Say it With Cookies

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 12

2008-12-25T13:32:00.003-05:00

Pavlova

...nothing chocolatey today -- only green and red for christmas spirit! Thank you again Anna Pavlova for being such a light and fluffy dancer, and also for inspiring such a delicious dessert!

Thanks Kamini for doing all the heavy lifting!

Pavlova

4 egg whites
1 C sugar (get superfine or grind in food processer or blender)
1 t vinegar
1/2 T cornstarch

Beat eggs until medium. Start adding sugar, a bit at a time. Beat until whites are very stiff. Spread meringue in a circle on parchment lined baking sheet, and bake at 250 for 1 hour 15 minutes. Turn oven off, let meringue cool inside.

When ready to serve, top with whipped cream and your fruit or other topping of choice (tangy fruit is good).

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 11

2008-12-25T13:28:00.003-05:00

Peanut Butter Cups

These are irresistible! Take your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe (I used Martha Stewart's and it seemed pretty good.) Then bake them in the mini-cups. When they come out of the oven, pop a Reese's into the center. YumYum!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 10

2008-12-23T11:06:00.003-05:00

Chocolate Cake 'n Cups

This year is all about budgeting -- budgeting for time and energy that is! Today, I tried out another premade cake mix. You can buy it here (among other places).

http://www.thekitchenstore.com/dejacacupkit1.html

I thought it was easy to prepare and a cute idea. Unfortunately, the chocolate flavor was very mild. Some people may like it, but I like my chocolaty-ness to be a bit bolder. For $10 though, you get two chocolate cakes and some cute cappuccino cups that I will be using in the future for drinks with my favorite gadget the handpresso (more on that later!).

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 9

2008-12-21T12:36:00.004-05:00

Chocolate Phantoms

A great cookie using my favorite nut -- the macadamia nut. They are super chocolately and have a distinctive texture (not a lot of flour). They are called phantoms, because they tend to quickly disappear. They seem to live up to their name....

3/4 C macadamia nuts (not salted -- if salted, then rinse under hot tap water and recrisp for 5 min in 350 oven)
3.5 oz dark chocolate
1 T unsalted butter
2 T flour
1/8 t baking powder
1 egg
1/4 C sugar
1/2 t vanilla
2/3 C semisweet chocolate chips

Melt dark chocolate and butter (I use the microwave method, stirring regularly, but you could also use stovetop/double boiler). Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla until well blended. And melted chocolate and blend lightly. Add flour mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts.

Use two teaspoons to drop batter onto cookie pans. Make cookies small, and mound high. These cookies are sticky -- you may need to use wax sheets or silicone. Bake 10 minutes.

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 8

2008-12-20T15:35:00.002-05:00

Chocolate Creme Brulee

Well, not everything can be perfect!

This was my first attempt at making creme brulee (with chocolate of course) and I had a feeling it might be a bit tricky. I have not successfully made the perfect crispy outer shell yet. Above is my best attempt. Below is burning, smelly globs of sugar, that I had to blow out like birthday candles. Apparently you have to be a bit gentle when wielding the torch -- and not just torch the bejesus outta these things.

Here is the link to the recipe I used from Cooking for Engineers. The only addition was several ounces of chocolate heated into the cream.

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/32/Creme-Brulee-Cregraveme-Brucircleacutee

And tips for the perfect creme brulee from the blogosphere?!?

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 7

2008-12-20T15:32:00.004-05:00

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips

girl cousins

snowstorm

Christmas tree

sticky fingers

french lessons and origami

best cookie dough cookies

= perfect afternoon

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 7

2008-12-18T10:45:00.004-05:00

Chocolate Cupcakes

I had actually made these earlier in the year, then taken them to a Christmas party where they disappeared in a flash. So I thought they deserved to me made again.

Cupcakes from a mix at the grocery store are usually not very good. Grocery store icing, in particular, is really fakey tasting. I saw that Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) sold a prepackaged cupcake mix. I thought it would be interesting to try -- in between the grocery mixes and handmade.

The cupcakes come out nice -- they taste homemade. You can buy the mix here http://www.stonewallkitchen.com/prdsell.aspx?Search=cupcakes&L0=ChocolateCupcakeWithChocolateFrosting or at Crate and Barrel.

