12 Days Of Cookies A Gourmet Cookie Extravaganza…Old Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies

On the 10th day of Cookies Glamah baked for me Old-Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies! We are winding down on the cookies posts. Would you believe Certain Someone, who is sick of cookies,actually asked me if we had any tonight? He wanted me to box up some for a business trip.If he only knew you just cant whip up a lot of cookies on short notice like that. Fortunately for him I made the dough for this Old Fashioned Christmas Cookies the night before. It was intriguing because on the Gourmet web site, they showed a video of the test kitchen editor who explained how the dough was made with sieved hard boiled egg yolks, and raw ones, was one of her favorites.Gourmet published this recipe in December 1947. I have heard vaguely of cookies made with cooked egg yolks. It supposedly yields a flaky cookies. they also have along self life in airtight tins, so these are perfect for gift giving. If you are looking for a fun roll out, cookie cutter project for the kids, this is your recipe too.I halved the recipe and got close to 40 cookies. I loved the technique of brushing the dough with beaten egg white and then sprinkling with sugar. The recipe also called for adding chopped walnuts or almonds. I used leftover hazelnut meal instead.Some I just used colored sugar toppings.The result is nice shimmery gloss. Go to town with these cookies shaping and decorating. I think I have found my go to roll out sugar cookies dough.

Be sure to visit my other baking friends and see what they chose to bake for the holidays from Gourmet.com.
Jerry – http://www.cookingbytheseatofmypants.com/
Judy – http://www.nofearentertaining.blogspot.com/
Sandy – http://www.bakersbench.blogspot.com/
Kelly – http://sassandveracity.typepad.com/
Claire – http://www.thebarefootkitchen.com/
Andrea – http://www.andreasrecipes.com/

12 Days Of Cookies A Gourmet Cookie Extravaganza…Rugelach

On the 9th of Holiday Cookies Glamah made for me Rugelach! Can I just say I adore this classic Jewish cookie. I made it once years ago from a recipe in The Book Of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. The cream cheese dough is easy to fall in love with.I also made a non traditional version with some chocolate thrown in with the preserves and nuts back then. Rugelach are essentially a cream cheese based cookie dough rolled up with apricot or raspberry jam,walnuts, and raisins. The recipe from Gourmet actually is a heirloom recipe from an food editor and was published in May 2004. It differs because the Rugelach is rolled, scored, and baked as a whole log, rather than sliced before baking. You slice the cookie afterwards. It makes a moister cookie and not as crispy as other I have had. I took baking artistic license. Now traditionalists will get up in arms, but its my cookie. I used the traditional recipe of Apricot preserves, raisins, walnuts, etc. I also made a raspberry, chocolate, walnut version, and played around with rose preserves and chocolate!Be careful with the thin rose preserves as they flow out of the seams when baking.It was almost a disaster but the result was a nice twist from traditional holiday flavors which can get cloying after a while. My intent was to create a pretty tray for a party later that evening. It amazes me what a favorite Rugelach is to all cultures! This cookie went over very well. Even Certain Someone who was unfamiliar with the cookie before, said mine was better than one he tried the next day at work( which was purchased). Go figure!

Be sure to visit my other baking friends and see what they chose to bake for the holidays from Gourmet.com.

12 Days Of Cookies A Gourmet Cookie Extravaganza…Maida Heatters Chocolate Cookies With Gin Soaked Raisins

On the 8th Day of Christmas Cookies Glamah baked for me Maida Heatter’s Chocolate Cookies with Gin-Soaked Raisins.If you have been keeping up with my posts until now you see I name every cookie at the point like I’m singing the 12 days of Christmas. But with this long title and the hour I’m typing this ,I will pass. Now we don’t keep Gin in the house. But we did buy some when in the Bahamas to take advantage of the great duty free price and make our new favorite cocktail. I was intrigued by this recipe because it called for Gin soaked raisins. I can see soaking raisins in Rum , or even Whisky, but Gin! I even googled Gin soaked golden raisins and found out they are a legendary home cure for arthritis! Maida , who is one of the leading cookie experts in the world, knew what she was doing. This recipe was published in December 2000 and is described as crunchy on the outside with a rich gooey center. It’s is a most unusual recipe asking for you to butter and flour your baking sheets, soak your raisins for at least 8 hours, uses only egg whites, and doesn’t have any fat in the dough.I didn’t have the pecans Maida called for, so I used walnuts in the same way, toasted and chopped and they worked wonderfully. I also used the only Cocoa I had which was Hershey’s Special Dark. I was scared with this dough as it was a sticky, drying mass that you had to work quickly with. Imagine mixing dry ingredients with just a few egg whites ands nuts and raisins. The cookies baked up wonderfully and imparted a heavenly chocolate smell. They are easy to remove from the pan. Once cooled the result was a pleasant surprise. I haven’t had a cookie like this before. You don’t taste the gin at all, but they warn the effect may kick in. Might I say this cookie went over very well as well on my holiday cookie trays. So keep this cookie away from the kiddies. What we have here is a legal cookie with gin soaked substance.
* Note vanilla is not listed as an ingredient, but the instructions call for it.

