Category: Holidays

I really had high hopes for these. They didn’t disappoint, but they didn’t come out as crispy as I would have liked. The Galettes had more texture than a funnel cake, but didn’t crack apart throughout as the picture on the recipe. I halved the recipe,rolled the dough out paper thin between sheets of wax paper, and dropped in sizzling vegetable oil. I didn’t want them to burn and I removed them when they got really brown. Then the galettes were dredged in confectioners sugar.Gourmet suggest serving them drizzled in hot honey.That just sounded so sexy to me, and really made this recipe. So I would recommend you give it try.I only fried up a few, and put the rest of the dough balls in the freezer to take out. I am perplexed as to why they would categorize this as a cookie (a Galette technically is a flat round cake),but it is a nice treat nevertheless.

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/

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.

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.