Category: Holidays

On the fourth day of Christmas Glamah baked for me… Brown Butter Cookies, Chocolate Meringue Biscuits,Benne Wafers, and Navettes Sucrees! I was intrigued by the simplicity of this recipe. The Daring Bakers had used brown butter in the last challenge and I loved the aroma. As I mentioned in previous posts, the older cookie recipes on Gourmet.com don’t list the ingredients and caused me some confusion as you just read the recipe.Brown Butter Sugar cookies were published in June 1961. I browned the butter and mixed up the dough. Again a dry dough like I had with Sugar Shuttles! But upon close reading I see that I only used 1/2 cup rather than 1 cup of butter. I don’t like the measurements for butter given in cups. Give me tablespoons!Anyway I added some more browned butter and formed the cookies. I didn’t have the blanched almond they used as topping, but in a sudden burst of inspiration I added some leftover cashew praline to the tops. Imay have just over cooked them. Bake time is 20 minutues, however I pulled them out just in time. The texture of this cookie reminds me of Pecan Sandies. Wonderful and crumbly.Be careful when packing these cookies in your holiday gift boxes.

Be sure to check out my fellow baking friends as we bake hoilday cookies from Gourmet.com.

On the third day of Christmas, Glamah baked for me… Chocolate Meringue Cookies, Benne Wafers,and Navettes Sucrees. ! Glamah’s meringues do not look as cute as the people at Gourmet.com, but they taste great. These were so refreshing to make between other baking. I love whipping up egg whites and happened to have plenty in the freezer from leftover from various projects. The only thing I changed due to economy and what was in my pantry was the addition of Hazelnut meal as opposed to ground blanched almonds. Plus Certain Someone loves Hazelnut and chocolate together.
Nothing to complain about with this one. Is that because it was published in October 1982 and the directions are more clear? Who knows. I should have piped the meringues bigger and with swirls, but the I like these odd little cookies.
These are pretty easy and will be great for everyone. Play around with the piping and surprise yourself!
Be sure to check out my other baking friends and see what they chose from Gourmet.com to bake for the holidays.
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/

Hey! You’re still with me on Day 2 of this cookie extravaganza? Great! We still got 10 more to go! On the second day of Christmas Glamah baked for me…Benne Wafers and Navettes Sucrees! This recipe was the first one I chose to bake. I had never heard of Benne Wafers before. I knew I had some sesame seeds sitting in my pantry from a Daring Baker challenge. They are caramelized cookies with benne seeds( sesame seeds). Benne Wafers are popular in South Carolina and other southern parts.Benne seeds are known as the seeds of good luck! seemed easy and minimal. I didn’t even research this one before, just choosing to stick to Gourmet.com version that was published in November 1954. Don’t they look pretty? Well all hell broke lose before I photographed this. I mixed up the batter that curiously only called for 2 tablespoons of flour. I did use dark brown sugar rather than light, because that’s what I had.I flattened the spoonfuls down on buttered parchment with a knife dipped in ice water. When I came to take them out they had spread into one thin sheet. I was about to toss them but grabbed a round cutter and cut the thin mess while warm. They cooled down to a buttery almost brittle like cookie. I tore away the scraps and from the cutter and ended up with a quite a few presentable wafers! Good thinking. I googled this cookie and found most modern recipes call for way more flour( like cups!)Oh well. I have to say these were tasty and crispy. A unusual treat for cookie boxes this holiday season.

I love food blogging and Twitter. Twitter is my latest addiction. If I hadn’t signed up for Twitter I would never had received an invitation from Andrea to participate in baking a collection of recipes from Gourmet.com. Gourmet has complied cookie recipes from 1941-2008 for the holidays! Each of us choose 12 cookies to bake and will present our cookies over the next 12 days. That’s a lot of baking, but I couldn’t resist. The trick is to do recipes in batches so your are not stressed each day. I also don’t want to be stressed about my bank account so I have tried to pick recipes where I have most of the ingredients on hand. But after a day of baking, I will have to stock up some more. What am I going to do with all these cookies you ask? Give them away to friends, family, etc all boxed up nice. How’s that for holiday cheer!
My first recipe is from December 1951 ,Navettes Sucrees( Sugar Shuttles).I have to say thus far this is one my favorites.Not to sweet and a little elegant cookie. They are called sugar shuttles because they look like a part that holds the thread on a sewing machine. Well if they say so. I love how the dough is dipped in egg whites and then rolled in sugar giving it a gentle crunch. Some of the older recipes don’t list the ingredients first and this caused some confusion for me at times.But Gourmet. com clearly states on each recipe that they have left the recipes unchanged and they are how they were originally printed.I’m sure some housewives back then where cursing them out! I had some issues with this recipe. I had to add an additional 2 tablespoons of butter, as the dough was dry. And I forgot to butter the parchment on the first batch. They turned out perfect! However the last batch I baked on buttered parchment. Those kind of caramelized and burned on the bottom so I recommend you just place them on parchment. Thankfully there were not many in that batch.With all the richness and over indulgence this holiday,these cookies are simple , wholesome , and satisfying while not being to rich nor sweet.

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