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Dorie Greenspan’s Spice Roll-Out Cookies

December 18, 2009 By kellypea

At this time of year in particular, when stopping by to visit the site of someone who lives in a more northern region of the country, I’m often indulged with engaging scenes and descriptions of wintery weather.  Narratives filled with tantalizing visions of powdery snow, icicles glistening in the morning light, and brightly colored birds flashing through bare trees lull me into a mood that has me wanting to cozy up with a good book and a hot cup of anything I can get my hands on.

The reverie lasts only briefly as I cast my gaze out the window to see a bright blue sky punctuated by wispy clouds, brilliant green foliage on trees and shrubs, camellias in full bloom, and sea gulls pacing about, waiting for a morning snack.  Those of us who choose to don a scarf most likely do so to make some sort of fashion statement, or to convince ourselves that it truly is December and that as much as we might be a bit chilly in the early morning, by noon, it will be a pleasant 70 degrees.

It makes good sense, then, to consider that snowmen cookies are one way to enjoy the season.  They’re a soft bite of spice that just might surprise you and are guaranteed not to melt on a sunny day.

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Filed Under: Bon Appetit, Cookbooks and Magazines, Cookies, Dessert, Holiday Food, Method, Special Occasion Tagged With: , , ,

Chocolate Caramel Cookies with Orange Mascarpone Cream

December 13, 2009 By kellypea

It was only a matter of time before I gave into temptation and changed one of the cookie recipes I’ve been sampling from Bon Appetit’s Holiday Cookie assortment this year.  Actually, that’s only partially true.  The collection includes several mix and drop cookies, and I strayed early on to experiment with a recipe for the perfect oatmeal cookie that I may share, but I digress.

When I saw the festive-looking Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies, I truly wanted to try them — but without the peppermint. I decided that if a hazelnut chocolate chip cookie could be classified as a holiday cookie, then why not chocolate and caramel?  All I needed to do was find a different filling for them since peppermint and caramel aren’t flavors I’d want to sample in one bite.

There happened to be some mascarpone in the fridge, and if I used a few drops of…

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Filed Under: Baked, Bon Appetit, Cookbooks and Magazines, Cookies, Dessert, Food and Wine, Holiday Food, Method, Special Occasion Tagged With: ,

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 11, 2009 By kellypea

The math isn’t exactly challenging:  12 cookies in 12 days; this is December 11th; tomorrow is the last day; and I have posted five cookies.  Five.  Bear in mind that I’ve made eight, and have dough for a ninth sitting in the fridge just waiting for several hours of time so that I can play my favorite holiday music, spread out my materials, and decorate cookies.  Trust me when I say that time between the hours of 6 and 10 p.m. does not count as an available chunk.  Once upon a time I could have been extremely productive at that time of day, but no longer.  It’s easy to conclude then that I will be engaging more in a month of cookies, or something like that.  And perhaps I’ll throw in a holiday bread or two.  Maybe.

Nevertheless, here are my Hazelnut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, which not only look like ordinary chocolate chippers, they taste like ordinary chocolate chippers.  That isn’t a bad thing if you’re me, because chocolate chip cookies will always be my favorite cookie even though I’d never consider it a holiday cookie.

I had hazelnuts in the pantry, so decided to make my own hazelnut butter for these.  It’s not complicated if you have a Cuisinart, 10 minutes, and don’t mind telling your neighbors to prepare for the sound of nuts clacking crazily against plastic.

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Filed Under: Baked, Bon Appetit, Cookbooks and Magazines, Cookies, Dessert, Holiday Food, Method, Nuts, Special Occasion Tagged With: , ,

Chocolate Mint Cookies

December 7, 2009 By kellypea

I’m not sure what it is about mint, but it’s never been one of my favorite flavors.  I could blame it on the Junior Mints I ate too many of one afternoon in at a matinee when I was a kid.  But then again, it might have been the time that my grandparents took us to Howard Johnson’s to have ice cream and I chose a double scoop of peppermint and apple streudel which, if you think the way I now do, don’t exactly go well with one another.  Sadly, those cheerful red and white hard candy disks never quite appealed to me and just the thought of York Peppermint patties made my teeth ache.  Mint tea has no appeal whether I’m under the weather or not, and mint juleps remind me of cough medicine.

Mention Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints, however, and you’ll have my undivided attention.  It has to be the crunch.  These holiday cookies may not be Thin Mints, but they come very, very close.

I’ll have to give them a good dunk in the chocolate next time instead of making a big mess slinging chocolate all over my kitchen.

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Filed Under: Baked, Bon Appetit, Chocolate, Cookbooks and Magazines, Cookies, Dessert, Method Tagged With: , , ,

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

December 5, 2009 By kellypea

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

Each year that the holiday cookie spreads come out in food magazines, the Linzer cookies catch my eye.  Most often, they appear in bar form, constructed on a sheet pan, spread with jam, covered with a lattice top, and perhaps sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Thinking about the attraction now, it was the pastry that caught my attention, and when I made them,  they were always a favorite.

With that interest, I chose Hazelnut Linzer Cookies as my first choice for our holiday bake fest.  Although nothing like the Linzertorte I’ve enjoyed in the past, these cookies are a pleasant combination of nutty crunch and sweet, tart jam.

If they’re so satisfying and the first to be baked, why not the first to be shared?  My notes tell the story.

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Filed Under: Baked, Bon Appetit, Cookbooks and Magazines, Cookies, Dessert, Holiday Food, Method, Nuts, Special Occasion, Tea Time Tagged With: , ,

Snowball Cookies

December 4, 2009 By kellypea

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for me to fall behind on posting my holiday cookies, did it?  As much as I am able to plan which cookies I’d like to bake, shoot photos, and edit, I run out of time when it comes to posting — especially when the new lights I’ve been using for my night photography aren’t quite delivering the results I’d like, but I continue to learn.  I’ve also never been good at planning a variety of posts and lining them all up to auto-publish, but  I’ll have to work on that, too.

In the meantime, I’ll share these snowball cookies with you.  They’re my favorites so far of those I’ve made this season:  a pleasant bite of  citrus with the coolness that a dusting of powdered sugar always provides.

They’re just about the only thing remotely snowy I’ll ever see in our extreme southwest corner of the country!

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Filed Under: Baked, Bon Appetit, Cookbooks and Magazines, Cookies, Dessert, Holiday Food, Method, Special Occasion Tagged With: ,
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