About a year ago, I finally cracked the elusive secret to His Lordship’s favorite cookies, the honey, apricot and pecan ones I blogged about a few years before that. At the time, I was celebrating the fact that I was just this-close to perfection, but frankly, that last little inch of close-but-no-cigar continued to drive me insane for quite some time after.

It turns out that I was just one tiny tweak away from the goal, one change so simple it was practically staring me in the face every time I opened the cupboard. The solution was so obvious yet so cunning that I felt both dense and smug when I tried it and it worked.

Ready? Here it is:

That’s right, bread flour. All the cookies needed were a tiny bit more structure, and using a slightly higher-protein flour was all it took to achieve it. No fiddling with the formula, no experiments with adding more flour in tiny increments, just one simple substitution. With that one change, I stopped the spreading and eliminated the need for all that guesswork about exactly when to take them out of the oven. I got all the puff, body and reliability I’d been after all along, and they received His Lordship’s full, effusive, grinning stamp of approval.

I know some might be looking at this recipe and thinking, “Yeah, sure, those sound yummy enough, but they can’t really be special enough for the holidays. And are they really THAT good?”

To that I say it may be difficult to believe given the absence of chocolate, but more than one person has informed me that these are the best cookies in the world. They’re intensely butterscotchy, sweetly multidimensional thanks to the honey, and simultaneously chewy, crispy, fruity and nutty. It’s all the kinds of decadence you’d expect from a holiday cookie, with the bonus of being low-effort enough to make throughout the whole year to come.

You’ll just have to make a batch to see whether you too think these are the best in the world, but even if you ultimately decide another cookie holds first place in your heart, I promise you won’t be sorry to have this one in your repertoire.

Honey Apricot Pecan Cookies, Perfected
Makes 5-6 dozen

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
2 cups dried apricots, coarsely chopped

Melt the butter and place it and the honey in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. In the meantime, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Once the butter is at room temperature, add the granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla, and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and stir on low until barely blended, then mix in the pecans and apricots. Cover the bowl and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop out the dough with a tablespoon-sized scoop and place two inches apart on the sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown in the middle and a bit darker at the edges. Cool the cookies on their sheets until they’ve firmed up, then slide them onto a rack with their parchment to finish cooling.

Notes:

I made twice this amount this time, because I was snowed into the house and had nothing better to do all day, so I’ll be mailing some out as well as taking them into the office. Apart from losing a few bits of pecan and apricot out the top of the nearly-too-full mixing bowl, it worked perfectly, so feel free to scale up.

Don’t be tempted to skip the refrigeration step, though. The resting period is important for hydrating the flour and developing the full magnificence of the dough, as I’ve pointed out before. You can also scoop out the dough, pop it into bags, and freeze it to have cookies on demand.

The bread flour does an excellent job of firming up the cookie dough, but the dough should still not be allowed to get too warm.  It wouldn’t hurt to put the mixing bowl back in the fridge while waiting for a tray to come out of the oven.

The now-defunct bakery that inspired this cookie also had a variation with dried cranberries and walnuts instead of apricot and pecan. I imagine you could split the batch in half just after mixing in the dry ingredients, and get twice the festive punch out of one dough.

Not your garden-variety carrot cake

I must confess that this entry in the weekly baking series had me a little nervous, and I even considered lying by omission with respect to one of the key ingredients when I brought it into work on Monday. I mean, I’m a massive fan of the lowly parsnip and consider it utterly inoffensive, but I know people can have weird knee-jerk reactions when it comes to vegetables, especially in baked goods. I’ve known people to freak out over plain old zucchini bread.

But I obviously worried over absolutely nothing, because I can’t even adequately describe what a huge hit this was with the coworkers. The “parsnip” prominently displayed on the accompanying Post-It note doesn’t seem to have deterred anyone, and people were gushing and demanding the recipe for days after. And who could blame them, when these muffins are so fantastically spicy, chewy, sweet and moist that the cream cheese frosting I offered on the side really was viewed as superfluous?

