Raspberry Rye Cookies - Washington Post

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These unique cookies are slightly chewy, with a deep, earthy flavor from the rye — and then a burst of fresh tart fruit that makes you want to take another bite. Red sanding sugar gives them a festive color (and sprinkling more on the raspberries makes them sparkle), but you can use granulated white sugar instead, if you prefer.

Make Ahead: The dough can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days or rolled and refrigerated overnight.

Storage Notes: Store in an airtight container, using parchment paper between the layers of cookies if you stack them, at room temperature for up to 3 days. Freezing is not recommended.

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Servings:

When you scale a recipe, keep in mind that cooking times and temperatures, pan sizes and seasonings may be affected, so adjust accordingly. Also, amounts listed in the directions will not reflect the changes made to ingredient amounts.

Tested size: 36 servings; makes 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (16 grams) freeze-dried raspberries

• 2 1/2 cups (315 grams) all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup (50 grams) light rye flour

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1 cup (2 sticks/225 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1 cup (220 grams) packed light brown sugar

• 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

• 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup (100 grams) red sanding sugar (may substitute additional granulated sugar)

• 6 ounces (170 grams) large fresh raspberries

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a food processor, process the freeze-dried raspberries until they are reduced to a powder.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and rye flours, baking soda, salt and raspberry powder.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or using a handheld mixer and a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla and beat on medium until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Switch to low speed and beat in the flour mixture in three additions, mixing each in until barely combined.

Transfer the dough to the refrigerator, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight, until stiff.

Using a No. 40 disher or a 1 1/2-tablespoon measure, form the dough into 1-ounce (28-gram) balls and roll them in the red sanding sugar. Transfer them to plates, cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight, until firm.

Place 9 cookie balls on each baking sheet. Lightly press into the top of each cookie with your thumb or a teaspoon, making a very shallow indentation, then mash a raspberry between your fingers and gently set it into the indentation, smearing the raspberry a little without flattening the cookie.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 7 minutes, then use a small spoon to sprinkle a pinch of sanding sugar onto each raspberry. Rotate the sheet, return it to the oven, and bake another 7 minutes, or until the sides are set.

Let the cookies cool completely on the pan before transferring them to a rack or platter. Repeat with remaining dough balls, ensuring the pans are completely cool before reusing.

Tested by Joe Yonan.

Email questions to the Food Section at food@washpost.com.

The Link Lonk


December 01, 2020 at 01:55AM
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Raspberry Rye Cookies - Washington Post

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Cookies

The Best Holiday Cookie Recipes for Cookie Swaps - Eater

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It’s cookie season, and it couldn’t have come soon enough. After the contortions of modified and shrunk-down Thanksgivings, it’s exciting to bake something meant for sharing. This year is an especially good one to double that batch and send cookies to family and friends.

Eater conducted a cookie exchange experiment in which 12 editors sent all different types of holiday-ish cookies through the mail to see what survived best. The TL;DR is that no one type of cookie performed better than another — the key is to keep the cookies packed tight and well padded. Below, the Eater editors and writers who participated share why they chose the cookie recipes they did. Even if you’re not normally a baker, many of these recipes are simple enough to pull off. As executive editor Matt Buchanan says, “What I’ve learned from this serendipitous experience is that baking cookies is incredibly easy, even without an electrical mixing apparatus of any kind, so anyone can do it, and that I never will again.”

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Chocolate crinkle cookies: My husband is dairy-free, which tends to limit the cookies we’re able to make: Often, all-vegan recipes will require ingredients I don’t have on hand (I’m lookin’ at you, applesauce) and adapted-to-dairy-free recipes usually fail to work out for me (enter a tragic, time-consuming batch of snickerdoodles that came out hard as rocks). But these crinkles have become a go-to because they’re naturally dairy-free, don’t require a mixer for the dough, and the beautiful crinkling on top looks impressive despite being easy to create. Admittedly, I knew going in that the powdered sugar topping would likely take a beating in the mail — and it definitely did, losing a lot of the crinkle effect — but this is the one cookie recipe I will commit to time and time again. —Erin DeJesus

