Tasting Spoons

Don’t know if you’re aware that Martha Stewart has just published a new cookbook – called Martha Stewart’s Cookies. A really thick tome, it contains 175 new recipes with super photos. This one was delicious! My friend Kathleen brought them the other night when she came to our home for dinner. Kathleen’s a good writer, so I asked her if she’d like to guest-write this posting. Happily for me, she agreed. You can find the recipe on Martha’s site. I wrote up another of Kathleen’s recipes some time back – if you’re interested, check out her Almond Custard. Here’s Kathleen’s write-up about the cookies:

I am a Martha Stewart junkie. Even her checkered past doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for everything Martha; I just can’t get enough. I also love technology, especially if somebody else installs and troubleshoots it.

So here’s how technology connected me to Martha’s Cashew Caramel Cookies: I listen in my car to Everyday Food Editor Sandy Gluck’s show on the Martha Stewart channel on Sirius radio. Sandy raved about Martha’s latest book, Martha Stewart’s Cookies, so I previewed it on Martha’s website, logged on to amazon.com and ordered it. It’s great to get exactly what you want without ever having to set foot inside a store. I guess I’m the perfect example of someone who is fully plugged into the Martha Stewart distribution network. I even asked my husband to record all of Martha’s television shows for me so that I can watch them in the evening.

So far, each recipe that I have tried has been simple to prepare and delicious. When relatives recently came to visit, they loved the cookies so much that they even ate them for breakfast. I sent the book to my niece and she is having similar successful results. I hope you enjoy your copy of Martha Stewart Cookies as much as I do mine. I swear that I am not on her payroll, though perhaps I should be!

The cookies have a salty tang to them (because you use roasted, salted cashews) and the drizzle of caramel on the top is just a lovely finale to each cookie. They look wonderful, and taste wonderful. Thanks, Kathleen!

Cashew-Caramel Cookies
Recipe By: Martha Stewart’s Cookies
Serving Size: 36
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups cashews — roasted, salted
2 tablespoons canola oil — plus 1 teaspoon
1 stick unsalted butter — (8 tablespoons) softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar — packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
24 cubes caramel candy — 7 ounces, soft type
1/4 cup heavy cream
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour and salt together. Coarsely chop 1 cup cashews; set aside. Process remaining 1 1/2 cups cashews in a food processor until finely chopped. Pour in oil. Process until mixture is creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Put cashew mixture, butter, and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; gradually add flour mixture. Mix in reserved chopped cashews.
3. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; space 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 6 minutes; gently flatten with a spatula. Bake until bottoms are just golden, 6 to 7 minutes more. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
4. Melt caramels with cream in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring. Let cool. Using a spoon, drizzle caramel over cookies; let set. Store airtight in single layers.
NOTES: Plastic wrap and foil both stick to the caramel topping. Ideally, freeze these individually on a large cookie sheet, then place in a plastic bag so they won’t stick together. Someone on the Martha website suggested reducing the amount of heavy cream to eliminate the stickiness. Don’t know if that would work or not.
Per Serving: 155 Calories; 9g Fat (50.6% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 15mg Cholesterol; 50mg Sodium.
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It was one of those days. It had been a stressful day (because of some major work we’re having done around our yard). I recognized that I was very unsettled and needed something to soothe the “ravage beast” in myself. What better to do than make cookies? It made sense to me. We’ve been out of cookies in the freezer for awhile, and I had another one of Donna Deane’s recipes from the Los Angeles Times to try. She’s the Food Editor at the paper, and she wrote up an article the first week of January, about refrigerator cookies. I made one already – the Coffee Walnut Cookies – that were just wonderful.

Making the batter is cinchy easy. The usual stuff: butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, leavening. This one also had chunky peanut butter and chopped bittersweet chocolate. Roll the batter into logs, chill overnight and bake. I didn’t have any peanuts in my larder, so used walnuts instead.

The result: very good. The peanut butter taste does not predominate, which is interesting. This is basically a chocolate chip cookie with a peanut butter undertone, made into a refrigerator cookie for easy slicing. The cookies contain a lot of nuts by proportion – just make sure you chop both nuts and chocolate into pretty small pieces – otherwise when you try to slice these you’ll be doing “chopping” as you slice, which breaks up the dough. Now, it’s possible that if I’d had peanuts on hand, maybe the peanutty taste would be stronger. But I liked the walnuts actually.

