Tag Archives: baking

When the Cookie Crumbles (Part II)

It turned out after I posted that round-up of all the things I’d baked since the pandemic began, I went and baked a few more things.

Paul Hollywood’s Wagon Wheels

I figured if the GBBO contestants could do it, why couldn’t I? Turns out there is a learning curve to piping marshmallow, and coating a cookie entirely with chocolate is hard. My fans didn’t care that Paul Hollywood wouldn’t give me a handshake for these.

Wagon wheel cookies

Then Purim was upon me and I had to make hamentaschen. Usually I stick to the Joan Nathan prune filling, because that is my favorite (I always double this recipe), but I got on a brown butter kick so I had to give these Smitten Kitchen brown butter apricot hazelnut hamentaschen a try:

Apricot Hazelnut brown butter hamentaschen

Turns out while these are delicious, prune still holds the top spot in my heart. I have a vegan roll out cookie dough recipe I modified years ago from the back of some packaging:

Prune hamentaschen

I have been looking for thumbprint cookies recipes forEVER and I finally found the perfect one:

Apricot thumbprint cookie
Chocolate thumbprint

After the thumbprints i was ready to dive back into the marshmallow sandwich cookie, this time a malt chocolate and marshmallow:

Malt chocolate and marshmallow sandwiches

At some point I was thinking it would be fun to add cinnamon and a little cayenne for a Mexican hot chocolate twist.

Tea cakes started showing up. I had no control! They just busted in:

Earl Grey tea cake with dark chocolate and orange zest

Earl grey tea cake with dark chocolate and orange zest

Followed by a lemony turmeric tea cake:

Lemony turmeric tea cake

And then I had to make Ottolenghi’s blueberry, almond and lemon cake, but with raspberries and lime:

Raspberry lime almond cake

I took a little detour into savory, with this chili crisp. If Sohla could do it, so could I. I shared it with two friends, who had to go and make their own batches. It’s pretty easy, just takes a bit of time (in my case it took about 3 hours total).

Chili crisp

A friend posted this brownie cookie sandwich with cookie dough buttercream and I HAD to try them:

Brownie cookie sandwich with cookie dough buttercream

Another foray into aquafaba macarons with better results:

Aquafaba macarons

And a red wine chocolate cake, with that buttercream frosting piped on top (and a layer of ganache hiding underneath). Decadent!

Red wine chocolate cake

I am almost fully vaccinated, two-weeks post second vaccine shot, and I have a feeling the next thing I bake will be shared with friends in a gathering. I don’t know what to expect, but whatever happens, it will be sweet.

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The Encookening

Blame the pandemic or blame the Great British Bake Off, but as the pandemic wore on and I found myself at loose ends, I started to bake. And bake. And bake. I may have now baked my bodyweight in butter. I wanted to create a catalog/record in a single place of the things I’ve made and also links to recipes, should you so desire to try one (or many) of the recipes.

I will, however, try to organize a little bit by type of cookie, since I am a taxonomist.

Roll Cookies

Unfussy Sugar Cookies

Unfussy Sugar Cookie

Unfussy Sugar Cookie

I used both a classic Royal icing recipe with egg white as well as a vegan one, with aquafaba (bean water). The red design has egg, the blue does not.

Gingerbread tiles with rum butter glaze

Gingerbread tile with rum butter glaze

If you like a cookie with A LOT of flavor, this cookie IS FOR YOU (and me). Super.

Drop Cookies

Brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies

Brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies

I decided to make my own toffee for this recipe, and you can find the toffee recipe linked further down this page. Keep this in your back pocket for another one that will impress your friends.

Chewy Ginger Rye cookies

Chewy ginger rye cookie

These were a big hit with the fans of molasses ginger cookies.

Tahini, orange and chocolate chip cookies

Orange, tahini, chocolate chip cookies

I asked a while back on Twitter for recommendations of cookies that people bring out to WOW their friends. This was one that showed up and did not disappoint. Very interesting, with a nice light bite that then turns a little gooey.

Freezer Cookies

Korova cookies

Korova Cookie

A rich, chocolately shortbread style cookie, studded with chocolate chunks.