Tartine All Day brownies and Edd Kimber’s tahini chocolate chip bars: I chose these because of the relative indestructibility of brownies and blondies; they’re sturdy enough to stand up to the slings and arrows of the U.S. postal system, and also tend to stay fresh for quite some time. I chose Liz Prueitt’s brownie recipe from Tartine All Day because a) they’re always a hit and b) they’re gluten-free (they use sorghum flour), which means most people will eat them. The tahini blondies are adapted from Edd Kimber’s tahini chocolate chip cookie bar recipe in The Boy Who Bakes; I added an extra egg and more butter to them, as well as malt powder and white chocolate chips. Maybe it’s the malt and the extra fat, but the result is very tender and enjoyably squidgy. —Rebecca Flint Marx

Peanut butter swirled brownies: One of the funniest things to me is when people A. write subjective opinions as objective truths (e.g., “[X Food] Is Bad and if You Like It, You’re Wrong”) and B. when people get mad about subjective opinions as if one person’s dislike of a favorite food someone how negates the other person’s right to like it. So color me surprised when I found myself taking this Mel blog about how chocolate and peanut butter are a bad combination, like, way too personally (I chalk my overreaction up to election stress, okay???). Anyway, the Mel hot take made me really double down on the marriage between chocolate and peanut butter, what with it being a SACRED institution and all. I also just really love these perfect moist-yet-sturdy Smitten Kitchen brownies (as I love all Deb Perelman’s baked goods) and had all the ingredients already in my home. Chocolate and peanut butter — the only food combination that is actually objectively good. —Madeleine Davies

Chewy molasses cookies: I love a slightly spicy cookie that’s not too sweet, and molasses cookies are the epitome of that balance for me. I like that they have a tendency to crack on the outside and stay soft on the inside, and they’re great for dunking in coffee with breakfast. They’re also, incidentally, very easy to make and hard to mess up. I used a straightforward chewy molasses cookie recipe from Bon Appétit circa 2013. The coarse sugar on the outside gives the cookies a nice finished appearance and acts as a bit of a protective barrier during shipping. —Brenna Houck

Rose pistachio shortbread cookies from Sister Pie: For my crispy cookie, I wanted to try out a recipe from Detroit’s Sister Pie. I’ve always liked the appearance of the shop’s rose pistachio shortbread cookies, but as I flipped through Lisa Ludwinski’s cookbook I came across the buttered rum shortbread; it felt a little more festive for the holidays, with the same pretty rose frosting on top. Unlike the molasses cookies, these are a little bit more involved, but still simple for a novice baker. To start, you prep the dough, which includes a splash of rum (I used Two James Distillery’s Doctor Bird Jamaica rum). After the dough comes together, you wrap it up and let it sit in the fridge and then slice and bake the cookies as you would a premade dough from the grocery store. The frosting, which also includes booze, came together well and set up nicely. I let the cookies sit overnight for the frosting to completely cure before shipping them out. —Brenna Houck

Miso peanut butter cookies: I’m a big fan of miso-spiked sweets, especially when combined with something nutty, as with these miso peanut butter cookies from Krysten Chambrot at the New York Times. They’re sweet and salty, chewy at the center and crisp at the edges. That is to say, they’re perfect. The recipe calls for sweeter white miso, but I opted for red miso because I like the more assertive flavor. I even tried scaling down the sugar in the first batch to highlight that savory edge, but it affected the composition too much, turning the cookies into tall, crumbly biscuits (not bad, but not decadent holiday cookie material). After I returned the sugar to the proper proportion, they came out great. On round two, I did underbake them by three minutes (two minutes before removing the pan the first time, and one minute on the second pass in the oven) to account for my oven, ensure they would arrive chewy after a cross-country journey, and optimize structural integrity — yielding something like a Mrs. Fields cookie, but fancy. —Nick Mancall-Bitel

