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Some wonderful cookie recipes
- Thread starter gayr
- Start date
steve2-in-la
Well-known member
Just finished MY Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza/Dooh-Dah cookie baking, recipes inside:
So, this year I made 4 kinds of cookies I'd never made before. All were good, some fab. These are them:
-Ultimate Ginger Cookies
-Salted Peanut Cookie Brittle
-Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortbread Bars
-Momofuku Cornflake Marshmallow Cookies
I most anticipated the Momofuku cookies and they were the biggest disappointment. The most labor and time consuming, puff-up salty and diabetes inducingly sweet, not to mention persnickety to handle (both fragile AND sticky). Not bad but not worth it so they're the only ones I probably won't make again. Still, here are the recipes for your edification.
===============================================
Ultimate Ginger Cookies
makes over 40 cookies
2 cups WHOLE WHEAT PASTRY FLOUR
1 tsp BAKING SODA
1 tsp GROUND STAR ANISE
2 Tbsp GROUND GINGER
½ tsp SEA SALT, plus more for topping cookies
8 Tbsp BUTTER
¼ UNSULPHURED MOLASSES
l cup FINE GRANULATED SUGAR
½ inch section of FRESH GINGER, peeled and grated
1 EGG well-beaten
1 cup CRYSTALLIZED GINGER, roughly chopped
zest of 2 LEMONS
½ cup, or more, LARGE-GRAIN TURBINADO SUGAR
Set out all of your ingredients so they can come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside. Pour the turbinado sugar into a large, shallow bowl and set aside.
Place the crystallized ginger the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the pieces are broken up. They will quickly form a ball, try to stop just when the pieces start to clump, but have not become a solid ball. The results will be pretty sticky, but clean off easily. Remove the ginger paste to a bowl.
Combine the flour, baking soda, star anise, ginger, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat–the butter should melt but not cook. Add the molasses, granulated sugar, and fresh ginger. Check that the mixture is just warm (let it cool if it’s at all hot) and then add the egg. Pour the mixture over the flour, and stir in the crystallized ginger and lemon zest. Stir ingredients just until combined.
Roll 1 teaspoon dough into a small ball, roll briefly in the sugar. Place each round on the prepared baking sheets, two inches apart. If you like, sprinkle a few flecks of kosher salt on top of each cookie. Bake 7 minutes, until the cookies are a bit crackled and have puffed up.
Remove from cookie sheet right away and cool on a wire rack. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to four days, or well-sealed in the freezer for up to 6 months.
===============================================
Salted Peanut Cookie Brittle
Adapted from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies. You can either cut the cookies neatly into bars while they are still warm or just break the cooled slab into irregular pieces. Don’t worry about perfection here with smoothing and spreading the dough just so–the more rustic the brittle looks, the better. Makes about 3 dozen pieces
½ lb (2 sticks) UNSALTED BUTTER, softened but still cool
1 cup GRANULATED SUGAR
¾ tsp SALT
1 tsp PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
2 cups ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR, spooned into the cup and leveled
4 oz (1 cup) ROASTED, SALTED PEANUTS, roughly chopped
Position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 375º F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat in the salt and vanilla, about 30 seconds more. Reduce the speed to low and gradually stir in the flour, stopping to scrape the bowl as necessary. Stir in half the peanuts.
Turn the dough out onto a rimmed sheet pan, about 15½ x 10½”. Lightly flour your hands and pat the dough in a thin layer (don’t worry about making it perfectly even). Sprinkle the rest of the peanuts evenly over the dough. Cover the dough with a sheet of waxed or parchment paper and using a rolling pin or a tall, smooth glass, roll over the paper to smooth the dough and press the peanuts firmly into the dough.
Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, until golden brown, rotating the sheet halfway through baking time. Cool in the pan for five minutes before cutting the warm slab into bars, or wait for it too cool completely and break into pieces like brittle candy. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
===============================================
Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortbread Bars
Food & Wine, May, 2005. Instead of using a rolling pin to make the flaky pastry for her delicate shortbread bars, Melissa McKinney relies on a grater. She chills the dough, grates it into a baking dish, then tops it lightly with preserves and more grated dough before baking it. MAKES 2 DOZEN 2-INCH BARS
2 cups ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
1 tsp BAKING POWDER
¼ teaspoon SALT
2 sticks (8 oz) UNSALTED BUTTER, softened
1 cup SUGAR
2 large EGG YOLKS
½ tsp PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
¾ cup STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB PRESERVES (8 ounces)
CONFECTIONERS' SUGAR, for dusting (optional)
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. In another medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar at low speed until combined. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until a soft dough forms. Halve the dough and form into logs. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350° and butter an 8½ -by-11-inch glass baking dish. Working over the baking dish, coarsely shred 1 log of dough on the large holes of a box grater, evenly distributing the dough in the baking dish. Do not pat or press the dough. Using a spoon, dollop the preserves over the dough and gently spread it in an even layer. Grate the second log of dough on top. Using a rubber spatula, tuck in any shreds of dough sticking to the side of the baking dish to prevent them from burning.
