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Recipe Monday: The 12 Days of Cookies: Day 7

RJ Flamingo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:01:00 +0000

How convenient, right? Here we are on Day 7 of The 12 Days of Cookies, our quest to bake and blog 12 cookies in 12 days from the Bon Appétit 2008 Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection, and we’re gaining momentum!

First the recipe, then my notes:

Cranberry Orange Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups (packed) dried sweetened cranberries (about 10 ounces)
1/3 cup orange juice
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup chopped unsalted natural pistachios
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries

Preparation:

Butter 3 baking sheets. Combine dried sweetened cranberries and orange juice in small bowl. Let stand until dried cranberries soften slightly, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Whisk all purpose flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until just blended.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using electric mixer, beat room-temperature butter and golden brown sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg, minced ginger, vanilla extract, and grated orange peel and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour-spice mixture. Stir in chopped walnuts, chopped pistachios, coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries, and dried cranberries with any juices that have accumulated.

Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing tablespoonfuls about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time, until golden and almost firm to touch in center, about 18 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool cookies completely. (Cookies can be made 2 days ahead. Store cookies in airtight container at room temperature.)

Notes:

This is one terrific cookie. The combination of Craisins (sweetened dried cranberries) and fresh cranberries (I used some I’d stashed away in the freezer before Thanksgiving), with the orange zest, walnuts, pistachios, and ginger, make this a standout drop cookie.

I changed nothing about this recipe, so I’ll just offer this one tip in the name of efficiency. You can chop the nuts and fresh cranberries altogether in the food processor. Just drop the walnuts, pistachios, and cranberries in the food processor, and in about 10 – 15 pulses, it’s all done, mixed together and ready to dump in the batter.

Another tip I picked up somewhere along the way (probably on Food Network) regarding the ginger: I don’t know about you, but I buy fresh ginger for something, and wind up throwing away half of it, because I don’t use it up before it goes bad. Try this – when you buy ginger, cut it up into one-inch or two-inch pieces, peel it, and put it in a freezer bag and put it in your freezer. When you need ginger for a recipe, take out a piece and grate it, frozen, directly into your recipe.

Well, that’s it for Day 7 – a whole week’s worth of cookie recipes tested in real home kitchens, before you break the first egg. Thanks for stopping by!

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 eighth 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 12 Days of Cookies: Day 3

RJ Flamingo — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:41:00 +0000

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

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup robust-flavored (dark) molasses
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing

1 1/2 cups (or more) powdered sugar
5 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

For cookies:

Sift first 7 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until well blended. Beat in molasses, egg yolk, orange peel, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat just until blended. Gather dough into ball. Divide into 4 pieces. Flatten each into disk. Wrap each in plastic and chill until cold and firm, at least 4 hours.

Position racks in top third and bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1 piece of dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2- to 3-inch star-shaped cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer cookies to prepared sheets, spacing 1/2 inch apart (cookies spread very little). Gather scraps and reroll dough, cutting out more cookies. Bake cookies 5 minutes. Reverse baking sheets; bake until cookies are puffed and look slightly darker around edges, about 5 minutes longer. Cool cookies on sheets 2 minutes. Using thin metal spatula, transfer cookies to racks; cool. Repeat with remaining dough pieces.

For icing:

Sift 1 1/2 cups sugar into medium bowl. Add 5 teaspoons water and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Whisk in more sugar by tablespoonfuls, if necessary, until icing falls thickly off whisk. Spoon icing into pastry bag fitted with 1/16-inch plain round tip or resealable plastic bag (cut tip off bag). Pipe icing onto cookies. Let stand until icing is hard, at least 3 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper.)

I liked my squiggles

Notes:

I changed nothing in baking this recipe. Surprise! No, really. I did everything exactly as printed, and I liked the gingery flavor a lot, although for me, the orange didn’t really come through. The molasses lends a bit of a bite, keeping these from becoming too sweet, and the icing really does enhance the flavor, although I had to add a 6th teaspoon of water to get the right consistency.

I spooned the icing into a quart-size freezer bag and snipped off a tiny corner. These cookies don’t call for precision piping (thank God!), so I didn’t see any point in using a pastry bag or a tip. This method worked very well, despite the fact that piping is not one of my strong suits. (Have I mentioned that I am not a food stylist?)

If you haven’t seen my entries for Days 1 and 2, I’ll just repeat that, yes, once again, this is an extremely soft dough for a cut-out cookie. In fact, if you aren’t blinded by my expert piping skills (Hahahahahaha! I crack me up!), you might notice that a number of my stars more closely resemble Patrick of Spongebob Squarepants fame, than something you might top your tree with. It’s not my fault!

If I were to make this recipe again, I would probably roll them a little thicker than a 1/4″ and perhaps add another 1/4 cup of flour when mixing the dough.

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!

The 12 Days of Cookies: Day 2

RJ Flamingo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:15:00 +0000

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?

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 third installment!