Smitten Kitchen blondies: When I was in high school, my mom started making blondies for every sleepover, every late-night play rehearsal, and every study session. They probably stuck around because there’s nothing wrong with a thick square of chocolate chip cookie, and because as much as I love cookies, measuring out dough or (gasp) cutting out shapes is too tedious. A few years ago my mom switched from the recipe on the back of a Hershey’s chip bag to this one from Smitten Kitchen, which has far fewer ingredients and really ups the gooey, fudgy factor. I thought the density would make them ship well, but I may have underbaked them a little, and I ruined a few trying to extract them from the pan. Still, once they cooled, they cut cleanly into bite-sized blocks perfect for nibbling. —Jaya Saxena

Walnut alfajores from Flavor Flours: I went with a familiar cookie recipe for our inaugural cookie swap, because the thought of shipping cookies was nerve-wracking enough and I didn’t need to add more variables to the mix. I followed a recipe for walnut alfajores, from queen of baking Alice Medrich’s gluten-free cookbook Flavor Flours. The book has introduced me to so many excellent desserts made with nonwheat flours and grains, but this recipe is a particular favorite. The cookies are crisp with just a tiny bit of chew (which I hoped would make them sturdy enough to ship), and I filled each sandwich with store-bought cajeta, though it’s easy enough to make from scratch. The cookies didn’t come out perfectly round, which made for a few wonky sandwiches, with caramel spilling out from the sides. That could’ve made for messy transit, but I individually wrapped each cookie before packing them all up. Luckily, the box I packed the cookies in was a couple inches too small, and I had no choice but to eat an extra alfajor... or two. —Elazar Sontag

Sugar cookies: I went with a very straightforward sugar cookie for two main reasons: 1. You get to decorate them and 2. They are uniform and thus easier to pack and ship. The Susan Spungen recipe is dead simple and easy to roll and cut out (I used jam jar covers for a consistent shape) and can be the base for infinite decorating strategies. At first I was tempted to make a whole batch of tie-dye cookies, following this Bon Appétit technique, but I quickly realized it’s incredibly tedious and I’m especially lazy. Instead, I went with two solid colors and played with some swirls at the end. —Amanda Kludt

Peanut butter miso cookies, Round Two: I’ve never baked cookies, even out of a can or a tube or whatever ready-to-bake cookie dough is packed into these days — has anyone disrupted cookies yet? — and anything that comes out of my kitchen is nearly exclusively by way of the NYT Cooking app (though shoutout to Just One Cookbook) because, despite its half-broken search, it is still the least annoying way for a lazy (or is it burned out?) person to acquire and successfully transubstantiate a list of ingredients and instructions into something edible without having to put down their phone. So there was only one possible outcome if I successfully forced myself to bake cookies: the New York Times peanut butter-miso cookies.

But I find cookies that don’t have chunks in them crushingly boring, even ones loaded with miso, so I threw in a heap of white chocolate — admittedly risky for a virgin cookie expedition — and hoped it would work out. What I’ve learned from this serendipitous experience is that baking cookies is incredibly easy, even without an electrical mixing apparatus of any kind, so anyone can do it, and that I never will again. —Matt Buchanan

Maple shortbread sandwich cookies: Sandwich cookies are the sneakiest move. Really, you’re eating two entire cookies masquerading as one, with a bonus layer of sugary cream in the middle. I ultimately landed on this recipe because A. I love maple (everything tastes like pancakes!) and B. King Arthur Flour recipes are known to be well tested and always feature gram measurements as well as cups. Using a scale means you can just dump stuff in a bowl straight from the container, which is great for lazy cooks and reluctant dishwashers like me. The clincher with these cookies, though, is the Nordic cookie stamps that I’d been eyeing for a while and finally purchased, which are a good way to make cookies feel fancy without frosting them. (I. Loathe. Frosting. Cookies. I’m terrible at piping, and the icing is always too thick or too runny, and way too fragile for shipping.) These cookie stamps took a little getting used to, but once I figured out the sturdy and rather satisfying thwack needed to pop the cookies out, it was a cinch.

