[Cookie 058] Sweet Cardamom Crackers

Well, I'm glad all of you dear readers support my homebody-tendencies, but I've got to break it to you. I'm in New York City now/again, and that means I'm going to resume my life of hardcore partying with celebrities and getting involved in all sorts of illicit behavior. Oh of course I'll continue baking with just as much fervor and relish as I ever had (no real relish though, I hate that stuff), I'm just going to have to share it with the likes of Jude Law and Kate Moss--though I doubt the latter will eat any.

Get it? I'm being sarcastic!! Ha ha ha! But I am in New York right now, and loving it (sorry Ma and Pa). School doesn't start for a few more days, which should give me enough time to get up to date on all this posting I have to do! I made a bunch of cookies over winter vacation that I have yet to post about, so hopefully I'll get that done. And to kick off this goal, I'll start with these Sweet Cardamom Crackers.

I'm a fan. I really loved these. A lot lot. My dad, not so much, but everyone else in my family liked them. However, I didn't roll out the dough thin enough before slicing and baking these, so I had to bake them a lot longer and they didn't get crispy and crackery like they were supposed to. Maybe if I made them thinner Kate Moss would have ate a few, but as it was she gave them all to Jude. Okay, new New Year's Resolution oh-ten: stop making up weird celebrity situations that never happened/never will happen. I'm beginning to creep myself out.

Okay, back to the cookies. They're really easy to make, like most of the cookies in The Book, but they are unlike most traditional cookies. So you can easily impress your famous friends! The flavor of the dough is really cardamom-y and incredible delicious, and then the coconut and pistachios sprinkled on top take them over the top (in a perfect way). Mine, as I said before, came out too thick and therefore underbaked and soft, but if you roll them out thinner I'm sure that they will be much more like crackers and even better!

So maybe I lied about my celebrity contacts. Maybe. But I'm not lying about these cookies when I say that you should make them. And I'm also not lying about trying to get back up to date on my blog posting. But that probably won't happen. Deal with it--and make these cookies ASAP. Sorry, it's just tough love...ciao lovelies!

Sweet Cardamom Crackers

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped pistachios
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg, separated, , white lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Stir together 1 teaspoon sugar, the pistachios, and coconut in a small bowl.
2. Put butter and remaining sugar into the bowl on an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Add egg yolk and vanilla; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, cardamom, and salt; mix until smooth. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer dough to a nonstick baking mat (such as Silpat), or parchment paper. With a floured rolling pin, roll out a 12 by 8-inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Use a pizza wheel to create straight sides, discarding scraps. Carefully transfer mat or paper to a baking sheet. Cut into twenty-four 2-inch squares. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with pistachio mixture.
4. Bake until firm and edges are pale golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and run pizza wheel over original cuts. Gently break into individual crackers. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 3/5 (I don't usually have coconut and pistachios around the house)
Tastiness: 4/5 (Great sweet flavor)
Attractiveness: 3.5/5
Is it worth it?: Yes yes yes!

{Pairings}
Drink: Something not too sugary, because these cookies are pretty sweet. Coffee with milk, perhaps?

Song: Skinny Love -- Bon Iver
Activity: Doing lines with Kate Moss (gahhh sorry!!!)--I meant to say, they would be great after a light lunch al fresco...

[Cookie 057] Honey Florentines

Okay, it's really 100% official. I am, without a shadow of a doubt, actually 7o years old on the inside. I even surprise myself sometimes with the extent to which I fulfill the general stereotype of an aging, hokey grandma. Let me paint you a picture to illustrate my point better: Last night, a lovely Wednesday night when I could have been out doing any other number of things that a freshly turned 20-year-old could/should do, I chose to stay home and bake cookies and then...work on my quilt that I'm sewing. Quilting. What the hell. Aren't I supposed to be going to cRaAaAaAaaazy house parties, doing keg-stands, and having drag races down in the L.A. river? Guess it's just not in the cards for me.

And even as I type this, I'm trying as hard as I can to rationalize why I choose these activities over the others that I listed earlier. And I've got nothing. No reason. I just like to do fuddy-duddy, anti-social things, with the company of a few cats. God, I wish you were here so you could laugh at the fact that a Beach Boys song just started playing on my iTunes. Wait, no! I just found a way to rationalize (or at least subdue) my grandmothery ways: As I was quilting last night, I was listening to the music that all the kids listen to these days! I was listening to...102.7 KIIS FM and POWER 106! YEAH! Gotta get my Lil Wayne and Lady GaGa some how, right? Okay, good, so I do have one or two underlying qualities of an average young adult. Good.