So what possessed me to mix parsnips into a carrot cake recipe in the first place? It was a lucky impulse born of nostalgia and facilitated by the fact that, just as I do with cranberries, I hoard parsnips this time of year. They start showing up in supermarkets right before the holidays before disappearing rapidly again in January. Don’t ask me why, since I think they’re lovely even after Christmas has passed, but produce buyers can be short-sighted that way.

I had been intending to make carrot cake for the past month or so, since our anniversary. My prior love of carrot cake for its own sake was amplified when it unexpectedly became our wedding cake thanks to the very obliging host of the B&B His Lordship and I had eloped to. We hadn’t planned on having one and had in fact gone all-out at dinner, but were surprised and touched when we got back to our room and found the prettily decorated top tier of her friends’ anniversary cake, which the host had brought home for us from their party. It made a great breakfast the next morning, and ever since I’ve had a special craving for carrot cake this time of year.

While I was pulling the carrots out of the vegetable bin, I saw the parsnips and thought what the heck. Parsnips are practically the same as carrots anyway, and although they’re pretty rare, I had heard of parsnip cakes before. Just to play it safe, I went with a 50-50 ratio and added the resulting shred to my favorite carrot cake recipe, which is already fabulously easy and delectable.

Do you notice the parsnips? Well, not unless you really concentrate. They’re so pale that they disappear into their speckled surroundings once baked, and all you see are the sturdier carrots. If you focus, you can taste their distinctively spicy sweetness behind the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, but the non-cognoscenti could just as easily assume that was a pinch of cardamom or ginger instead. If you’re really skittish about the parsnip thing, or want to try this in May when there’s nary a parsnip to be found, you can make it with all carrots instead, and I promise you’ll love them just as much.

If you do fancy an adventure or want to sneak some additional variety into your kids’ or your coworkers’ diets, though, try this out! It’s fun, and who says you shouldn’t play with your food?

Carrot-Parsnip Spice Muffins
(Adapted from Carrot Cake in America’s Test Kitchen’s The New Best Recipe)
Makes 2-3 dozen muffins

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup “white” whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups grated parsnips (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups canola or grapeseed oil

For the frosting (seriously optional):

8 ounces softened cream cheese
5 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350F. Line 2-3 muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

Combine the sugars and eggs in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until the brown sugar has completely broken up and distributed throughout, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the oil through the feed tube in a steady stream, and continue processing until the mixture is light in color and resembles mayonnaise.

Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and fold until the flour is mostly incorporated, then fold in the carrots and parsnips.

Fill the tins with the batter half to two-thirds full, depending on how many muffins you would like to end up with and how ample their tops. Bake until a skewer inserted into a muffin comes out clean, 25-28 minutes. Cool the muffins completely in their tins.

In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, honey and vanilla. Process until well combined, then add the powdered sugar and continue processing until smooth. If the frosting is not sweet enough, add a bit more honey and pulse again.

Ice the cooled muffins with the frosting, or serve the frosting alongside as a spread. Unfrosted muffins will keep at room temperature for a day, but frosted ones and any leftover frosting should be covered and refrigerated.

Notes:

If it seems as though I’m using a lot of this “white” whole wheat flour, which is made by King Arthur and a few other vendors, it’s because I really love the stuff. Not only is it a snap to swap out some of the white flour in a recipe and add some extra nutrition value without any textural harm at all, but the extra wheatiness really plays well in recipes with a lot of spice, like this one. If you don’t want to go that route, simply use 2 1/2 total cups of all-purpose flour instead.

I didn’t want any embellishments this time, but if you’re a fan of walnuts and/or raisins in your carrot cake (I like the former but can seriously leave the latter), you could stir in 1 to 1 1/2 cups of either or both along with the carrots and parsnips.  In that case, you will probably also have to add at least 5 more minutes to the baking time.

In the future, I may try making this entirely with parsnips. If it’s a success, I’ll definitely report back.

