Toasted Sesame Crisps for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

How is it December 11th? We're not sure how, exactly, but we are most definitely behind in getting everything ready for the holidays - grading papers, cleaning/decorating the house, cooking, and, of course, shopping. Still, we did manage to get our Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap cookies out in time, and right now, that seems like an accomplishment. 

About the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap: This is our second year participating in the Swap. Each participant (all food bloggers), signs up by giving a nominal fee that goes directly toward Cookies for Kids' Cancer. Then each participant receives the addresses of three other food bloggers, makes and sends each of them a dozen cookies, and receives three dozen in return. We all post our recipes on the same day (that would be today), and salivate as we browse through them all! We even received a couple of shiny new spatulas from OXO as part of the deal. Very special thanks to Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen for all their hard work in organizing this great event for a worthy cause. In fact, over $13,000 was raised between bloggers and sponsoring partners! 

We tried a new recipe from Stacy Adimando's fantastic book, The Cookiepedia, which had been sent to us to preview by the publisher, Quirk Books (we actually did a review of it in September of 2011). It really is a great resource for all things cookie. We've had a lot of luck with a few of her recipes, but part of the Swap is to try something new, so we did. 

We took Adimando's recipe for "Sesame Crisps with Toasted Seeds," added a couple of quirks (no pun intended) of our own, and were really very pleased with the result - a cookie that didn't see-saw into either the too-sweet or the too-savory, and went nicely with both coffee and tea. They had a wonderfully crisp texture and a nutty-caramel flavor. Oh, and they only take about 15 minutes to make, including baking time! We sure hope our sendees, Beth of Beth's Blue Plate Special, Veronica of My Catholic Kitchen, and Micky from What Micky Eats, loved them as much as we did. We will definitely be making them again.

We received some really fabulous cookies as well, as you can see below. Thank you so much to Melanie of Aesthetic Eats, Tal of Ba-Li Cravings, and Caroline of Chocolate & Carrots.

Check out our post on last year's Swap here. And for more great holiday (and year-round) cookie ideas, be sure to browse through The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipe roundup!

Toasted Sesame Crisps

adapted from The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando

Very Important Note: Sesame seeds at our local supermarket were outrageously priced at $86.24 a pound ($5.39 for a 1-ounce spice jar). But Chris, ever the problem-solver, had in mind to stop at the Indian market where he found...drumroll please...a 28-ounce bag for $4.99. Yup. Those numbers are correct.

Ingredients:

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Toast the sesame seeds in an even layer in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring often for 6-8 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Add flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. Melt the butter together with the sesame oil. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter/sesame mixture, brown sugar, egg and vanilla and stir until fully combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until browned around the edges, rotating the sheets halfway through baking. Let cool on the sheet for two minutes then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Countdown to Christmas: Mad-Easy Macaroons

Amy writes: Some women won't admit what I'm about to admit, but I think I can do it. Let me take a deep breath. Okay, ready?

I have a lot in common with my mother. There. I said it. Well.

One of the many things we have in common is our love of coconut, and that is probably why she recently emailed me a recipe for coconut macaroons.



As many daughters might, I had my suspicions that she wasn't sending it to me merely out of the goodness of her heart. I thought perhaps it may be a subtle hint that she would like to see these on our Christmas Eve dessert table. Chris thought so too. And since they fall into the quick-and-easy theme we seem to have going this year, we decided to make them. (Just for you, Mom!)

Mix ingredients in a bowl

Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet

and bake 8-10 minutes

Cool on parchment-lined wire racks

She found this particular recipe at the website Just A Pinch, but when I browsed around the Internet, I found several very similar recipes. What I particularly love about this one is that there are only four ingredients. That, and the preparation only takes about two minutes. Oh, and they only need to be baked for 8-10 minutes. Which is to say, they are "mad-easy," which is why I've dubbed them "Mad-Easy Macaroons." And they are also really tasty - moist, chewy, and full of coconut and almond flavor. So next time either I or my mother have a craving for coconut, we know that craving can be satisified in about a half hour. How great is that?