Bake the shortbread on the bottom rack of the oven for about 35 minutes, covering it with foil halfway through baking. The shortbread is done when the pastry is golden all over. Let cool completely, then cut into 24 bars. Dust the tops with confectioners' sugar and serve.
===============================================
Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies
Makes 15-20 (I used smaller scoops, made about 24)
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) room-temperature BUTTER
1¼ cups GRANULATED SUGAR
l cups LIGHT BROWN SUGAR, tightly packed
1 EGG
½ tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
1½ cups FLOUR
½ tsp BAKING POWDER
½ tsp BAKING SODA
1½ tsp KOSHER SALT
3 cups CORNFLAKE CRUNCH (see below)
l cups MINI CHOCOLATE CHIPS
1¼ cups MINI MARSHMALLOWS
In a mixer with paddle, combine butter and sugars; cream on medium-high 2-3 minutes. Scrape bowl, add egg and vanilla, beat 7-8 minutes.
Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Mix just until dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away during this step or risk overmixing.) Scrape down sides of bowl.
Still on low speed, paddle in cornflakes and chips until just incorporated, about 30-45 seconds. Paddle in marshmallows.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Using a 2-oz ice cream scoop, portion 1/3 cups dough at a time onto pan. Pat tops flat. Wrap pan in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 week. (Do not bake room-temperature disks — they will not hold their shape.)
Heat oven to 375°. On a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan, arrange chilled disks a minimum of 4” apart. Bake 18 minutes, until cookies are browned on edges and just beginning to brown toward the center. Cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. Leave them in oven for another minute or so if they still seem pale and doughy on the surface.
Cool cookies completely on pan before moving them to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temperature, cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month. Good luck keeping a stash around.
So, this year I made 4 kinds of cookies I'd never made before. All were good, some fab. These are them:
-Ultimate Ginger Cookies
-Salted Peanut Cookie Brittle
-Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortbread Bars
-Momofuku Cornflake Marshmallow Cookies
I most anticipated the Momofuku cookies and they were the biggest disappointment. The most labor and time consuming, puff-up salty and diabetes inducingly sweet, not to mention persnickety to handle (both fragile AND sticky). Not bad but not worth it so they're the only ones I probably won't make again. Still, here are the recipes for your edification.
===============================================
Ultimate Ginger Cookies
makes over 40 cookies
2 cups WHOLE WHEAT PASTRY FLOUR
1 tsp BAKING SODA
1 tsp GROUND STAR ANISE
2 Tbsp GROUND GINGER
½ tsp SEA SALT, plus more for topping cookies
8 Tbsp BUTTER
¼ UNSULPHURED MOLASSES
l cup FINE GRANULATED SUGAR
½ inch section of FRESH GINGER, peeled and grated
1 EGG well-beaten
1 cup CRYSTALLIZED GINGER, roughly chopped
zest of 2 LEMONS
½ cup, or more, LARGE-GRAIN TURBINADO SUGAR
Set out all of your ingredients so they can come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside. Pour the turbinado sugar into a large, shallow bowl and set aside.
Place the crystallized ginger the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until the pieces are broken up. They will quickly form a ball, try to stop just when the pieces start to clump, but have not become a solid ball. The results will be pretty sticky, but clean off easily. Remove the ginger paste to a bowl.
Combine the flour, baking soda, star anise, ginger, and salt in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat–the butter should melt but not cook. Add the molasses, granulated sugar, and fresh ginger. Check that the mixture is just warm (let it cool if it’s at all hot) and then add the egg. Pour the mixture over the flour, and stir in the crystallized ginger and lemon zest. Stir ingredients just until combined.
Roll 1 teaspoon dough into a small ball, roll briefly in the sugar. Place each round on the prepared baking sheets, two inches apart. If you like, sprinkle a few flecks of kosher salt on top of each cookie. Bake 7 minutes, until the cookies are a bit crackled and have puffed up.
Remove from cookie sheet right away and cool on a wire rack. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to four days, or well-sealed in the freezer for up to 6 months.
