Decorative Shortbread Cookies

Going through our DVR on Saturday, I came across a Barefoot Contessa episode in which Ina invites her friend over to show her how to make decorative shortbread cookies. Reminiscent of my mother's Halloween Cookies, I decided to give it a go. The cookies were a lot of work. Not because it took a long time to make the dough or icing (it was super fast) but because I made the whole recipe (I would suggest cutting the recipe in half unless you want 40 iced cookies hanging around). Decorating a few different types of cookies can be difficult with all the food color mixing and prep work that you have to do so I would suggest picking one shape and sticking to it, at least for your first time. Below is the recipe as I wrote it.

Decorative Shortbread Cookies:

For the Dough:

Mix together:
24 ounces all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Then cream together:
3/4 lb butter
2 1/4c sugar
Add 3 large eggs
1tbs vanilla extract

Add in dry ingredients

Wrap in plastic and chill until firm
Roll to 1/8th of inch thick
Bake 350 degrees for 8-12 min

Makes 35-40 cookies

Icing for outlining (royal icing):
1 lb confectionary sugar
3 large egg whites
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Beat with paddle on medium speed until thick.

To make flood icing:
1/4 cup of royal icing
1tsp egg white
Consistency of maple syrup. Add more egg white if need be.

First outline the cookie using the royal icing in the same color that you will use for the whole body of the cookie. Then use a brush (#12 artist brush works best) to push the flood icing around on the cookie and cover up to the edges. Let dry (maybe overnight or a few hours) and then you can use more royal icing in different colors to make the details.

Pigna di Pasqua

It's been a tradition in my family since the 1800's to make pigna for Easter. Most of the time, when you hear of Italian pigna, it's a bread with yeast in it. However, when my family makes it, it's a type of cookie, very similar to Greek koulourakia. I'm not quite sure why ours is different, perhaps there is Greek influence in Southern Italy that carried over?

The recipe is quick and easy to make. After making the dough, we braid it into the shape of a crown of thorns and put colored eggs around it (to symbolize life after death). Then we make little cookies to go around the crown in shapes like fish or infinity signs or other shapes that have religious significance. It's a simple cookie, not too sweet and good as a quick bite at breakfast or even to dip into your after dinner coffee. Below is the recipe I use from my Grandmother. It should make 2 crown of thorns and a few trays of cookies, you can half it for one family:

Pigna Di Pasqua

2 ½ lbs flour
2 cups sugar
7/8 cup oil
4 rounded Tbsp baking powder
¼ glass milk
8 eggs

Mix eggs, milk & sugar. Add oil slowly & beat very well. Add flour & knead. Shape and brush with an egg wash. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until lightly brown

Use raw eggs to decorate ---making a fish ( several individual sized ones) or crown of thorns (usually three eggs spaced around it).

Firenze: Biscotti

A plateful of delicious Italian cookies we just got from Paszkowski in
the Piazza della Repubblica (which has been in Florence since 1846).

The little cantucci are Florence's version of biscotti.

The little bow-tie shaped cocoa shortbreads have inspired us to add
that shape to our repertoire.

Cookie Swap!

Recently, we went to our first cookie swap. It was fantastic, and I hope it becomes a holiday ritual.

Unfortunately, I don't have all of the recipes to share, but I do have a photo of some of the goodies we got to bring home. We took P's now-famous biscotti (12 o'clock on the photo below), and we were glad to know that recipe #5 is a keeper.

Below, you can see what came home with (starting at 1 o'clock and going clockwise) "comic fortune" cookies, chocolate "crackles," chocolate-covered mint cookies, macarons, peanut butter/chocolate chip cookies, fig pinwheels, and orange/ginger slice-'n'-bake cookies (unfortunately, you're not able to see the latter). The event was a great success, and I think the bar has already been set very high, so we'll have to start getting ready for next year now. ;-)

I am going to try my hardest to get the recipes for the macarons and the fig pinwheels so they can become part of my own cookie repertoire! ;-)

Biscotti (Attempt #4)

After posting my "Biscotti (Attempt #3) entry", my friend e-mailed me to say her (directly-off-the-boat-Italian) mother had a fantastic quaresimali recipe that she could give to me if I wanted to try it out. Well, of course I did! How could I not! The recipe looked very promising, and I was super excited about it because it included CLOVES! Cloves are one of my favorite spices, they remind me of Christmas and German mulled wine. I can tell that Mike's Pastry biscotti have some cloves in them so this recipe looked like it could be the one that came closest to the ever elusive North End secret.

