A rocky start to a new year

Good lord, it's been a while. I apologize for the lack of posting. If I could go back and start 2011 over again, believe me, I would. And what's great when your new year sucks? Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

I saw this recipe awhile back on many different websites (homesick texan and smitten kitchen to name a few). Since I had several bags of coconut and 2 pounds of pecans leftover from holiday baking, I bookmarked it for January use. So, here we go~

Hello Dolly Bars, adapted from everywhere

1 1/2 cups crushed cinnamon graham crackers (about 8 graham crackers)
2 cups of chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups of shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans
1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or you know, whatever I can get my stupid oven to get to these days. Can I move yet?).
Melt your butter and pour it directly into an 8x8 cake pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs into pan, and mix well with melted butter to form a crust. Layer on chocolate chips -


- then coconut -


- then pecans.


Pour the can of condensed milk over everything.


Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top turns brown.


Let cool in pan for at least half an hour, cut into bars and serve.


Aren't the layers pretty? These were super easy. I thought I wasn't wild about them at first, but then I ate the whole pan over a few days time. They have a nice down home taste that was simple enough to make and was really satisfying. I recommend cutting them into small squares - otherwise they can be overwhelming.

More to come soon, I promise!

I wish I had some of these right now

I love making aggressively Jewish food. I didn't really grow up eating it all that much. Our family staples pretty much included pesto pasta, corn tortillas with refried beans and cheese, Chinese food and salad. Now that I'm in control of my own food production, I like to make things that I can pretend my grandmother used to make.

I made these for the first time last Christmas to give away as gifts. I liked them a lot. I'm a sucker for a good cream cheese dough.

Rugelach!

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2-pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
Filling of your choice - I like jam or melted chocolate
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash

Add the cheese and butter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until light. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined.


If you don't have a stand mixer, you can still beat this together by hand. But it won't be as easy. And you won't have an awesome stand mixer.

Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

After it's been chilled, roll it out on a flat surface with some flour. Spread the filling of your choice over it. This is the jam that my sister made in VT.


Cut the whole circle into 12 triangles, like pie wedges.


Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge. Arrange the cookies, points tucked under, on a baking sheet(s) lined with parchment paper (or a Sil Pat - don't use tin foil. They will stick like nobody's business). Chill for 30 minutes.


Brush each cookies with egg wash and sprinkle with a little sugar (you can mix in cinnamon as well here). Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.


Yum. I love how flaky the dough is. The cookies (like all cookies) are amazing when they are warm and fresh out of the oven. Maybe I will make you some for the holiday season.

Computer mishigas

This week we've been switching computers around, meaning that all my files have been flying around in cyberspace, from hard drive to portable drive and back. I've finally gotten some semblance of my regular set up back, so here we go - it's cookie time.

I've had this recipe bookmarked for ages. Not having a stand mixer held me back from trying it, but no more! I know have everything I could possibly need for baking amazingness.

Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies, via Smitten Kitchen

- a funny side note about these cookies - I had a friend try to make them awhile back and they turned out terribly for him. "This recipe didn't work," he told me. "Why not?" I asked. "Well, I didn't have a stand mixer," he said. "Hmmmm..." My brain started whirring and clicking. "Also, I didn't chill the dough." He admitted finally. Enough said. I am happy to report that with a stand mixer and three hours of dough chilling, these cookies turned out perfect and amazing.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together (or, you know, skip this step. I totally did).

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more (this is why you need a stand mixer. 2 minutes on a stand mixer is like forever by hand).



Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour mixture (you know, flour/cocoa and baking soda) - cover your mixer with a kitchen towel or the flour cover that your mixer comes with - pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.


Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about one inch between them.


My picture is of the log after I cut most of it. Whoops! I always forget to take my pictures.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done but that's okay! You just have to take it on faith that they are. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are just barely warm. Then eat them.


The cookies are delicious, kind of like chocolate shortbread but better. They are a great accompaniment to a train ride up to tomato weekend! They are worth the effort for sure.

Feeling much better now

Recipes call out to me for different reasons. Some have nothing but ingredients that I love. Some remind me of wonderful food I ate once. And sometimes, I see a recipe and I have to make it, just to prove that I can. And that's how it was with this Smitten Kitchen recipe: Homemade Oreos.


I like oreos as much as the next person, but they've never been a particular favorite of mine. I don't really have childhood memories of eating them much (the only store bought cookies I remember eating as a kid at home were Pepperidge Farm Milanos....yum), nor am I really into cookies that are filled with hydrogenated oils. But when I saw the opportunity to make oreos (from scratch! at home!), well that just spoke to the crazy part of my brain and I had to do it.

