[Cookie 036] Rum-Raisin Shortbread

Summer is finally ending, and besides getting the an overabundance of back-to-school sale junk mail, the end of August usually means one other much more ominous thing for Californians: fire season. Yesterday, as I was driving home from a really awesome day at the beach, we rounded a curve on the 110 freeway and I saw a huge, conspicuous brown cloud blooming out of the mountains. We immediately turned on the radio and heard about the first of this years summer wild fires, but none of us were very shocked, to be honest. Every year it's like this, and every year people have to evacuate their homes.

This morning I woke up and wandered downstairs in my usual state of semi-consciousness, when I got an abrupt deja-vu of me and my family sitting around our campfire during our backpacking trip a couple of weeks ago. I smelled that sweet woody smell of dead wood burning, which I usually love, but in this case really worried me. Then I look out the window and noticed that the sunlight shining in was far redder than usual, and I knew what we were in for. A day of staying cooped up inside--don't even think of doing any physical activity on a day with air quality like this--and trying our best not to inhale.

I always feel that when the fires start Southern California turns into Hell. Really, it's very sinister: a red sun, yellow-orange shadows, ash literally falling from the sky like snow, temperatures in the upper 90s, and visibility on the road is noticeably compromised. It's crazy! People's houses are burning, and it's actually pretty scary. The only thing you can do to pass the time is eat cookies, because firing up the oven (pun intended...?) is probably the last thing you want to do.

So on that note, I bring you a cookie that is the anti-hell cookie. Rum-Raisin Shortbread, though it does have some dark rum in it (an ingredient only a few might find sinful) is buttery, extremely delicate, and hits you with a bit of refreshing orange zest at first bite. In my opinion, it was a little too heavy on the butter and not heavy enough on the rum, but that's obviously up for debate.

The recipe isn't that hard, but you do have to start on it the night before you want to eat the cookies because the currants (there are no raisins in fact...a poor naming decision on behalf of the editors of The Book) need to soak overnight in rum. But once this little bit of prep-work is done, the rest of the recipe is pretty straight forward. I really like the orange zest in these because it is quite prominent, but I think most of the flavor of the alcohol burned off in the oven--or was masked by the excess of butter-flavor. Maybe you should lower the temperature of the oven and bake them longer? Just a suggestion...

Anyway, these cookies are slice-n-bake, but also contain currants (obviously), so cutting the cookie dough log can be tricky at times. We tried a super sharp kitchen knife at first, but my dad had the most luck with a serrated bread knife in the end. But still, be careful cutting these because with both currants and coconut shreds the dough doesn't like to slice easily.

Unfortunately, mine didn't quite end up looking like the ones in the book. They spread a lot in the oven and lost their shape, which causes me to think that the dough maybe should have been frozen instead of refrigerated? The photo in The Book has them looking thicker, sturdier, and more like shortbread. Perhaps I didn't drain the currants well enough, thus making the dough too wet and more willing to spread in the oven. But they were tasty, so I'd say make them. Nothing fantastic, but they were pretty good, and with maybe a few alterations they could be even better. Hopefully with recipes like these I'll be able to eat my way through fire season until I leave for New York!

Rum-Raisin Shortbread

Makes about 4 1/2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1 cup dried currants
• 2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions

1. Combine rum and currants; cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons rum.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and orange zest with a mixer on medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and reserved rum, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, coconut, and salt, and beat for 3 minutes. Stir in currants by hand.
3. Form dough into 2 logs, each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter; wrap in parchment, and refrigerate 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
4. Preheat oven to 325. Remove parchment. Slice logs into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and space about 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until pale golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 3/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 1.5/5 (Liquor is hard to come by...for me...and those of my age...sometimes)
Tastiness: 3/5
Attractiveness: 2/5
Is it worth it?: Yeah, especially if you like very buttery cookies.

{Pairings}
Drink: Espresso--something small and strong. An Espresso Macchiato would be awesome, in fact.

Song: Paris is Burning -- St. Vincent
Activity: A dainty tea/coffee party

P.S. The Book has begun to show signs of wear and tear!! Disaster! Catastrophe! Call for help! Ahhh!!

[Cookie 023] Bourbon Currant Cookies

So as of late, I've been on a cleaning rampage. It seems strange, considering I spent 10 years in the current house I live in refusing to clean my closet out even just once. Stuff has been piling up for years, forming geological strata in correspondence with my various interests and (toy) acquisitions throughout my childhood years. So as I dig through all of this crap, the more time I spend at it--the further down I delve--the more I realize what a strange kid I was. I had (and still do) this strong love of lists and organization: I've found hundreds of silly little to-do lists from way back in the 90s (way way back, man).

I just liked to have everything in order (barring the state of my closet, evidently). I'm still this way, and I still find it easiest to complete a task when I have a to-do list to guide me. I suppose this is also why I like to follow recipes very diligently, and also why I like to bake so much. Baking, obviously, is a very precise method of cooking, which leaves little room for straying from the original recipe. You really have to add the exact correct amount of everything, or else you'll end up with a completely different result.

