Category Archives: cookies

Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Biscotti

With Thanksgiving over, the shift to Christmas happens immediately! We all know that it also mean’s that Santa Claus is coming to town! Santa loves himself some cookies and this one is a perfect match – big on taste and flavor. These chocolate biscotti cookies are made with almonds and dried cherries and then dipped in dark chocolate to make a delicious cookie perfect for dipping into your coffee or hot chocolate. So get your cookie trays ready because remember the the big fat man is coming……….real soon !

From by the bay, waiting to make food memories for the big fat man!
Maryann

Chocolate, Cherry and Almond Biscotti

24 cookies

1 cup dried cherries

½ cup almond slivers

½ cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon shortening (Crisco)

3 eggs

1 cup fine sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

6 oz good quality bittersweet dark chocolate

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. In a bowl add dry ingredients, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix and keep to the side. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and shortening until fluffy. Add sugar and beat well. Add eggs one at a time until well combined. Add vanilla until blended. Add dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix well until the dough is smooth. Using a spoon and mix in the dried cherries and almonds. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and divide into two. Shape each half of the dough into a log approximately 2 inch high x 12 inches long. Place the logs on to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes on a baking rack. Place on a cutting board and using a serrated knife slice each log on the diagonal into 12 pieces approximately 1 inch thick. Place the pieces back on to the baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes, turn the slices to the other side and bake another 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Fill medium pot 1/3 with water and simmer. Add to the top of the pot a glass bowl that sits on the top of the pot to create a bain du marie. Add the chocolate and melt over the simmering water. Don’t let the water touch the glass bowl. Once the chocolate is melted use an offset spatula to cover the end of each cookie. Place chocolate on approximately 1/3 of the cookie on all sides. Allow to set at room temperature on a wire rack . You may also set in the refrigerator for a ½ hour to hasten the process. Store cookies in an air tight container.

Orange Cranberry and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love to walk into my pantry and come out with an idea for cooking based on the ingredients sitting on my shelves. Some of my favorite ingredients are never out of stock – along with my staples, so it wasn’t too hard to walk into that pantry one afternoon and come out with the ingredients to make this twist on the chocolate chip cookie. I love dark chocolate so grabbed a bar off the shelf to cut up into small shards of richness. The dried cranberries will add a little sweet with a slightly tart flavor. I still have a few oranges left from the holidays and love mixing chocolate with orange rind. These were a big hit – you’ll love them! Try them this weekend.

From by the bay wishing you the darkest chocolate chip cookies!

Maryann

Orange Cranberry and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 2 1/2 Dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour, plus two tablespoons

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon orange juice

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat over to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl add the butter, sugars and vanilla. Use an electric mixer and beat ingredients until light and fluffy. Add the egg , orange rind and juice and beat in well. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture slowly and mix at a low speed. Next add the chopped chocolate and dried cranberries and combine. Drop in rounded teaspoons of dough onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until slightly brown on bottom. Remove and cool on wire racks. Store in air tight containers.

Cranberry Pecan Tassies

Cranberry Pecan Tassies

makes 24 cups

Crust:

1 3oz. package cream cheese, softened

½ cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup flour

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Filling:

1 egg, lightly beaten

¾ cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon orange zest

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/3 cup fresh cranberries

1/3 cup pecans, chopped

Directions

Make the crust by blending cream cheese, butter and flour in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. To make filling mix together using a spoon beat together egg, sugar , vanilla, zest and cinnamon. Add melted butter to the mixture slowly, stirring constantly. Stir in the cranberries and pecans. Preheat oven to 350F. Divide the dough for crust into 24 small balls, approximately the size of an acorn. Place each ball into a small muffin tin and press down to line bottom and side of the tin. Spoon filling into each cup. Make sure that there is cranberries in each cup. Be sure not to over fill the cups. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Carefully, remove tassies from the pan using a knife or small spatula. Will last one week in an air tight container or four weeks in the freezer.

Butter Cookie Recipe

It’s Christmas time and who doesn’t love to have a platter of cookies at the ready? Whether you are preparing for guests or just trimming the tree alone – it’s nice to have cookies around the house. This is really the only time of year that I would have containers of different types of cookies around the house. It’s one of my favorite excesses at Christmas. A great cookie to try is this french butter cookie. It’s easy to make and I like having a recipe that doesn’t require a lot of work to add to my cookie assortment. This is my version of a cookie I ate in Paris that was topped with a little pillow of chocolate ganache. It was bliss. I also, make some of these topped with jam, since my sister Nancy is not a big chocolate lover. I suggest doing half of the recipe with jam and the other half with the ganache. Even if you don’t consider yourself a baker, this is an easy recipe to try. Enjoy!

From by the bay wishing you the sweetest memories of cookies and Christmas!

Maryann

Butter Cookie Recipe

Makes 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg

2 cups all – purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

extra granulated sugar to roll dough

jam to fill cookies

Directions:

In a large bowl add the butter, sugar and vanilla. Use an electric mixer and beat ingredients until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat in well. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture slowly and mix at a low speed. Once blended turn out into a sheet of plastic wrap , flatten and wrap. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Place extra granulated sugar onto a plate. Roll dough into acorn size balls and then roll in the sugar. Place each ball onto an ungreased cookie sheets. Use your finger to flatten each ball. Take your thumb and make a small well in the center of the flatten dough. If you are making jam filled cookies, take a small spoon and fill well with about 1/2 teaspoon of your favorite jam. I like to use apricot, raspberry or red currant jam. If you plan to fill with chocolate ganache ( recipe below) bake as is. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. Store in air tight containers.