My only advice is that the box says it makes 12 cupcakes. In my mind, it makes more like 15 or even 18 cupcakes. My cupcakes overflow-ith -- and still I threw some batter away. Also I had left-over icing. So plan on 15 -18. And that is a good thing. Because the batter calls for 1 stick of butter and the icing for 2 sticks of butter. That is 3 sticks of butter for 12 cupcakes. I am not doing any math there! Will. not. do. math. I am shutting my eyes -- and taking a big bite of chocolate cupcake!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 6

2008-12-17T12:54:00.004-05:00

Chocolate Shortbread with White Chocolate Sauce

The appeal of these cookies was getting to make one cookie with two types of chocolate. Plus I get to dip chocolate into chocolate? Nuff said!

I borrowed the recipe from this blog's biggest competitor -- the 12 Days of Cookies from the Food Network. I had to take a closer look at what they're doing over there at that Food Network place. Of course, I realize they may be doing a teensy bit better than me in terms of branding, name recognition, and blog traffic. But are their recipes really up to my high standards?!? :)

In this instance, they done pretty good. Alex Guarnaschelli, whoever that is, is officially invited to my cooking club's cookie exchange. The chocolate/chocolate idea is genius. :) Here is the link to the recipe. As you can see from the photo, I jazzed it up by using cookie cutters instead of the pan. I know; I am very advanced.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alexandra-guarnaschelli/chocolate-shortbread-with-white-chocolate-sauce-recipe2/index.html

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 5

2008-12-16T14:58:00.006-05:00

Chocolate Bundt Cake

This is an old recipe given to me by my grandmother. She likes to randomly go though her desk and stuff and send me things -- twenty year old pictures and clippings, etc. So one day the recipe for this cake appeared. I can tell its old even by the ingredients -- its a dump cake from back in the day when 'ladies' were excited about new products like Betty Crocker, and they made 100 different recipes using cake mix. But I gotta tell ya, it was easy, and it tastes good. So no complaints here!

Here is picture of the recipe, so I don't have to type it out:

In the introduction, it says you may have used your bundt pan to make "gelatin salads and meat loaves." What?!? I have never made either of those with my bundt pan. Eew! Although I don't know the year of this clipping, apparently you could get 10 cent waffles and 89 cent lamb.

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 4

2008-12-15T11:50:00.002-05:00

Today's installation is from Kend/oprah --- its time for My Favorite Things! My favorite chocolate things!

So if people ask what is your favorite taste that goes with chocolate what do you say? What goes great with chocolate. Milk goes with chocolate? Yes for sure -- hello oreos. Oreooos!! (That last holla was from Oprah). Peanut butter goes with chocolate? Indeed! ...Reeses and all the clumsy people who keep running into each other know that for sure. Well, I am going to expand the taste horizons and say my two favorite things that go with chocolate are cayenne pepper and salt.

The hot chocolate featured above has pepper -- its really pretty spicy! Upon first swallow, its like regular hot chocolate, but it leaves with with sort of a tickle/burn in the back of your throat. Its kind of hard to expain, but really nice on a cold winters night. And salt -- these caramels are sprinkled on the outside with chunky sea salt. It just cuts right through the cloying of the sweet caramel inside and makes it oh so delicious.

Both of these items can be purchased at Crate and Barrel if you are interested (if I was really Oprah instead of just Kend/Oprah I could give every reader a chocolate!)

The kitchen stayed clean today, but stay tuned for delicious chocolate bundt cake tomorrow! :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 3

2008-12-14T12:05:00.004-05:00

Reindeer Chow

This is a quick and easy (and of course sweet and chocolately) snack. It is called reindeer chow because kids always leave cookies out for Santa (who looks like he could stand to pass on a few), yet what about the reindeer? The have a long night, with lots of hauling gifts and flying about and whatnot -- shouldn't they get a snack too?? So this is it.

3 C Crispix
1/2 C peanut butter (reindeer prefer the natural kind)
6 oz. Nestle semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 box confectioners sugar

1. Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring periodically.
2. Add peanut butter to chocolate and mix well.
3. In a large bowl with a snap on lid, add chocolate mixture to top of cereal and mix well.
4. Add sugar and snap on lid. Shake vigorously.

(if you don't have a bowl to suit you could try a large ziplock bag)

Thanks, reindeer.

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 2

2008-12-13T11:08:00.005-05:00

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yes, it strains the new parameters of Twelve Days of Cookies -- er, or should I say or Twelve Days of Chocolate -- to add red velvet cupcakes on Day 2. Red velvet cupcakes are not what you would call super-chocolatey. But did you know that they have cocoa powder in them? So the essence of the cocoa bean is there.

