Spooky Cookies

Chris came home with these cute Halloween cookies Friday. They were part of his school's culinary program's Halloween Buffet. What a cute idea! Wouldn't it be great to make these with the kids before they went trick-or-treating?

Here's what they are made of:
Chocolate cookies body, purple frosting guts, white chocolate chip teeth, googly eyes (you can buy these at most grocery stores or put a little chocolate frosting on a white chocolate chip), and a fruit roll tongue.  

Spooky!!!

Oktoberfest Beer Cookies

Oktoberfest Beer Cookies

Oom pah pah! This weekend marked the official start of Oktoberfest, the German harvest (and beer) festival. Yes, it sounds like it should be held in October, but that's because the first one was. The original Oktoberfest, held in 1810, celebrated the wedding of the Bavarian Crown Prince. It must have been some wedding, because the celebration became an annual tradition, and was prolonged to start in mid-September to ensure better weather. Since we are unable to pick up and fly to Munich for a party, we feel especially fortunate that our friends, the Zs, have an annual Oktoberfest right here in Connecticut. 

Creamed butter and sugar

Some of the other ingredients

The Zs are great cooks, which you can tell when you read the menu. They offered partygoers such as ourselves a feast of traditional German goodies like sweet onion dip, homemade soft pretzels, grilled vegetables, bratwurst with sauerkraut, baked ham, potato salad and cooked red cabbage. Many of the guests brought dessert, and that's where our Oktoberfest Beer Cookies come in (although people were eating them well before dessert). 

The beer and honey is almost reduced

The batter

In the spirit of the day, we decided to try making cookies with beer. We found an interesting recipe on Food Network and made our cookies with Shocktop Belgian White. This particular beer has flavors of coriander and orange peel, so these same ingredients are added to the batter. These not-too-sweet beer-in-cookie-form treats were crisp on the outside with a cakey inside texture. We didn't bother with icing but instead  used some of the honey-beer reduction as a light glaze. Also, you will note there is no salt in the recipe; the beer has some in it and adding some will make them too salty.

Tablespoons of batter staggered on parchment-lined sheets

Surely, you could experiment with different beer flavors and spices and get some amazing results. If you do, do let us know with a comment!

Oktoberfest Beer Cookies

(adapted from Food Network's White Beer Cookies, makes about 3 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

2 12-ounce bottles beer (we used Shocktop Belgian White)

5 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 drops orange oil

1 1/2 tablespoons dried Valencia orange peel (or zest of one medium orange)

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Place beer and honey in a medium saucepan and allow to reduce over medium heat until there's about 1/2 cup left (this can take a while, so be patient; you'll know it's about there when the mixture is extremely foamy like in the picture above). Allow the reduction to cool to room temperature. While it is cooking, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (we do this in a stand mixer). Add and completely incorporate the egg. Then add the vanilla, orange oil, orange peel, coriander, and 1/3 cup of the cooled beer reduction. Blend thoroughly. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda, then slowly add these dry ingredients to the batter. Preheat oven to 350 F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto parchment-lined sheets without crowding (about 12 per sheet is good). Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to wire racks to cool. Drizzle with remaining beer reduction. 

Baked and glazed!

Grapefruit Sparklers

Our niece K is getting married today! Happy day! As the youngest of seven, Chris has a huge family. This makes celebrations all the more joyous with so many people involved. A few weeks ago, all the women in the family made cookies for K's wedding shower and went to S's house to package them for the table centerpieces. Everyone was given a festive baggie so they could grab their favorites to take home. All told, we made over a thousand cookies. There is talk of starting a family bakery! (just kidding...) Amy made these "Grapefruit Sparklers," seeing as we were replete with grapefruits from a recent school fundraiser. Two people can only eat so many grapefruits. Plus, they are pretty, unusual, perfect with tea, and not too difficulty to make, even for a non-baker. Use any fresh citrus zest and juice that you like. You can make the dough a day or two ahead and keep it chilled before you bake them, or freeze it if you plan to make them at a later date. 

Grapefruit Sparklers

minimally adapted from this recipe at Epicurious

Makes about 4 dozen

For the cookies:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons grated grapefruit zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large egg yolks

For the icing:

1 1/4 cup confectionary sugar

3 tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice

sanding sugar (optional)

To make dough: Whisk together flour and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a stand mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add zest and extract and continue to beat until combined. Scrape down sides with a spatula, then add eggs and beat until just blended. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour. Beat until incorporated. Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 10-inch log about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least one hour up to two days. 

When ready to bake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap one dough log on a plastic cutting board. Use a sharp knife to slice the dough into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Place rounds on lined cookie sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until golden brown on the edges. Transfer to cooling racks and repeat with remaining dough. Allow to cool completely.