Note: I doubled the recipe as suggested for stamping, but in the end it still only made 13 cookies. I’d quadruple the recipe if you want to make more than just a batch, or skip the sandwiching altogether, which made for some pretty burly cookies. That is in no way a problem for me, but daintier tastes could get away with one at a time. —Lesley Suter

Mexican wedding cookies: Along with sugar cookies shaped like reindeer and snowmen, I grew up making Russian tea cakes, aka Mexican wedding cookies, around the holidays (although back then I just called them snowballs). So for this project, because I was not in an ambitious mood and do not own any cookie cutters, Christmas-themed or otherwise, I opted for a Bon Appétit recipe for Mexican wedding cookies that I’ve made before. The brown butter in this recipe makes the classic cookie feel a little bit more special than the ones I baked as a kid, but they’re thankfully still incredibly easy to make — and, I was happy to learn, they ship okay too, even if they ended up looking less like snowballs when they reached their final destination. —Monica Burton

Photo credits: Cookies from Tomalu, LindasPhotography, Anjelika Gretskaia, Alinakho, James Andrews, and AnjelaGr/Getty Images

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The Link Lonk


December 01, 2020 at 01:21AM
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The Best Holiday Cookie Recipes for Cookie Swaps - Eater

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Cookies

Coffee, Tea and Me: A cookie exchange party - Napa Valley Register

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Lynne Champlin

LYNNE CHAMPLIN

For many years my friends and I have attended cookie exchange parties. We have exchanged recipes when we found cookies that we loved and could not stop tasting.

I am going to share a few of my favorites. You might recognize the names of these Napa cookie chefs. They are all exceptional women and cookie makers. I have asked for and received their permission to use their names and their recipes.

I hope that you, your families and your holiday guests will enjoy these cookies. All of them go especially well with our Napa wines. I promise you this is true as we have personally tested each cookie at our Christmas cookie party in Old Town Napa

Fat Ladies

My first cookie recipe was a favorite of Mrs. Lois Ryan. She was the wife of Air Force Major General Malcolm Ryan, and the mother of Kathay (Wyman) Smith of Napa. These cookies were made at all 26 Air Force bases where the Ryans were stationed around the world. The family is not sure of the origins of the cookie recipe but these are easy and delicious!

16 oz. package of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough 6 oz. package of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Follow the instructions on cookie dough package. Spray cookie pan with vegetable spray. Spread cookie dough evenly into the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes. While still hot, coming out of the oven, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Form a layer of chocolate and let cool for a few minutes.

32 pieces of soft caramel square candies

¼ cup half & half

1 cup chopped pecans

Melt together the caramels and half and half. Stir until blended and becomes smooth. Pour over the layer of chocolate chips. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Cool and cut into small bars. Makes 20–24 pieces.

Lemony Butter Cookies

My next cookie maker is our friend and colleague, retired Napa Superior Court Judge Diane Price. She was a partner with Coombs & Dunlap before being appointed to the bench where she served for many years. She has a sense of adventure and enjoys travel and bicycling throughout the United States and abroad. She also loves rock music. She took the recipe from “Kristen Stevens Slideshow: Delicious Cookie Recipes.”

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar (Use in dough in place of granulated sugar)

1 Tbsp. finely grated lemon zest

1 ½ Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ tsp. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer, beat the butter with the confectioner’s sugar until very smooth, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the lemon zest and juice, add the flour and salt until mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Use parchment paper or vegetable spray on cookie sheets.

Roll half of the dough into 1-inch balls. Put balls 1 inch apart on two cookie sheets. Gently flatten each cookie with fingers.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes until firm, rotate the baking sheets.

Let cookies cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Let the cookie sheets cool slightly, and then repeat with remaining dough.

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

In bowl, whisk the confectioner’s sugar with lemon juice and butter until smooth. Spread glaze on cooled cookies, garnish with lemon zest. Let stand until the glaze is set, about 15 minutes.