Mad-Easy Macaroons

recipe from Just A Pinch

Ingredients:

2 (7-ounce) packages sweetened flake coconut
(aka "angel flake")

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1  1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, combine condensed milk and extracts. Mix well. Add coconut. Mix well. Drop by round teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheets and place on parchment-covered cooling racks. Store loosely covered at room temp.

Countdown to Christmas: Chow's "Split-Second Cookies"

Do you know about Chow? If not, you should. Go ahead and check it out. We'll still be here when you get back.


It's pretty cool, isn't it? We loved their recent article titled, "Crazy-Easy Christmas Cookies," and since a little illness put a snag in our Christmas baking agenda, "crazy-easy" seemed like a good plan. 




So, we made their "Split-Second Cookies" the other day. Well, "split-second" is a bit of an exaggeration, and they weren't "crazy-easy" (just look at that long list of directions!). Still, they weren't too difficult or time-consuming either, and we love the crispness, the buttery flavor and the cut-on-the-bias prettiness of these jammy cookies.

Although the recipe suggests using "smooth jam," we used a wonderful slightly-seeded jam we got this summer on a day trip to Enders Island at Mystic, CT. It's called The Triduum Three-Berry Preserve. The priests and sisters at St. Edmund's Retreat  make it, and it is delicious. Special thanks to "Whit" for bringing us to Enders Island, and thanks to Chow for the great cookie recipe.

Split-Second Cookies

Recipe from Chow, but pictures here were taken by us.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface

3/4 teaspoon fine salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup smooth jam

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange 2 racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Whisk the measured flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl to aerate and remove any lumps; set aside. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer, scrape down the paddle and the sides of the bowl, and add the egg and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until incorporated, about 1 1/2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until the dough just comes together, about 45 seconds.

Cream butter and sugar; add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Then add flour mixture to turn into a dough

Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and form it into a disk. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Using your hands, roll each portion into a 10-by-1-inch log. Carefully transfer 2 of the logs onto each prepared baking sheet. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, make a 1/2-inch-wide and 1/2-inch-deep trough in the center of each log, leaving a 1/2-inch border at each end. Place the jam in a piping bag or a resealable plastic bag (snip off one bottom corner of the plastic bag, if using) and pipe the jam into each of the troughs.

Divide dough into quarters

Roll into 10-by-1-inch logs

Make a "jam trough" in the center of each "log"

Fill "trough" with jam

Place both baking sheets in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom and bake until the cookie logs are light golden brown around the bottom edges, about 10 to 12 minutes more.

Bake until golden brown around the edges

Place the baking sheets on wire racks and let the logs cool for 15 minutes. Pick up 1 of the parchment sheets and carefully transfer the two logs to a cutting board. Cut each log on the diagonal into 1-inch-wide pieces. Transfer the cookies to the wire rack. Repeat with the remaining parchment sheet and cookie logs. Let the cookies cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Holiday Recipe Recollections

Another busy week has prevented us from doing what we love to do...cook! So, as the cookie swaps and soirees begin, we thought we'd take a moment to recall two of our favorite recipes-for-holiday-sharing from years past. One is an appetizer, and the other is a dessert, but both result in delectable tidbits that are easy to make and well-suited to disaster-free transport.

We came up with "Spruced-Up Sugar Cookies" last year when we had a bumper crop of rosemary. We use refrigerated cookie dough to make them quick and easy to make, but the more ambitious cook with the time could use their favorite sugar cookie recipe. To the cookie dough, we add some lemon zest, lemon juice and chopped rosemary for a seasonal, "spruced-up" symphony of flavors - sweet sugar cookies with citrus and herb notes. Cookie cutters we'd suggest? Stars or Christmas trees! Go here for the recipe.

We also cheat a little with our appetizer idea - using a cream cheese spread from Denmark called "Puck" to fill pre-made mini-phyllo cups. Warmed in the oven, and topped with a pinch of chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios - all would work!) and a drizzle of honey and you have a bite-sized snack that is simply elegant. Perfect for that cocktail party! Go here for more information.