Merry Christmas Cookie Update

Just a quick note to say I followed a viewer's tip, and rolled the chocolate snowcap cookie dough in white granulated sugar first, before coating in the powdered sugar. I was told this would prevent the white tops from fading in brightness, and as you can see, that's exactly what happened (don't let the bad cell phone picture fool you). Thanks, anonymous YouTuber! Enjoy!

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Chocolate Snowcaps – There’s Snow on Them There Cookies

I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a holiday cookies swap (apparently you need to have like-minded friends), but if I were, I’d bring these chocolate snowcap cookies. They just look so wintry, with their powdery-white tops, contrasted against those deep, dark cracks.

They’re so captivating, that I find myself daydreaming about tiny Christmas elves skiing down them when no one is looking. I really should see someone about that. Anyway, the point is, if you’re looking for a holiday cookie so seasonally appropriate it hurts, this is the one for you.

As I stated in the video, the only way to mess these up is to not use enough powdered sugar. The first batch I made looked like they had plenty, but that little bit I shook off before placing them on the pan made all the difference. You want to coat them, roll them, coat them again, and then, coat them again. You can’t put too much on.

Also, the batch I made after letting the dough sit overnight didn’t spread out as much, which I thought looked better, and much more mini mountain-like. As far as baking time goes, mine took about 12 minutes, but that depends on exactly how large you roll your dough balls.

To be safe, you should probably do five or six practice batches to get this time dialed in [wink]. Once you do, you’ll be rewarded with a classic Christmas cookie that tastes as good as it looks. I think I speak for tiny, imaginary elves everywhere, when I say we hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 2 dozen Chocolate Snowcap Cookies:

Recipe found here on Foodess.com

6 ounces dark chocolate, broken in small pieces, melted over hot water

3/4 cup AP flour

1/3 cup cocoa (I used Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp fine salt

1/2 cup room temp butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup powdered sugar, or as needed

*Bake at 350 degrees F.  for about 12 minutes, depending on size

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Lemon Bars for a Lasting Mother’s Day Impression

Mother’s Day is coming up, and since so many of you brave souls will be attempting a celebratory brunch, I thought I’d post this much-requested lemon bars recipe, in case things don’t go as smoothly as anticipated. 

Preparing brunch can be tricky anytime, let alone under mom’s watchful (aka “extremely concerned”) eyes. Can someone please get her a mimosa and walk her into the garden?

So, even if a few poached eggs break, or the toast gets a little too golden-black, no worries! If you finish the meal with these gorgeous, and absolutely impossible to mess-up lemon bars, she'll be as proud as she will be impressed. Our moms may have taught us the importance of a good first impression, but its America’s restaurateurs who discovered the importance of a delicious last impression. There's nothing like a well made pastry to make one forgive a tough steak.

Other than a baking dish, there’s no special equipment or techniques required. Both the shortbread base and the lemon custard take only minutes, and are simply hand-mixed in a bowl. 

Basically, if you can move your arm in a circle, and effectively set a timer (there’s one on your phone), your lemon bars should look just as good as these (maybe better – see meringue note below). Anyway, whether you’re going to make these for Mother’s Day or not, I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 16 Small Lemon Bars:

For the shortbread crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup room temp unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Bake crust at 350 degrees F. for 22 minutes

For the lemon layer:

2 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes

Garnish with powdered sugar; or top with *meringue (the extra egg white whipped with 1 tablespoon of sugar) and brown with torch.

*My Meringue
If you decide to turn these into lemon meringue bars, do yourself a favor and actually measure the sugar. I couldn’t be bothered to check a recipe, so I only tossed in a teaspoon of sugar, and it should be closer to a tablespoon. The technique is the same; beat the extra white to the ribbon stage (where drips of white stay on the surface for a few seconds), and then add the sugar and continue whipping until you have nice, glossy peaks. My “by eye” batch worked fine, but it was a little too dry, and not quite sticky enough. Be advised.

View the complete recipe

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Gingerbread Whoopie Pies – So Wrong, and Yet So Right

Admittedly, the witch joke at the beginning of the video may have been a little graphic, but that’s what I always think of when I hear the legend of how these cookies supposedly got their name. As the story goes, when these sweet treats first made their appearance, people that tasted them were so taken by the sheer awesomeness, that they went nuts and started running around shouting, “Whoopie!! Whoopie!!” 