Smitten Kitchen's Homemade Oreos

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (use 1 cup of sugar for a more authentic less sweet oreo cookie - use more if you want)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven (this is already how the racks in my oven are! I love it when I don't have to do anything). Preheat to 375°F.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.


This took way longer than I thought it would. I initially thought, hey, I must have fucked this up! Darn it! The oreos are triumphant and I am a loser. But then I just let it run for a minute while I went to the other room to kick something and when I came back, it looks like cookie dough. Bliss.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart (you really want to keep it to a teaspoon, other wise the cookies get too big and it's weird and not very oreo-like). With your hands (I love recipes where you have to use your hands to touch food), roll the dough into a little all and then smush it with the palm of your hand.


Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.


To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy (as you can see, I used a wooden spoon. I am super old school).


To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip (do you have a pastry bag? I sure don't, but I have a ziploc bag that I cut a hole in the corner of), pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie.


Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies are oreo sandwich cookies!


I wish I could say I would share these with you, except that Zack ate them all (except for the six I saved for Asha). They tasted remarkably like oreos (Zack said they were better than oreos, but he's my husband and can't quite be trusted on these matters). Asha liked them too though.

Make these! Then you too can say "I can make oreos at home! Bow down to me Nabisco, for I am the Queen of everything." It's a good feeling.

Channelling the obsession

If you know me, you know that I am pretty much obsessed with Cadbury Mini-Eggs (I blogged about it here last year ). It's such a well known problem that this year, I had not one, not two, but THREE separate friends who texted me photos when they spotted the first mini-eggs of the season this year. I feel like some sort of deranged chocolate guru.

To try and stop myself from eating a full bag of candy in one sitting, I channelled my chocolate obsession into another more productive obsession: Baking.

Here for your holiday enjoyment (you know how much I love themed food) are my first batch of Cadbury Mini Egg cookies. These are by no means the be-all-end-all recipe that I will come up with. But it's a start.

1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs milk
1 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
as much of a 10oz bag of mini eggs as you have left over....I ate some. Whoops. Then I wacked the rest into tiny bits to work out my aggression/make the mini eggs into a good cookie bite size. Six of one....

First I just made my basic chocolate chip cookie dough - melt the butter, mix in the sugar, then the egg, vanilla and milk (you could cream the butter and sugar together - but I'm super lazy. Plus, I've been doing it for years now and I like the texture). Then slowly mix in the dry ingredients (I mix in 1/2 cup of flour at a time).

Now here comes the best part.....


Are you ready.....?


BAM!


Yeah, that's good stuff.

Um, you should probably mix the eggs into the batter now. Otherwise, you'll just eat them all. Or I will.

Scoop out the dough in cookie size increments (whatever that means to you) and bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes.


Not only do they taste good, the colors are so pretty and spring-y. Now if only it wasn't still winter.

Purim!

So this weekend was the Jewish holiday of Purim. I've had a hamantaschen recipe (the traditional Purim cookie) earmarked for some time now, but when it came to the day, Zack forgot to get eggs from the grocery store and I didn't get to start these until the holiday was essentially over. But cookies are good anytime, so I forged ahead.

Purim, for those of you not in the know, is the holiday where the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination. The villain, Hamen, wanted to exterminate the Jews, but they were saved by Esther (she spoke to the King on behalf of the Jewish people) and today, everyone celebrates by dressing up and sending out gifts of food. Some people like to call it the Jewish Halloween. The cookies symbolize Hamen's pockets, or ears, or his hat, depending on who you ask.

(Ironically, the first place I read about Purim was in a children's book at my friend Alison Criss's house - my only Christian friend in elementary school - but that's neither here nor there)

At any rate, I wanted to make some cookies. And so I did.

Hamentaschen (adapted from Smitten Kitchen - my current obsession)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest (I used Meyer Lemon zest - it was great)
1 1/3 cups plus 4 teaspoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Jam, pie fillings, what have you. I used the Kahn family blueberry jam (amazing!), strawberry jam (from Smuckers. Substandard) and homemade poppy seed filling (because I am an overacheiver). Get the recipe I used here.

Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth (I still haven't set up my stand mixer, so I used a wooden spoon.


Power to the old fashioned cooking methods!). Add sugar and mix for one minute longer, then egg, vanilla extract, orange (or lemon) zest and salt, mixing until combined.


