My Framboise Brownie Cookies are included in Gourmet Girl’s Holiday Cookie Crawl. If you’d like to vote for me, you can click here. I’d appreciate it! Thanks!

Before my PhotoHunt post, I’d like any of you who are either in the Phillipines, or who have contacts in the Phillipines, to see the following message and pass it on to your friends. Maybe in this weird, roundabout kind of way, we can reunite a lost pet with its family: Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) – MISSING DOG NAMED: FERGIE animaladvocates.multiply.com

Fergie went missing last Saturday morning Dec 19, 2009. She’s last seen in the area of Gen. Ordonez(Molave) St. Marikina Heights, Marikina City. Our family is hoping and praying that she’s in good hands and we can still recover her. Her adopted brothers and sister are waiting for her to come home.

Now, on with the This is my Twelfth and final post for The Twelve Days of Cookies project, baking twelve recipes from the Bon Appetít Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection. As further connection to Twelve, I baked them at Twelve o’clock midnight, for exactly Twelve minutes! Come on – it doesn’t get much more twelve-er than that!

Christmas Cutouts with Vanilla Icing

Ingredients:

Cookies

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Additional sugar

Icing

• 4 cups (or more) sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
• 3 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Colored sugar crystals, sprinkles, and/or decors

Preparation:

For cookies:
Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl to blend well. Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla; beat 1 minute. Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions until just blended. Gather dough together; divide in half. Flatten each half into disk; wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle work surface and top of dough disks with additional sugar. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness (dough will be very soft). Using assorted 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters, cut out cookies. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps and roll out on sugared surface; cut out more cookies. Repeat until all dough is used. Chill all cookies on baking sheets at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until light golden at edges, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

For icing:
Combine 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir until icing is well blended, smooth, and spreadable, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls if too thick or more sugar by tablespoonfuls if too thin. Using small icing spatula or table knife, spread thin layer of icing atop each cookie. If using colored sugar crystals, sprinkle over cookies before icing sets. If using food-safe colored markers, let icing dry about 30 minutes; decorate cookies as desired. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

*My Notes:

To begin, I will repeat for the umpteenth time: I am not a food stylist! Nowhere on my résumé does it say “food stylist”. Why I chose a decorated cut-out cookie for my twelfth post in this series, is absofreakinglutely beyond me. Call me a masochist.

This is another very soft cut-out cookie, but at least they warn you this time, and it softens up out of the fridge in just a couple of minutes.

Seeing as Christmas is over, I didn’t feel compelled to make Holiday shapes, opting instead for the cow and the moose. These are large cutters, so I took Alton Brown’s advice and, using a spatula, transferred them to the cookie sheet with the cutters still in place, lifting them off afterward. This is a pretty smart maneuver to use with any cut-out cookies that might go wrong on you in the process. Thanks, Alton!

The cow and the moose, by the way, represent (very) little private jokes with my husband, going back to our trips to Ireland and western Canada, respectively. No, I’m not going to share them with you – you already think I’m an idiot. Why make it worse?

By the next time we meet, I will be another year older, and so will the Earth! My most heartfelt and sincere best wishes for you and yours – Have a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year!

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. Bedeebedeebedee, that’s all, folks!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Hi, there! I’ve finally gotten around to Day 11 of The 12 Days of Cookies project. As a reminder, this is where our little Merry Band of Bakers endeavor(ed) to bake 12 cookies in 12 days from the Bon Appétit’s 2008 Cookie-a-Day collection!

This is also my post for PhotoHunt: Fast. How’s that? Well, I actually timed myself to see just how Fast I could bake this recipe. I needed a drop cookie recipe that can be whipped up quickly (like, so I could go to bed at a reasonable hour!).

White Chocolate, Cranberry, and Macadamia Nut Cookies

Preparation:

Notes:

First, mine spread more than the ones on BA’s site. I don’t know why. Also? 15 minutes was too long to bake these. The first batch came out over-baked. Not burnt, mind you, and still quite edible, but too brown and too crisp. Which might have something to do with their spreading and being thinner than perhaps they ought to have been. They just baked way too Fast! When I took the time down to 10 minutes, I got the softer, chewy texture I was looking for.

Oh. How long did it take me? It took 29 minutes to put this batter together and get the first two trays into the oven. I didn’t do any prep (except for taking the butter out of the fridge to warm) – I did it just like you might do at home, starting with thinking, “Hmm… Think I’ll bake some cookies…” all the way through loading up 2 baking sheets. Do we think that was Fast?