Peanut and Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

Recipe By: Donna Deane, Los Angeles Times

Serving Size: 66

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter — cold

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 whole egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup peanuts — chopped

1 cup bittersweet chocolate — finely chopped

1.  In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt and set aside.

2.  Beat the cold butter in a stand mixer (or medium bowl with hand mixer).  Beat in the peanut butter until blended.  Beat in the sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

3.  Beat the egg and vanilla into the sugar mixture until blended.  Add flour mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Then stir in the chopped peanuts and chocolate until evenly incorporated.

4.  Divide the dough in half.  Shape each piece into a log about 9 inches long and wrap each log in plastic wrap, waxed paper or foil.  Twist ends to seal.  Chill in the refrigerator overnight.

5.  Heat the oven to 350.  Unwrap the logs and cut into one-fourth-inch thick slices.  Place slices on silicone-lined baking sheets, and bake 10-13 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.  Remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool.  Store the cookies in an airtight container (or freeze).

Per Serving: 67 Calories; 5g Fat (58.8% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 7mg Cholesterol; 52mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Grain (Starch); 0 Lean Meats; 1 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

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In January, the Los Angeles Times Food Section printed an article by Donna Deane (the food editor) about cookies. Now, to me, printing an article about cookies the first week of January is about like praying for rain a few days after a flood. Cookies, just a week or so after Christmas? My brain and stomach are still coming down from a sugar high on January 2nd, for goodness’ sake! But, I did read it, and I did print out two of the recipes to make sometime in the future.

Well, I’m SO glad I did keep this one. What a winner. This cookie may be THE most tender cookie I’ve ever tasted (well, it does have a lot of butter in it!). And to eat a coffee flavored cookie was just a revelation. A really nice lightning bolt to my taste buds. And that’s not because of caffeine because I used decaf coffee beans.

Once a month I meet with two friends to play Scrabble, and the hostess usually serves a bit of fresh fruit and a cookie or two. So I whipped up the dough the night before (it needs to chill a few hours or overnight) and sliced and baked them just before they arrived.

The recipe is actually Alice Medrich’s, from her book “Pure Dessert.” What’s unique is the method here: you pulse flour, walnuts, sugar and salt until it’s completely ground. Then you add the finely ground coffee beans (remember, I used decaf beans), butter, vanilla and brandy and you’re done. Roll the dough together and form into two logs, and refrigerate. The next day you slice them up, place on a cookie sheet, press a coffee bean (I used a walnut half instead) onto the top, and bake.

Coffee-Walnut Cookies

Recipe By: Alice Medrich, “Pure Desserts” via the Los Angeles Times, 1/2/2008

Serving Size: 60

2 cups flour

1 cup walnuts

3/4 cup sugar — or half sugar, half Splenda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons coffee beans — ground very finely (I used decaf)

1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter — 3/4 cup

4 teaspoons brandy — or Calvados

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

70 coffee beans — or 70 walnut halves

1.  Combine the flour, walnuts, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the walnuts are finely ground.  Add the ground coffee and pulse to mix.  Add the butter (cut in several pieces if firm) and pulse until the mixture looks damp and crumbly.  Drizzle in the brandy and vanilla extract and pulse until the dough begins to clump up around the blade.  Remove the dough, press it into a ball and knead it by hand a few times to complete the mixing.

2.  Form the dough into a 12-inch log about 2 inches in diameter.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or preferably, overnight, or up to 3 days.  The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

3.  Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into one-fourth-inch-thick slices.  (If the dough crumbles when you cut into it, let it soften for several minutes.) Place the cookies at least 1 inch apart on silicone-lined baking sheets.  Press a coffee bean into the center of each cookie.

4.  Bake the cookies until light golden brown at the edges, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking.  Let the cookies firm up on the pans for about 1 minute, then transfer them to a rack with an offset spatula.  Cool completely.  These cookies are delicious fresh but are even better the next day.  They can be stored in an airtight container for at least a month.

