Cookie Therapy

Thursday I had a procedure done to my eye - it was icky and more traumatic than I would have thought. Next day I was almost all better, but when I got home from the appointment I relaxed for a few and then needed to do something to calm myself and be in control. Cookies came to my rescue. I had a nice time all by myself, carefully making thumbprint cookies. I realized as I was doing it that it made me feel much better about myself and not worry so much about my eye, which was hurting a bit and grossing me out. I never would have been able to concentrate on anything involving words, but working with my hands did the trick.

Rosemary Orange Thumbprints

Mocha Berry Shortbread Hearts

Lemon Basil Merlot Jelly filled Shortbread

And this weekend I got a lot more baked!

Chocolate Pretzels

Stained Glass Cookies

Cocoa Sables w/ White Chocolate & Cherries

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies

There's nothing like the smell of brown butter. I love these cookies but honestly don't think they're better than just smelling the butter - not that that stopped me from eating a couple, as you can see by the picture. As I was cropping it, I noticed the 1/4 cookie left on the rack. At least I know they're good enough to share!

Holiday Cookie Time

I'm deeply immersed in everything cookies, from the Cookie Walk at church to holiday baking. First came the Hanukkah Cookies, baked with Shara & my mom.

Then we made the Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies for the Cookie Walk

The Morello Cherries from Trader Joes are so much better than marachino.













Next came the first of the Christmas Cookies. We tried our new Oxo Good Grips cookie press. I have to find out how to get the cookies to stick to the ungreased cookie sheet but when it worked, they came out nice. This is an experimental cookie - Cardamom Orange. I boiled down orange juice to add to the dough with the egg. I made it a pretty thick syrup so I don't think it made much of a difference with the texture. It's based on these Swedish Christmas Cookies.

If anyone wants to buy the press, you can get it at Amazon. I like the press itself. It cleaned very easily, the discs changed quickly and you can see the dough in the press as well as air pockets. I just have to find a recipe that will be a bit stickier maybe? It wasn't a recipe specific to a press, so I'm hoping that was the issue. I may have to try another batch!
So next on the agenda? I'm not sure but I have about 100 recipes I'd like to try. You can check out my Pinterest board of possibilities here.

Follow Laurie Lessner's board Recipes - Holiday Baking on Pinterest.

Christmas Cookie Madness!

Over a week ago the baking of the cookies began. This is an annual tradition for many households and ours is no exception. I told Shara & Alan we'd have a meeting after the holidays and see if they were ok with being a cookie widow and cookie orphan. I actually think this year I'm not being as obsessive as in the past.

Caramel filled chocolate cookies

So far, this is the list:
Chocolate

• Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies
• Pecan Turtles
• Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies, dipped in chocolate - from:
• Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed Jam-Filled Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book
• Chocolate Cherry Bomb Cookies - vegan and tasted rather healthy

fruit/nut flavored

Date pinwheels

• Date-Nut Pinwheels - from: Betty Crocker's Cooky Book - brought it back from my mothers a few months ago. Loved this book since I was a kid, mostly for the great pictures. Now I realized that the recipes are rather vague and don't go much into technique. I do know enough now to figure out how much to beat the butter, but for a beginner baker, this wouldn't be a good title, unless it's been updated.
  As for the cookies, these taste great but I need more practice on getting them round.

spicy / minty

• Minty Chocolate Slices - variation on "Red-Hot Chocolate Slices" - think I should have stuck with the original but wanted to keep it more natural.
• Big Soft Ginger Cookies - added in some drained, crushed pineapple and left out the cloves.

sugar / shortbread

• Lemony Slice-and-Bakes
• Jam filled sugar cookies - added some almond extract. - Shara did a wonderful job cutting out the llittle stars in the middle and sprinkling on the sanding sugars. I'm going to fill these tomorrow with a yummy sounding fruit spread I got last week - Crofter's Europe Superfruit. These cookies are really just an excuse to use the spread! 
• Snowflake cutouts w/ sugar cookie icing
• Coconut Dainties - from Rosie's Bakery cookbook (see above)

sweet

• Amaretti Cookies from: Great Italian Desserts, but I used the almond paste my sister gave me last year, which has been stored in the freezer.
• Sesame Honey Lace Cookies - not done yet, but made these before and they're addictive.

other

• Black pepper biscuits - be generous with the flour right at the beginning. Takes at least a cup more than called for.

Thanksgiving Goodies

Appetizers

pancetta wrapped dates w/ pomegranate glaze - we stuffed these with pecans and parmagiana reggiana. I couldn't detect the pecans, so wasted calories there, but the parm cheese was wonderfully nutty. I liked it better than bleu cheese. The glaze was simply pomegranate juice with a little balsamic, boiled down until thickened.

spiced squash & pear soup w/ roasted pears & fennel & pumpkin seeds - this was the Dorie recipe from earlier in the month. I sauteed extra pears and fennel and it made the soup much more enjoyable. It needed the extra texture, I thought.

hummus w/ pita - Thea's specialty and as usual, a big hit.

chinese-style cured salmon - this was from Barbara Tropp's classic, China Moon Cookbook. I wasn't sure how this would go over. First, I didn't care for the smell of the peppercorns. Second, most of my family don't eat raw fish, though they do love lox and gravalax. It was really my daughter pushing for this one because she loved Dorie's "salmon in a jar". I was concerned it would be spicy and she wouldn't like it either. So anxious and fretting, I sliced it and platted it, along with orange pickled carrot coins, pickled ginger and pickled daikon, all from China Moon. It was a hit.

Forward to Saturday - I thought it had been too long to eat the leftover fish raw, so I roasted it for about 15 minutes at 425. I served it on top of mesclun tossed with cilantro, jasmine rice, stir-fried kohlrabi w/ China Moon orange chili oil, and the pickled vegetables. It was so good! I wish I took a picture.

Dinner
turkey
mashed potatoes & cider gravy
bread stuffing - my daughter was a huge help, cutting up the 2 1/2 challah from Whole Foods.
brussels sprouts w/ chestnuts & lemon - roasted until browned and tossed with chopped lemon peel, chestnuts, and a bit of lemon juice. They were just alright. I made sprouts the previous week and got them really crispy, as suggested by Kelly at Langwater Farm. These needed a little longer in a hotter oven.
Winter squash stuffed w/ swiss, cream, bread & bacon; dorie's pumpkin stuffed with everything good. Red courie squash was the best. The carnival s squash was a little less seedy and creamy.
Cranberry-glazed sweet potatoes - this was so good I can't wait to make it again.

Desserts
mocha mousse with Sichuan peppercorns
tres leches cake - liz
apple pie w/ginger, lemon whole wheat crust - I've been eating this for breakfast every day and finally finished today. Obviously most of it wasn't eaten, but that's ok, more for me!
pecan pie - jill
Vegan pumpkin pie tarts - recommended by my co-worker friend. I baked these in mini-filo tart shells and topped with a little maple sugar and chopped, toasted pecans. I had to re-crisp them up before serving.

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