Twitter Avatar February - James Beard Refrigerator Spice Cookies

Last year a couple of my blog friends were having fun on Twitter with their avatars: they would pick a bread and everyone would post that bread as their avatar for that month. This year the theme is chefs and I decided to join in on the fun. Nancy came up with the great idea of each of us picking a different chef for each month. Everyone chooses one recipe by that chef, takes a photo of the dish and uses that photo as our avatar for that month.

February's avatar chef is James Beard, chosen by Nancy. The recipe I chose is Refrigerator Spice Cookies, its in 'American Cookery' (1972) by James Beard, but it can also be found here.

These cookies reminded me a lot of Speculaas, I divided the dough into three and baked 2 portions. The third portion can be found in my freezer, waiting for a surprise visitor ;) I taste-tested one cookie, it reminded me a lot of Speculaas. Most cookies found their way to work where they were devoured by my colleagues, the rest are at my parents house waiting to be eaten by my dad.

Next month's chef is Emeril Lagasse, chosen by Margaret

Refrigerator Spice Cookies

(American Cookery by James Beard)

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups sifted AP flour

1 tbsp cocoa

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375^o F.

Cream the butter, then cream in the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Combine with the butter mixture until well blended.

Divide the dough into 3 or 4 parts and form rolls that are approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Roll them up in wax paper or aluminum foil and store in the refrigerator or freezer until firm, about an hour.

With a sharp knife, slice into 1/4-inch rounds. Place on cookie sheets and cook until lightly browned at the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Christmas Cookies: Toblerone Shortbread Cookies

I met Andrea of Family & Food & Other Things on Twitter thanks to Di's Virtual Cookie Exchange. We were tweeting about the cookies we were baking when she mentioned that she baked Toblerone Shortbread Cookies. Of course I was completely enamored with the thought of using one of my favorite chocolate bars in a cookie. Andrea was kind enough to send me the link to the recipe and I happily baked up some cookies. These were a huge hit and will most definitely be on my cookie platter next year too!

Toblerone Shortbread Cookies

Makes 28 cookies

adapted from salt and serenity

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup + 2 tablespoons icing sugar

¼ cup cornstarch or rice flour

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 ounces of toblerone chocolate bar, chopped into ¼ inch chunks

Preheat oven to 350 º F.

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Sift in icing sugar and beat again until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl often. Sift in cornstarch or rice flour and blend in. Sift in all-purpose flour and salt

and mix just until dough comes together. Dough will be soft. Mix in vanilla

extract. Gently mix in toblerone chunks.

Using a small ice cream scoop (about 1 ½ inches across) scoop cookies

onto parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. You

should be able to fit 12 cookies on a 12 x 18 inch cookie sheet.

Bake on the middle rack for 9 minutes. Rotate sheet and bake another 9

minutes, until bottom of cookies are lightly browned. Remove from cookie

sheet to cool on a rack.

Christmas Cookies: Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

This year I wanted to include some Biscotti to my cookie platters for Christmas and I was on the lookout for a simple, tasty biscotti. I ended up using this recipe that I found over at The Busty Baker.

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

adapted from La Dolci Vita

Makes 30 cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 large egg, beaten (for brushing)

Preheat oven to 325F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add whole egg, followed by egg yolk, beating until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add vanilla extract. Add flour mixture, beating until ingredients come together to form a slightly stiff dough (holds together when pressed between your fingers and isn’t too sticky).

Divide dough between the two baking sheets. Shape each half of dough into a log that measures 9-inches long and 1 ½ inches wide. Press dough down to flatten slightly.

In a small bowl mix together cinnamon and sugar for topping. Brush each dough log with the beaten egg and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating halfway through, until biscotti is golden and firm to the touch.

Remove from oven, but keep oven on. Let baking sheets cool on wire racks until biscotti is cool enough to handle. With a serrated knife, cut logs into ½-inch wide diagonal slices. Place biscotti cut side down on baking sheets and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar. Place back in oven and bake again until pale golden, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Christmas Cookies: Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

My friend Jenny from New York was so kind to send me some Hershey Kisses as they are not available here in The Netherlands. Amongst the bags she sent me was a bag of Candy Cane Kisses, which made me search the Internet for a cookie recipe to use them in. Over at RecipeGirl I found this recipe. My mom and dad test-tasted these and absolutely loved them. After baking the cookies the kitchen smelled minty-fresh!