Onion soup is one of the supposed betes noires of vegetarianism. They will tell you that it can’t be done without meat stock, and more specifically without beef stock — homemade from roasted beef bones, of course. They will tell you to give it up, because a vegetarian-friendly onion soup by definition will be bland, feeble, and worse than nothing.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It’s just a matter of expanding your definitions a bit and being a little more creative. While this version is not identical to the beef-based original, it is no less deep, dark, and wonderful. Even better, it’s fast and easy enough for even your most harried mid-week dinner, especially if the weather is as miserably damp and grey as it has been around here lately. The only downside is that slicing this many onions will make you weep quantities of tears Ron Howard would sell his last remaining hairs to evoke and quite likely will stink up your house. It’s a small price to pay for this level of heartstring-plucking warmth (which, again, Opie would kill for).

You could go whole hog and gratin the tops of individual portions with shredded Gruyere, or serve alongside a grown-up grilled cheese made with artisan bread and the fancy cheese of your choice. It would also meet with my full approval were you to be moved to whip up a batch of these:

Cheese Biscotti

Vegetarian Onion Soup
Serves 2-3 as a main course, 4 as a first course

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups thinly sliced onions (see note below)
1 cup apple cider
4 cups vegetable stock
2 teaspoons dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the butter and oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat until the butter is barely starting to brown. Add the onions, tossing to coat with the fat, and cook, stirring intermittently, until the onions are seriously browned and caramelized, around 15 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the cider, scraping the bottom thoroughly to pick up all the yummy solids. Add the stock, thyme, salt and pepper, partially cover the pot, and simmer until the onions are meltingly soft, 20-30 more minutes.

Notes:

I favor a combination of yellow onions, red onions and shallots. I think this gives the soup a little more nuance, but if plain old yellow is all you have, go right ahead and use those. I would not use very sweet varieties like Walla Walla or Vidalia, since as lovely as they are for other things, they tend to make an insipid soup, and you’re already getting sweetness from the cider.

I use the “chicken” flavor bouillon concentrate, but if you have good homemade veggie broth, by all means use that.

Despite not liking cooking shows, I figured that Cake Boss surprised me so it’s worth trying this out too. The narrator promises that the show will be bigger and better than those before, so we’ll see.

To start with, there will be some tips: turn on the stove before cooking (Bonnie), always taste your food before serving it (Colleen), there’s no crying in Hell’s Kitchen (Aaron)…Then comes Chef Ramsay who asks if they’re ready. He tells them to get in the kitchen and cook their signature dishes. He seems like just the type of person you’d want to be around in a high pressure situation. This is the best way to test a chef’s ability. Well, so far they seem to be remembering the rules they were given.

This year’s prize is: they’ll become the head chef of the finest chef in Canada. That’s almost a punishment…but it is where the 2010 Olympics are being held, so that’s super cool. It’s men vs women (red vs blue). Their dishes will go against each other as teams.

First dishes: the rice looks undercooked but she doesn’t think it is. She has the guy taste it and he says it’s chalky. Suzanne says he’s ignorant. It’s hard. Dave makes ostrich. He idolizes him. Ransay says it’s very nice meet but undercooked brussel sprouts. Neither teams get points.

Second dish: Tek has no career right now. Ramsay’s opinion of her food, it’s nice. Louie’s dish is gross looking. Ramsay tastes it and spits it out. It tastes like gunk. Ladies get one point.

Third dish: Joseph’s dish also has uncooked brussel sprouts. He says he’s not an animal and wants to use a fork to eat. (dude, pick your battles!) Tenneille’s is nice. The women get another point.

(So far I am going to say, the saving grace of this show is the chef has a very big, obnoxious personality. It’s always fun to watch people be belittled by someone…)

Fourth dish: Amanda made a french toast dish with tequila and he looks shocked. Tony (who has never gone to culinary school) made a dish that has potential. Ladies 2-Men 1.

Fifth dish: Melinda’s dish is missing the lobster tail. She had some trouble. Jim is told to take his coat off. Ramsay says his dish is delicious. The score is tied.