Savory Asiago-Rosemary Shortbread

Michaela Rodeno is a longtime friend who loves cookie parties. She finds cookies that go well the Rodeno’s Villa Ragazzi Wines. Michaela helped launch Domaine Chandon in 1973 to 1988. She was the CEO of St. Supery Winery 1988-2009 and is the author of “From Bubbles to Boardroom.” The originator of this recipe is Sarah Scott, a Napa Valley chef and caterer (SarahScottChef.com).

6 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup grated Asiago cheese

¾ tsp. kosher salt

1 ½ cups flour

½ tsp. finely chopped rosemary

1 egg white

Fleur de Sel (French salt. You may substitute good quality sea salt.)

Place butter and cheese in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat together until well mixed.

Whisk the flour, salt, and rosemary in a medium bowl. With the mixer running, add the flour mix, into the butter and cheese. Mix until everything is blended and the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Fold a few times, bringing it together. Divide into two sections. Roll each into a log 1 ¼ inches in diameter.

Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. To freeze, wrap in plastic wrap.

To bake, first, thaw the dough in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and spray with vegetable oil.

Set oven at 350 degrees.

Slice the logs into 1/8” to 1/4 inch coins. Place on prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Allow room to spread. Brush tops of shortbread with the egg white, sprinkle top with fleur de sel. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until light golden brown.

Brutti Ma Buoni (Ugly but Good)

Janis McWilliams Miller, my sister. is a retired division secretary for the Physics Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She is the chef in our family. Women beg her for her recipes. The origins of this recipe are unknown.

Two 7 oz. boxes of Odense Almond Paste (Recommended brand) ½ cup chopped dried fruit in small pieces (raisins, apricots, peaches, dates, figs, etc.) Zest from an orange (You may add dried pitted cherries for color. Set aside in a bowl. 8 oz. almond paste

1 egg white, unbeaten

3 Tbsp. flour

2 tsp. fresh orange zest

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla

1 Tbsp. Disaronno Amaretto

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare 1 baking sheet with vegetable spray.

Grate 8 ounces of almond paste with the large holes of a cheese grater, then put it in a food processor with a blade. Add 1 egg white and pulse until creamy. Add remaining ingredients and pulse only until blended.

Drop dough onto cookie sheet using 2 teaspoons. The dough should look bumpy. The cookies will not spread out.

Recipe makes 24 cookies; use only 1 cookie sheet.

Bake 26 – 29 minutes or until golden. Cool all on a metal rack.

2-3 cups powdered sugar

A little milk or water

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Dash of salt

1-2 tsp. fresh orange zest

Mix well; all ingredients together with a hand mixer. The icing for cookies needs to be thin. Drizzle icing zig-zag over each row. Store in air-tight container.

Lemon Sandwich Cookies

Gayle Nelson enjoys cooking classes and entertaining. She has a large garden and is busy homeschooling grandchildren. With her Master Gardener colleagues, she is helping to develop a new training program. This recipe has unknown origins. It was received in exchange for a donation to the St. Helena Co-op.

1 cup butter, room temperature 1 cup confectioners sugar 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest ½ tsp. salt 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling 2 tsp. granulated sugar, for sprinkling later Filling 4 oz cream cheese, room temperature 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest 1 to 1 ½ cups confectioners sugar

In large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter, confectioners sugar, lemon zest, and salt until combined. With the mixer on low, add flour. The dough will be stiff, use a wood spoon if needed.

Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and make two ½ inch thick rolls.

Wrap them in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about an hour, or up to 3 days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Use parchment paper or vegetable oil on two cookie sheets.

Slice the logs into 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle tops with granulated sugar. Bake 7 to 8 minutes. Watch carefully until light golden brown.

Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

For the filling

In a small bowl, mix cream cheese and zest until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup confectioners sugar, mixing until smooth. Mix in remaining sugar as necessary to make a firm but spreadable filling.

When cookies are cool, place about 1 teaspoon of filling between two of the flat sides and gently press together. Sugared sides will be facing out.