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
(adapted from RecipeGirl)

Yield: About 2 1/2 dozen

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1¼ cups butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped Candy Cane flavored Hershey’s Kisses
granulated sugar
additional, unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses- about 30

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make room in either refrigerator or freezer for your cookie sheet.

In large mixer bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until creamy (2-3 minutes).

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl often until well blended (1-2 minutes). The mixture will be a bit crumbly.

Stir in chopped Kisses. Shape dough into ¾-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set.

As soon as they come out of the oven, press a Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each cookie. They’ll crack a little around the edges, so just use your fingers to kind of hold the cookie together while you set the kiss inside.

Put cookie sheet (with cookies) immediately into the freezer (preferred) or refrigerator so that the Kisses will set quickly. As soon as you press them into the cookie, they will begin to soften… so if you can get them into the freezer then they will keep their Kiss shape.

Store in a covered container- at room temperature for up to a week.

In the freezer they should be okay for a couple of weeks.

Tips:
You can add an addition teaspoon of peppermint extract: the cookie gets plenty of peppermint flavor from the addition of the chopped kisses, but if you’d like it really minty then go ahead and add the peppermint extract.

RecipeGirl says she spotted these Kisses at Target and CVS Pharmacy.

Christmas Cookies: Lime Meltaways

Here's another cookie that will go into this years cookie gift-bags for coworkers. This is a partial success... I liked these, but thought the lime-flavor was a bit understated: a bit more lime-flavor would have been nice. My dad really liked these, unfortunately my mom did not.... She absolutely hated them!! She took one bite of the cookie I offered her (she's my preferred taste-tester as she always tells me exactly what she thinks of everything I make) and almost spit it out, she then gave me back the other half of the cookie and told me she hated the flavor and didn't care for the texture of the cookie. I was somewhat stumped since this was the first time my mom really didn't like the end result of something I made.... :S

Lime Meltaways

Recipe by Martha Stewart

3 dozen cookies

3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups, plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt


Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment (I used my regular paddle attachment), cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lime zest, juice, and vanilla; beat until fluffy.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat on low speed until combined.

3. Divide dough in half. Place each half on a separate 8 by 12 inch piece of parchment paper, roll dough into 1 1/4-inch diameter logs. Chill at least one hour.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. (I placed in bowl) Remove parchment from logs; slice dough into 1/8-inch thick rounds. (I sliced them more like a 1/4 inch) Place rounds on baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart.

5. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, place cookies in the sugar-filled bag; toss to coat. (I put powdered sugar in a bowl and added baked cookies to coat) Bake or freeze remaining dough. Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

Chockablock Cookies: Cookies filled with loads of goodies, such as nuts, dried fruits and coconut. These cookies were picked by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet for this weeks Tuesday with Dorie.

For nuts I used pecans and my dried fruit of choice was fat golden raisins. These tasted really good, but I think I would have loved them more without the oats! Go here to check out the recipe and here to see what my fellow TWD-ers thought of these cookies.

TWD: Dulce de Leche Duos

Since I've posted this post late and I won't be able to pick a winner until Friday as I won't be home until really late on Thursday, I decided to extend my giveaway until midnight CET on Saturday March 27th, 2010. So if you want to win a set of 4 multi-coloured Le Creuset prep bowls and a Nordicware Multi Mini Bundt Pan, go enter here!!

Now on to the important stuff, the reason why you came here..... Tell me: what's the strangest thing you've ever cooked in your life? For me it's cans.... You see I needed dulce de leche for this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie: Jodie of Beansy Loves Cake picked Dulce de Leche Duos, she posted the recipe here. To make and fill the cookies a can of dulce de leche was needed. Ofcourse I couldn't find any here in The Netherlands, I guess this was this weeks 'mystery ingredient'!

But luckily Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen foresaw this problem and gave us several options on how to make your own dulce de leche and dedicated this months Tricks for Treats to show us ways to make our own dulce de leche, thanks Julie!! I opted for cooking two cans of sweetened condensed milk and used this method.

The dulce de leche reminds me of a Dutch product called Bebogeen, some googleing gave my this information on Bebogeen: Dutch Wikipedia says Bebogeen was developed because there was no butter available in the northern part of The Netherlands after the World War II. Sugar beets were processed into a sweet spreadable caramel topping for bread. Bebogeen does not contain fat, but it does contain lots of carbs and can be considered as a Dutch version of the Latin-American dulce de leche. Bebogeen was also mentioned on several other websites/forums, such as in this article about dulce de leche on Absolute Astronomy.