Sixth dish: no scores

Seventh dish: no scores

Eighth and final dishes: he looks at Sabrina, the women’s one and says wow, but it’s too hot for Ramsay. Van’s a beer drinker with a sophisticated palette. Ramsay tastes it and finds it intriguing. Men win 3-2.

Ramsay tells the women their punishment for losing is to clean the kitchen, which looks like it’s exploded. The men gets a special dinner from Ramsay’s restaurant. Heather from season tw will be helping to run the women’s kitchen while Scott has returned to run the blue kitchen. The women’s dinner is baloney sandwiches (which one of the contestants thought was illegal in California–huh?)

Waiting on the women’s beds were a book of recipes. The guys party in the hot tub meanwhile. The guys haven’t even started looking at their cookbooks. Hell’s kitchen is reopening and the chefs are cooking. The women are prepared the men seem sluggish. He’s angry at Lovely for already cooking the dishes when they’re supposed to be cooked when ordered. They’re not even open and already she’s screwed up. Suzanne steps up to fix it.

The restaurant is open. The restaurant has been revamped.  The women seem ready but the men can’t seem to remember the order.

The scallops of Tek’s dish are raw. Everyone seems to be having issues with them. Lovely’s pasta is overcooked. The guys made too few scallops. The customers are beginning to wonder where the food is.

Ramsay brings Robert back. For what is unclear right nowl.

The men succeed with an order and the women are still struggling to get out an order. They can’t seem to get the stupid scallops right. They have to keep trying. The men move on to entres. Louie puts the lamb in the oven unprepared. The guys rally to help Louie and the red team comntinues to work on the appetizers. The women think the pasta is ready but he says it’s not quite cooked. They threw it out instead of just continuing to cook. Ramsay sees how much pasta is in the bin and freaks out.(Ten appetizers and still no success.)

The men have already served 8 appetizers. Louie was cooking the spinach when his job is the meat. Ramsay is pissed.

Lovely has gone missing. She started feeling sick and drank four bottles of water. They keep struggling. Amanda put the salmon in the freezer by accident. Ramsay calls her ditsy. Lovely returns.

Ramsay is unhappy with Louie’s dish. I’m not even sure what Ramsay is freaking out about at the moment but he kicks Louie out of the kitchen and tells him to go pack his bags. Ramsay then tells them to turn off the kitchen. His plan is to ask Robert to come back (he left because of health problems) and Robert agrees. Ramsay says he’s talented and deserves to come back. The restaurant applauses. His wife cries with happiness. (This might be more exciting had I watched other seasons.) Ramsay explains who Robert is to the rest of the staff and then tells them everything was bad on opening night. Amanda, Melinda, and Lovely really screwed up.Both teams were shockingly terrible but the men managed to serves some entres while the women did not and they therefore leave. They must nominate two people for elimination.

The discussion: “clearly Melinda you don’t want to be here” “yes I do” They nominate her. Someone then puts Lovely’s name in there so then they bring up Amanda’s name. (This could be so dramatic in the future, it always is in the Real World/Road Rules Challenge show.)

Melinda is the first one nominated. (Amanda got the women a point in the first round so I’d but Lovely up.) The second choice is…Amanda. Even though Lovely disappeared for 40 min! He alls Amanda and Melinda forward. Melinda says she should stay because she has a passion for cooking and she loves the kitchen,. Amanda says she can do better. She wants to show what she can do. Ramsay’s decision is…(flash to him yelling at each) Melinda will be leaving. He expected more. She at least doesn’t freak out like Louie.

To strengthen the ladies team, he puts Robert on the women’s team. He tells them they are all zeros right now.

I think I can get into this. Maybe not to watch regularly or with any particular urgency to know what happened, but certainly as something to pass the time.

Next Episode

Those of you in the southern latitudes might be sick of wintry food and have probably already moved on to mircrogreens and asparagus, but up here it’s still freezing and miserable and there’s still need for comfort. I can think of few dishes more comforting when the weather’s horrid than shepherd’s pie, and this one has the additional benefit of being kind to the sheep.