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow (maybe!) for the twelfth and final installment!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

I’m on the home stretch, and finally getting to Day 10 of our 12 Days of Cookies project, where our little band of intrepid bakers are baking and blogging 12 cookie recipes of our individual choice from Bon Appétit’s 2008 Cookie-a-Day collection!

Hazelnut Shortbread Sticks

Preparation:

Notes:

Love this cookie! Crispy, tender, and light, and the milk chocolate with toasted chopped hazelnuts really set it off.

They’re also very quick to prepare and bake – just what the doctor ordered for that last-minute cookie emergency. And yes, there are cookie emergencies. Really.

I actually melted the chocolate in the microwave (50% power for about 90 second, stopping to stir every 15 seconds), which made for an even faster and less fussy/messy experience.

I would absolutely make these again, and so should you.

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the eleventh installment!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Welcome to Day 8 of The 12 Days of Cookies! Again, we (no, not the royal “we” – the group) are baking 12 cookies in 12 days from the Bon Appétit 2008 Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection. Why, yes, we are insane. Thanks for asking.

My offering today is a fairly simple recipe, and really delicious. Oh, and if it hasn’t snowed in your area yet, we can fix that – just watch the powdered sugar fly!

First the recipe, then my notes.

Coconut Orange Snowballs

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake coconut on rimmed baking sheet until light golden, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes.

Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and both extracts in bowl to blend well. Beat in flour, orange peel, and salt. Stir in coconut. Cover and chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Soften dough slightly before shaping.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using 1 level tablespoon dough for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into balls. Place on prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until golden on bottom but pale on top, about 18 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; cool 5 minutes. Place remaining 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar in bowl. Roll hot cookies in powdered sugar, covering completely. Cool cookies on rack. Roll cookies in powdered sugar again, coating generously. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

Notes:

Living in the tropics, I was ready for something a little lighter and more tropical, after all the cranberries, nuts, and chocolate.

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the ninth installment! (I should live so long.)

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

We’re half-way there, gang! This is Day 6 of the 12 Days of Cookies project! We’re baking our personal choices from the 2008 Bon Appétit Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection, and still going strong.

My choice today is the Pecan Lace Sandwich Cookie with Orange Buttercream. And all I can say is: Oh, My!

First the recipe, then my notes:

Pecan Lace Sandwich Cookies with Orange Buttercream

Preparation:

Notes:

Those of us who have baked this cookie, so far, all agree that it is particularly fragile and probably would not travel very far intact. But. The taste is awesome, with or without the orange buttercream – which is pretty awesome in itself, by the way. Personally, I found them a bit too sweet sandwiched with the buttercream filling, but my husband disagreed, so you make your own judgment call on that one.

And it is an exceptionally easy and quick cookie to make. No mixer required, it’s all done on the stovetop and then popped in the oven. I found that 11 minutes was a bit too long to bake these, making them a little darker than I would have liked, and so baked the second batch for 10 minutes, getting that proverbial “golden brown and delicious” appearance.

You should absolutely bake this cookie. I know I will!

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the seventh installment!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Twelve cookies in 12 days. That’s what we’re doing around here, these days!

Even though I’m showing these on Day 4 of our 12-day trek through Holiday Cookieland, this recipe was actually the first one I baked out of the Bon Appétit 2008 Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection. After all, how can you resist a recipe that bills itself as “Girl Scout Thin Mints from your kitchen”? Come on! Probably the most popular Girl Scout cookie, ever? Irresistible!

Here’s the recipe, and my notes follow:

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preparation:

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in peppermint extract and vanilla extract. Beat in sugar in 3 additions. Add egg and beat until blended. Add dry ingredients and beat just until blended (dough will be sticky).

Divide dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Using plastic wrap as aid, form dough on each into 2-inch-diameter log. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate dough until well chilled, at least 2 hours. (Dough can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Position 1 rack in center and 1 rack in top third of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap cookie dough logs; roll briefly on work surface to form smooth round logs. Cut logs crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies until tops and edges are dry to touch, about 15 minutes. Transfer baking sheets with cookies to racks; cool completely.

Stir chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Cool melted chocolate until slightly thickened but still pourable, about 10 minutes.

Dip fork into melted chocolate, then wave fork back and forth over cookies, drizzling melted chocolate thickly over cookies in zigzag pattern. Refrigerate cookies on baking sheets until chocolate is set, about 10 minutes. (Cookies can be made 1 week ahead. Refrigerate in airtight container between sheets of parchment paper or waxed paper.)