I still have quite a bit of dulce de leche leftover, any ideas on what to do with it?? These cookies were delicious, I sandwiched half the batch with dulce de leche and served the other half as they were. For me the unfilled cookies were already sweet enough, the filled ones were too sweet!!

Go here to find this weeks Leave Your Link to see who made the Duos and what they thought of them!

TWD: Honey-Wheat Cookies

Finally finished this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie: the Honey-Wheat Cookies that were picked by Michelle of Fourchild. These cookies were quite easy to put together, then they need some time in the fridge before you shape and bake them.

They look delicious as they have a lovely golden colour. I'm freezing them so that I can take them into work with me next week. The recipe can be found here or at page 81 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours. Go here to check out what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the Honey-Wheat Cookies.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, I know I got my schedule screwed up: I should have posted about the Honey-Wheat Cookies that Michelle of Flourchild picked as this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie. I guess I should really start writing down what recipe I have to finish when in my agenda! I am going to bake the Honey-Wheat Cookies on my day off tomorrow and post about them Thursday :)

On to My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies: now these cookies were picked for February 16th by Kait of Kait's Place, the recipe can be found here. What can I tell you about these cookies? To be honest: not much.... Since my pain attack and loss of appetite (that lasted for over a monht) around Christmas I haven't been eating a lot of sweets: they have just lost their appeal. I can taste that they are good (or bad), but I simply don't crave them anymore. I will be seduced by the lovely smell and have a bite or two and then somehow there's an aversion to eating the rest... I must admit that this is not necessarily a bad thing as I do have to loss quite a bit of weight: by now I have lost 10,5 kilos without even dieting!!

However I can tell you that these cookies were a huge hit at work, as well as with my mom, dad an SIL. One of my colleagues actually told me that they reminded him of the Chocolate Chip Cookies he had when he was in the United States this summer: crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. You see, the CCC's that are sold here in The Netherlands are mostly chrunchy allover.... I did have my two bites of the cookie and could taste that they were really nice, but they were too sweet for me -->> see, I told you my tastebuds have changed? Cookies and such were never too sweet for me: the sweeter, the better was my motto....

Tomorrow I will tell you about my two adoptees for Adopt-a-Blogger. I'm so excited about finally participating in this event!! I'll also be posting my entry for this month's Taste & Create. And Thurday I will post my Honey-Wheat Cookies for TWD, I promiss!!

Mexican Wedding Cakes: day 9 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

The cookies I picked for day 9 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies are the Mexican Wedding Cakes. I had never tried these and read rave reviews about them all over the Internet.

I decided to give this recipe from Joy of Baking a try. My cookies turned out great: these feel really light and fragile and look so pretty topped with the confectioner's sugar!!

Mexican Wedding Cakes

adapted from Joy of Baking

2/3 cups of toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts) (I used pecans)

1 cup butter at room temperature

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1 cup confectioner's sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 2 bakingsheets with parchment paper. Set aside

Toast nuts: place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly brown and fragrant. Cool. Once the nuts have cooled completely, place them, along with two tablespoons of the flour from the recipe, in your foodprocessor, fitted with a metal blade , and process until they are finely ground (but not a paste). Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the remaining flour and salt and beat until combined. Stir in the nuts. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour or until firm.

Form the dough into 1 inch (2.54 cm) balls and place them 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. (Mine needed 12 minutes) Remove from oven and pleace on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, line another baking pan or tray with parchment or wax paper. Sprinkel about 1/2 cup of the confectioner's sugar on the bottom of the pan and then place the slightly cooled cookies on top of the sugar. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a fine strainer or sieve and then sprinkle the tops of the cookies (or you can just roll the cookies in the sugar, that's what I did).

Store in an airtight container. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Butter Pecan Slice and Bake Cookies: Day 6 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

68 pieces

World Peace Cookies: Day 5 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

So, now on to my favourite chocolate cookie ever!!! For the fifth day of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies I decided to make World Peace Cookies. We made these for Tuesdays with Dorie in february 2009 and this is another cookie that my coworkers keep requesting me to bake again!

Not only are these cookies delicious, but I also think the name is soooo good and appropriate: I mean, doesn't everybody wish for World Peace around Christmas?

The reason why Dorie Greenspan decided to rename these cookies (originally these cookies were called Pierre Hermé's Korova Cookies) after a neighbour claimed that 'a daily dose of Pierre's cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness'.

This recipe made 48 cookies and it can be found here.