Yes, once again, it’s a recipe based on lentils. Don’t knock them. Lentils are cheap, delicious, nutritious, and cook quickly. Here they make a perfect stand-in for the usual beef or lamb, since they have a similar texture and a deep and substantial savoriness that’s perfect against the fluffy starchiness of the potatoes.

If it’s more than nominally spring where you are, you can tuck this away for six or seven months. Otherwise, please give this one a try now, especially if you’re having a bunch of guests over, since it can be assembled well ahead and baked when they arrive in need of warmth and welcome.

Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie
Serves 6-8

1 cup lentils
1 large bay leaf
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups each finely diced onion, celery and carrots
2 cups diced cremini or white button mushrooms
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 large sprig fresh sage
1 large handful fresh parsley
1/2 bag frozen peas
Salt, pepper, and splashes of soy sauce to taste
5-6 medium Russet or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons butter, plus additional for dotting the top

In a medium pot, boil the lentils with the bay leaf in just enough liquid to keep them covered until just tender, adding more boiling water if necessary. Be sure not to drain the lentils once they’re cooked.

Saute the onion, celery, carrots and mushrooms in the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the vegetables just begin to caramelize. Add the tomato sauce, the lentils with their liquid, and the fresh herbs, leaves torn roughly by hand. Simmer until the liquid has mostly evaporated, then season with salt, pepper, and soy. Stir in the frozen peas and turn off the heat.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and salt well. Boil the potatoes until tender, then drain and mash or put through a ricer. Stir in the butter.

Butter a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Decant the lentil filling into the dish, then spread the mashed potatoes over the top evenly. Create ridges or swirls in the mashed potatoes and dot the top with tiny bits of butter to promote browning.

Place the pie on a baking sheet to catch any drips, and bake the pie at 375 F until the potatoes are browning nicely and the filling is just starting to bubble, 20-30 minutes.

Let sit for a couple of minutes, then serve.

Notes:

You can cut the recipe back at will, by half or even thirds. This just happens to be the amount that fits in my baking dish, and I like the leftovers so much that I don’t mind eating this for several days, which is contrary to my usual low tolerance.

The lentil variety doesn’t matter as much as in some other recipes. You can use whatever you have and prefer. In fact, I often mix brown lentils with French green or black beluga, since the brown ones will break down more and stick the filling together, while the firmer lentils will provide extra texture.

This recipe is easy to make vegan, since the only dairy is the butter in the mashed potato topping, which could be replaced with olive oil.

This is the gingerbread recipe I’ve been making since I can’t even remember when, probably college or just after.  Its origin is in a long-gone December issue of Vegetarian Times, but I’ve made so many changes along the way that at this point I think it’s fair to call it mine.

Although there are a lot of spices, the quantities are such that these are just nicely spicy instead of obnoxious.  The addition of the orange zest and ground almonds further mellows things out and sets them a step above your average gingerbread people.

The dough is supple and easy to roll and decorate, if you’re so inclined, but it makes perfectly good plain slice-and-bake cookies as well.  It also freezes beautifully and makes a ton, so if you’d like to stockpile for later use, it’s a great choice.

The recipe below, like the shortbread, is doubled because I needed enough cookies to send to everyone and their grandmother.  Halving it will make a much more manageable but still highly generous quantity.

Spiced Gingerbread Cookies
Makes 8 dozen

1/2 cup honey
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup molasses (mild or strong, but not blackstrap)
4 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
4 teaspoons grated orange zest
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon each mace and nutmeg, or 1 teaspoon of either
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In a small saucepan, combine honey, butter and molasses. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and cool for several minutes.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in honey mixture until thoroughly incorporated.

Divide dough into four equal parts.  For slice-and-bake cookies, roll each part into a log and tightly wrap in plastic.  If you prefer to roll and cut shapes, pat each part into a disk before wrapping. Refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

If slicing, cut each log in 1/8 inch slices and transfer to sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart.  If rolling out, roll on a lightly flour surface to 1/8 inch, and cut with cookie cutters.  If necessary, re-chill rolled dough to preserve integrity of the shapes.

