The Christmas Cookie Extravaganza of 2012

When I was a young one, I distinctly remember helping my mother bake Christmas cookies.  We'd bake the family favorites - sugar cookies rolled around Hershey kisses or maraschino cherries, buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate), date bars, lemon bars, and a seemingly endless supply of butter cookies.  Those butter cookies were the star of the show, cut in a variety of holiday shapes and iced/sprinkled with care.  A few years, we even made divinity, a traditional Southern candy made with very hot sugar syrup and jello mix.  The divinity was quite memorable, since some of the sugar syrup leaped out of the bowl and onto my hand, instantly blistering skin and instilling in me a healthy respect for sugar work.  

I love the tradition of baking Christmas cookies with my mother.  Even though we've adjusted our routine, making smaller batches and swapping in new recipes for our older ones, it just doesn't feel like the holidays without a flurry of cookie baking and sharing.  

I've extended the tradition to include my coworkers, gifting them with boxes of each year's Christmas cookie offerings.  This year, I was responsible for choosing all of my family's holiday treats, and I wanted to include the familiar flavors of the season.  

Here's what we made...

Chewy Chocolate Mint Cookies

from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

This is their most recent cookbook, separated into sections by their 10 favorite ingredients.  While I've enjoyed their two previous books, this volume is definitely my favorite.  It has a whole section on pumpkin! And chocolate!

About the cookie:  Chewy texture, with a slightly crunchy exterior thanks to a roll in some granulated sugar.  Studded with chocolate chunks.  A rich dark chocolate and strong peppermint flavor

Ginger Rum Molasses Cookies (or Joe Froggers)

from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Their gingersnap recipe won out over the more crunchy version of David Leibovitz and the chocolate-gingerbread version of Martha Stewart.  I suspect the winning factor was the rum...

About the cookie:  Chewy, with a very mild crunch from the demarara sugar we dipped them in before baking.  Uses A LOT of molasses, so that's the major flavor you'll get from these, with a bit of gingerbread spice (ginger, clove, nutmeg....no cinnamon, which was interesting).  My mother claims to clearly taste the rum, but all I can taste is molasses.  Since we used dark rum, which has a strong molasses flavor, maybe we're both tasting the same thing.

Swedish Christmas Cookies

(aka Cardamom Shortbread Cookies)

from the Food Network Kitchens

Last year, we wanted to make traditional holiday cookies from around the world.  In our search for recipes, I stumbled across these shortbread cookies, laden with cardamom and lemon zest.  We didn't make them last year, but, oh boy, are we happy we did this year.  They're such a wonderful change from the other cookies and from more common butter cookies.

About the cookie:  Crumbly and tender shortbread cookies with the barest hint of crunch from the granulated sugar rolled around its edges (you could use colored sugar or chopped nuts to be more festive).  The smell of these cookies baking was marvelous, filling the house with a rich, exotic, spicy scent.  When you bite into one of these, you taste warm and comforting spice - that's the cardamom taking you to the fireside and filling you with warmth.  The lemon zest seems to get lost in the glory of cardamom, but I suspect it's supporting the cardamom's flavor more than I can taste. 

North-by-Far-East Brittle

(aka Spiced Pecan Chews)

from Sugar Baby: Confections, Candies, Cakes, and Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Sugar by Gesine Bullock-Prado

This book tempted me into the finicky land of playing with sugar.  While it has excellent explanations and creative (but do-able) recipes, I've run into problems with making some of the recipes.  I'm not sure if it is the recipe's fault or my own, but I followed this recipe and emerged with a not-so-brittle treat.  I love this cookbook, I'm just baffled about the results. 

About the cookie (err...candy?):  This candy was supposed to result in brittle, which means sheets of candy that snap and break easily into beautiful and irregular shards.  Even though I followed the recipe precisely, my product dried to a thick and chewy candy.  And by chewy, I mean this could sticks to and pulls on your teeth like those caramel apple lollipops you see around Halloween.  Since it was still quite tasty and I hated to see so much food go to waste, I decided to roll with my much chewier than brittle candy.   It's delicious, redolent with flavors of maple syrup, ras-al-hanout spice mix, and toasted pecan pieces.  A welcome change from the toffee so often seen around the holidays.  Eric and I combined our muscles to wrangle cut the "chews" into pieces as small as we could manage.  I'd like to try this recipe again, perhaps with a new and improved thermometer (though I genuinely thought my current thermometer--the third of its ilk in my home--was alright).