Finally, add the flour. I added it 1/3 cup at a time and that seemed to work very well.

Form dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.


I was out of plastic wrap, so I used a ziploc bag. Then I left it over night in the fridge because at this point, it was almost 10pm.

Okay, now it's Tuesday. I had to wake up early and meet with a mortgage banker and wear nice "I'm such a responsible grown up don't you want to lend me hundreds of thousands of dollars" clothes. I'm ready for some damn cookies. Preheat oven to 350°F. Realize your oven didn't turn on, go back to the stove and kick it.

To form the hamantaschen, roll out the dough on a well-floured surface until it is about 1/4-inch thick.


Using a round cookie cutter (or a biscuit cutter! I have fancy biscuit cutters now from Miyoko. Yay for getting married and people giving me kitchen stuff!), cut the dough into circles.


Spoon a teaspoon of you filling of choice in the center.


Fold the dough in from three sides and firmly crimp the corners and give them a little twist to ensure they stay closed. Leave the filling mostly open in the center.


Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.


My cookies turned out fairly misshapen. But you know what? They tasted good. The dough was really flaky and the homemade jam was a great filling. Like all Jewish cookies, they taste best warm.

Happy Purim!

Cookies!!!!!

Cookies are pretty much my favorite things ever. I love to make them. I love to eat them. I love the way the house smells when they're in the oven. They rock. So when I see a new cookie recipe (especially one that doesn't take much prep time - I want the baking-to-eating time to be pretty short), I make it.

I saw this recipe on The Amateur Gourmet. I was especially excited by the name "Lucy Alibar." Why, you may ask? She was in my graduating class at the Experimental Theater Wing (that's NYU talk for those of you not in the know). Plus, I think she's peachy keen. She's fun and a heck of a writer. So I thought, I will make Lucy's cookies! And then I will bring them to my friend Bryn's house for her and her husband Paul to eat.

And that's what I did.

Lucy's Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie

1 cup creamy peanut butter (use a commercial brand, "natural" peanut butter won't work here - I used Skippy and it was swell)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 Tbs vanilla extract
a pinch of sea or kosher salt
orange zest (not too much, maybe a tsp or so)

Combine all these things in a bowl!


That sure was easy, wasn't it?

Scoop out batter with an ice cream scoop (or just a spoon) and lay a piece of chocolate across the top. I broke up a Hershey bar and it was great. I also used one piece of fancy chocolate, but I thought the Hershey/Skippy combination was just perfect. Save the fancy chocolate for another day.

Sprinkle a little bit of sea salt across the top of each cookie. I love salt.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Now you've got cookies!


They were creamy and delicious. I loved the hit of orange flavor from the zest. Another fun note - these are gluten free! So if you have a gluten-free friend, make these for them.

Thanks, Lucy! These cookies are great.

Don't make these

I have a big problem.

I can't stop eating these cookies.


I was browsing the Smitten Kitchen website (which I am now obsessed with, by the way) and I came across this cookie recipe. I make oatmeal cookies all the time - usually these. But something about these called to me - I had to make them. Right this second.

Smitten Kitchen's Crisp Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

Note: these are not really salted at all. Both Bryn (who I had a dinner date with on Friday night which prompted me to make these cookies - what kind of hostess doesn't make dessert?) and Zack had the same response to my lack of saltiness statement "um, that's okay with me." They don't liked salted desserts. I love them. But I love these too.

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
6 ounces white chocolate chips (the original recipe really didn't want me to use white chocolate chips. But that was the only white chocolate that Key Food had, so I used them and it was fine)
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt (like Maldon or fleur de sel) (for sprinkling on top)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (usually I use tin foil. I'm not sure why. This was way better). Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and table salt in a medium bowl (in the interest of full disclosure, I did not do this. I just added it to the butter/sugar mixture below. Don't tell).

2. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add flour mixture gradually and mix until just incorporated and smooth. Gradually add oats and white chocolate and mix until well incorporated (inspired by Zack's mom, I used a wooden spoon for this and not an electric mixer. Old fashioned cooking! Anyone can do it).

3. Divide dough into 24 (I made 39 cookies with this amount of dough - but they were perfectly sized) equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons. Roll between palms into balls, then place on lined baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart. Using fingertips, gently press down each ball to about 3/4-inch thickness.

4. Sprinkle a flake or two of sea salt on each cookie (if you really want the "salted" thing to come through, I'd add a tiny pinch instead).


5. Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, about 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack to cool.