Notes:

Did you notice the part where the recipe warns you that “dough will be sticky”? They weren’t kidding. At least they didn’t try to make you roll it out and use cookie cutters!

I actually laid out a measuring tape to try and hit 1/4″ cuts. What can I tell you? I’m a spatial spaz, among other things. That lasted about halfway through the first roll, when the refrigerated dough softened up on me (where have we heard that before?), and my nice, sharp, clean knife began squashing the slices out-of-round. My solution was to continue cutting, and when laying the rounds out on the baking sheet, I gently sculpted them back into (mostly) round shape.

The fork-and-chocolate-drizzle thing? This little exercise proved to me that I’m not a drizzler. I managed to fling chocolate pretty far and wide, hitting very little cookie in the process. I’m pretty sure it’s not that I’m a neat-freak. You haven’t seen the rest of my house, these days. Next time, I will probably load the melted chocolate into a plastic bag, snip the corner, and actually aim for the cookie. We’ll both be happier that way.

Was I being a little OCD about these cookies? Yeah, maybe I was. A little. But have you seen the company I’m keeping these days? I’m baking with a bunch of awesome ladies and their links are right down there. Go look!

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the fifth installment!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

The quest continues to bake and blog 12 cookies in 12 days from the 2008 Bon Appétit Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection.

For Day 3, I chose:

Ginger Orange Stars

Ingredients:

Cookies

Please visit my partners in holiday baking, below, and see what they’ve got in store for you. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the fourth installment!

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings (hey! that’s me!)
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project

Still fresh on our second day of holiday baking and blogging, our intrepid bakers bring you the next offerings in our quest to bake 12 cookies from the 2008 Bon Appétit Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection! (Don’t worry – I won’t be this pithy by Day 12. Or even Day 6.) Again, out of the 31 cookies in the collection, we were each free to choose any 12 recipes to bake and blog about, in any order we choose.

Day 2 of the 12 Days of Cookies begins with a cuppa and these

Holiday Biscotti with Cranberries and Pistachios

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon whole aniseed
• 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
• 3/4 cup shelled natural unsalted pistachios
• 6 ounces imported white chocolate, chopped

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl to blend well. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in lemon peel, vanilla, and aniseed. Beat in flour mixture just until blended. Stir in cranberries and pistachios (dough will be sticky). Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Gather dough together; divide in half. Roll each half into 15-inch-long log (about 1 1/4 inches wide). Carefully transfer logs to 1 prepared baking sheet, spacing 3 inches apart.

Bake logs until almost firm to touch but still pale, about 28 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet 10 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Carefully transfer logs still on parchment to cutting board. Using serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, cut logs crosswise into generous 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place slices, 1 cut side down, on remaining 2 prepared sheets. Bake until firm and pale golden, about 9 minutes per side. Transfer cookies to racks and cool.

Line another baking sheet with waxed paper. Stir white chocolate in top of double boiler over barely simmering water just until smooth. Remove from over water. Dip 1 end of each cookie into melted chocolate, tilting pan if necessary; shake off excess chocolate. Place cookies on prepared sheet. Chill until chocolate is firm, about 30 minutes. (Can be made 5 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

Okay. Did I say Yum? No? YUM! It’s been many years since I last made biscotti, and I’ve forgotten how ridiculously easy they are to make. These are delicious! And easy! And they look so freaking elegant, your friends will be impressed! You have to make them! All year-round, not just for the holidays! Seriously!

Notes:

These are really minor points and strictly a matter of personal preference. First, I can’t stand anise in any of its forms. I also don’t like fennel or anything that even remotely tastes like black licorice. Including black licorice. That’s just me. So I replaced the anise seed with a teaspoon of ground cardamom. I think next time I make these – and there will definitely be a next time – I will probably use a teaspoon of almond extract.

Again, this is a really soft dough. I’m resigned to the fact that all of the doughs coming from this Bon Appétit recipe series will be very very soft. But I’m ready for ‘em, now.

Also? I couldn’t find any “imported” white chocolate, not that I looked that hard, so I used good old Baker’s. Kind of snooty to make that distinction, if you ask me. But truth be told, these are so good, you don’t need the white chocolate at all, and I only dipped half of them. These are wonderfully flavorful and dunkable, stark naked.

Did I say Yum?