As an aside, I went to the source and ate a raw, plain cocoa bean the other day. Here it is: (its not bad actually)

Here is the recipe for red velvet cupcakes, modified from the "Cakeman"'s recipe in Brooklyn (I saw him Throwdown with Bobby Flay for the best red velvet cake.) The recipe is modified to make 12 cupcakes, plus I reduced the oil a bit, and reduced the red coloring a bit so there wouldn't be bitterness. Top them with crumbled pecans for Southern authenticity!

Sift:
1 1/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 t cocoa powder

Set aside.

Mix:
1/2 C buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 t vinegar
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 t red food coloring
1/2 t vanilla extract

Add wet to dry and combine. (Don't overmix like I did.)

Fill cupcake tins and bake at 350 for approx 18-20 minutes (check at 15 minutes).

Frosting:
1 C powdered sugar
1/4 lb cream cheese
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 t vanilla

Mix butter and cream cheese. Slowly add sugar and vanilla. Frost cooled cupcakes (don't be shy) and enjoy!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 1

2008-12-12T21:42:00.003-05:00

Chocolate Mousse

I think this year I would like to expand my repertory from cookies a little bit. To be honest, I've been craving all things chocolate. Blame a fortuitous ticket to the Chocolate Show in November.

My first sweet outing this year was a chocolate peppermint mousse. I don't really eat mousse a lot, and I have never made one myself. I had to do two batches -- the first batch came out weird -- too flat. Blame it on either egg whites from a carton or the recipe. Next time I changed both. Here is the recipe I ended up with (from Cook's Illustrated).

3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 T unsalted butter
1/2 t vanilla
2 t Grand Marnier
1/2 t peppermint extract
2 fresh organic eggs, separated
1 T sugar
1/4 C heavy cream
candy canes

1. Melt chocolate, using either microwave or stovetop. Whisk butter into chocolate, 1 T at a time. Stir in pinch salt, vanilla, Grand Marnier and peppermint. Whisk in yolks, one at a time, blending thoroughly each time.

2. Beat room temperature egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar. Beat until medium peaks form. Add 1/4 of whites to chocolate to lighten, then gently fold in remaining whites.

3. Whip cream to soft peaks. Gently fold cream into the mousse. Spoon into 4 individual ramekins. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or more. Serve topped with crumbled candy cane. Eat within 24 hours.

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 12

2007-12-26T12:39:00.000-05:00

Yay! The final day! So where are the cookies, you may ask?? Well, I may have to pull out the "pregnancy card" for the last batch of cookies. My family knows exactly what the pregnancy card is, because I have been using it all week -- its one of the (few) benefits. Gregg and I are set to fly home today, so it looks like no cookies will be baked today. I may get some energy and bake some when I get home tomorrow. We shall see!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 11

2007-12-26T12:16:00.001-05:00

Two Egg Break-In Pie

aka

Chocolate Espresso Pecan Pie

Ok, so clearly this whole cookie blog has gone downhill, since I am now blogging about baking a pie instead of cookies. Also, we are still working out the kinks in Mom's new computer so I don't know if I will get a picture up.

I guess I will blame it on the movie The Waitress (not a good movie, but one cute part is that she creates funny names for all the different pies she is making). I call this Two Egg Break-In Pie because midway through baking I realized we had eaten almost all the eggs for breakfast that morning, and we needed two more. It was Christmas day, so everything in Columbia was closed. We decided to in all likelihood violate the unwritten "key to neighbor" code, and zip over to CheChe and Charlies and take some of their eggs; they were having Christmas day dinner out with CheChe's family. But of course, as we are trying to work the key in the lock, they come to the door to see who is trying to break in. They are back home already, and we are so busted!