===============================================
Salted Peanut Cookie Brittle
Adapted from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies. You can either cut the cookies neatly into bars while they are still warm or just break the cooled slab into irregular pieces. Don’t worry about perfection here with smoothing and spreading the dough just so–the more rustic the brittle looks, the better. Makes about 3 dozen pieces
½ lb (2 sticks) UNSALTED BUTTER, softened but still cool
1 cup GRANULATED SUGAR
¾ tsp SALT
1 tsp PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
2 cups ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR, spooned into the cup and leveled
4 oz (1 cup) ROASTED, SALTED PEANUTS, roughly chopped
Position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 375º F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat in the salt and vanilla, about 30 seconds more. Reduce the speed to low and gradually stir in the flour, stopping to scrape the bowl as necessary. Stir in half the peanuts.
Turn the dough out onto a rimmed sheet pan, about 15½ x 10½”. Lightly flour your hands and pat the dough in a thin layer (don’t worry about making it perfectly even). Sprinkle the rest of the peanuts evenly over the dough. Cover the dough with a sheet of waxed or parchment paper and using a rolling pin or a tall, smooth glass, roll over the paper to smooth the dough and press the peanuts firmly into the dough.
Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, until golden brown, rotating the sheet halfway through baking time. Cool in the pan for five minutes before cutting the warm slab into bars, or wait for it too cool completely and break into pieces like brittle candy. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
===============================================
Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortbread Bars
Food & Wine, May, 2005. Instead of using a rolling pin to make the flaky pastry for her delicate shortbread bars, Melissa McKinney relies on a grater. She chills the dough, grates it into a baking dish, then tops it lightly with preserves and more grated dough before baking it. MAKES 2 DOZEN 2-INCH BARS
2 cups ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
1 tsp BAKING POWDER
¼ teaspoon SALT
2 sticks (8 oz) UNSALTED BUTTER, softened
1 cup SUGAR
2 large EGG YOLKS
½ tsp PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
¾ cup STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB PRESERVES (8 ounces)
CONFECTIONERS' SUGAR, for dusting (optional)
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. In another medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar at low speed until combined. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until a soft dough forms. Halve the dough and form into logs. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350° and butter an 8½ -by-11-inch glass baking dish. Working over the baking dish, coarsely shred 1 log of dough on the large holes of a box grater, evenly distributing the dough in the baking dish. Do not pat or press the dough. Using a spoon, dollop the preserves over the dough and gently spread it in an even layer. Grate the second log of dough on top. Using a rubber spatula, tuck in any shreds of dough sticking to the side of the baking dish to prevent them from burning.
Bake the shortbread on the bottom rack of the oven for about 35 minutes, covering it with foil halfway through baking. The shortbread is done when the pastry is golden all over. Let cool completely, then cut into 24 bars. Dust the tops with confectioners' sugar and serve.
===============================================
Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies
Makes 15-20 (I used smaller scoops, made about 24)
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) room-temperature BUTTER
1¼ cups GRANULATED SUGAR
l cups LIGHT BROWN SUGAR, tightly packed
1 EGG
½ tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
1½ cups FLOUR
½ tsp BAKING POWDER
½ tsp BAKING SODA
1½ tsp KOSHER SALT
3 cups CORNFLAKE CRUNCH (see below)
l cups MINI CHOCOLATE CHIPS
1¼ cups MINI MARSHMALLOWS
In a mixer with paddle, combine butter and sugars; cream on medium-high 2-3 minutes. Scrape bowl, add egg and vanilla, beat 7-8 minutes.
Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Mix just until dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away during this step or risk overmixing.) Scrape down sides of bowl.
Still on low speed, paddle in cornflakes and chips until just incorporated, about 30-45 seconds. Paddle in marshmallows.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Using a 2-oz ice cream scoop, portion 1/3 cups dough at a time onto pan. Pat tops flat. Wrap pan in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 1 week. (Do not bake room-temperature disks — they will not hold their shape.)
Heat oven to 375°. On a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan, arrange chilled disks a minimum of 4” apart. Bake 18 minutes, until cookies are browned on edges and just beginning to brown toward the center. Cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. Leave them in oven for another minute or so if they still seem pale and doughy on the surface.
Cool cookies completely on pan before moving them to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temperature, cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month. Good luck keeping a stash around.
steve2-in-la
Well-known member
According to my Doo-Dah Party etiquette advisor, the proper cookie to take would be the ginger. The
Peanut Brittle Cookie, on the other hand, seems to be the hit of the bunch and is a piece of cake (so to speak) to make. It's also the one I plan to try variants using pecans, almonds and cashews, maybe top with chocolate. Quien sabe? Happy Holly Daze!
Peanut Brittle Cookie, on the other hand, seems to be the hit of the bunch and is a piece of cake (so to speak) to make. It's also the one I plan to try variants using pecans, almonds and cashews, maybe top with chocolate. Quien sabe? Happy Holly Daze!