Squeeze gently so the filling reaches the outer edges of the cookies. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

Fruitcake Cookies

Marti Schumacher’s Fruitcake Cookies recipe is my grand finale. Every holiday dessert column needs a fruitcake recipe. Marti, a CPA, is a talented woman with a variety of interests This recipe was found by her mother years ago and is a family favorite — especially for Marti’s dad who tries to eat most of them just out of the oven. This recipe makes 10 dozen cookies, enough for you to share with your 10 best friends, neighbors or family members.

¼ cup butter ½ cup brown sugar ¼ cup jelly (apple preferred) 2 eggs 2 tsp. baking soda 1 ½ Tbsp. milk 1 ½ cup flour ½ tsp. allspice

½ tsp. ground cloves ½ tsp. cinnamon ½ tsp. nutmeg 1 lb. broken pecans 1 lb. raisins ½ lb. candied cherries, chopped (1/4 lb. green and 1/4 lb. red) ½ lb. candied pineapple, chopped ½ lb. candied citron, chopped

Additional candied red and green cherries for decoration on top Cream (mix until a well-blended batter) butter, sugar, jelly and eggs. Dissolve baking soda in milk. Add it to the creamed batter.

Sift all the spices into the flour. Gradually add half of the flour/spice mixture to the above batter.

Dredge the nuts and fruits with the other half of the flour in a separate bowl. Then stir the dried nuts and fruit mixed with flour into the batter.

Cover your cookie sheets with parchment paper or vegetable oil. Spoon the dough onto the sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes.

Centers of the cookies will be set and edges golden brown. Cool on the wire rack.

Storage: Keep them in covered containers. Separate layers with wax paper. Store them in a cool dry place. This allows the cookie flavors to mix and mingle.The cookies ripen just as fruitcake does.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Toll House Cookies

In closing, my husband suggested I include his favorite cookie recipe. So, in the interest of gender neutrality, here it is:

Go to your favorite grocery store and purchase one package of refrigerated Toll House White Chip Macadamia Nut cookie mix.

Bring to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray vegetable oil on cookie sheet. Follow the instructions on the package.

Cook 11 to 12 minutes.

Let cool and, if there are any left, store in an airtight box and hide.

Otherwise enjoy and gobble, gobble, gobble!

WATCH NOW: MASSIVE HOLIDAY FOOD LINES REVEAL DEEP ECONOMIC TOLL OF PANDEMIC

CHECK OUT: A VISIT TO TARAMASSO RANCH IN NAPA FOR FARM FRESH EGGS

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The Link Lonk


December 01, 2020 at 10:51AM
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Coffee, Tea and Me: A cookie exchange party - Napa Valley Register

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Butter Cookies

InSeason: Spread cheer with holiday baking | News | tribstar.com - Terre Haute Tribune Star

cookies.indah.link

This is either the time of the year my coworkers love or hate. Throughout the month of December, I bake cookies or other sweet treats every day to share with our team. I’m sure those watching what they eat hate being enticed by dozens for fresh cookies and treats while those looking for a snack are thrilled to have more options available in house.

I started the tradition of what began as 25 days of Christmas cookies seven years ago. I needed something to occupy my time in the winter months when I can’t be outside and wanted to spread a little cheer to my coworkers. It’s now expanded to cover pretty much the entire month of December.

Like everything, some recipes are a little more complex than others. I use a combination of old favorites. There’s chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter blossoms. I throw in a few more unusual varieties like molasses with cream cheese frosting and orange brownies and a handful of new recipes I’ve found. To make things a little easier and create fewer dishes to wash, I typically bake all my cookies on parchment. I can typically get several uses out of one sheet. Added bonus, the cookies don’t stick to the pans. I often use disposable pans to make stickier cookie bars and maybe most importantly, all the cookies are made with salted butter. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of my favorites.

One of the easiest treats are chewy bars that start with a small box of yellow cake mix. You can add other things to the mix as well. I’ve used different kinds of baking chips and sometimes added in coconut, marshmallows or other candies. Baking time remains the same.