Sure they did. This seems very exaggerated, but no matter how they got the “whoopie” part, at least the rest of the name is not accurate either. That’s right, not only is this cookie not a pie, this pie isn’t even a cookie…it’s really a little cake. Confused? Me too, and I just wrote that.

Anyway, despite the dubious name, and the other dubious name, at least the gingerbread part is accurate. Although, now that I think about it, it’s not really a ”bread”…okay, this has to stop. With holiday cookie exchanges in full swing, the only thing I can say with certainty is that these whatever-they-are’s were very delicious, fun to make, and I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 9 to 12 finished Gingerbread Whoopie Pies (depending on the size!)

10 ounces (by weight) all-purpose flour (about 2 cups of sifted flour - see note below!)

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 rounded teaspoons ground ginger (3 if you like it spicy)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup dark molasses

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup boiling water

Bake at 350ºF or about 12 minutes

For the filling (makes extra!):

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

2 tsp cream or milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

*you can adjust texture by adding more powdered sugar or milk

View the complete recipe

Flour portioning note: It is critical to weigh the flour for this recipe to work as seen in the video. 10 ounces by weight is about 2 cups by volume, but because flour can become quite compressed in the bag or canister, portioning by cup is not very accurate. If you are not going to weigh, only add about a cup and a half of flour, proceed as shown, and if the batter seems too thin after mixing, add more flour, little by little, until you have the thick batter seen in the video.

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I Married for Love, Not Cookies

I get a lot of cookie requests this time of year, and while I’m not a fanatical cookie lover myself, I have posted videos for a fair number of them. In fact, I have a new and exciting Christmas cookie post coming later this week. In the meantime, I thought I’d repost this great recipe from three years ago, featuring my favorite, Michele’s famous Chili Chocolate Cookies.

As most of you know, Michele is my lovely and talented wife, and as I joke about in the original post, this would still be my favorite chocolate cookie, even if I weren’t legally bound by marriage to say so. I hope you enjoy this very chocolately blast from the past, and stay tuned for what I hope will have many of you yelling, “Whoopie!”

Click here to read the original post and to get the ingredients.

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Blueberry Shortbread Bars – Please Don’t Call These Cookies

I’ve gotten a lot of shortbread requests, but haven’t done a video for it yet, since I’m not a huge fan of that particular cookie in its classic form. However, I love those little bars you see in the pastry case at the coffee shop, which feature a slightly moister shortbread base, topped with some kind of seasonal fruit.

I always wondered how they were made, and then I saw this peach shortbread post on Smitten Kitchen, which looked just like the aforementioned bars. So, I adapted that recipe, losing the egg white and switching out peaches for the very user-friendly blueberries. Besides, by adding fruit and calling them “bars,” we have something that sounds so much healthier than “cookies.”

There are no special skills required here, but you really want to get your hands on a wire pastry cutter, literally. Sure, you can dirty your food processor, but a pastry cutter will do the job quickly and easily, and you can really feel and see what’s happening in the bowl. Of course, if you’re not doing the dishes, go ahead and use the machine.

As I say in the video, any summer fruit will work, as long as you don’t use too much, and it’s not too wet. You need to have room for the crumbs on top to nestle down around the fruit to hold everything together. Also, if you roll with a particularly large entourage, you can easily double this recipe for a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 bars:

6 1/2 ounces (by weight) AP flour (about 1 1/2 cups of sifted flour, aka not packed)

1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Chinese 5-spice (or a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg)

1 stick (1/2 cup) very cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon ice water, dripped over mixture

about 3/4 cup blueberries, or enough to cover surface

View the complete recipe

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Orange Pistachio Greenies – They Only Sound Like Pet Snacks and Speed

Calling a brownie made with pistachios a “greenie” seemed like a perfectly sensible thing to do, until I realized that was also the name of a popular brand of pet treats, as well as the street name for amphetamines.

Most chefs, not wanting their recipe associated with such unsavoriness would have changed the name, but not me. I’m hoping that these become so popular that eventually the pet people and druggies will be forced to change their names instead. We shall see.

Anyway, as I exclaimed in the video, these were great, but some dark chocolate chips really would have put this over the top. I’m adding a half-cup of mini chips to the recipe ingredients below, and I highly recommend you do as I say, not as I did.

I’m generally pretty mellow (unless I’m on greenies) about substituting ingredients in my recipes, but I can’t think of another nut that would work here instead of the pistachio. There's something about the relationship between orange and pistachio that’s just so much more intimate than other nut/citrus combinations.

