Date & walnut "icebox cookies"

My aunt made the best cookies when I was home for Christmas! Well, truthfully, she made lots that were so-so and one kind that was fantastic! It came from a Taste of Home cookbook/pamphlet that looked like it was circa late 80s.

1 cup butter/margarine/shortening

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup chopped dates*

3/4 cup chopped walnuts*

 Mix ingredients thoroughly and then shape dough into a log (or two),wrap in plastic. Chill logs for 2hrs or up to 1 week, unwrap and cut into 1/2in slices. Place on  un-greased baking sheets and bake 350 for 10 minutes. Yield 2 1/2 dozen.

*The original recipe says 1 1/2 cups of "extras" and suggests different types of raisins, chips, nuts or various other things. The dates & walnuts are what my aunt used and what made this yummy.

I changed the recipe to call for more flour because I don't know what happened but this was the stickiest cookie dough I have ever encountered. It stuck to me, the mixer, the spatula - everything. I added almost a whole cup of additional flour. It might be because I did not have enough stick butter and used some spreadable margarine to get up to the needed 1 cup, but I would plan on having some extra around if I were you. I could not fathom how I was to form this sticky, gooey dough into a log, so I added flour until it was workable and used more to coat my hands when I made the logs.

Peanut Butter & Nutella cookies

My contribution to the office holiday party this year was none other than peanut butter and nutella cookies. If you don't know what nutella is, you should. Just go buy some, you'll love it, I promise.

This all started when I saw a recipe somewhere for peanut butter and nutella cookies but they were no-bake and frankly, did not look too tasty. This got the idea in my head. What could possibly go better? So I got to thinking, nutella is not so different from peanut butter, why couldn't I just make peanut butter cookies and sub-out some peanut butter for nutella? No reason I could think of, so that is exactly what I did.

You can probably do this with any peanut butter cookie recipe but this one from Simply Recipes makes a fairly small batch - a plus for us single ladies.

1/2 cup sugar *and additional to roll dough balls
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup nutella
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix ingredients together to form dough. Roll dough into small balls, roll in  additional white sugar and place on greased cookie sheet. Using a fork, press into each ball twice, making a cross-hatch design. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

They will look a little darker than typical peanut butter cookies, so watch that they don't burn.

While these were tasty, I feel like the peanut butter and nutella flavors competed a little bit with each other. In the next round, I might make all nutella cookies and see how that turns out.

Meeting the neighbors & chocolate-butterscotch cookies

Living in DC, I sometimes fail to keep my Kansas urges in check (ie I talk to strangers - even when I probably shouldn't). In the Midwest, where people are friendly, when you move to a new place, you go around and introduce yourself to the neighbors. I have tried to this at my past two apartments in DC, and mostly failed. I met the neighbors at my first apartment only about three months before I moved out. At my last apartment, I took the people in the house next door a quick version of my mom's cinnamon rolls (I had an ulterior motive this time - they were cute boys, and as the blog title may have tipped you off, I'm a single girl).

Since I have just recently moved to a new place, the Midwestern urges have kicked in again. Plus, I'm going to be living in the same building with these folks for a very long time. I find nothing ingratiates you to others like food, especially desserts. I bagged up, into cute gift bags none-the-less, chocolate-butterscotch cookies and took them around to the neighbors, or those who were home at least. (If you were out when I stopped by, I ate your cookies.)

I used the toll-house chocolate chip cookie recipe (here) because it's the best of course, skipped the walnuts and did 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup butterscotch instead of the requisite 2 cups of chocolate chips. Small alteration = tasty results.

Plus, at some point, I WILL lock myself out of the house and want someone to let me in.

LOST themed party snacks 2

So while the LOST series finale was a little bit of a let down in my opinion, my LOST themed snack was quite successful. I decided to make "Fish Biscuit Sugar Cookies," and I refused to let the unavailability of a fish cookie cutter discourage me.

I looked at Target and CVS for something that could function as a fish cookie cutter but I came up empty handed and since I only decided to make them on Thursday there wasn't enough time to order one online or go to a specialty baking supply store. So I had to get creative.

I cut a fish shape out of a piece of cardboard and I think I did pretty well. Check out the photo of my fish stencil below. My plan was to use a pair of scissors to cut around my cardboard fish but that did not work. The dough is too heavy, so when I tried to hold the dough up to cut around the fish it was constantly falling down or stretching out. So I rolled the dough out on a cutting board, laid the stencil down and used a sharp knife to trace around it. For each cookie. I was committed to to my theme. If you ever need a random cookie cutter shape and don't have to make more than a dozen of the cookies, this works pretty well. However, making a high volume of cookies this way will make you tear your hair out.


I had fun with the decorating too! This also marks the occasion of the first time I've successfully made butter cream frosting. It's simple to make, but I've always had issues in the past. I also improvised my decorators bag. Taking a plastic zip-lock bag and cutting a small hole in the corner will get you a functional if not professional decorator's bag. I used a freezer bag because I thought it would be a little more durable. Put the frosting down in the corner and squeeze the air out of the bag. Twist the bag down to the frosting and hold it tight to keep a steady flow of frosting coming out the end. You won't be able to do anything fancy, but you will be able to write or make squiggles. If you want to frost the whole cookie, you can make a little bit larger hole to get the effect of a bigger "tip" for your decorator's bag.


I decorated my fish with LOST slogans and had a pretty good time with it. See the finished product below.

Holiday Baking 2: Brown sugar shortbread

The Wednesday Washington Post Food section is my guilty lunchtime pleasure. Just before Thanksgiving there was a special on Julia Child & Jacques Pepin "deconstructed turkey" that looked amazing (and required a 2 page(!) recipe). I took it home and showed my mom. Yes I stole the Food section from the paper and work and packed and flew home to Kansas with it to show my mom. She agreed that it looked fabulous and like a lot of work. There was also recently a recipe for "man crepes" that I've been thinking about making.

Anyway, about a week ago, the post did a feature on cookies - 12 cookie recipes for the holidays. Is it any wonder I love it? I decided to make the brown sugar shortbread (links to recipe at the Washington Post). You need a free account to view recipes on the post website, so I've reproduced the recipe below. Plus I'm not sure how long they archive their recipes. Anyone have any idea?


Ingredients:

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour

Directions:

Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 325 degrees. Have an ungreased 9-by-13-inch baking pan at hand

Combine the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer; beat on medium speed for about 1 minute, just until blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the vanilla extract and salt. Add the flour in 2 additions, beating just until incorporated.

Use your fingers or a sturdy rubber spatula to press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the shortbread is golden brown. The edges will be slightly darker; do not underbake. Transfer the pan to a wire rack; let cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.

Use a sharp, thin-bladed knife to cut the shortbread, still in the pan, into 36 rectangles. Let cool completely in the pan before serving or storing.
Source: The Washington Post, December 9th 2009

So this turned out nice, I'm taking them along with some Spitzbüben, if there are any left, to my work Christmas party. However, I did grease the pan (uh-oh) and the recipe says not to, but nothing happened so far as I can tell. Also, DO NOT bake it for 50-55 minutes, mine were nicely brown in 25-30 minutes. So you might wanna watch them.

If I make these again, I think I will try using all brown sugar and no white sugar because I thought these would be really brown sugary but they're not. However, they do have a delightfully soft texture.

Taste: B-
Cost: A
Wast: A