Chewy Bars

1 small cake mix

¼ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon corn syrup

1 tablespoon water

¼ cup of chocolate chips

¼ of nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together except chocolate chips. When well mixed, add in chocolate chips. Spread in a greased 8x8 pan and bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies, although admittedly I often like the batter without the chips just as well as the actual cookies. These cookies will not be the picturesque ones you may imagine. They turn out more golden thanks to the butter and spread so they are often a little on the thin side.

Classic chocolate chip cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

These also make great bar cookies. Just grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes four dozen bars.

The Link Lonk


December 01, 2020 at 02:30AM
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InSeason: Spread cheer with holiday baking | News | tribstar.com - Terre Haute Tribune Star

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Butter Cookies

Bake Our Spitzbuben Cookies for a Chance to Win So Much Butter and Cheese - Food & Wine

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The Link Lonk


December 01, 2020 at 12:19AM
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Butter Cookies

How to Send Cookies in the Mail - Eater

cookies.indah.link

Almost all of our holiday traditions are imperiled by COVID-19. Boisterous family meals, glittery cocktail parties, and gatherings to exchange presents could all become super-spreader events. But there is one holiday tradition the pandemic can’t mess with: mailing cookies. The 2020 baking boom was one long training session for turning out dozens upon dozens of snickerdoodles, thumbprints, rugelach, and brownies in the last month of this shitty year.

But after the cookies are made, what’s the best way to make sure they arrive in one piece? Twelve Eater staffers conducted a (somewhat) scientific experiment to determine which cookies travel best and which shipping methods ensure cookies arrive intact. Nothing ever has to be perfect, but in a year full of uncertainty, getting cookies from one end of the country to the other would be… nice.

For mailing, the experiment settled on three methods, each of which offers a different trade-off between beauty of presentation and annoyingness of packing. The first method, from Martha Stewart Living, is the most traditional: Pack the cookies in a Tupperware or tin without much wiggle room and put them in a box with a good layer of padding. The second method comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction, which calls for packing cookies in a tin and then placing padding around the tin, with the additional step of sandwiching cookies together in pairs and wrapping them in plastic wrap. The final method comes from Jessica Vitak, who bakes 4,000 cookies a year and shared her intel as part of Eater’s expert guide. This method calls for putting cookies into plastic baggies and wrapping those baggies up in bubble wrap before packing it all up to be shipped.

Then, we divided cookies into three main types: hard and crunchy (think shortbread and biscotti), soft and chewy (chocolate chip, snickerdoodle), and bar cookies (brownies, blondies). Staffers each baked a recipe of their choice, each of which fell into one of these categories, and used one of the three shipping methods above.

The original form of the experiment was a 3-by-3 grid of cookie type and shipping method, so that each type of cookie was sent by each method. However, some wildcards entered along the way. Amanda Kludt’s shipping guy suggested a new method, which called for padding the cookies in a Tupperware but dispensing with any padding outside the Tupperware before sending them off. We threw in a spoiler crumbly cookie into all of the shipping methods, to see how much of a risk it is. Shipping methods were not rigorously followed. We are not scientists. But with dozens upon dozens of cookies that all made it to Los Angeles, there are three major conclusions to be drawn:

1. Shipping cookies successfully is not that hard
2. The type of cookie doesn’t matter nearly as much as how it’s shipped
3. The enemy of cookies is other cookies

Shipping method No. 1: Cookies in a tin

Cookies sent using the most traditional method, packed into a tin with padding and then wrapped in more padding before being placed in a box, were also the most hit or miss in terms of how they looked upon arrival. With enough padding and/or the right kind of cookie, this method can definitely work, but it’s risky.

Both Jaya Saxena’s tiny, sturdy blondies and Monica Burton’s Mexican wedding cookies (our designated crumbly cookies) battered against each other in their boxes, arriving intact but with lots of crumbs. Nick Mancall-Bitel’s chewy peanut-butter miso cookies fared the best; they were wide and flat, as well as slightly chewy, which maybe enhanced their stability; they were also packed with parchment paper crammed into every crevice, which ensured they could not bump into each other, but that shipping method might be annoying to scale.