Chocolate Ganache

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients:

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

Combine all ingredients into a saucepan and place on medium heat, stirring until the chocolate melts and everything is well combined. Pour into a bowl, cover and place in the refrigerator until you can spoon and shape into small pillow of chocolate to place on top of plain french butter cookies and serve. Don’t stack this cookie on your tray.

Spritz Cookies

Definition: Spritz Cookies are make with a cookie press. A cookie press allows the baker to shape dough into uniform shapes quickly. Cookie presses come in a variety of shapes but this is especially wonderful for Christmas entertaining. Cookies can be made into wreaths, trees, stars etc. These butter cookies are really a holiday staple.

My fondest Christmas cooking memory is making cookies with my mother. When I was a little girl, our Christmas tradition was making these wonderful little spritz butter cookies and decorating them. We made them only at Christmas and we would enjoy them through out the holidays. An equally wonderful memory was when my mother handed over to me the official role of baking these cookies for the holidays along with her cookie press. She came over to my house and taught me exactly what to do. I was not so great at making the shapes when we first started so don’t get discouraged when you first attempt these little cookies. If you don’t like how they look just grab up that dough and throw it back into the cookie press and try again. I had to do that a few times before I finally got the hang of it. I was under close supervision by my mother when she taught me how to make these cookies. The way I knew that I had succeeded in my baking was at the end of the afternoon, mom said to me, why don’t I leave the cookie press here with you now. You’ll love these cookies and will want to make it part of your Christmas traditions!

Come back for more Christmas food ideas!

From by the bay wishing you the warmest Christmas food memories!

Maryann

Spritz Sugar Cookies

5 dozen cookies

1 lb unsalted butter

1 ½ cup fine sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

5 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Optional: sprinkles, colored sugar, candied cherries, chocolate to decorate

Requires : cookie press or spritz

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F. In a bowl add dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and salt. Mix and keep to the side. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter until fluffy. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Add eggs one at a time until well combined. Add vanilla until blended. Add dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well until the dough is smooth. Using a spoon put dough into cookie press. Press shaped cookies onto an non stick baking sheet. You can decorate the cookies with colored sugar or sprinkles or candied cherries depending on the shape. Bake in oven for 7 minutes. If using two trays, after 3 minutes rotate baking sheets on oven rack and then bake another 4 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies start to brown. Store cookies in an air tight container.

Holiday decorating

Wreaths: decorate before baking with candied cherry pieces and green sugar.

Trees : with multicolor chocolate sprinkles.

Stars: pressed into a long log and cut into 2 inch pieces. Dip the ends in melted chocolate and then dip into sprinkles

Cranberry and Pecan Biscotti

Cranberry and Pecan Biscotti

24 cookies

½ cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon shortening (Crisco)

3 eggs

1 cup fine granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup dried cranberries

½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using an electric mixer , beat together butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time and mix. Add vanilla and cinnamon until well blended. Add the flour , baking powder and salt. Mix well until the dough is smooth. Using a spoon, mix in the cranberries and pecans. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and divide into two. Shape each half of the dough into a log approximately 2 inch high x 12 inches long. Place the logs on to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes on a baking rack. Place on a cutting board and using a serrated knife slice each log on the diagonal into 12 pieces approximately 1 inch thick. Place the pieces back on to the baking sheet and bake 5-8 minutes, turn the slices to the other side and bake another 5-8 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Store cookies in an air tight container.

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

I like to indulge in the occasional cookie and I can’t think of a better way to indulge than with shortbread. I’ve made shortbread the traditional way, where it’s super crumbly and that’s great, but during a trip to London, I fell in love with shortbread cookies that were rolled out and cut into various shapes and sizes. I love this variation of shortbread especially since you can dip your shapes into chocolate – delicious! I experimented with dulce blond chocolate from Whole Foods for a lovely dulce de leche taste, a major success. This is a perfect cookie for any holiday, you can try hearts for Valentine’s Day, Trees for Christmas or Bunnies for Easter to name just a few ideas.

From by the bay, wishing you buttery shortbread food memories!

Maryann

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

Adapted from Betty Crocker

Makes approximately 48 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened ( 2 sticks), plus 1 -2 tablespoons

3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup chocolate ( semi- sweet, bittersweet or dulce blond)

2 teaspoons shortening

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use an electric mixer to beat together 1 cup butter, sugar and vanilla. On low speed slowly add the flour to combine. If the dough is crumbly add the additional tablespoons of butter. Roll dough 1/2 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Roll dough in one direction to keep the dough smooth. Cut into small rounds using a floured 1 1/2 inch cutter. Place on non stick cookie sheets 1/2 inch apart. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until set and the bottoms are golden brown. Remove from oven and place onto wire rack to cool, about 30 minutes. In a small microwavable bowl add the chocolate and shortening. Microwave on high for 1 minute, remove from oven and stir briskly. Repeat process until chocolate is smooth and melted. Dip half of each cookie into the melted chocolate and place on wax paper until chocolate is set.

Alternate ideas: skip the chocolate and add 2 teaspoons of lemon zest or chopped finely rosemary or finely chopped crystalized ginger. Also, you can cut into other shapes, I like to cut into little mini shapes for a delicate treat.

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Category Archives: cookies

Cranberry Pecan Tassies

Butter Cookie Recipe