Category Archives: Cookies

December 12, 2011 · 1:29 pm

How To . . . Keep Cookies Fresh

1205112 024-1 Now that you’ve made all of those Christmas cookies, how do you keep them from going hard and dry before delivering them to all of your friends and neighbors?

Here are a few tips for keeping large quantities of cookies fresh:

  • Refrigerate or freeze uncooked dough. Uncooked dough can be kept in Ziploc bags or wrapped in plastic wrap (especially logs of dough) in the fridge. Take out dough and bake small batches of cookies. Many types of cookies actually taste better after letting the dough sit in the fridge overnight before cooking.  For drop cookies, freezing dough is very helpful. Prepare cookie dough and place scoops of dough on parchment lined baking sheets. Freeze raw dough until solid, then transfer dough balls to Ziploc bags. Pull out just as many cookies as you want to bake.
  • Refrigerate or freeze cooked cookies. Baked cookies will also stay fresh longer if stored in the refrigerator or freezer. Store cookies in Ziploc bags or seal-able containers and freeze or refrigerate until ready to serve. Be sure to keep different kinds of cookies in different containers. Mint and gingerbread cookies do not go well together!
  • To store cookies at room temperature: You can still keep cookies fresh without freezing all of them. Use containers that are as air-tight as you can find. Place a small piece of BREAD in the container with the cookies. The bread will lose its moisture more quickly than the cookies, allowing the cookies to stay soft longer than they normally would. Replace the bread with a fresh piece as it dries out. This will not keep cookies soft indefinitely, but it will extend their shelf life to more than a week.

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Just a note of warning: if you put bread in your cookie jar, every time your kids open the jar, they will ask, “How come there’s bread in the cookies?”  Some may even choose to eat the bread over the cookies, which will prompt you to ask (when you go to sneak another cookie for yourself get a cookie for a starving child), “What happened to the bread I put in the cookie jar?” No one, of course, will admit to eating the mysteriously disappeared stale bread.

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P.S. This also works to keep your brown sugar soft. The bread will last much longer in your canister of brown sugar than in the cookie containers. Maybe because it doesn’t get opened quite as many times throughout the day!

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December 10, 2011 · 10:52 pm

How To . . . Blanch Almonds

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Blanched almonds are delicious in these Chinese Almond Cookies and are the basis for making almond flour. Blanched almonds sold in stores are extremely expensive, but you can easily make them at home. All you need is a bag of raw almonds.

Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Remove from heat. Add raw almonds to the hot water. Let sit for 1 minute (not longer). Drain and pour into a bowl of ice cold water.

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Leave almonds in ice water only until they are cool, about one minute. Drain.

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To remove the skins: pinch almonds between your thumb and index finger to slide the almond out of its skin.

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Pat dry. Allow to dry completely before using in recipes.

If you over-soak your almonds and they don’t dry properly: preheat oven to 200°F. Turn oven OFF. Place almonds on a baking sheet and put into the warm (but OFF) oven. Leave almonds in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

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To make almond flour from your blanched almonds: place completely dry blanched almonds in a blender or food processor and blend until almonds form fine meal.

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Blanched almonds are also great in cookies like these Chinese Almond Cookies.

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December 7, 2011 · 5:12 am

Third Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies Recap

Here’s a recap of this year’s
Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies

Happy Baking!

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DAY 1: Christmas Cherry Cookies

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DAY 2: Blueberry Crumb Bars

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DAY 3: Cherry Shortbread Squares

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DAY 4: Chinese Almond Cookies

12-12-10 013-1 DAY 5: Chocolate Covered Pretzels

100711 006-1 DAY 6: Nanaimo Bars

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DAY 7:Sugar Cookie Bars

11311 010-2 DAY 8: Maple Cookies

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DAY 9: Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies (Gluten Free)

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DAY 10: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

1205112 021-1  DAY 11: Cranberry Orange Pinwheels

120511 002-2 DAY 12: Candy Cane Kisses Cookies

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Enjoy a wonderful sugar-laden faith-filled Christmas season!