Shipping method No. 1.5: Amanda Kludt’s shipping guy

When Eater’s editor-in-chief took her cookies to her shipping store in Brooklyn, an employee talked her out of putting any padding around her package at all, and instead stressed that all her cookies needed was ample padding inside their tin. The cookies sent by this method (Matt Buchanan agreed to also test it out) fared about as well as the cookies sent in tins and padded boxes: hit or miss. Kludt’s iced sugar cookies, which were fragile to begin with, arrived with a dusting of crumbs sheared from their edges, and one was broken in two. Buchanan’s peanut butter-miso-white chocolate cookies (spot the trend) remained totally fine, although they were also more padded with parchment paper. The TL;DR is if you want to send cookies in a tin, don’t worry about adding a lot of additional padding around the tin; worry about padding the cookies inside the tin.

Shipping method No. 2: Sally’s Baking Addiction

Wrapping cookies in pairs before putting them in a box solves the major problem of a box as shipping vehicle: chaos. Each cookie is anchored to another cookie and surrounded by a soft layer of padding that prevents them from injuring any of their other boxmates. Probably the prettiest box I got was from Lesley Suter, which was filled with crinkle paper and maple sandwich cookies perfectly bound together. It’s also a good method for sending two types of cookie: Rebecca Flint Marx sent both brownies and blondies, both of them perfectly moist, and the plastic wrap kept them from sticking together when stacked. Parchment paper might have done the same, but the plastic wrap meant they didn’t stick to each other laterally, either.

The downside, of course, is that this method uses an unholy amount of plastic wrap, takes more time for the sender, and then requires the receiver to unwrap all the cookies. The process wasn’t that arduous, and maybe kept them fresh longer, but it took a little of the pleasure out of unwrapping the treats. If you want to send cookies in a tin and not lose too much time wondering if you’ve added enough padding, this method is probably the safest.

Shipping method No. 3: Jessica Vitak’s Baggie Method

Putting cookies into small baggies, wrapping those baggies in layers of bubble wrap, and then shipping them in a box was overall just as successful as the plastic-wrap method, if not more so. This is likely because the cookies are in a soft container, so they’re not as easily jostled, and the baggies can be thoroughly encircled with bubble wrap. It also offers a great deal of flexibility, especially if you’re sending multiple kinds of cookies. Brenna Houck sent both spicy, flavorful molasses cookies and shortbread cookies, and neither took on the flavor of the other when separated in baggies within the same box.

The main downside of this method is when the cookies arrive, there is no tin or even Tupperware to open, just bubble wrap to hack through, and then a bunch of baggies. It’s not super aesthetically pleasing if you’re sending something as a gift. This method works best if you want to go for volume and variety: lots of different kinds of cookies, which might be tough to fit together in a tin and would risk cross-contaminating each others’ flavors, can all be sent successfully in a big ball of plastic. But don’t skip the bubble wrap! Left alone in just a plastic bag, the cookies will pulverize each other. They must be immobilized for their own good.

A note of caution about powdered sugar

Lots of classic holiday cookies are dusted with powdered sugar. It’s cute! It’s like snow! It will not travel well! Cookies dusted in powdered sugar and put in baggies mussed up the baggie, creating an unpleasant effect. Plastic-wrapped cookies and cookies sent in tins seemed to absorb their powder, leaving them a bit dull.

Conclusions

If you want your cookies to arrive in a pretty box, pad them neurotically. If you want to send the max amount of cookies, consider the baggie method. With a little care, they should arrive safely.

And they’ll be worth the effort. At Eater, we work all over the country, but we usually get to see each other in person once or twice a year. This year, it’s been a lot of Zoom. Getting boxes of cookies from all my coworkers felt surprisingly lovely; something about the cookies being homemade made it feel like we were hanging out together when I unwrapped them. If worries about the quality of your bakes or the efficiency of the mail is what’s been keeping you from sending out your own batches of cookies, don’t let that stop you: All of the packages I received made me think fondly of their senders during a time when we feel far apart. And all of them were delicious.

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November 30, 2020 at 09:22PM
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How to Send Cookies in the Mail - Eater

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