Tag 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 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 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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December 2, 2011 · 5:20 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Maple Cookies

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DAY 8: Maple Cookies

A simple maple flavored cookie. No frills; just a quiet, unassuming cookie.

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RECIPE:

Maple Cookies

  • Servings: 60 small cookies
  • Print

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1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup real maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ tsp maple extract (optional)
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
Granulated or raw sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet or use silicon baking mat.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg, syrup, vanilla, and maple extract (if using). Mix until well blended. Stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir into mixture until well blended. Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart and flatten slightly.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes about 60 small cookies

Recipe from AllRecipes

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