I followed the recipe ingredients exactly, adding not one, not two, not three, but four cups of chopped toasted almonds! Thank God Trader Joe's has good prices on nuts! I added the cloves (I ground them myself) and the dough already tasted delicious. I did veer from the recipe a bit when it came to forming the rolls of dough. Instead of 4 rolls, I made 2 rolls that were probably longer and wider than the recipe intended but I didn't think this would change the cook time since I kept the height of the rolls the same. I baked them and then cut them and then baked them again. We barely could wait for them to cool before we tried them out. They were delicious. I very much want to share the recipe with everyone but I want to get permission first since it's a family recipe.

These biscotti/quaresimali tasted and looked the most like Mike's that I've made so far. There are delicious and the recipe really needs no changes to it but since I am now officially obsessed with exactly replicating the Mike's biscotti I am going to try three changes.

One-I am going to substitute one regular cup of flour with a cup of almond meal.
Two-Instead of 4 cups of almonds I'm going to use 3.
Three- I'm going to add a bit of ginger.

I think these changes may bring me as close to Mike's as I can get. Once/if I get permission, I will post the recipe because, like I said, it's incredibly delicious and everyone who tried them (including my 90 yr old Polish grandmother) loved them. Rumor has it that Bob (the baker of the Reine de Saba cake) is attempting to make them for his office on Monday!

....And I got permission....
QUARESIMALE

4 CUPS ALMONDS (CUT IN HALF AND LIGHTLY TOASTED)
2 EGGS
1 CUP OF SUGAR
1 CUP OF BROWN SUGAR
1/2 CUP OF OIL
2 TSP CINNAMON
1 TSP CLOVES
2 TBSP WATER
3 CUPS OF FLOUR
2 TSP BAKING POWDER

Lightly toast the almonds. While they are toasting, mix the rest of the ingredients in mixing bowl. When ingredients are mixed well, add the almonds. It will seem like a lot of almonds, but the dough will rise and encompass the almonds. Shape the dough into 4 rolls. Flatten the rolls slightly (into about 3/4" high). Put them on a floured baking sheet. Brush the tops with egg yolk. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375 degrees. If you want more crunchy cookies, cut them into biscotti, lay them on their side and lightly toast them.

The Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge

Ever heard the story of the Neiman-Marcus cookie? No? Well, the website Snopes.com sums it up like this:

"Neiman-Marcus charged a shopper $250 for its cookie recipe, not the $2.50 the woman had been expecting to pay. As revenge on the store for refusing to reverse the charge, she now provides the recipe for free and exhorts others to pass it along."

Long since proven as an urban legend, the cookie story still gets passed around the internet along with the "infamous" recipe. Neiman Marcus on their website sums it up like this:

"An urban myth is a modern folk tale, its origins unknown, its believability enhanced
simply by the frequency with which it is repeated. Our signature chocolate chip cookie
is the subject of one such myth. If you haven't heard the story, we won't perpetuate it
here. If you have, the recipe below should serve to refute it. Copy it, print it out, pass it along to friends and family. It's a terrific recipe. And it's absolutely free."

Well, with Neiman-Marcus providing a true N.M. recipe and with the endurance of the urban legend I thought it would be a fun idea to bake the two cookies and put them to the test. Which cookie was better? The real Neiman-Marcus cookie or the urban legend Neiman Marcus cookie.

Both recipes were fairly simple (I provide each one at the end of this post) and I was able to make both the same night. It should be noted that the urban legend recipe contains a lot more ingredients and is more of an oatmeal/chocolate chip cookie than the real N.M. recipe which is a twist on the classic c.c. cookie. These differences make it a bit harder to compare but we were up for the challenge.

