Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Valentine's Cookies

As promised, here are some pictures of the cookies I made this week. Rolled sugar cookies (using this recipe) with vanilla glaze, royal icing motifs, and piped buttercream. I had so much fun making these! I need to do this more. Enough blather - I'll let the pictures do the talking.



Have a great weekend, everyone!

P.S. To see more of my cookie photos, click here.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Last Christmas

Last Christmas post, that is. Not the cheesy synth-song that's been covered by every pop star for the past twenty years. Yes, I know we're well in to the new year, but I couldn't post about these biscotti until the last of them reached their final destination. You see, I made several batches of these to give as Christmas gifts to Dan's co-workers and a few friends who had done us enormous favors this year. We also sent an almond-anise batch (not pictured) to Dan's parents for Armenian Little Christmas (Epiphany).


I don't know why I started making biscotti - I think it was because they charge so much for them in coffee shops and gourmet stores, but they just didn't seem that difficult to make. And - surprise! - they aren't. They are simple cookies, and yes, they are twice-baked, but it's one extra step and not so bad. I made my first batch of biscotti a few years ago and was instantly hooked. Now baking biscotti is a part of my annual Christmas preparations.

I dipped the chocolate-peppermint biscotti in white chocolate and crushed Starlight mints. The other kind is orange-almond, dipped in dark chocolate. Both were delicious, although very, very rich. We left some plain for ourselves. I almost like the plain ones better, since you can get away with having one at breakfast, but it's nice to go decadent for gifts.


Biscotti for Dan's co-workers, Mike and Michael (aka "The Mikes"), went in brown paper bags that I decorated with a silver Sharpie. I also doctored up some plain address label stickers to indicate what lay within. I had fun coming up with different design motifs. I don't doodle enough anymore.


The ones for friends were wrapped in parchment paper, tied with twine, and decked with hand-drawn labels. The labels would not stick to the parchment paper, so I had to bust out my trusty dollar-store glue gun to attach them.

When I first started baking biscotti, I must have tried eighteen or twenty different recipes. This one was by far the best. I use this as a jumping-off point for all biscotti, changing the flavorings as necessary. One other change: instead of brandy, I've always used Captain Morgan spiced rum. It just happened to be what I had on hand the first time I tried this recipe, and it's so perfect I can't imagine using anything else. Although if you really want to taste something amazing, try a little of the raw biscotti dough. Cookie dough + liquor = so divine it must be sinful!

I leave you with one last glamor shot and an exhoration to give these a try. Once you do, you'll scoff at ever paying $3.00 for a coffee-shop compressed-sawdust version again.





Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Family Tradition: Grammy's Cookies

In my family, on Christmas Eve, desserts take center stage. Yes, the ham and the macaroni and cheese are important -- God forbid anyone try to change that menu -- but that spread pales in comparison to a dessert table so weighted down with homemade cookies and candy that it is shocking the table still stands. My mother and grandmother would spend the month of December crafting peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge, needhams (aka potato candy), penuche, peanut butter cups, and out-of-this-world candies. The cookies might vary a bit from year to year but the old standbys are peanut butter blossoms, spritz, and sugar cookies.


Oh, the sugar cookies! For years, my grandmother would spend days rolling and cutting Christmas trees, stars, stockings, candy canes, reindeer, elephants (my grandmother collects elephant figurines), and Santas. Another day would be devoted to glazing the cookies and, once the glaze dried to a shiny finish, piping on the final details. The cookies are highly coded, the decorations painstakingly proscribed; the specific design patterns are as much a tradition as the Christmas Eve gathering itself.

Growing up, just about every year, I would help my grandmother decorate the cookies. It was from her that I learned how to make a vanilla glaze, how to make buttercream frosting, how to use gel colors and how to pipe intricate designs. This year, for the first time, instead of aiding Grammy, I got to take responsibility for the whole process. I had a lot of fun making these cookies, and I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures. Click here to see more.