PS -- The secret of the lemon squares is that the picture is actually a picture of a picture in a book. Could you tell?!? We ran off with the lemon squares so quickly after baking that I didn't have time to get an actual picture, so I had to make do!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 10

2007-12-25T15:47:00.000-05:00

Lemon Squares

Lemon squares are always a good cookie to bring to a party -- and this Christmas Eve we had the annual gumbo gathering at CheChe and Charlie's, so I brought them. They were from Rose's cookie book again -- the taste was good but the ratio of shortbread to lemon curd was off. We needed more lemon curd and less shortbread. I think next time I am going to try Cooks Illustrated's version. There is another secret about these lemon squares, but I'm not telling what it is until tomorrow... !! :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 9

2007-12-23T15:34:00.000-05:00

Bourbon Balls

I have to admit that I choose these cookies because they were a "no bake" cookie. Simply crush and combine the various ingredients, then roll them into a gooey ball, then dip in powdered sugar. Maybe I also choose these because they contain alcohol -- off limits for me but a bit in cookies and I don't feel guilty. We had some top of the line bourbon available for the holidays -- Basil something -- so I used that. The other main ingredients were pecans, cocoa powder, vanilla wafers, nutmeg, cinnamon and powdered sugar. Make the balls really small because they are rich! (But guess what? NO butter!!)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 8

2007-12-22T17:57:00.000-05:00

Peanut Butter Cups

These cookies are an old favorite. I had to give up hope on the "stained glass" cookies I was planning, due to the fact that I was clearly overextending myself. (To make those, I would have had to painstakingly cut individual shapes out of sugar cookies with an exacto knife...maybe next year :)) These dietetic cookies came out great as usual. I had my sous chef Gran help me with the unwrapping and pressing in of the Reeses candy. The cookies are destined to be part of a great buffet dinner for 15 family and friends tonight. Since I will be sober once again for another holiday gathering -- wish me luck!!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 7

2007-12-21T09:54:00.000-05:00

Neiman Marcus Peppermint Bark Chocolate Chip Cookies

The making of these cookies was delayed by the search to find the peppermint bark, then interrupted by an emergency trip to Charlotte to pick up stranded brother number two, but they were finally done right before we all left for dinner. Of course we all ate them as a pre-dinner appetizer! The recipe is apparently a famous chocolate chip cookie fom Neiman Marcus turned into a holiday cookies with the addition of peppermint bark. You can find the recipe here. The crowd here may not be the most difficult to please, but everyone chowed down on these cookies!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 6

2007-12-20T12:12:00.000-05:00

Savory Cheese Dollars

I made these with my mom while we were waiting for Dad to come back from the airport with Devin and his fiancee. They were so easy and so good! Possibly the easiest cookies I have ever made, with only three ingredients -- cheese, butter, and flour (then add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper etc. to taste). They were warm out of the oven by the time everyone arrived. The other fun thing about these cookies is that we tried out Mom's new convection oven for the first time. It is definitely an oven that comes with an instruction manual -- there are lots of digital buttons and beeping and flashing but we still managed to cook the cookies to perfection. :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 5

2007-12-18T14:44:00.000-05:00

Decorated Holiday Cookies

I was way into these cookies last year, and I planned for them to be my only "repeat" because I liked them so much. This year, not so much. I don't know why -- they just seemed so ...tedious. Maybe because I am carrying around a soccer ball in my stomach and I just wanted to sit down rather than stand in the kitchen. :) Whatever it was, it showed up in the results. Last years were much prettier (I don't know how to link to just Day 5, so just scroll down to see Day 5's pictures.)

But I brought them, along with the melty moments and the blondies to our monthly cooking club gathering last night. The cooking club rocked the kitchen, as always. We are a cool club, if I do say so myself. I would highly recommend starting or joining a cooking club to anyone out there who is interested -- its a lot of fun! Moving away from the cookies for a moment, here are some pics from lasts nights get-together.

(Risotto with peas topped with pea pesto)

(Goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 4

2007-12-18T14:33:00.000-05:00

Blondies

What makes a cookie a cookie? Blondies are described in Cooks Illustrated's "The New Best Recipe Book" as being a cross between a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie. Thats a pretty apt description -- so I think I will call them a cookie even though they are in a bar shape. These blondies are soft and carmelly tasting. Buried inside are semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and pecans. I had planned to holiday-ify them and add cranberries, but due to the Nor'easter that swept through NYC this weekend, my motivation to hit the grocery store waned and I made do with what was already in my pantry. Still yummy!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 3

2007-12-16T14:56:00.001-05:00

Melty Moments

This recipe comes from the book Rose's Christmas Cookies, which I got it last year during the holiday season. These cookies are really good. The actually do, as the name implies, seem to melt in your mouth. They did not have an auspicious beginning though. These were the only cookies I have ever made where I did not lick the dough off the beaters. The dough did not taste good at all -- maybe because of the high content of corn starch?? (By the way, what is corn starch? I really don't have a clue.) Anyway, being completely turned off by the dough I thought the cookies were going to be big losers -- but so far they are my favorite this year. The recipe calls for them dipped in chocolate, but I couldn't even do it. Thats how good they are -- I'm even afraid chocolate might ruin them!! As if!!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 2

