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.

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 Posts of Christmases Past

You all know The Ghost of Christmas Past, the famous Dickens character from A Christmas Carol. Along those lines, here we offer you the (slightly less famous) Posts of Christmases Past - A Couple in the Kitchen's round-up of our favorite cookies and candies from past holiday seasons to inspire you while you finish up your baking and gifting. Happy holidays!

Favorite Holiday Cookies:

Chow's Split-Second Cookies

Double Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies

Florentines

Mad-Easy Macaroons

Spruced-Up Sugar Cookies

 

Favorite Holiday Candies:

Rosemary Almond Butter Toffee

Peppermint Bliss Bark

Holiday Divinity

Rum Balls

Burnt Molasses Candy (Coal)

Buckeyes

Chocolate-Dipped Fleur de Sel Caramels

Earl Grey Truffles

Snickers Bar Fudge

And one that wasn't posted during Christmas but makes a great gift:

Chocolate-Covered Sea Foam

Sparkling Lemon and Blueberry Terrine

There is no reason not to enjoy a wonderful blueberry dessert in the winter time when there are frozen blueberries to be had. They really are "little blue dynamos." Since we couldn't help ourselves from eating all of our freshly picked blueberries last season, when we saw frozen berries on sale at our local market, we had to buy them. Once we had them in our hot little hands, we knew they were destined for greatness.

The lemon and the blueberry go so well together with their beautiful blend of sweet and tart, bright colors and delightful tanginess. When the holidays are drawing near, we are always looking for something special that will not only taste amazing, but will also look gorgeous on the seasonal tablescape.

Fancy. Sparkling. Different. Pretty. These are the adjectives that inspired us to create this dessert - a "terrine" made with frozen blueberries, Meyer lemon juice, and sparkling lemon seltzer. Refreshingly light as the finale to a filling holiday meal yet just so elegant, this dessert is sure to draw oohs and ahhs from holiday guests.

Sparkling Lemon and Blueberry Terrine

Ingredients:

2 envelopes (1/2 ounce total) unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup Meyer (or regular) lemon juice, divided

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups lemon seltzer

4-5 cups frozen blueberries

Pour 1/4 cup of lemon juice into a medium bowl and sprinkle the gelatin in it. In a small saucepan, heat the remaining 1/4 cup lemon juice and sugar over low heat, just until sugar is dissolved. Stir lemon/sugar mixture into lemon/gelatin mixture, then slowly add the seltzer (it will foam/fizz up). Pour the blueberries into a loaf pan and pour the gelatin mixture over them so they are completely covered. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely set, preferably overnight. To serve, rest the bottom of the pan in a sink of hot water to loosen the terrine, then carefully turn it upside down over a serving platter and slice it. Serve with whipped cream if desired.

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.