To decorate: Whisk together confectionary sugar and grapefruit juice. Dip a silicon pastry brush or fork into the icing and drizzle over the cookies. Sprinkle with sanding sugar while still wet (if desired). Allow to set, about 15 minutes. Store in an air-right container.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap Recipe Roundup

Getting ready for Christmas? Need some tried-and-true cookie recipe ideas? Look no further, for where else can you find 555 cookie recipes, including photos, than The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap Recipe Roundup?

PART ONE located here.

PART TWO located here.

Let the drooling begin!

Soft and Chewy Gingersnaps for Secret Recipe Club

It's been a perfect fall weekend - bright and sunny with a slight crispness in the air and leaves falling everywhere. And to top it all off, it's Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day! The blog we were assigned for October was Mommy's Menu, written by Toni, a stay-at-home-mom who has a fantastic recipe index filled with all sorts of delicious delights.

Some of Toni's recipes that sounded particularly good for this weekend included Caramel Apple Marshmallow Dip, Super Duper Hot Chocolate, Smokey Chipotle Chili, and Homemade Pumpkin Puree. But even though we always claim that we are not really into making desserts, it seems that something about the Secret Recipe Club brings out the bakers in us. For some of this year's SRC's, we've made Brownies with a Twist, Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake, Meyer Lemon Bars, and Golden Cinnamon Buns, for example. This month, Toni's Soft and Chewy Gingersnaps sounded so easy and so yummy and so perfect for this time of year, we just went for it.

And they were both easy (done in about 1/2 hour, including baking time), and yummy (we got 42 cookies out of them and we each ate 4 or 5 straight out of the oven), and perfect for this time of year (our house smells amazing). We love Toni's suggestion of crumbling them over ice cream topped with caramel sauce. Doesn't that sound fabulous? 

Soft and Chewy Gingersnaps

recipe from Mommy's Menu

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1/4 cup molasses

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch ground cloves

1/4 cup granulated sugar 

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together the shortening, molasses, brown sugar and egg. Add the dry ingredients and mix together until well combined. Form into small balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place (staggered, as they will spread) onto a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

UPDATE: Click here to see what was done with one of our recipes!

Christmas Present(s)

Last week, we offered up some of our favorite holiday cookie and candy recipes from Christmases past. Admittedly, several of these are annual traditions, without which our Christmas Eve table and foodie gift packages to the neighbors would not be complete (especially our Buckeyes, Rosemary-Almond Butter Toffee, and Rum Balls). Of course, we did try a couple of new things we want to share with you. Thus, we give you Christmas Present(s), with photos and links to the recipes we used, along with notes on how we adapted them. Enjoy!

Brownie Thins

We used this recipe from Epicurious, replacing the pistachios with walnuts

(and leaving a few plain for Amy's dad who doesn't like nuts). Crisp thin brownie wafers!

Geoffrey Zakarian's Vanilla Crescents

We are going on a cruise this summer and Geoffrey Zakarian has a restaurant on the cruise. We are so excited because he is one of our favorite Food Network Chefs. So of course we had to make these cookies. We used almond flour instead of hazelnut flour. Delicately crumbly, light and pretty.

Cookie Press Shortbreads

We used this recipe in our new electric cookie press and had fun decorating our little trees, poinsettias and wreaths. Sooo easy! 

Chocolate "Amaretti" Cookies

First we thought, why buy Italian cookies when you can make them? Then we realized we had no Amaretto. And no almonds. No big deal - we used 2/3 cup almond flour and Biscotti flavored liqueur instead and they came out fantastic. A great cookie for the adults!

Grapefruit Sparklers

Epicurious was our source for this recipe as well. However, a school fund-raiser left us with 10 lbs. of grapefruit, so we used grapefruit zest and grapefruit juice to give these a zingy twist. Of all the cookies listed here, these were our favorites!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM A COUPLE IN THE KITCHEN!!!



The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap (with Recipe for Meyer Lemon and Black Pepper Cookie Bites)

This year, the whole idea of The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap intrigued us and so we decided to join in the fun. In the swap, food bloggers from all over the world are paired up to exchange cookies. Each blogger paid a nominal fee to be involved, then each sends one dozen cookies to three different bloggers, and everyone receives a dozen from three other bloggers, for a total of three dozen cookies sent and received. The sponsors of the swap are donating the funds to Cookies for Kids' Cancer, and even better, OXO matched the donation and sent us all "Be a Good Cookie" spatulas as a thank you gift. Seriously fun stuff!

The cookie we decided to try is new to us this year, and it's basically Chow's Meyer Lemon and Black Pepper Cookies with the one minor addition of lemon oil. We also made ours into smaller bites for easier packaging, as you can see, and so we could have more cookies to share! 