Honey Florentines, though, seem like such an old lady cookie to me. I could be wrong--maybe their Beyonce's favorite cookie of all time (doubtful)--but I can only imagine a group of 80-year-old socialites playing Bridge, wearing pants up to their ears, and delicately nibbling on a few of these ultra thin and dainty cookies from a porcelain dish resting on top of a doily.

Unfortunately, these dignified old ladies would probably have turned their noses up at my feeble attempt of making these tea cookies, because in all honesty, mine weren't that great. They came out underbaked, and although I tried crisping them up a bit in the toaster oven, they always got stuck in my teeth after a few seconds of chewing. In all likelihood this was because I used a caramelized honey which had a totally different consistency than regular honey: it was far, far thicker and more viscous, which probably caused the cookies to bake up differently and be a lot less delicate after a few chews. Caramelized honey is totally delicious, however, so I highly recommend buying some to mix into your Metamucil or Benefiber.

But despite the lackluster batch that I produced, I really like the idea of these cookies. Maybe that's just my inner old lady speaking (her name is Agnes, by the way), but these cookies are just so pretty and delicate and lacey looking that they just really appeal to my tea-party-loving, doily-making sensibilities (yes, I crochet doilies too, and I'm not lying). So, if you're like me and relate more to people that are about half a century older than you, or perhaps you are one of these people, you should make these. Preferably with regular honey. And then you could dip them in some chocolate! Or stick them in a scoop or two of raspberry sorbet! Or have them with a tea cup full of Chamomile! With a side of homemade whipped cream and macerated berries! I could call Beyonce to see what she likes to eat with them, but I think she's busy today, you know, dancing or singing to the President or just looking super fly or something.

>>The recipe is not listed on the Martha Stewart website, so I'm not sure if it's kosher for me to copy it straight out of the book. Is that illegal? If you know anything about copyright, let me know! The last thing I want is to be sued by Mama M. Also, I'm too lazy to copy it by hand. Thanks for understanding folks.<<

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 5/5
Tastiness: 3/5 (If you make the cookies with normal honey--as you should--this number should go up!)
Attractiveness: 4.5/5
Is it worth it?: If you're having a tea party, or really any sort of refined celebration, these should totally be on your list.

{Pairings}
Drink: Tea, tea, tea. Chamomile would be nice, but I'm not a huge fan, so maybe a nice herbal tea with rosehips?

Song: Video Phone -- Beyonce ft. Lady GaGa -or- Daydream -- Lovin' Spoonful (depending on how old you're feelin)
Activity: Playin' Bridge with the ladies, or shuffleboard if that's more your style.

[Cookie 056] Rum Balls

Howdy! I'm excited to bring you today's recipe: Rum Balls. Why, you ask? Because every time I would open up The Book (which is in horrendous shape now, if you were curious) during the month of December, it would fall open to page 270--and facing me would be a big color photo of these sparkly rum balls. One of the Rum Balls in the photo is sliced in half and looks a lot like bologna or salami or some sort of bejeweled meatball, which only made me want to make this recipe even more.

So what better day to make these alcohol-infused truffle-like treats than on my 20th birthday, as a way to begin the countdown to my 21st birthday (when every cookie will be soaked in hard liquor whether the recipe says so or not--kidding, Mom, lolz!!!1). Anyway, this was at the very beginning of that big snow storm that the east coast got a few weeks ago, so I was very excited to be livin' the life and baking cookies as the snow was falling outside my window and I was listening to some early Beatles' music. Good stuff.

And clean-up is such a breeze! No need to bust out your ShamWow!

Oh and to top it all off, I got to use my new birthday present: A Cuisinart hand-mixer...in BRIGHT RED. So yeah, I was rockin out, doin' my thang, whiskin' a little of this, mixin' a little of that. All in all, feeling pretty bad ass, as I usually do.

Unfortunately, because this isn't really a cookie recipe in the traditional sense, I didn't get to test out my hand mixer as I intend to use it (meaning, I didn't get to try it out on make some sort of hefty cookie dough). Instead, I only used it to whisk up the eggs for the brownie batter, and I think that it was a little too powerful for that simple job, seeing as I nearly wallpapered my kitchen with egg yolk 3 seconds after turning the mixer on. Okay, you can bust out the ShamWow now. Ah, with time I shall master you, dear Cuisinart Mixer, and then you'll know who's boss.