2007-12-14T15:23:00.000-05:00

Key Lime Coolers

Today I went to "the old lady of baking" for a recipe -- that would be Betty as in Crocker. I wanted to try Key Lime Coolers. People usually buy these southern Christmas time cookies, and I think the #1 seller is the Byrd Cookie Company. You can see their version here. I made Betty's home version -- its here. I was intrigued to bake something with "the refreshing and cool taste of citrus cookies." Yum. Plus its rating was 4 out of 5 spoons.

These are pretty good! I do like tart and tangy cookies. I had to do some math, because I quartered the recipe. I can't overload myself so early in the 12 Days! 1/4 recipe made about 1.5 dozen cookies. Just about right to get me through to tomorrow!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 1

2007-12-13T10:44:00.000-05:00

Lacey Susans

Welcome back everyone! I decided I am doing the 12 days of cookies project again this year, and who knows, maybe every year -- cuz it is really fun!! It may be just an excuse to eat loads of butter, and of course this year I can say that I need to eat loads of butter for two! :) Double the fun!

Speaking of butter, my first cookie is loaded with it. Its a lacey susan, and I think you can see from the pic how it got its name. Its a yummy, easy cookie. To me, its basically a chocolate chip cookie with less flour and more butter. That ratio makes it nice and thin and crispy and brown and buttery. The other thing I like about this cookie is that it is deceptively large. That is, one whole cookie is actually a very small amount of dough. I used a small one teaspoon size dollop per cookie and they really flatten out and become pretty large. So, I can have, like, three, and it is really comparable to just one regular chocolate chip cookie. Or so I tell myself. :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 12!!

2006-12-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

For the piece de resistance of the twelve days of cookies project, I attempted a recipe for chocolate cookies that was famously made every year by my grandma Neena. She would make them in great quantites and send them to everyone. Let's just say I had very big shoes to fill --these cookies are known, so the pressure was on. I was doubting the cookies were turning out at every step. I kept thinking in my head, "OK, its a do-over. I knew I would have at least one..." But I forged ahead. The doubters and nay-sayers in my family were telling me the cookies were too light in color -- Neenas were much darker and more chocolately. But don't judge a cookie before its frosted! The frosting made the cookies much richer, and suddenly I had achieved the ultimate -- historical cookie accuracy. The greatest compliment I got was "Hey Kendra, these taste just like Neena's!"

Thanks for reading, everyone. Its been a fun and fattening December! Stay tuned for more meaningless forays into cooking and baking minutia. xxoo Merry Cristmas! Kendra

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 11

2006-12-23T13:58:00.000-05:00

I saw these "salty oat" oatmeal cookies featured on this episode of Food Network's Recipe for Success, and I vowed to try to replicate them at home. The are oatmeal cookies that are sprinkled with kosher or sea salt after being dropping by tablespoons onto the cookie sheet. I was intrigued by the idea of having a salty finish to my sweet cookies -- that combination of salty and sweet is really appealing to me.

These cookies were a huge success. They are very munchable and the salt at the end makes the taste more interesting to the palate. I also like them because they have oatmeal in them, which means one side of my brain can successfully convince the other side of my brain that they are in some way good for me. In fact, I am having a "healthy snack" even as I type this! :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 10

2006-12-22T11:22:00.000-05:00

I saw this biscotti being made by Giada on the Food Network (I've seen so many of her shows I feel that we are on a first name basis). I have been wanting to make biscotti for a long time, and this was the perfect holiday recipe, because it has dried cranberries and pistachios in it, not only for wonderful flavor but for Christmas colors.

This is almost my favorite cookie so far -- and no chocolate!?! Actually, the great thing about biscotti is that it easily lends itself to being dipped in chocolate. Unfortunately for me, I somehow have not mastered the skill of melting chocolate to the right consistency for dipping, so this biscotti had to go without. Wait, you say -- don't you just nuke the chocolate or melt over a double boiler and dip away? It seems like the answer would be yes, yet somehow I have failed. I tried to make a white chocolate dip for this biscotti, but it came out globby and chunky rather than smooth and shiny. Maybe there is a melting secret, but until I figure it out, these biscotti are doing just fine on their own.