I can not stop eating these. These are literally the only things that I have eaten today (except for a bowl of matzo ball soup). I plan to punish myself by going to the gym for a long time tomorrow. Or maybe ritual flogging.

When people complain for five years, sometimes I listen

As you may know, I make a lot of different kinds of cookies. I pride myself on my cookie-making ability and I have received many compliments over the years. But I have this guy who lives in my house - he's kind of a picky husband type - and no matter what kind of cookie I make, we have this following exchange:

Zack: These cookies are great, honey!
Me: Thanks.
Zack: But you know what would be really great? If you could make kolacky (a type of czech cookies) like my mom does.

(In the interest of full disclosure, Zack would like me to point out that I may be exaggerating. But not that much). So this Christmas, I decided to bite the bullet and ask his mom if she would teach me how to make kolacky. She very happily agreed (she's super nice) and here are the results of the teaching.

First, she pulled out this card.


This doesn't look that informative. But onward we go. First you take a pound of butter. Yes, a pound. That's four sticks. If my dad is reading this, you may want to avert your eyes. I know how you feel about butter.


Then you add an 8oz package of cream cheese and cream it together until it's all mixed up smoothly. Zack's mom is really really good at this part. She doesn't use a mixer or anything! She uses a wooden spoon and that's it.

I might use a mixer next time. Don't tell.

Then you slowly mix in the salt, sugar and flour, still using just your wooden spoon. You want to do this in batches so that it all gets incorporated in equally and so that flour doesn't fly everywhere and it you in the face. Divide your dough into four equal balls.


Then roll each ball into a log.


Wrap it in wax paper and freeze it overnight.

When you take our your dough the next day, thaw it for a little bit, then you're going to slice it into disks like this.


Then you pinch each disk to make sure it's malleable and roll each disk into a ball. Put them on a cookie sheet and smush your thumb in each one so there's a little well for you to put filling it.

Filling! Zack's mom buys the Solo brand pie filling. It comes in a can. I would usually never even consider using canned pie filling (because I am such a food snob), but Zack's mom uses it and it tastes good, so phooey on me (she also used those premade cans of french fried onions on top of a casserole. I hated myself for liking it so much).

But I digress.

So, spoon a little bit of filling (we got cherry and raspberry) into each thumb shaped well in your cookie.


Then you bake them at 350 degrees for awhile. Zack's mom said to bake them until the bottom of the cookie is golden brown. This is hard to check. I'm guessing it's in the 10-18 minute range.

Once the cookies are out of the oven, roll them in powdered sugar! They're all done.


These taste AMAZING fresh out of the oven. I've only ever had them about three days old and cold before and I was never a huge fan. But Zack likes them cold. He's crazy.

Anyways, they are good but hard to pronounce. I just call them "czech cookies." That way nobody laughs at me.

I can pronounce it when someone else says it first and then imitate them, but I can't sound it out. This is especially funny when you consider that I teach kids how to sound things out for a living. Maybe I should bake cookies for a living instead.

Thanks, Margie for passing on the recipe! Yum yum.

For Passover

I'm not a particularly observant Jew-ish person (the fact that I put a hyphen in the word "Jewish" should be a clue). Case in point, I am off to a sedar this weekend (yes I know, sedars were supposed to happen the 1st or 2nd night of Passover, but Zack's family likes to have them on the weekend so that people from out of town can come). I am bringing what I always bring to any sedar - Mo's amazing macaroons.

Mo is one of my dad's oldest and closest friends. She has been around our family for as long as I can remember (her real name is Mary Ann and her maiden name started with an O, hence Mo). She is super great and she gave me this recipe so that I could make macaroons just as well as she does. Everybody likes these cookies (even Zack, and he hates coconut).

All you need are these 5 ingredients:


If it's not passover, you can use regular flour. I used cake meal so that God wouldn't smite me. It worked really well.

1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (or cake meal, kosher for passover)
2-1/2 cups shredded coconut
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet well (I used parchment paper).

2. Mix flour, coconut, salt together in a bowl.


Pour in condensed milk and vanilla and stir well to make a thick batter.


3. Form into "cookie-size" balls on cookie sheet. Bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown (I swear my oven is busted. It took me forever to cook these).


4. Remove from pan at once and cool on racks.


And that's it! No beating egg whites, like most macaroon recipes (egg whites scare me, so this is just as well). Another great thing about these is that there are no ingredients that actually need to be cooked before you eat them, so you'll never accidentally undercook them and kill someone. Just let them get nice and golden brown and they will be delicious. Plus, they are so easy to make. I'm off to Boston. Happy Pesach!