilled it hardens and becomes easy to cut. Divide dough into 3 logs. Cut 1 log at a time leaving the remaining logs in the fridge. If it crumbles while cutting, just smoosh (a technical term used by all serious chefs) it back together. The recipe calls for 1/4″ inch slices. These are really crunchy cookies I would slice them a smidge thinner than 1/4 inch rather than more. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined sheet about 1 inch apart and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 15 minutes. Make sure to bake the cookies until they are a rich golden brown and firm to touch. Once cooled the slices will be crispy-crunchy similar to biscotti. If under-baked the cookies will be chewy instead of crisp.
This recipe makes a ton of cookies, perfect for that upcoming holiday cookie swap. Delightful cookies, crunchy, airy, perfect with tea or coffee.
Added bonus, a holiday tune to go along with these scrumptious cookies. From Peanuts Christmas- Linus and Lucy
3/4cup1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
1cupfirmly packed light brown sugar
1cupgranulated sugar
6tablespoonswater
2cupswhole blanched almonds
Topping:
1/2cupgranulated sugar
1teaspoonground cinnamon
Instructions
Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil; butter foil. Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Set aside.
Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar, granulated sugar and water. Return to heat and bring to boil, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts. Remove from heat and stir in almonds.
Pour sugar-almond mixture into a large bowl and stir in dry ingredients. Press dough into prepared square pan, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight or until firm.
About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake cookies, set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
Prepare topping: thoroughly combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
Unmold the "brick" of cookie dough from the pan and place on cutting board. Cut brick into three bars, each 8-by-2 1/2-by- 1 1/4 inches (bars will be just a little more than 2 1/2-inches wide). Wrap 2 bars in parchment paper, wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate. Cut remaining brick into 1/4-inch thick slices. As you cut cookies, place them on prepared sheets 1 inch apart in all directions.
Just before putting sheets in oven, sprinkle tops of cookies generously with the cinnamon sugar. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes, or until they are golden and firm. Slide the parchment with the cookies on top onto cooling racks. Cookies will crisp as they cool. Repeat with remaining bars of dough.
Store cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. If freezing the bar(s), it is best to thaw dough overnight in the refrigerator before slicing and baking.