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 9

2006-12-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

Today I decided to make the wonderful toffee that I had overindulged on at the latest cooking club meeting, using this recipe that had been handed down in my friend Maggie's family. The ingredients and instructions are quite simple. But to me, making toffee felt more like a chemistry experiment than baking cookies. Per Maggie's recipe, I was supposed to stir the butter and sugar until the goo (which is an apt description by the way) is the color of brown sugar -- um, light or dark brown sugar I wasn't sure, nevertheless, I put the (light) brown sugar by the pot to compare colors. Here is the changing of the colors:

Right after I take the second picture, my dad hears me sprinting up the stairs, and hearing the alarm in my footsteps wants to know if there was a crisis. "Yes -- Separation!!" I yelled! At the same time the color became the perfect brown sugar caramel color, so that I was ready to pour and spead the goo -- I had separation!! I ran to the computer to re-read what Maggie had written about her own issues with separation.

Ultimately, I think what went wrong is that butter and sugar behave differently here in South Carolina because I am so much closer to the equator. Its the only logical explanation I can think of.

Minutes later, the goo had re-formed, and was ready to be poured. Only now it was a much darker color than light brown sugar. My toffee turned out not as fabulous as Maggie's -- its darker, harder, and with a different consistency -- but it still tastes good! I guess with butter, sugar, and chocolate it is hard (for even me) to ruin something entirely. :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 8

2006-12-20T09:21:00.000-05:00

The first cookies I made when I got to my parents house were chocolate walnut tassies, the recipe which came from Woman's Day magazine. As I was making this two-part cookie, I had a bad feeling that they were not going to come out. As I was molding the pastry, I started to think of different excuses to explain why they were so bad....the best I could come up with was that 'flour and sugar behave differently because I am so much closer to the equator.' Fortunately, it turned out I didn't need to use that oh-so-believeable reason, because actually the tassies were quite tasty.

Because I am home, there was an urgency to get the pictures taken immediately out of the oven. You see, my dad is lurking about, ready to pounce. In fact, several of the cookies did not make it to stage three, where a top layer of chocolate is poured over the cookie. Instead, dad got out the Hersey's chocolate syrup, and poured that over the cookie. Demolishment commenced. Due to my quick trigger finger, however, I was able to squeak out a few photos of the cookies first. It is good to have your cookies loved!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 7

2006-12-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

At some point during this project, I just had to make gingerbread men, the cookies of the season. These cookies, if I do say so myself, look maaaavalous. They taste pretty good too. Not too sweet, with a nice touch of ginger. Did you know that gingerbread men are made with ginger, that root vegetable that is used a lot in asian cooking? HA! I guess most people are like, umm yes, I did! But I never really stopped to think about where the ginger word and flavor came from. It was weird to scrape bits of ginger root into the dough -- but it works!

I made gingerbread men and snowflakes and decorated them with icing and silver dragees, then put the dragees away in my baking cabinet. Next time I opened the cabinet, all these little silver dragees came raining down on my head and scattered EVERYWHERE. Acckk! I guess the plastic container had opened up in the cabinet....

And hey, the next time I make these I am going to make gingerbread women, because how come gingerbread men get all the glory?!? :)

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 6

2006-12-15T08:51:00.000-05:00

I was drawn to these cookies because of their name -- Snowflakes. They sounded like they would be festive little bites, plus the recipe from epicurious.com called for a bit of chocolate in the middle, which a makes anything taste better. Once I started making the cookies though, I realized this cookie had a terrible little secret. NO butter. That right, folks. A complete ixsnay on the utterbay.

Although I was disappointed that I wasn't going to get my butter fix for the night, I decided to soldier on. To redeem itself, this cookie was ridiculously easy to make. I believe the coconut gives it some fat, so that it cannot be billed as a fat free cookie. I don't want to go check that out though. I will just continue to believe I am eating a butter-free cookie that tastes good. And Pebbles the cat seems to agree!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 5

2006-12-12T09:10:00.000-05:00

Today, in preparation for our holiday cookie exchange for the cooking club, I made decorated holiday cookies, with the recipe from my cooking bible, Cook's Illustrated The New Best Recipe cookbook. These cookies are so simple to make -- only 5 ingredients, and you only use a single bowl, so cleanup is a cinch. Well, until the rolling out, cutting, and decorating that is. Then things get a little trickier and a little messier.