Per Serving: 62 Calories; 4g Fat (55.9% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 7mg Cholesterol; 9mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

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I made these cookies a couple of weeks ago. Our son-in-law, Todd, was still here (he’s since gone back home to his family), and he let it be known, every so subtly, that the freezer was out of cookies. Those of you who read my blog regularly know I like crisp cookies. So these wouldn’t have been something I’d make for myself. But I’ll have to admit, they’re very good. Toothsome. With just a bit of chocolate in them, and the addition of dried cherries is interesting. Good kind of interesting. The little dark items you can see in the cookies are both the dried cherries and chocolate chips. Todd took a bag of them home with him when he left last week. The recipe came from Bake or Break, a blog I read regularly. But Jennifer got the recipe from the website for Schokinag, the chocolate manufacturer.

Chocolate Chunk & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe By: Schokinag website (chocolate producer) via Bake or Break food blog
Serving Size: 48
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar — firmly packed
2 whole eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats, rolled (raw)
1 cup dried cherries [I cut each cherry in half]
8 ounces semisweet chocolate — chunks [or chips]
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In large bowl beat butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla.
3. In separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk together then gradually add to butter mixture just until combined. Do not over mix. Stir in oats, cherries and chocolate.
4. Drop by tablespoons full onto lined or lightly greased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bottom edges are lightly browned. Cool on pans for a few minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. These also can be made into bar cookies. Press dough into a lightly greased 9×13 baking pan. Bake about 20 minutes.

Per Serving: 115 Calories; 6g Fat (44.1% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 19mg Cholesterol; 93mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain (Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 1 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
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Another recipe I decided to try, from my recent filing spree. And I learned something with this particular one from Gourmet. If a recipe comes from that source, there are some advantages:

• Firstly, you can go to Epicurious to read or find the recipe. (For recipes that are older, most are now on Gourmet’s own website. Going back decades.)

• And secondly, people who have tried the recipe upload comments and reviews of the recipes.

This latter - reading comments - would have been very important to this recipe, had I done that. I would have learned that others who had made these found them way too greasy, but a simple reduction of butter would have helped. I didn’t go to Epicurious, so, ended up with a cookie that is good, but just as many said, way, WAY too greasy. If you want to read the comments, click here.

Almonds are good, in my book. Almond paste adds a wonderful richness - and tenderness actually - to baked goods. When whipping up the batter/dough for this, it had a wonderful lightness to it, yet the cookies are solid with almond flavor. It wasn’t hard to make. Just wished I had thought through the chemistry of 1 1/4 cups of flour and 2 whole cubes of butter. Too much, for only 25-30 pieces. The cookies are delicious, but a little bit goes a long way. I probably will try these again, heeding the advice of others. You line the 8×8 or 9×9 pan with foil, BUTTER the foil (I question why that last step), then prepare the dough and spread it with an offset spatula in the readied pan, then brush with egg white so the sliced almonds will stick to the top. Bake. Easy.

Almond Bar Cookies
Recipe: Gourmet Magazine, Dec. 2004
Servings: 25
1/2 cup almond paste — not marzipan
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter — softened [reduced from 1 cup in original recipe]
1 large egg — separated
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter a 9 x 9 pan, line with foil, then butter the foil.
3. In food processor, pulse almond paste until broken in small bits, then add 1/4 c sugar and salt, processing 1 minute more. In a large bowl, beat together butter and remaing sugar, 3 minutes. Add almond mixture, egg yolk, and almond extract, beat 2 minutes more. Reduce speed, then add flour. Mix until combined.
4. Spread batter evenly in pan and brush with egg white. Bake 35-40 minutes.
5. Cool in pan 1 hour. Cut into 25 squares.

Per Serving: 119 Calories; 7g Fat (52.5% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 23mg Cholesterol; 47mg Sodium.

Printer-friendly recipe, click HERE.

I must admit that when I read this recipe the first time, I thought “it’s just another variation on chocolate chip cookies.” Why fool with a good thing, my mind said. I’ve relied on the good-old Tollhouse (Nestle’s) recipe, and never been unhappy with it. But the further I read into Smitten Kitchen’s blog, the more I became convinced I’d best try this recipe. When you read the list of ingredients you definitely will think this is not all that different. Yes, more chips. And more nuts. But really, what’s that mean but just a more densely populated cookie? But then you read the details, and you find out that there really are some differences:

1. You must start with cold butter

2. The nuts are toasted

3. The nuts are chopped finely so they almost disappear in the cookie

4. The cookies are baked differently - on parchment in a 300 degree F. oven for a long time

And are they a radical change? Well, maybe radical is too strong a word. Are they different? Yes. The texture is different - they’re nicely crumbly and crisp. There is definitely something different about the nuts - besides the fact that there are a LOT of nuts (and chips) in these cookies. But having toasted the walnuts makes a huge difference. I used my food processor to chop the nuts, and did just as the recipe indicates - lots of the nuts were crumbs, but there were some pea-sized pieces in there too. Nothing larger, though. To say that I loved these is putting it mildly. These may be my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe from henceforth. Smitten’s recipe came from David Liebovitz’s book, The Great Book of Chocolate. I made no alterations to this recipe. My hat’s off to Deb for passing on Liebovitz’s recipe to all of us chocolate chip cookie fans.

Cook’s Notes: Having read some of Smitten’s comments - a couple of people had problems with them - I got everything prepped before I started mixing the cookies. The problems others had, I believe, might have been caused by the butter not being thoroughly chilled when they started making the cookies. Or, it could have been the type of butter used. So, my oven was hot. The dry ingredients were combined. The eggs and vanilla were standing by. The cookie sheets were ready. I chopped up the butter into the 1/2 inch cubes then put them back in the refrigerator while I did all the other prep work. Once I began to mix the cookies they took little more than a minute or two to be ready for plopping onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets. They took longer to bake - the recipe indicates 18 minutes. Mine took about 22, and my oven runs hot, so was surprised. I also have decided these cookies are better when they’re fresh. They don’t seem to have the same magical taste once they’ve been frozen. Don’t know how that can be, but it is. Would welcome anyone else’s opinion about it.

“Blue Chip” Chocolate Chip Cookies
Original Recipe: The Great Book of Chocolate by David Liebovitz
Source: Deb at the Smitten Kitchen Blog
Servings: 20
1/2 cup granulated sugar — (100 grams)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar — (120 grams)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter — (115 grams) cold, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour — (175 grams)
1/4 teaspoon salt — or 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips — (200 grams)
1 cup walnuts — or pecans, (130 grams) toasted and VERY finely chopped
1. Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven and preheat to 300F (150C). Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda.
3. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.
4. Scoop the cookie dough into 2 tablespoon balls and place 8 balls, spaced 4 inches (10cm) apart, on each of the baking sheets.
5. Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
6. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. (I always freeze my cookies)
NOTES : Make sure the butter is cold. Make sure walnuts are very finely chopped - with some pieces as large as a pea, but with some almost a powder.

Per Serving: 212 Calories; 12g Fat (49.3% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 25g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 23mg Cholesterol; 66mg Sodium.

Printer-Friendly Recipe, click HERE.

Surely I’m not alone in having an occasional baking failure. I rarely have an actual cooking “failure.” But, this was a close call! One of my greatest cooking failings is that I don’t read the directions completely before plunging into the preparation. This time was no exception. But, hey, it’s a cookie, and what’s a little extra sugar, right?

Last time I made these, probably two years ago, after they were finished I even went into my recipe software and re-arranged the recipe, separating the ingredients for the bar part, the syrup part and the glaze part. So that I wouldn’t do exactly what I repeated - again - today. But did I print out the recipe and toss the old one? You can guess, can’t you? No. I didn’t. Dummy. Idiot that I am. So this morning, as usual, always with 101 things on my mind (gotta finish this quickly, need to pay some bills, make the bed, finish my makeup) before I leave for a luncheon. I did READ the ingredients. But I glossed over the directions about separating the sugar portion (some of the sugar goes in the syrup).

This recipe is a favorite (when I make it) of my friend, Cherrie. She’s an excellent cook, but she isn’t a baker, so she relies on her friends who are bakers (uh, that’s me and others, I assume) to give her some goodies now and then. And sometimes I give her a little bag of cookies which she parcels out in her DH Bud’s lunch bag. I gave her one of my Bishop’s Breads I made before Christmas. (I don’t mean to be going on and on about my Bishop’s Bread - it’s just that Cherrie has learned to love this like I do.) Just a slice with her afternoon tea. So when one of her friends called to tell me she was having a birthday luncheon for Cherrie today, I thought - oh, I’ll make a batch of those Brandied Apricot Bars for her. That will make Cherrie very, very happy. She adores these things. More than I do, actually. I mean, they’re really good, but she would happily cross a glacier to get ahold of these, and she doesn’t “do” cold. Of all the things I bake, these cookies may be her very favorite.

