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!

Slightly Smoky Ham and Bean Soup

We attended an Oktoberfest celebration thrown by friends C and L, and indulged in some hearty beer, homemade soft pretzels, spiraled ham, grilled brats and other sausages, and fabulous fall desserts (among other things). And then, C and L were generous enough to let us take home the ham bone along with some of the leftover meat. Chris had his eye on that bone all night, so he was delighted, and started trawling the web for soup recipes the very next morning. He finally chose the recipe for "Northwoods Smoked Ham and Bean Soup by Crock-Pot" from ICookbook, an app on his IPad, and as usual, we fiddled with it, adjusted it, and in an effort to avoid errands, did what we could with what we had. 

This recipe has a lot of wonderful qualities. The best part is that this is a slow cooker recipe. That almost all of the work is done for you by that magical little machine, while you are at work, or wherever it is you go during the day. Which is made even more wonderful by the aroma that greets you when you come back from wherever you were. Plus the fact that you are probably tired from wherever you had been, and now dinner is already done. Oh, the fabulousness! 

The ham was sweet, and we wanted a little smoky flavor, so we added a couple of dashes of liquid smoke. We decided against adding pasta, because we felt it was hearty and chunky enough with the beans, and neither of us need the extra carbs right now. It's definitely our kind of soup, similar to, but different enough from our Tuscan Sausage Soup or our White Bean and Leftover-Easter-Ham Soup.

Slightly Smoky Ham and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced

6 cups chicken stock (we ran out at 5 cups, so used 1 cup water)

1 leftover ham bone (from a large spiraled ham, with meat scraps still on it)

2 cups cubed cooked ham

28 ounces diced tomatoes, undrained

1 tablespoon dried parsley

4 sprigs fresh thyme

4 bay leaves

5 dashes liquid smoke 

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 15-ounce can canellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 15-ounce can small white beans, drained and rinsed

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Place onion and garlic mixture, stock, ham bone, ham, tomatoes, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, liquid smoke, salt and pepper in slow cooker. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Stir in beans, and cook for about 15 additional minutes, or until heated through.