But enough about me and my power struggles with kitchen appliances, let me tell you about this recipe. It's really a lot of fun to make, very hands-on, so probably great to do with kids (but I really wouldn't know, because I have absolutely no interaction with anyone under the age of 18, and I'm totally happy keeping it that way). The only baking involved is making a very very thin layer of brownies which you then tear up and reform into a ball of dough, with the help of the rum to hold it all together.

Then, once you have a huge ball of chocolatey, rummy goodness, you roll individual balls in coarse sanding sugar (I used turbinado sugar) and refrigerate. Be sure to refrigerate, because if you eat them right after rolling them in the sugar the rum is so powerful that they taste like a shot of Rum with a slight aftertaste of chocolate. Post-refrigeration, however, they are awesome.

Yes, they're good way to celebrate, that's for sure. Perfect for a New Year's Eve party...hello 2011!! Futuristic! Yeah, I'm laughing now, but it will be here before you know it, and then it will be 2012, and then the world will be destroyed by tsunamis or giant spiders and there will be no more cookies. But until then, make these Rum Balls and enjoy their intense chocolate-rum flavor and their awesome soft-yet-crunchy texture. They rock. They're glamorous. Glam Rock cookies. Or Pirate cookies, because of the Rum. Either way...Rock on, mates!

Rum Balls

Makes 4 dozen

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil cooking spray
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark rum
• Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray; set aside. Melt butter and chocolate in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
2. Whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in chocolate mixture, then fold in flour. Pour batter into prepared baking sheet. Spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Bake until top is shiny and a cake tester inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
3. Break up brownie into small pieces; transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With machine on low speed, pour in rum, and mix until crumbs start to come together to form a ball.
4. Shape into 1-inch balls, and roll in sanding sugar to coat. Transfer to a baking sheet; refrigerate, uncovered, until cold, about 2 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Rum balls can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 week.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 3/5 (Depends on your age/ability to get your hands on some booze)
Tastiness: 4/5
Attractiveness: 4/5 (The sugar I used was brown, but if you use white sanding sugar, they'd be even prettier!)
Is it worth it?: Yes, I do believe so. They're like truffles, minus all the hard work! The simple man's truffle!

{Pairings}
Drink: Champagne, just to add some more glitz. But please, no dunking--let's keep a bit of dignity, okay?

Song: Diamond Dogs -- David Bowie
Activity: A black tie cocktail party? I think so! Party on, Garth!

[Cookie 055] Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies

Okay, so everyone's making resolutions for the 2010 right about now, I realize this. And I realize that right now is probably not the time that you want to bake even more cookies, considering that your resolution probably has to do with eating healthier/losing a few of those pounds gained in the past few weeks. Yes, I realize this. But you've gotta hear me out.

These cookies are way way way worth breaking your resolution.

Hell, you shouldn't even be starting your resolution/diet regime yet anyway! You still have 2 more days to eat yourself into a coma WITHOUT REMORSE! And thus all the more reason for you to make these totally awesome Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies. They are chunky, crunchy, hearty, and amazingly flavored. And furthermore, they answer my craving for the perfect chocolate-peanut butter flavor combination in a cookie, so if you're palate is like mine in this regard (read: totally refined and superior to all other taste palates), you will love these.

Now the specifics of the recipe. It calls for salted, roasted peanuts--but those can get a little pricey at times, and maybe your other New Year's resolution has to do with being more frugal. Enter plain, unroasted, unsalted peanuts. No, you can't just substitute those into the recipe (unless you're okay with totally compromising the taste of the cookie). But you can roast and salt your own peanuts and get the exact same delicious results without much effort at all. Just shell the peanuts, sprinkle a tad of salt on them, spread them onto a cookie sheet and stick them in a 350º oven for 15-20 minutes, and keep an eye on them so they don't burn. Done and done. Saved you a few bucks, maybe.

Anyway, the rest of the recipe is dead easy. The cinnamon is a really nice touch and provides a really subtle flavor--but next time I might add a pinch or two more to the dough just because it tastes so good. It makes the cookie a little bit different from your average peanut-chocolate cookie.

Oh, and also, you can freeze pre-rolled balls of this dough and bake them at your leisure, so if you're worried about late night cookie binges (don't worry, it happens to the best of us), just bake a few at a time and keep the dough stashed in the way way way back of the freezer, behind something healthy like frozen peas or carrots. Just not behind the ice cream. That'll just give you some wicked ideas. Which I wholeheartedly support as well. See? I can play both the devil and the angel on your shoulders, so just don't listen to me.

Here's the recipe. Do what you will. But be sure to eat at least 2. Happy New Years!!

Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies

Makes about 5 dozen

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup roasted, salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Chocolate or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Put butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Add sugars; mix 2 minutes. Mix in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips, peanuts, and vanilla with a mixing spoon until well distributed. Refrigerate dough until it is slightly firm, 15 minutes.
2. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Space balls 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly. Bake until just golden, about 13 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool. Serve with ice cream.

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{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 4.5/5
Tastiness: 4.5/5
Attractiveness: 3.5/5 (Sorry about all the half points...I'm feeling indecisive)
Is it worth it?: Worth every calorie.

{Pairings}
Drink: Is ice cream a drink?

Song: Salt Peanuts -- Dizzy Gillespie
Activity: Revising that New Year's resolution to include consuming homemade cookies instead of store bought ones! Better for your wallet and your belly, trust me.

[Cookie 054] Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds

I see snow. Everywhere. It's ridiculous--totally, completely, absurdly over-the-top. And I'm not talking New York City snow; this is the results of a legit flurry.

This picture was on the front of the New York Times this morning--that's Central Park!

There's white (not brown) snow all over the sidewalks, piled on top of cars and bikes and fire hydrants, and all powdery and wonderful. Yesterday, when it just began to snow, my friends and I started to flip out when we saw the actual snowflakes on our jackets--so adorable and beautiful and amazing! But sure, it's really beautiful right now, but come Monday it will be disgusting and slushy and brown and icky. But until then, I can pretend that I'm living in a cozy cottage somewhere in the Alps, with a German Shepherd litter of kittens by my side, a fire roaring, a record player playing this song (please listen), and the smell of these Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds wafting from the kitchen.

I think that these are really perfect winter cookies. Sure, they aren't spicey, gingerbready, or pepperminty or anything, but they have this great coziness in their flavor. Maybe it's because they are shortbread and are buttery and rich, which always brings to my mind cold winters; or maybe its because when they are in the oven the house smells completely divine and like hot chocolate; or maybe its because I got to use my tooth-shaped cookie cutter which I got for my birthday exactly one year ago. It could be any of those reasons.

The recipe is dead easy, like most shortbread recipes, and even drizzling the melted white chocolate is super simple. I tried to decorate the first cookie, and failed miserably because I am absolutely awful at cookie decorating, but it was really easy to drizzle back and forth on top of the rest of the cookies and make them look totally professional. Unfortunately, the next day the white chocolate started to detach itself from the surface of the cookies, but hopefully you'll only be concerned with eating the cookies at this point.

Now, if you want my honest and harsh opinion, I thought these were a tad on the boring side. They taste great and look great, but they are just chocolate shortbread. If you like rich chocolate cookies, make these straight away, but don't expect anything shocking or unusual. That's not a bad thing though--I'll take shocking and unusual snow storms any day over traditional, albeit a little boring, chocolate shortbread. Wait no, I'll take them both. Simultaneously. Thanks.

Anyway, stay warm East Coasters! And I'll be sure to soak up some nice 68º degree sunshine for you once I get to L.A.! Oh, and Happy Holidays! If you're thinking of giving cookies as gifts this season (which is a great, awesome, totally fab idea), these cookies package up really nice:

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies (wrap a stack with a ribbon or some cute striped bakers twine)

Cranberry-Pistachio Cornmeal Biscotti (I had some issues cutting the biscotti, but they would make perfect Xmas cookies because of the green and red in the dough)

Amaretti Crisps (tie a ribbon through each loop--very Martha)

Rosemary Butter Cookies (stick a bunch in a mailing tube wrapped with a cool paper print)

Also, check out these boxes...perfect for shipping cookies cutely!

Now go! Get festive, or seasonal, or whatever you do.

Cocoa Shortbread Diamonds

Makes about 14

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 ounces best-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pulse flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and vanilla, and process until mixture comes together. Shape the dough into a ball.
2. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick; cut out shapes with a 3 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch diamond-shape cookie cutter. Space 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until firm to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on wire racks.
3. Melt white chocolate, stirring, in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle chocolate over tops of cookies. Let set before serving, about 30 minutes. Cookies can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

****

{End Results}
Baking Difficultly: 2/5
Ingredient Accessibility: 4/5
Tastiness: 4/5
Attractiveness: 4/5
Is it worth it?: Yes! Just don't expect anything crazy or out of the ordinary...it's a very basic recipe.

{Pairings}
Drink: MILK.

Song: Winter Wonder Land -- Animal Collective
Activity: Knitting, crocheting, or cross-stitching by the fire. Or if that's too femme for you, you could always go outside and chop some fire wood while the white chocolate icing is setting. Or build me an ice fortress in Central Park--your choice.