We love the delicious sweetness the Meyer lemon zest added to each bite (enhanced by the lemon oil of course), which balanced exquisitely with the subtle spiciness of the black pepper, all in one beautiful bite. And how wonderful is it that the dough can be made ahead of time and frozen? Perfect for this busy time of year. This is probably going to become one of our many go-to cookie recipes for the holidays. We sure hope Lou and Esi, Grandma Loy, and  Lori enjoyed them as much as we did. (Click their names to see what cookies they sent!)

Thank you very much to Jenny, Morgan, and Jenn for sharing their cookies with us (click their names to see their cookies and recipes). What a treat it was to get these packages in the mail knowing they were filled with yummy goodies.

Meyer Lemon and Black Pepper Cookie Bites

minimally adapted from Chow

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup loosely packed, finely grated Meyer lemon zest (from about 4 medium  or 6 small lemons)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon lemon oil

Whisk together the flour, zest, baking powder, pepper, and salt in a medium bowl to break up any lumps; set aside. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until lightened in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle with a rubber spatula. Return the mixer to medium speed, add the egg, vanilla, and lemon oil, and beat until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle with the rubber spatula.Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add in the reserved flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide it in half. Roll each portion into a log measuring the desired diameter. Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days (or freeze up to one month). When ready to bake the cookies, heat the oven to 350°F and arrange the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Remove the dough logs from the refrigerator (allow to thaw if frozen), remove the plastic wrap, and slice the dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place the rounds about 1/2 inch apart on 2 baking sheets (about 20 cookies per sheet). Place both sheets in the oven and bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom and bake until the edges of the cookies are firm but the tops are still soft, about 6 to 7 minutes more. Place the baking sheets on wire racks and let them cool for 5 minutes. Using a flat spatula, transfer the cookies to the wire racks to cool completely.

To see all the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipes, and to get some wonderful holiday ideas for yourself, go to The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipe roundup.

Sorghum and Spice Gingersnaps (Secret Recipe Club)

Here we are. It's mid-September, and yet we still haven't told you about the last week of summer that we spent in Maine. That would be because we're teachers. That we'll get around to it sometime is about all we can promise right now. But for today, it's time for September's Secret Recipe Club. We sat out of the summer reveals because we were away a lot, but we're back and certainly glad to be, especially after the tasty results we got today's recipe!

Our SRC assignment this month was Yumsilicious Bakes. At first we were nervous. ALL of Yums's recipes are for baked goods, and, as you may know, we've had a few baking disasters in the past. But then we received some inspiration: this gorgeous leaf we found on our lawn this weekend. Yes, it's almost fall and what's better for fall than crisp spice-flavored cookies to match the crisp spice-scented air? Let's make gingersnaps!

Avanika of Yumsilicious Bakes adapted her gingersnap recipe from one by David Leibovitz who based his on Alice Waters's version from The Art of Simple Food. This particular cookie recipe was even more exciting for us because it calls for molasses, and we've been wanting to bake with this Bourbon Vanilla Sorghum that Bourbon Barrel Foods sent us to try. Molasses, a by-product of sugar, can be used interchangeably with sorghum. And this sorghum, milled in Kentucky from a single crop then blended with Kentucky Bourbon and Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla (yes, those are ALL the ingredients!) is earthy, sweet and spicy and, we thought, would give that certain complexity to our cookies that we are always searching for.

Did it ever! The crisp, sugary cookies have remarkable depth of flavor with hints of cinnamon and vanilla and a nice kick from the black pepper. In the spirit of fall, we used orange sanding sugar to make them pretty. We ate them with tea, then by themselves, and later that same day, stuffed with chocolate chip gelato as ice cream sandwiches. We couldn't get enough! For fans of Pepperidge Farm Ginger Man cookies or any other crisp, spicy gingersnap, we highly recommend this fabulous recipe. Thank you to Yumsilicious for sharing it, and to Bourbon Barrel Foods for the amazing sorghum. What will we make with it next?

Sift together dry ingredients

Cream together butter and sugar

Add sorghum and one egg

Mix in dry ingredients

Wrap dough and chill

Slice dough and top with sanding sugar

Bake, then cool on wire racks

Sorghum and Spice Gingersnaps

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup Bourbon Vanilla Sorghum

1 egg at room temperature

sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper. Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the egg and sorghum and mix until well incorporated. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Divide the dough in half, and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for 30-60 minutes, then roll to shape into a cylinder. Line two baking sheets with parchment or a silicone mat. Slice the dough into roughly 1/4-inch thick rounds. Dip the tops into the sanding sugar, and place on the baking sheet, leaving room to spread. Bake for 13-14 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, and store in an air-tight container.