The Urban Legend cookie's (ULC) dough was much more interesting than the Real Neiman-Marcus Cookie (RNMC) and in my opinion tasted better. The texture was great and the dough very thick (don't attempt to make the ULC with a hand mixer!). However, the RNMC had the most wonderful smell while cooking. It was similar to a chocolate chip cookie smell but more intense and just awesome. The appearance of the two after they were done baking was totally different. The ULC was more of a home-made rustic look while the RNMC were more sleek and traditional looking (but still a darker color than a traditional c.c. cookie). It's hard to judge which one looked better but they both looked delicious and I think it depends on type of look your going for.

As for the taste (which is what we utimately judged the cookie on), we brought the cookies to about a dozen people without telling them which cookie was which. What were the results? Split 50/50. Some people loved the oatmeal and nuts in the ULC while others felt that those ingredients didn't belong in a real chocolate chip cookie. The people who liked the NMC best all said it was more buttery and if they went and bought a cookie at N-M then this the NMC is what they would expect to get. Overall, everyone really loved both cookies but most people agreed that the real Neiman-Marcus cookie belonged at the store.

Recipes:


Urban Legend Cookie Recipe:


Ingredients


1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder)
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 of an 8oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (your choice but I used walnuts)
1 tsp. vanilla



Directions

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 66 cookies.



The Real Neiman-Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:



Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips





Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Elephant Ears (Palmiers)

Here is a relatively cheap and easy dessert you can make that looks impressive and tastes great. Elephant Ears or as the French call them Palmiers, taste a lot better home-made than store/bakery-bought. You can be daring and try to first make the puff-pastry dough required or for $5 buy some at the store (which is what I did). Below are directions using store-bought puff pastry dough:

(One sheet makes about 14 cookies. Two sheets come in a box normally)

1. If frozen, defrost pastry sheet for 40 minutes

2. Lay down a thick layer of sugar on your counter, enough so that your whole pastry sheet can lay on top.

3. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough with enough force to encrust the bottom of the pastry sheet with sugar.

4. Next, fold the bottom half of the sheet of dough up to the middle, then fold the top down, overlapping it (Julia Child astutely notes you should do it just like you would fold a business letter).

5. Turn the sheet of dough so the top flap is facing your right, and repeat the Business fold again.

6 Roll the dough out now about 8 inches long. Then turn the dough and roll it out 8 inches long the other way to form a rough square.

7. Trim the dough sheet to make it a more perfected square.

8. Fold each side of the square in so that they almost meet in the middle. Sprinkle sugar over the whole thing again and use the rolling pin to encrust the dough with the sugar a bit.

9. Fold the whole thing in half (like you are closing a book) and use the rolling pin again to press down firmly so the layers stay together.

10. Cut the "log" you have created crosswise into 3/8" thick pieces.

11. Place on a pastry sheet on a baking tray 3 inches apart keep a "V" shape.

12. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to let the dough set. Preheat the oven to 450. Make sure the rack is in the top middle of the oven.

13. After 30 minutes, bake (one sheet at a time) for 6 minutes or until the sugar on the bottom begins to caramelize.

14. Take out of oven, quickly flip over and lightly cover the top-side of the cookies with sugar.

15. Put back in oven and bake another 3-4 minutes, or until tops of cookies are golden-brown in color and the sugar is caramelizing nicely.

16. Let cool on a wire rack. As the palmiers cool, they will harden and make a nice sweet crunch.

Simple and delicious chocolate and peanut butter cookies!

This past week I found myself a bit bored one afternoon and decided to see what kind of cookies I could make with just what I had in the pantry. It seemed easiest to make a batch of what ended up being absolutely delicious chocolate and peanut butter cookies :-)
The recipe itself is very simple and uses nothing out of the ordinary. The ingredients are as follows:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter, preferably natural
1 ounce 99% unsweetened chocolate, melted
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

In terms of the above ingredients, we did deviate slightly since we wanted to use things we had. Instead of dark brown sugar, we used lite. Instead of 99% unsweetened chocolate, we used a 75% variety. Lastly, we used jumbo bittersweet chips instead of breaking a block into smaller chunks. The cookies still came out delicious, but I'd be interesting in sticking literally to the recipe as well to see if the darker flavors make a difference.