Now, having said that, I would like to share with you my experience baking these Bourbon Currant Cookies. The recipe yeilds 6 dozen cookies, and considering only my dad and I are at home right now, I thought it best to divide the recipe in half. So, this is when you say "OK, instead of adding 2 eggs, I shall only use 1!" But, be forewarned: you should ALWAYS READ THE RECIPE THROUGH COMPLETELY before diving it. I, as you might suspect, did not follow this golden rule. So when I saw the recipe say "add one egg" I added that 1 egg to the dough post haste. But it just so turns out I was only supposed to add HALF an egg, reserving the other half for the glaze.

Oh, silly me. I knew something was up when I had finished the dough and it was more the consistency of a drop cookie, when the recipe tells you to roll out the dough and use cookie-cutters it it. At first, I thought that maybe the recipe was faulty, and that it messed up the order of sifting the flour to measuring the flour, and didn't have me add enough. So I added more flour into the mix until it became the right consistency and then I cut and baked it. Obviously, since I incorporated 2 times as much egg and an awkward amount of flour, the cookies did not bake for the right amount of time. In fact, they were still underbaked even after I left them in the oven for 7 extra minutes. But it was okay in the end! As my dad put it, they tasted like delicious mini-scones! A happy accident!

So if you want to be an idiot like me, add twice as much egg and make Mini Bourbon Currant Scones. Or you could be a rational, cognizant human and follow the directions. My 6-year-old self would probably advise you to do the latter. Either way, the addition of Bourbon really gives these a nice mellow sweetness, similar to that of the Cassis Crisps.

Bourbon Currant Cookies
Makes 6 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1/3 cup bourbon
• 1/2 cup dried currants
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until smooth. Add 1 egg, the flour, bourbon, and currants; mix until well combined.
2. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes (such as 2-inch card shapes). Whisk together remaining egg and the cream in a small bowl, and brush cookies with egg wash. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake until pale golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 3/5
Tastiness: 4/5 (Granted, I am rating this on the "scones" I made; making the cookies correctly probably tastes better, but who knows! Try it out and let me know!)
Attractiveness: 3.5/5
Is it worth it?: Yeah. Very little ingredients and steps, so they are quick and taste yummy!



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P.S. I changed the header of the blog. Not sure how much I like it...maybe I'll change it again.

[Cookie 016] Cassis Crisps

I am not old enough to buy alcohol. Being a college student, you can probably guess why this is a pain for a variety of reasons, but one of the most aggravating would be simply because I can't cook anything in college that requires wine or liqueurs. I can't make fancy pastries that require vodka for the crust (okay, maybe I can, but it's just not worth the hassle and potential humiliation of being carded), and I wouldn't be able to make these Cassis Crisps, especially because even if I was 21, I probably wouldn't want to throw down a bunch of cash for some expensive liqueur.

Enter: Mom and Dad's liquor cabinet. Yes! Problem solved! This summer, I'm making sure to make all the recipes that call for alcohols, spirits, liqueurs, what have you, and I started with these cookies that call for Creme de Cassis. We actually didn't have any of that, but we did have Chambord, which Martha says is an equally fine substitute. The raspberry flavor and smell of the liqueur makes the dough taste very, very sweet and delicious, but after you bake the cookie, it becomes much more subtle and really excellent. Plus, while in the oven, your kitchen will smell divine.

The recipe for the dough is shockingly simple and pretty bare-bones. Actually, I was worried that these cookies wouldn't come out very tasty because of this, and I had overall low expectations for them. However, adding a whole 1/4 cup of Chambord makes a huge difference, and gives the cookies a really interesting, fruity flavor, while still producing a very mellow, perfect-for-afternoon-tea, mild biscuit-cookie. Sprinkling course sugar (I chose turbinado sugar) on top gives them a much needed bit of added texture.

I did, however, have a couple of minor issues with these that were mostly a result of the recipe itself. The recipe asks you to roll the dough to about 1/4" thickness (check), and then cut the dough into 3" squares. Take out your ruler. That's HUGE! I truly have trouble believing that if I did that, I could ever come close to making the 2 1/2 dozen cookies that the recipe says it yields. So, I made the cookies closer to 2" squares and popped them in the oven. I ended up having to bake them much longer than the recipe called for in order to get them golden all over, and in the end the cookie was never "crisp." They came out more biscuit-like; maybe a little crunchy around the edges, but never uniformly crisp and crunchy (which is how Martha categorized these cookies).

Oh well, it doesn't matter! My family loved them, and I got to make them without busting out the fake ID that I definitely don't have.

Cassis (or Chambord) Crisps
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup creme de cassis
• Coarse sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs and creme de cassis, and mix until combined. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until smooth.
2. Divide dough in half, and wrap each half in plastic; refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Working with 1 half at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick, and cut into 3-inch squares. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Reroll scraps; repeat with remaining dough.
3. Bake cookies until golden brown all over, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 1/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 3/5 (You only have to worry about the alcohol)
Tastiness: 4/5
Attractiveness: 3/5
Is it worth it?: Yes