White Chocolate Madacamia Nut Cookies: Day 4 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

Today's cookie was picked especially for my mom. My mom was really good this year: she lost a lot of weight and restrained from eating sweets and cookies and such. Now she's off the diet and back to eating normally I wanted to put something in my Christmas Cookies that she would absolutely love.

My mom's favourite chocolate is white chocolate and her favourite nuts are macadamia nuts, so I went, googled and found the perfect cookie over at My Tasty Treasures.



Again: another easy to make, scoop & bake cookie. I baked them for 12 minutes and got 54 cookies out of this recipe. My mom got to test them and said that they were the 'bestest' cookies she ever had!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
(adapted from My Tasty Treasures)

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups chopped macadamia nuts

2 cups white chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
• Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside
• Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla in a bowl with an electrical mixer until creamy
• Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just mixed
• Stir in the macadamia nuts ans white chocolate chips by hand
• Drop by the spoonful onto a greased or lined baking sheet
• Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until edges look golden brown (I baked mine for 12 minutes)
• Cool on the cookie sheet for at least 4-5 minutes so the cookies can set.
• Remove to rack to cool completely
• Enjoy
  
  

Snickerdoodles: Day 3 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

Welcome to day three of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies!! The star of today's post is the amazing Snickerdoodle!!!!

My mom asked me why these cookies had such a seedy name: 'snikkel-doodles'..... You see 'snikkel' is Dutch slang for penis.... I quickly made sure she knew the right name!!

About two years ago I made these for the first (and only) time, I loved how simple it was to make these cookies and how wonderful they tasted and smelled. This was probably because of the cinnamon as my two most favourite smells are vanilla and cinnamon!
This time I used the recipe that I found over at eat me, delicious., the original recipe is by Martha Stewart.


Again, another cookie that is very quick and easy to make! As I love my cinnamon I made two batches of the 'topping'. It tastes great, nice and fluffy and cinnamonny!! This recipe is supposed to make 20 cookies, 40 when you make very small balls. I used my small icecream scoop and got 56 Snickerdoodles out of this recipe, after baking they had a diameter of 6 cm....






Snickerdoodles (as adapted from eat me, delicious)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (I always use salted butter as it is way cheaper than unsalted butter.... I haven't tasted a huge difference so far!)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs

2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
(I had to double this sugar and cinnamon because I had so many cookies!!)

• Preheat the oven at 35o F.
• Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in a bowl and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
• Mix in eggs.
• Reduce speed to low; graually mix in flour mixture.
• Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl (I doubled the amounts for this step).
• Shape dough into 20 (1 3/4 inch) balls; roll in cinnamon sugar (I simply scooped and dropped the scoops in the cinnamon sugar, then rolled them around).
• Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
• Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes (12 minutes were perfect for mine!).
  
  

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops: Day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

So today is the second day of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. For today I picked Dorie Greenspans Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. We made these a while ago for Tuesdays with Dorie and the friends I shared them with loved them so much that they kept requesting me to make them again.

Photo's are from the last time I made these because I totally forgot to take pictures while baking them. One recipe made 32 cookies for me.

The recipe can be found at Confessions of a Tangerine Tart as she was the one who picked this recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie. This time I got 30 cookies out of the recipe.

M&M Cookies: Day 1 of 12 Days of Christmas Cookies

On my search for 12 delicious cookies for my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies to give away for Christmas I found a recipe for M&M Cookies over at Blisstree that sounded really appealing to me.



These were supereasy to put together, one batch made 49 cookies. I baked them for 12 minutes and they turned out perfect: the edges were crunchy whereas the middle stayed nice and chewy: yum!!



Don't you just love my new nail polish? This is 'Smitten with Mittens' by OPI, it's part of the Holiday 2009 collection and it's a gorgeous shimmery red with red/golden glitters in it!
(Sorry guys, I know this is offtopic, but I'm really loving this colour right now!!)



The bottom of these M&M cookies are sooooo cool, the colour of the M&M's sort of rubbed off on the cookies a bit, aren't they 'groovy'?


Here's the recipe, adapted from Blisstree:

M&M Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown suger
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 12 oz package M&M's baking bits (I used a 260 gram bag regular size M&M's)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I skipped these)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in M&M's and walnuts it you are using them
• Drop by heaping tablespoons about two inches apart apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-13 minutes (12 minutes wa perfect for me) or until edges are lightly browned and centers are still soft. Cool on cookie sheet for one minute, then transfer to wire racks.
• Makes about 3 dozen cookies (I got 49 cookies out of this recipe)
• Enjoy!!