The good news is, thanks to mass-marketing and large grocery stores, shelled pistachios are now widely available at a very decent price. Buy a few extra, since snacking on them while you make these is virtually impossible not to do. They’re really addictive…like greenies, and greenies. I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 9 Orange Pistachio Greenies:

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup melted butter

2 tbsp grated orange zest

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

2 cups shelled, dry-roasted pistachios (*note: mine were lightly salted, so if yours are not salted or heavily salted, please adjust the added salt in the recipe)

1/2 to 1 tsp salt to taste

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (add when you combine dry into wet ingredients) 

*Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes
For the glaze:
1 or 2 tbsp orange juice
2 tsp orange zest
enough powdered sugar to thicken

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Dark Chocolate Macarons – Better Three Years Late Than Never

I did it. I made macarons. Finally, I can apply for my food blogger merit badge! Hold on, I’m being told I still need to make mini-cupcakes and a quinoa salad to qualify. Oh well, I’ve waited this long.

Anyway, this was my first attempt at macarons, and for not having any clue what I was doing, I was quite happy with the results. They looked fine, and the texture was almost identical to the ones sold at Chantal Guillon, a famous macaron bar here in San Francisco.

So, was it beginners luck? Yes. You would think since I waited three years to make these, I would have done more research, but I did almost none. In fact, I literally used the first chocolate macaron recipe I found, which happened to be from David Lebovitz. He’s an American, but he lives in Paris, so I figured I was okay.

I watched a few videos, read a few articles, had a couple drinks, looked at a few step-by-steps, and off I went.  One thing I did notice was every single resource used a different recipe, as well as different times, temperatures, and techniques. So, I figured I would just use my instincts and try the most straightforward method possible.

I didn’t do any high-heat/low-heat tricks; no waiting for the tops to dry; no sugar syrups, etc. I just made the batter, piped it out, baked them off, and as you can see, they were not bad at all. One thing I did figure out all by myself was to use the ugly ones as the bottoms. By the way, there’s a very inappropriate metaphor there, if you’re looking.

So, here’s the deal; if you’ve never made these before, I hope this inspires you to give them a go. Believe me, if I can do these anyone can. However, if you’re an experienced macaron maker, we’d love to have you chime in. I can’t wait for this comment section to fill up with invaluable tips and tricks for what I should have done, and how I should have done it.

I know I piped them wrong. You’re not supposed to make a swirl, but keep the tip pressed in the center as you squeeze. I also heard that I should have cooked one pan at a time, because the bottom pan is more likely to crack. What else? Don’t worry about my feelings…after four years of posting videos on YouTube, I don’t have any left…so let me have it. And, as always, enjoy!

Basic Chocolate Macaron Batter (I found this recipe on davidlebovitz.com):
Makes about 18 finished cookies

*Weighing the ingredients is critical. Do not make these unless you have a digital kitchen scale!

100 gram powdered sugar

50 grams almond meal aka almond flour (the finer the better)

25 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

2 large room temperature egg whites

65 grams granulated sugar

For chocolate ganache:

1/3 cup hot heavy cream

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

pinch of salt

*pour hot cream over chocolate, and stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly before filling cooled cookies.

Bonus Coverage: For more chocolate macaron information, my friend Denise from ChezUs makes some amazing ones, and knows WAY more about these than I do, so you can bug her with your questions too! ;-)

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Classic Peanut Butter Cookies – These are to Chocolate Chips as Turkeys are to Eagles

This classic peanut butter cookie recipe has me thinking about something I saw on the history channel a few months ago, about how the bald eagle became our national bird, instead of the wild turkey.

While the regal eagle was the popular choice, many, including Benjamin Franklin, argued that the lesser attractive turkey was more deserving. Not only was it truly indigenous, but they also argued it was more courageous, and unlike the eagle, was not a lowly scavenger. Of course, we all know how that one turned out.

Now, I don’t think America has an official national cookie designation, but if it did, I bet you a Benjamin (see what I did there?) that the ever-popular chocolate chip would beat out peanut butter cookies for the honor. It would be eagle vs. turkey all over again.

Sure the chocolate chip is always popular, and more visually enticing, but when you compare the relative historical significance to American culture, the peanut far eclipses the chocolate chip. I mean, come on, is there even a “Mr. Chocolate Chip?” I don’t think so.