It could be the little rolling warmth that emanates from your gullet after chewing one - after all, it does have brandy in it. Not cooked much, either. Supposedly the alcohol is cooked off when you heat alcohol to a boil, but since this is apricot brandy you use, it’s potent stuff and I’m sure there is still alcohol remaining, because I sure do get warmth in my mouth, throat and tummy when I eat these. Back when I made these the first time, Cherrie was actually staying with us for awhile. She and I were both having sleeping issues, often waking up in the middle of the night, not able to sleep (my reason was that I was taking Claritin-D; once I stopped taking that, I began sleeping better). But back then, if she heard me up, we’d meet in the kitchen, whispering so we wouldn’t wake up my DH, and tiptoe with a tea tray into our living room, light the fire and have some Earl Gray and one of these bars. Or maybe two. At 6:30 am, or so, my DH would wander out, sleep in his eyes and say what in the world are you two doing? He learned eventually - if I wasn’t in the bed with him when he awoke, I’d be in the living room with tea and a fire, or in my office playing some mindless solitaire.

So, back to today and too much sugar. What to do, what to do? I was already fully into the batter when I re-read the directions. That’s when I discovered my mistake. Oops. I had put a scant cup of white sugar into the batter. So, I cut down some on the brown sugar (about half) and used less sugar in the brandy mixture. The lemon juice topping requires a certain amount of sugar - otherwise it would turn out too sour, so I really couldn’t reduce the powdered sugar there. I also made these in a 9×13 Pyrex pan, so baked them slightly longer, and it made 32 bars, not 36. But even with all my bad reading and chemistry juggling, they turned out just fine. Amazing. And Cherrie was really tickled (see big smile below) with my plate of cookies. All for her, with a little bite for everybody else at the luncheon.

So, the recipe below, for these tummy-warming bars, is the corrected one. Note to self: print out the gosh-darned corrected recipe and put it in your file! (done!)

Brandied Apricot Bars
Recipe: Adapted by me from a Sunset Magazine article, 1996
Serving Size : 36
COOKIE BATTER:
7 tbsp butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tbsp grated orange peel
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups dried apricots — minced
2/3 cup golden raisins
APRICOT SYRUP:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup apricot brandy — or Cointreau
3 tsp lemon juice
LEMON JUICE GLAZE:
4 tsp lemon juice
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1. Batter: preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and brown sugar with mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then add orange peel and vanilla.
2. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, soda and cinnamon. Stir into butter mixture along with apricots and raisins.
3. Pour batter into lightly buttered 10×15 inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until cookie is lightly browned and springs back in center. If using a 9×13 pan, bake for about 25 minutes. Set on rack to cool.
4. Apricot Syrup - Just before bars are done, combine 1/3 cup sugar, brandy, and 3 tsp lemon juice in sauce pan. Bring to boil over high heat, remove and when bars comes from oven, spoon warm apricot syrup evenly over it. Let cool completely, then cut into 3 dozen equal pieces and leave in pan.
5. Lemon Icing - mix 4 teaspoons lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Drizzle over the cookies. Once drizzle is sort-of dried, remove bars from pan. Serving Ideas : Originally a cookie, I think these make an equally interesting dessert. But, whichever, they’re great with a cup of coffee or tea.
NOTES: When making the final glaze, add enough powdered sugar to make the glaze fairly firm - otherwise the bars are too soft and difficult to hold in your hand(it will ooze the glaze) and they’re hard to store. Serve immediately or store airtight up to 2 days; freeze to store longer. If storing or freezing, separate layers with waxed paper or plastic wrap. Originally the bar called for more butter and sugar, but I reduced the amounts, as well as the amount of apricots and raisins.

Per Serving: 132 Calories; 6g Fat (38.9% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 37mg Cholesterol; 93mg Sodium.

Printer-friendly recipe, click HERE.

Most likely many of you, who read other food blogs, have heard about the macarons. That’s not macaroons, but macarons. I think that would be pronounced, in the French, like mac-a-rown. The s is silent, and you’d nasalize the rown too. Very swishy. I’d seen pictures of these gems on some other blogs, but two weeks ago when DH and I drove through Yountville and stopped at Bouchon Bakery, they had bunches in their display case. I had to try one, in chocolate. It was only (ha) $3.00 for one. It stayed in the car for 2 days before I brought it into my cousin Maxine’s house, where we were staying in Walnut Creek. We cut it in 4 quarters. I ate my two quarters in a jiffy. They’re hard to describe, other than luscious. Soft. Smooth. These had a lovely chocolate flavor. Ideal with a hot beverage of some sort.