Marbled tahini cookies

Marbled tahini shortbread

I thought these looked really cool but didn’t taste like much. I am planning another go-round with some added flavor.

Pistachio pinwheels

Pistachio pinwheel

a subtle cookie, mostly like a sugar cookie

Salted chocolate chunk shortbread

Salted chocolate chunk shortbread

Alison Roman’s THE COOKIE – this is rich, dense, salty, sweet, crunchy – satisfies me on pretty much every level. I pretty much always have a log (or 3) in the freezer to bake up as I want.

Filled and Sandwich Cookies

Rugelach

Rugelach

I have been baking these for YEARS. A perennial fave. Also great because you can do these in steps, and freeze the dough, logs, and cookies.

Baci di dama

Baci di dama

I am on the hunt for a strong chocolate hazelnut cookie. This had the right ratio of hazelnut to chocolate, but the cookie wasn’t quite the texture I was looking for. It is gluten-free, so that’s a bonus for those of you looking.

Bakery Style Butter Cookies

Butter cookies

This was one of the first recipes I tried. I actually made them a second time because I wanted to see if I could improve on the first batch. Happy to say I did! I used a cookie press rather than pipe the dough and it worked great. The recipe says to make the sandwich and then dip in chocolate and decorate with nuts or sprinkles (as you can see), but I found I liked them better when I just put chocolate and jam inside the sandwich (also displayed above).

Chocolate peanut butter cup cookies

Chocolate peanut butter cup cookie

I just made these and they are THE BOMB. Have also compelled several friends to make them. Just do it, as that ad campaign would say.

Spiced brown butter Linzer cookies

Spiced brown butter Linzer cookies

If you are looking for ONE COOKIE to impress, this is it. A couple of notes: use whatever jam you like. I tried it with currant (as the recipe calls for) and found I liked raspberry better. Also the dough is incredibly crumbly and difficult to work – add water, a tablespoon at a time, until it comes together and you will stop cursing. Additionally this was my first foray into brown butter and now I AM OBSESSED.

Vegan macarons: filled with either vegan ganache or vegan lemon curd!

Macarons

Macarons, what can I say? If you love ’em, you love ’em.

Biscotti

Double-almond biscotti

Double almond biscotti with chocolate drizzle

The recipe does not call for chocolate, but I think everything is better with chocolate. So I drizzled.

Fig and walnut biscotti

Fig and walnut biscotti

These ended up being my favorite. The crunches from the figs are super and the walnut gives it a nice fragrance. I suppose you could try a different nut if you don’t like walnuts.

Chocolate hazelnut biscotti

Chocolate hazelnut biscotti

These were just ok in my book. I did not break a tooth.

Candy

Sea salt vanilla caramels – as you can see, I covered mine with chocolate

Chocolate covered salt caramel

Toffee

I’m sorry I don’t have any good pictures to share of the toffee. It’s not the most photogenic.

Chocolate filled with boozy spiced ganache

I have some candy molds that I just coat with melted chocolate, let the chocolate cool, then fill with a flavored ganache. Ganache recipe as follows:

6 oz chocolate
3 oz coconut milk/cream
2 Tbl Cointreau
Pinch or two of salt
Shake of cayenne

Melt the chocolate in the coconut milk, add the Cointreau and spices to your taste. You can make the chocolate as dark as you like. I often use half 72% and half 100% chocolate.

Chocolate lips

Spicy chocolate skulls

Savory(ish)

Parmesan cream crackers

Parmesan Cream Cracker

She says these are like Cheez-Its and my friends, she does not lie. They are amazeballs. Also I had made some olivada/tapenade and the crackers were otherworldly topped with the olive spread. But you can just pop them in your mouth too.

Croccantini (I think I tried this recipe)

Cream Scones

Cream scone

Just made these as well and they were super. I did end up baking them about 5 minutes longer than the recipe said, but I think I didn’t make the dough thin/flat enough. Also they toast up well. They made my tea taste that much butter.

Tune in next month when I shall have more cookie updates (and possibly a few other treats).

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