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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December 3, 2011 · 8:49 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies

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DAY 9: Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies

Gluten-free. Butter-free. Sugar? OK, not exactly sugar-free. But with only 6 easy-to-find ingredients that can be mixed in one bowl without a mixer, cookies don’t get much easier than this!

Made with chopped toasted nuts, egg whites, powdered sugar, cocoa, salt, and vanilla, these cookies turn out soft and chewy on the inside with a crackly top, like the top of a great batch of brownies. In fact, every bite is like the best part of a pan of brownies (those chewy edge pieces).

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I made these with walnuts and we really enjoyed them. They were rich, chewy and chock full of nuts. Next time I want to try them with chopped roasted almonds.

RECIPE:

Chocolate Walnut Puddle Cookies

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3 cups walnuts, pecans, almonds or hazelnuts
1 lb (about 4 cups) powdered sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
½ tsp salt (fine ground sea salt, if you have it)
4 large egg whites
1 Tbs vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spread nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast nuts in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let nuts cool completely. Chop into coarse pieces (don’t chop too fine).

In a large bowl, use a whisk to stir together the powdered sugar, cocoa and salt. With a large spoon, stir in the cooled nuts. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla until well combined.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Drop the batter in small mounds on the baking sheet, leaving about 1” of space between cookies (no more than 12 cookies on a normal sized baking sheet). Bake for 11-13 minutes. The cookies will spread, puff slightly, crack on top, get glossy and then turn matte. Slide the entire sheet of parchment paper or mat off of the baking sheet onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool completely. Use a metal spatula to remove cookies from parchment paper or mat.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Recipe adapted from Dinner with Julie

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