Apple Cider Caramels

from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

From one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, this newly released cookbook is not only gorgeous, informative, and incredibly approachable, it's totally my new favorite cookbook.  It'll stay in the favorite category for, well, forever.  It's got everything, and Deb does her typical excellent job of breaking it down and making it work for everyone.  She previewed this recipe on her blog the day the book was released and I vowed to make them immediately.  Immediately came and went, but I still had to make them.  Cider and the promise of all the flavors of fall on your tongue?  How could I resist?

About the candy:  Deb's instructions are easy and clear to follow, but my caramels came out a bit harder than she intended.  Instead of cutting into pliable squares, they shattered along fault lines into pieces of their own choosing.  Oh well. I rolled with this as well.  They're insanely delicious, with a strong taste apple cider (make sure you use a good quality cider, like Trader Joe's!) and a delightful salty counterpoint from fleur de sel.   While these are rather hard in your hand, they soften up quite a bit in your mouth, becoming the stick-to-your-teeth-in-a-dangerous fashion for a bit before settling down to small pieces you can savor.

All these treats were wrapped in wax paper to keep them separate and carefully stowed inside of Martha Stewart's lovely cookie boxes.  They're the easiest and most lovely way I've found to package cookies for gifting.

So far, it seems that my coworkers love all their treats.  Most have declared the apple cider caramels their favorite, though Eric is quite enamored of the chewy chocolate mint cookies, especially once he realized they were chewy and not crispy, like the first cookie he'd sneaked for a taste (serves him right, stealing a cookie and snagging one of the few that didn't turn out properly!).  I'm hard pressed to choose a favorite, since my tastes change with my mood.  I can confidently say, though, that all three cookies are quite delicious in their unbaked form as well.

Oh, and one of the fantastic features of the cookies is how easy they are to make, compared to the usual production of butter cookies (mix dough, chill, roll out sheets, chill, cut shapes, chill, re-roll dough, chill, bake, cool, ice, cool).  My mother and I made all of the doughs the day before, allowing them to chill overnight.  We baked everything in a single day, which was fairly easy with the cardamom shortbreads being a slice-and-bake and the two other cookies being drop/roll into a ball cookies.  

And I promised to give major credit to Eric for his photography in some of these photos.  He was quite artistic in arranging the boxes and the cookie list.  He also snapped several action shots of the candy making process, but I didn't include them here (sorry!).  If he's not careful, he's going to become Hops' official photographer...

It finally feels like Christmas is coming!

What treats do you make for the holiday?

Do you have any family holiday traditions in the kitchen?

Brilliant? Luxurious? Or Just Crazy?

Four words for you. They'll blow your mind. You'll wonder why you hadn't thought of or heard of it before.
Bacon. Chocolate. Chip. Cookies.

Genius or insanity? Either way, it's tasty with a kick from cayenne!

That's right. When I read those four words together, I was floored.  My thought process went a little something like this:  Seriously, someone had to put bacon in chocolate chip cookies? Get over the bacon craze, people! Wait, wasn't that chocolate bar with bacon in it (Vosges Mo's Bacon Bar in dark chocolate) pretty darn tasty? It'd be kinda fun to try making these... It'd be even more fun to watch people's reactions when I offered them a bacon chocolate chip cookie... I know at least 4 people at work who'd flip out. Okay, let's do this...!


So I did.  I'll warn you that these cookies are a bit different because they replace some of the butter with a hefty dose of bacon fat.  Also, even with my cookie monster-like tendencies and ability to eat several cookies at once (should I be proud of that? hmmm...), I couldn't consume more than one of these cookies in a day. They're rich, they're satisfying, they're more than a little over the top.  And they might not be for everyone, but I guarantee you'll find some eager tasters should you decide to dispose of your stash.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Damaris Lewis, Cooking Channel

Ingredients:
10 ounces bacon (preferably applewood smoked)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
pinch of cayenne pepper (about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. depending on your tastes)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (chips or chopped into chunks)

Directions:
Cook bacon in a large skillet until golden and crispy.  Remove bacon to paper towels to drain and cool.  Save the bacon fat in the skillet!  Place a paper towel inside a mesh strainer and pour the bacon fat through to remove any bits of bacon.  Set the strained bacon fat in the refrigerator to partially harden; you want it to achieve similar consistency to the room temperature butter.