Preheat the oven to 325 and line a 17x12x1 baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In your kitchen aid (of mixing bowl) combine the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and mix on medium to blend, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, egg, and peanut butter and mix for 2 more minutes. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix until just combined. Stop the mixer, then add the dry ingredients, save the bittersweet chocolate pieces.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate pieces.

Drop large mounds of dough, about 3 or 4 heaping tbsps each, onto the prepared baking sheet with about 2 inches in between each blob. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly cracked on top, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheets, then on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Last but not least enjoy!

Orange Balls

The next installment in the Advent Cookie Countdown on this 4th Sunday of Advent is the recipe for "Orange Balls." I wish there were a more original name for these, but I suppose you know right from the get-go what you are going be eating.

Orange Balls

1 12-oz. package of vanilla wafers, crushed (Again, any inexpensive plain cookie would be fine.)
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 16-oz. package of powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 6-oz. can of Orange Juice concentrate, undiluted!

Combine all ingredients in a food processor in the order in which they are listed. Form into walnut-sized balls. Roll in powdered sugar and allow to "dry" for at least an hour before serving.

~~

Variation: Orange "Truffles"

The last time I made these, I halved the recipe...but I think I goofed and did not half one of the liquid ingredients since the cookies seemed to be softer than normal. So, after forming the balls and letting them dry for a day, we covered them in melted chocolate and then let those dry for day. We then wrapped the individual "truffles" in little squares of wax paper and put them in a candy dish. Everyone LOVED them!

Since it was a "save" from a mistake in the recipe, I don't know exactly how I did it, but I think basically, just add little extra OJ concentrate to make the mixture a little more moist and go from there!

Bourbon Balls

Growing up, we always made different kinds of "balls" during Christmastime: Orange Balls, Date Balls, Crème de Cocoa balls, and Bourbon Balls. They are no-bake formed cookies that are quick, easy, and delicious. Below is the recipe for Bourbon Balls.

Bourbon Balls

2 cups crushed vanilla wafers (any inexpensive "plain" cookie would be fine)
2 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
2 Tbsp corn syrup (both light or dark will be fine)

Mix the ingredients together in a food processor in the order in which they appear. Shape into walnut-sized balls. Roll in powdered sugar. (This last step is important; don't skip it!)

Yields 3 dozen.

Rosenmunnar

Here is a quick, simple, and good recipe for Rosenmunnar, a type of Swedish thumbprint cookie. It's a buttery tasting dough with a dollop of jam in the middle. We used our own jam made of raspberries from our garden in the Fenway as well as some fancy strawberry jam we bought at the store. Both were great.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 cup any flavor fruit jam



Directions:
1. Cream butter & sugar together
2. Add sifted flour
3. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet. Press your thumb in the middle of the ball to create a divot in which to put some of the fruit jam. Fill the divot with the fruit jam. Depending on the jam type, you will need to alter the amount so it doesn't bubble over, out of the cookie. Although, this does create a nice homemade look if it does happen so don't worry about it too much.
4. Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown around the edges.

Makes about 20 cookies

Greek Koulourakia

This is a recipe for Greek cookies (that I got from my great-aunt, Ciocia Stella...who's Polish) that reminds me of my Italian grandmother's Easter Pigna. They are great every day cookies, you can even serve them at breakfast.

Greek Koulourakia
A.K.A: Braided cookies.
Yields 50-60 cookies.

Ingredients:

½ lb butter (at room temperature)
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
½ cup orange juice
6 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda

Topping Ingredients
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk


1. Preheat oven to 350º F
2. Cream butter with mixer until it becomes white & fluffy (about 4 minutes)
3. Add sugar gradually and continue mixing
4. Add eggs one at a time
5. In a separate bowl, combing flour, baking powder, and soda.
6. Alternating, add the dry ingredients and the orange juice a little at a time to the mixing bowl and continue mixing until ingredients become doughy enough to handle (mixer will start to struggle).
7. While still in the bowl, knead mixture until it’s stiff enough to shape.
8. Break off enough dough to make a 1 ½ “ ball
9. Roll this out on a clean surface to form a 9” strand. Take each end of this strand, bring them together, and criss-cross each of them over each other twice.
10. Place on greased cookie sheets.
11. Combine topping ingredients and beat well. Use a brush to coat the top of each cookie lightly once.
12. Bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.