Be sure to visit my other baking friends and see what they chose to bake for the holidays from Gourmet.com.
Jerry – http://www.cookingbytheseatofmypants.com/
Judy – http://www.nofearentertaining.blogspot.com/
Sandy – http://www.bakersbench.blogspot.com/
Kelly – http://sassandveracity.typepad.com/
Claire –
http://www.thebarefootkitchen.com/
Andrea –
http://www.andreasrecipes.com/

12 Days Of Cookies A Gourmet Cookie Extravaganza…Chocolate Wafers

On the 7th day of Christmas Cookies Glamah baked for me Chocolate Wafers,Viennese Vanilla Crescents, Bizcochitos(Anise Cookies), Brown Butter Cookies,Chocolate Meringue Biscuits, Benne Wafers, and Navettes Sucrees. Yes we are halfway into this cookie thing. By now we may seem calm and collected on our posts, but we are hitting some roadblocks ,and extreme cookie anxiety. Did I mention Certain Someone thinks I’m completely cookie crazed and is getting annoyed .I had to remind him I wont be blogging fro the rest of December after this because I will be in Germany without access to Internet.Thankfully the pleasure on the recipients faces makes this worth while for me. It is a learning experience in what works and doesn’t in baking, and most important accurate recipe writing. As I said yesterday I took two types of cookies to work and they were gone in 60 minutes. I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be. Even people who don’t like sweets complimented the Viennese Vanilla Crescents and Chocolate Wafers. Gourmet first published this recipe in the 1950’s. They say they were ‘quite smitten with wafer cookies”. If you looking for a dough that chills overnight that you can slice or cut out, this is for you! I did not have the breakfast cocoa the recipe called for, but used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa. That’s why these look more like dark chocolate wafers. The wafers bake up buttery and crisp. The flavor with the dark cocoa was reminiscent of a Oreo without the filling. I don’t know about you, but that was always my favorite part.

Be sure to visit my other baking friends and see what they chose to bake for the holidays from Gourmet.com.
Jerry –
http://www.cookingbytheseatofmypants.com/
Judy –
http://www.nofearentertaining.blogspot.com/
Sandy –
http://www.bakersbench.blogspot.com/
Kelly –
http://sassandveracity.typepad.com/
Claire –
http://www.thebarefootkitchen.com/
Andrea –
http://www.andreasrecipes.com/

12 Days Of Cookies A Gourmet Cookie Extravaganza…Viennese Vanilla Crescents

On the 6th day of Christmas Cookies Glamah baked for me Viennese Vanilla Crescents,Bizcochitos( Anise Cookies), Brown Butter Cookies,Chocolate Meringue Biscuits, Benne Wafers,and Navettes Sucrees. I think we have all had this version of cookie for the holidays. Ground Hazelnuts, butter , powdered sugar delectable! Gourmet published this recipe in October 1991, so the recipe and instruction were pretty clear and straightforward. I did find the dough once again on the dry crumbly side. I actually had to warn up balls of dough in my hand to melt the butter a little and from the crescents. Be careful with these when removing form the oven because they are very dry and crumbly. But once they set in their bed of powdered sugar and get an additional dusting, they cool down to a perfect cookie. Certain Someone found them dry the night I baked them. However I took these babies to work along with tomorrows cookies and they were gone in 60 minutes!People even emailed me for the recipe. They loved them with the morning coffee and that they were not to sweet. So if you time , and patience, give the cookies a whirl.

*I halved the recipe which said it made 100 cookies. Halved I got around 25 normal sized cookies.
*This recipe has a recipe within a recipe . You must make the Vanilla Confectioners sugar at least 24 hours ahead.
* And most important. All images taken were by CSI(Certain Someone Images)for CocoCooks.He’s getting big time now!
Be sure to visit my other baking friends and see what they chose to bake for the holidays from Gourmet.com.
Jerry – http://www.cookingbytheseatofmypants.com/
Judy – http://www.nofearentertaining.blogspot.com/
Sandy – http://www.bakersbench.blogspot.com/
Kelly – http://sassandveracity.typepad.com/
Claire –
http://www.thebarefootkitchen.com/
Andrea –
http://www.andreasrecipes.com/