Bacon is good for you!

Once the bacon is cool enough to touch, crumble or chop the bacon into approximately 1/2-inch pieces.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and cayenne pepper.

Dry Goods, mixed nicely and waiting to play with the Wet Goods

In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter, chilled bacon fat, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla together.  Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and beat until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate and bacon, being careful not to overmix.

Batter plus bacon

Then there was chocolate

Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough onto the lined cookie sheets, leaving 3 inches between drops.  Bake until set, 8-12 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ready for the oven

Fresh out of the oven

Notes:
--Because the amount of fat you acquire from 10 ounces of bacon may vary, look to add about 1/2 cup of fat.  If you do not have enough bacon fat for 1/2 cup, use additional unsalted butter to cover the difference.

--If you have extra bacon fat, save it!  Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container (I am particularly fond of a small glass jar formerly housing mustard) and use a little dollop of the fat in a wide variety of dishes.  So far, I've employed my extra bacon fat to saute brussel sprouts, onions, mushrooms, and potatoes.

--Words of hard earned wisdom:  add the smallest possible amount of cayenne pepper at first.  Taste the dough and add more if you want.  Though I didn't think it was possible, there is such a thing as too much cayenne pepper.

--Personally, I enjoy the bacon in smaller pieces so I don't have a hunk of bacon to eat in between bites of cookie.  But this is an individual preference, so bacon as you see fit!

You decide-- Crazy or Brilliant?

I'm Trying to Lure Spring Back to Ohio

Is it spring?

Last week, I thought it was. Plenty of sun, some breezes, bright blue skies with puffy white clouds scudding across, brilliantly green grass, a full complement of verdant green leaves on trees, little poofballs of baby ducks and geese crossing the street en route to the pond, and bursts of rain. Spring was here! And especially welcome after a particularly chilly spell the previous week.

I think Spring went a little overboard, though. The humidity shot up, so that even draped in front of a fan, I was still sweating...without even moving. Blurgh. But far more welcome than any winter weather behavior. The rain bursts morphed into monsoon season, and several days went by under entirely gray and wet skies. Blurgh again. What was Spring doing??? It's supposed to be mild, warm and sunny with a little bit of rain. Definitely not this.

Spring must have gone off to sulk, because winter came back with a vengeance. The low temps felt even colder after those few days of sun and warmth and even humidity. No sun, just rain and gray skies and oh-so-cold temps all day and night. I became a human popsicle. We don't control heat in our apartment, and it had been turned off for the year, so our apartment felt like an igloo. Probably colder. Our heater (aka the gas oven) barely helped. This was NOT spring!

The dramatic changes in season have wrecked havoc on my appetite. I'm craving my warm weather foods - fruits and vegetables at their peak, herbs, ice cream. Okay, I crave ice cream regardless of season. (speaking of ice cream, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has a new seasonal set out, called Ohio Loves You. I can't wait to try the Rockmill Ale + Apricots and the Rhubarb + Lime Cardamom!) I'd even filled planters with basic herbs - cilantro (for salsa and thai), mint (for fruit and thai and, if I feel brave, peas and pasta), basil (for tomatoes and thai)as well as a mini tomato plant (salsa and bruschetta) and a jalapeno plant (salsa again). Cold weather changed my tastes back to ooey-gooey cheesey dishes.

Today it's a tiny bit warmer and, at this moment, there is no rain. It's almost sunny (just get out from behind those clouds, sun!). I think Spring is returning. And hopefully it's here to stay. Because I want my herbs and fruits and veggies. I want my sun and my warmth back. I don't want to be a popsicle anymore!

To celebrate the possible return of Spring, I am making a new cookie tonight: Strawberry Shortcake Cookies from the magnificent Martha Stewart. They incorporate fresh strawberries and cream together, along with some of the fantastic and highly addictive crunchy sugar crystals on top. Mmmm! I also have a strong desire to make another batch of Alton Brown's Peach and Rhubarb Cobbler. There's tons of lime zest in the biscuit part and it just sings Spring in your mouth... And to really make my point, I'll be enjoying Rivertown Brewery's Spring Wit Beer - orange, coriander, and unfiltered wheat beer. Ahhh, perfection. Come back Spring, I'm making all your favorites!