Tag: cookies

Biscotti & Broken Glass

With a few weeks off for the holiday season, the upcoming new year, it is time to get things done that have been put off for a woefully long time.  One of them is cleaning the refrigerator very thoroughly, washing, rinsing, and sanitizing surfaces and nooks and crannies in all its dark recesses.  And dropping a glass shelf, which shattered all over the place.  Hence, the first part of the title for this post.  Cleaned up, we move on to the best part – the biscotti!

Rum-Soaked Dried Fruit & Candied Peel

Holidays are about baking and cooking and eating and celebrating with friends and family and those you love, near and far.  This year, Christmas day will be spent with family elsewhere, so the baking has begun.  For a small contribution, we are bring praline bourbon cake to go with the annual gumbo, along with some biscotti, the recipe for which I found here at Foolproof Living, a cooking blog with a creative approach and lovely photography.

Adding the Fruit, Coconut, and Pecans to the Batter

The recipe is easy enough.  I used leftover candied peel from King Arthur, and chopped up dried peaches, cranberries, and cherries, all finely diced.  The coconut was slightly sweetened and I used pecans instead of walnuts or macadamias.  I also used up a very generous amount of rum.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum!

Follow the recipe – it comes out quite nice.  The batter may seem a bit dry, but when you add the macerated dried fruit, it moistens up quite a bit.  Also, patting out the dough onto the parchment is really necessary as the dough is sticky.  I found putting some water on my hands helped a bit.  Also, our knives are very sharp, so I used a straight-bladed knife (my husband tests the sharpness of our knives by shaving a spot on his arm or cutting paper with the just-sharpened knife) to cut the biscotti.

Biscotti Ready to Bake

Check out Foolproof Living – it has become one of my favorite blogs just because it has such a wonderful variety of recipes and interesting posts.

Biscotti Ready to Eat

Happy Holidays!

Shortbread with a Story

Shortbread Cookies

Driving home from work the other night, NPR was on the car radio. The story? A Tale of Two Shortbreads.  Take the time to listen to the story – it is so much better than reading it!  And then make some for yourself – it really is a great shortbread recipe.  So, thanks to the Brass sisters for this!

The Brass Sisters’ Favorite Holiday Shortbread

Makes 32 1-inch by 2-inch pieces

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon orange extract or 1/2 teaspoon orange oil

Set oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the bottom and sides of a 9-inch by 9-inch by 2-inch pan with foil. Grease the foil with butter or coat with vegetable spray.

Add flour and salt to a mixing bowl, whisk to combine, and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add orange zest. Add orange extract or orange oil and combine. Add dry ingredients, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until completely absorbed and dough comes together. Do not overbeat or shortbread will be tough.

Gently pat dough into prepared pan. (Press down the edges with tines of fork.) Prick top of dough evenly about 20 to 25 times.

Bake shortbread 35 minutes. Cool on rack for about 20-25 minutes, or until slightly warm. Score shortbread with a knife into 1-inch by 2-inch pieces, but do not cut through entirely. When completely cool, cut into pieces along scored lines. The texture should be sandy and crumbly. Store orange shortbread in a covered tin between sheets of wax paper, at room temperature.

Shortbread will firm up as it cools. Placing shortbread in the refrigerator will help it firm up. If the shortbread is pale, continue baking another 5 minutes, watching carefully to be sure it is not browning too quickly.

Well, mine were done a bit differently.  I’ve got a cold, and my stuffed up nose seems to be limiting the oxygen my old brain is getting.  I dumped all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and went to town until all was crumbly, but I only used the grated orange rind, and added a teaspoon of mace.  I lined a 9×9 pan with parchment paper.  Everything got patted nicely into the pan and put into the oven.  Oxygen deprivation stepped in again, and the shortbread wasn’t pricked, which is usually recommended to keep the cookies from bowing in the baking pan.  Still, they came out okay, without any bowing.  And the results are still delicious and wonderfully crumbly – but best of all, not overly sweet.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Where I live, people give me lemons.  Lots of them.  I use them in cooking, in my drinking water, and wherever else they might be needed!  Right now I have about 40 sitting around, so yesterday I put them to work.  Here is the result . . .

Lemon Shortbread Cookies
2 1/4 c. white flour
1/4 c. cornstarch
pinch of salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 T. finely grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 300 F for a glass pan and / or a convection oven, or 325 F for a metal pan, not using convection. Place rack for cookies in lower third of oven.

Pan size: 8×12 pan, or use a 9×13 pan, and don’t spread the dough all the way to the edge of the 9×13 pan’s short side.

Whisk together cornstarch and flour in a bowl. Set aside. In another bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the flour-cornstarch mixture and beat in until crumbly. Knead by hand to mix the dough until it is smooth and pliable in the bowl, about two minutes.

Using the butter wrappers, or other fat, lightly grease cookie pan. Pat (I mash!) the cookie dough into the pan. Prick the cookie dough with a fork. If you are feeling creative, you can also use a cookie sheet and parchment paper, and shape the dough into circles. You can also use pie pans for circular cookies. Just be sure, no matter what you use to bake your cookies in, to prick the dough with a fork in several places.

Bake the cookies for 30 minutes, more or less, depending on the size of pan used, and thickness of cookies.

Note
In my opinion, this is the best shortbread cookie recipe, and can be used as the basis for any shortbread you might desire. I’ve added chopped candied ginger, and espresso powder and chocolate chips, just to give you a few ideas. The cookies are light and tender, but very rich. Perfect with ice cream or coffee. We like them for breakfast, too, but shhhh! Don’t tell!