Probably only upscale bakeries will have these, and I’d guess Bouchon’s would have ranked up there with the best there are outside of Paris. This macarons was absolutely to die for. If I see them again I’ll definitely buy more. Well, maybe just one. They’re quite rich with the filling in the center. Who knows how many calories there are. I don’t want to know! The meringue-like outside cookie part is not crunchy or chewy, but has just a little bit of texture. And the filling was so utterly smooth. So, there’s your lesson in French and pastry for the day.

Oh, this cookie is a keeper. It’s from a cooking class I took with Tarla Fallgatter. I don’t know where she got the recipe - I didn’t find it on the internet, so perhaps it’s a family favorite of hers. They’re not difficult - but there are a few steps: chilling the dough, rolling into balls and coating with hazelnuts, making depressions in the dough balls, then the chocolate kiss or nonpareil pressed into the hot, just-baked cookie, then letting the tray cool before you remove them from the baking sheet. But they’re really, really GOOD.

You must know by now that I like chocolate. This cookie satisfies fully in that department. Tarla said when she makes these for children, she always uses chocolate kisses (Hershey’s) but for adults, she uses the nonpareils. This batch pictured was done with the latter, half of them with the white up, others down. When you press the candy onto the hot cookie, it slightly melts the chocolate so it sticks to the cookie top. But of course! Add this to your cookie list.

Chocolate Kiss Treasures
Recipe By: Tarla Fallgatter
Servings: 30
4 ounces unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 whole egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg white — lightly beaten
1/2 cup hazelnuts — finely chopped
30 whole Hershey kisses — or nonpareils
1. Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add yolk, milk and vanilla and beat in.
2. Mix flour, cocoa and salt together and add just until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350.
4. Roll scant tablespoons of dough into balls, then coat with egg white, letting excess drip off and roll in nuts to coat.
5. Arrange balls as coated, 1 1/2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Press thumb into center of balls to flatten, leaving a depression. Bake in batches in middle of oven until puffed slightly but centers are still soft, 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press Kiss (or nonpareil) into the center of each. Let cool 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool.

Per Serving: 107 Calories; 6g Fat (53.0% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 11g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 17mg Cholesterol; 26mg Sodium.

To print a PDF recipe, click HERE.

When I tell you this is yum - easy - simple - quick - believe me. It is all of those things. But the YUM part is what you need to remember. This Rocky Road recipe isn’t all that different from others you may have read. Until a few years ago I’d not had this, but the addition of butterscotch chips and peanut butter gives rocky road a whole different taste. Time? My guess is that making it takes a total of about 10 minutes.

My friend Chris H. gave me this recipe, and she makes it all year around, I think. What it is, is delicious. Great for the holidays. I’m making it especially for my cousin who is gluten intolerant. He enjoys Christmas goodies, but can’t have most of them - like cookies, etc. - because he can’t eat anything with flour in it. Rocky Road has no flour. He’ll be a happy camper. We’ll just have to keep the grandchildren to stay out of it. This will be just for Gary.

Here are the butterscotch and chocolate chips melting together.

And here’s the mixture once it’s smushed into a 9×13 pan, ready for refrigeration.

Rocky Road
Recipe By: Chris H., a friend from church
Serving Size : 24 - 36
12 ounces chocolate chips
12 ounces butterscotch chips
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
16 ounces miniature marshmallows
1 cup chopped walnuts
1. In a medium saucepan melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips until just creamy. Remove from heat then add peanut butter and stir until thoroughly combined, with no streaks of peanut butter or butterscotch. Allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes.
2. While warm, add the walnuts and marshmallows and stir until combined. Do not allow the marshmallows to melt.
3. Press foil into a 9 x 13 pan and spoon the rocky road into it, press out to fill corners and edges, chill. Keep in refrigerator, although you can put them out at room temperature, but the chocolate definitely melts in your fingers that way!

Per Serving: 247 Calories; 10g Fat (35.2% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 1mg Cholesterol; 42mg Sodium. 

To print a PDF recipe, click HERE.