I took the first picture before the cookies were fully decorated in case I goofed them up later. The trees came out ok, but the ornaments looked a little shabbier. I may have been trying to complicate things, but I was using two different types of icing --a royal icing and a glace. The royal icing is for outling and piping and I love the glace for filling in the cookie -- it hardens into a beautiful shiney coating. And I like the taste better. But with only three colors (red, green, and white), that meant I was actually pulling from 6 different bowls of icing.

So do you want to know what the 5 ingredients are? Here's a hint: the cookie uses no eggs, and no baking powder. Yes, butter and sugar! But what else??

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 4

2006-12-11T10:03:00.000-05:00

For today's cookies, I went straight past double chocolate and directly to triple chocolate. Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies from the great food blog 101cookbooks.com to be exact. These cookies are an adult cookies, and not for the faint of heart! The funniest thing about making these cookies is that I went to two grocery stores and neither one carried chocolate covered espresso beans (a food crime, for sure). I thought to myself, Kendra you are cookie wiz by now -- you have both chocolate and espresso beans at home, so why don't you make your own "from scratch" and really go martha stewart on this recipe?!

The results are here:

They don't look quite like what you would see at Trader Joes. I ended up deciding to toss the whole lot because they wouldn't separate and were not very appetizing. Instead, I increased the amount of chocolate chips called for, and I added plain espresso beans to the recipe. They came out pretty good, and they give you a nice chocolatey espresso kick in the pants!

...So does anyone know the secret to making attractive chocolate covered espresso beans?!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 3

2006-12-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

Today I made Swedish Christmas cookies. I am part Swedish, I am told, so this was delving into my culinary ancestry. However, the recipe came from the very american Food Network, although I'm sure you can find it all over. These cookies taste pretty good. Very foreign, though. Definitely euro cookies. The special foreign ingredient is cardamom. I had to go to the grocery store for cardamom, because I didn't have it in my spice repertory yet. I'm way into cardamom now, and I want to make more dishes with it. It can be used in both sweet and savory foods. Cardamom is like, soooo the new nutmeg! :)

Also, I had fun forming and shaping the (not so) perfect log. I also liked rolling the log in the sugar because it was nice and messy. The tinkling sound of little bits of red sugar hitting the floor filled the apartment, and I am sure I will find them for weeks to come. Very festive!

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 2

2006-12-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

After the pignoli cookies, I was hankering for something with chocolate. So I picked something with a LOT of chocolate! Basically the cookie serves as a bed of rich chocoate dusted in powdered sugar in which to delicately cushion a chocolate Hershey's kiss. These were soooo delicious. Especially warm out of the oven -- not hot, but when the Hershey's kiss has just started to firm up again. You see, you bake the cookie, and then when they come out of the oven, you press a kiss into each one one. It gets all shiney and melty and I have a feeling you shouldn't jostle them at this point. But right after that is the perfect time to eat. And if you didn't quite time it to perfection of the first one, why, try try again! That was MY motto!

If I were to make these again, I would be sure to make the cookies pretty small in size. The cookie to candy ratio should be even smaller that you think. Also, the recipe (from Womans Day magazine) called for the cookies to be rolled in powdered sugar before baking. I would bake the cookies first, then dust them with a sieve of powdered sugar, then add the kiss. I bet they would come out even prettier. The recipe called for caramel-filled chocolate kisses. That sounds delicious, but I used peanut butter filled kisses, because that it what I had around as a gift from my mother-in-law. That bit of peanut butter with the chocolate was, as we all know, two great tastes that taste great together.

Twelve Days of Cookies, Day 1

2006-12-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

I decided to start with a pignoli cookie -- that's a pine nut cookie for us Americanos!! My former boss made a mean pine nut cookie, but I couldn't find the recipe so I was forced to troll online. My recipe came from a site called www.odense.com. I guess they are the makers of a certain type of almond paste. Well, this cookie sure uses a good deal of almond paste! In fact, my main complaint about the cookie is that the taste and the texture (sans the pine nuts) seemed almost like eating almond paste straight from the tube. Not that I would ever DO that. Im just saying hypothetically that is. It used a minimum of flour -- truly a minimum, it was 1.5 tablespoons in my recipe (that I halved). Good for the gluten sensitve I guess. Its good to make them very small, because they are dense and sweet. The pine nut is a great foil to the dense sweetness. Luckily, one of Gregg's biker friends came over later that evening and only a few cookies survived the onslaught. So at least they were appreciated!