By the way, let me go ahead and answer the obvious question that’s probably on many of your minds right now… no, I don’t have anything more important to worry about. I hope you give this peanut butter cookie, America’s cookie, a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients (makes about 24):

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp fine table salt)

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

*Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes

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Chocolate Mint Brownies – Behold, The Tree of Disappointment

I loved everything about these brownies, except the flavor. I love mint, I love chocolate, and I love chocolate mints, but for whatever reason, I don’t like chocolate mint brownies. It’s quite a personal mystery.

My wife Michele’s theory is that since we love the pure chocolately goodness of classic plain brownies, the addition of that extra layer of flavor, especially one as distinctive as mint, just throws everything off. That could be.

Also, I don’t like the combination of nuts and mint, and so these didn’t contain walnuts or pecans like they usually would. Maybe it’s nut denial that has me in this anti-mint mood. Anyway, enough about my problems, if you like chocolate mint brownies, which based upon all the requests I got, many of you do; you’ll probably love these.

I’ve used a very stripped-down method here that requires almost zero technique, and uses only cocoa powder to achieve a dense, chewy, very chocolatey brownie. I hope you give these a try, and if you don’t enjoy mint either, just leave them un-iced, or add another flavoring like vanilla, orange, or rum extract. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 1/8 cups sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

For the icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp mint extract, or to taste

2 tbsp milk

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Let’s Get Ready to Rum Ball!

I want to thank a Twitter follower of mine, RookieKoo, for giving me the idea for today’s Michael Buffer-inspired post title. Of course, if you’re not familiar with the iconic boxing ring announcer’s catchphrase, then none of this will make any sense, and you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you it was an amusing reference.

There are hundreds of ways to make rum balls, but this one’s my favorite method. It’s very easy, especially if you have stale brownies lying around. I know, that never happens, which is why I’m linking to an all-purpose brownie recipe below the post. This will also work nicely with store-bought brownies, but stay away from anything that’s frosted. We don’t want to add any additional fat into the recipe, since that will hinder the absorption of the rum.

The amount of rum you add depends on how cakey and/or dry your brownies are, but for a half-pound, you’ll probably need between 1/4 and 1/3 of a cup to soak the crumbs sufficiently. A proper rum ball should be a fire hazard. By the way, I’m not responding to any comments asking about how to make these without using rum. In my humble opinion, you can’t.

The other issue I'm not going to be a big help with is altering the type of chocolate. I used a quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa), which worked beautifully for this, and hope you do the same. I don't have a lot of experience working with chocolate, so I'm not sure what will happen if you want to use white, milk, or other kinds of chocolate for the coating.

I realize these are more of a candy, than a cookie, but after about a half-dozen rum balls, culinary semantics will be the furthest thing from your mind. I hope you give them a try on your holiday dessert table. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 20 small rum balls:

8 ounces stale chocolate brownies, crumbled

1/4 to 1/3 cup dark rum, or as needed

4 oz dark chocolate (I used Lindt Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa)

NOTE: For a quick and easy brownie that will work well for these rum balls, check out this recipe from Allrecipes.com. I recommend checking out the comments on that recipe page before starting.

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Mamoul cookies

Tomake 12 cookies (3-inch long-oval cookies)
Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup fine semolina
2 tablespoon melted butter or ghee
2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon Orange blossom water or rose water
1/2 cup reduced fat Milk(a little more if needed)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon powdered anise or ground anise seed(optional)

pinch of salt

Filling

1 cup(4 ounce) about 6-8 dates,pitted and pressed to make a paste
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Rolling

1/4 cup Walnuts or pistachios,chopped

Process:

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl .Butter,sugar,orange blossom water and milk mix in another bowl. Gradually add this in to the flour mixture,knead the dough until evenly mixed.The dough should be smooth and moist,add little more milk if needed.Cover and let rest for one hour.
Prepare the filling by combining the pressed dates and cinnamon .Make 2 inch long rolls of the mixture and Set aside and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make walnut-sized balls of the dough. Press down each of the balls using a thumb to form a cup to place the filling.place the date roll.Close the open end and roll between the palms to form a cylindrical shape.Place on a baking sheet and finish making the rest.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until bottom is lightly brown. Completely cool on a rack.Store in an air tight container.Tastes best if consumed within 4-5 days since its low in fat and could dry out sooner.

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