Still need more cookie ideas? Try these:

First Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies(2009)

Second Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2010)

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December 6, 2011 · 1:01 pm

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Candy Cane Kisses Cookies

120511 002-2 DAY 12: Candy Cane Kisses Cookies

Fun little Christmas colored cookies topped with candy cane flavored Hershey’s Kisses. These are great for making with kids. They love rolling the dough balls in colored sugar and pressing the Kisses into the warm cookies. I did find that the white chocolate kisses tend to collapse into themselves (melt) faster than the regular chocolate kisses. If you like this, press the Kisses into the cookies immediately after removing the cookies from the oven. If you want the Kisses to hold their shape, wait about 3 minutes before pressing the Kisses into the cookies. Don’t wait until they are completely cool, however, or the Kisses won’t “stick”.

These cookies are best made very small; they should be just barely bigger than the Kisses (after baking).

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RECIPE:

Candy Cane Kisses Cookies

  • Servings: 4 dozen small cookies
  • Print

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1 bag Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons milk
Red and Green colored sugar (about 3 Tbs each)

Preheat over to 350°F. Remove wrappers from about 4 dozen Kisses.

Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; add alternatively with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.

Shape dough into small 1-inch balls. Roll in red and/or green colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 – 10 minutes or until cookies are barely set. Remove from oven; cool for 3 minutes on the baking sheet. Press candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Yield: about 4 dozen very small cookies.

Recipe from Hershey’s

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December 5, 2011 · 12:50 pm

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Cranberry Orange Pinwheels

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DAY 11: Cranberry Orange Pinwheels

Traditional flavors of Christmas, all swirled into a bite-sized cookie. Buttery orange dough swirled with chopped fresh cranberries and pecans. A delicious cookie for the grown-up cookie plate.

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RECIPE:

Cranberry Orange Pinwheels

  • Servings: 60 cookies
  • Print

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1 cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp grated orange peel
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cranberries
1 cup pecans
¼ cup packed brown sugar

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and orange peel until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill dough about 1 hour or until easy to handle.

For filling, in a food processor combine cranberries, pecans, and brown sugar. Cover and blend or process until cranberries and nuts are finely chopped; set filling aside.

Roll half of the dough between pieces of waxed paper (or plastic wrap) into a 10-inch square. Spread half of the filling over dough square to within 1/2 inch of edges; roll up dough. Moisten edges; pinch to seal. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Chill for 4 to 24 hours.

Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices . Place slices 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 375°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Makes about 60 cookies

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens

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December 4, 2011 · 7:43 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

120111 001-2 DAY 10: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

These fun cookies are from Martha Stewart. If you dip them in dark chocolate, they taste a lot like Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies.

Martha’s recipe is quite labor intensive, involving three refrigerator/freezer periods, dough rolling & cutting, dipping the cookies with a fork, and sifting the candy into similar sized pieces.

I simplified the process a lot when I made these. I shaped the dough into logs that I sliced into rounds, instead of rolling out the dough and then cutting them out with a round cookie cutter. I only chilled my dough once. I dipped the cookies with my fingers (coating just the top and sides, instead of the whole cookie), and I definitely did not sort my crushed candy canes into large and small pieces. Mine may not be as perfect as Martha’s, but that didn’t seem to make any difference to the kids eating them.

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RECIPE:

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

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2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
10 Tbs butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 ½ tsp pure peppermint extract
12 large candy canes or 30 peppermint candies, crushed
about 2 pounds chocolate, coarsely chopped (dark or white chocolate)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low, and add eggs and peppermint extract. Slowly add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated.

Divide dough in half and place on two large pieces of plastic wrap. Using plastic wrap, shape dough into 2 logs about 2″ in diameter. Wrap logs securely in the plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1-2 hours, or several days.

When ready to bake, unroll plastic wrap from dough logs. Use a sharp knife to cut dough into 1/4” disks. Gently reshape edges into circles, if necessary. Place cookies on lined baking sheet, keeping unused dough in the refrigerator until ready to slice. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, or until dry to the touch. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave or in a double boiler (melt chocolate slowly). Dunk cookies into melted chocolate. Use a fork to turn the cookie over in the chocolate. Pick up the cookie with the fork, let excess chocolate drip off, and gently scrape bottom against edge of bowl. Place on parchment (or waxed paper)-lined baking sheets, and while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle tops of cookies with the crushed candy canes. Let chocolate harden before storing. (TIME SAVING NOTE: You can also just use your fingers to hold the cookie and only dunk the top and sides of the cookie, gently scraping the excess chocolate off of the top of the cookie before placing it on the parchment paper)

Makes 4-6 dozen, depending on the size of your cookies

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

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