Bake for 5 minutes, or until firm.  Cool completely on racks before decorating or eating plain.

Notes:

The spices can be varied as you like.  For example, if you’re not a cardamom fan, leave it out and increase the cinnamon or ginger.  If you prefer a deeper note, substitute cloves for the cardamom or allspice.

How crisp these are depend on how thick you make them and how long you bake them.  If you slice or roll thickly and remove them while they’re still soft to the touch, they will be soft and cakey.  if you prefer them really crisp, make them flatter and remove only once they’re really firming up.  For maximum crunch, let them cool completely on the sheet.

The original recipe, way back in the darkness of time, was vegan, and could easily be again if you’re OK with honey.  Just substitute vegan margarine for the butter, and you’re off.  It might be possible to swap agave nectar or brown sugar for the honey, but I haven’t tried it.

People tend to get touchy about any foods deeply tied to holiday tradition, and the humble cranberry sauce is no exception.  What seems like a simple matter of fruit and sugar has the potential to set off firestorms of difference of opinion.

My mother, for example, is a purist.  She insists on the absolute bare basics: berries, sugar, orange juice.  That’s it; no spices, no weird additions, and do not even think about chutney-izing it.  His Lordship is a fan of the congealed kind that plops out of a can in one tubular, sliceable mass — much to my initial horror, although I’ve since come to accept that we all have our food quirks and you can’t fight them.  You, for all I know, might be of the cabernet and cloves persuasion, or one of those people who blitzes raw berries and whole oranges in the food processor to create a salsa, and that’s okay too.

Me, I’m of a kitchen-sink bent.  I have been known to do all manner of messing with my Thanksgiving condimentation.  For a few years, I was determined to figure out exactly how much of my spice cabinet I could cram into there. (In case you’re curious, allspice and cranberries get along quite nicely together).  Since then, the mania has dampened and I’ve settled on a variant that is neither Mom-simple nor out-of-control wacky, one that is bright and interesting and seasonal and undoubtedly mine.

More than that, it’s me.  In this one ruby concoction is a snapshot of who I am.  Each component offers a fragment of my story and a hint about my experiences and my tastes:  cranberries for the bog obsession I developed in my New England years and quinces for my childhood, orange for my citrus addiction, ginger for all the Asian influences in my California upbringing and adult life, and vanilla bean for my food snobbery.  It all works together and, unlike my earlier spicy pyrotechnics, won’t clash with your turkey.  It’s also versatile enough to spoon over ice cream or use in my favorite post-Thanksgiving leftover application: grilled cheese sandwiches with cranberry sauce.

You’re welcome to try my story, or stick with your own.  Either way, I wish you a rich and vibrant start to your holiday season.

(Unless you’re Canadian, in which case keep up the good work!)

Cranberry Sauce with Quince, Pear and Vanilla
Makes 4 cups

One 12-ounce bag cranberries
2 fresh quinces, peeled, cored and diced OR 1/2 cup quince jam
2 ripe pears, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup granulated sugar
Grated zest of one orange
Juice of one orange, plus enough water to make 1 cup
1 pinkie-sized knob of ginger, grated (approximately 2 teaspoons)
1/2 vanilla bean, split
Pinch of salt

Pick over the cranberries and remove any squishy ones.

If using quince jam, set aside for later addition.  Combine all (remaining) ingredients in a saucepan.

Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until the cranberries have popped and the quinces and pears are tender.  Remove from heat and let cool. If using quince jam, stir into the sauce as soon as it comes off the heat.

Cover and refrigerate or freeze until needed.

Notes:

Dumping the cranberries into a large bowl of cold water will help you sort them, since the really squishy ones will sink to the bottom while the good or mostly-good ones will float on the surface.  I then scoop small handfuls of the floating berries and run them between my fingers to catch the partially-squishy ones.

If you can find fresh quinces, they are absolutely worth buying, but some waste is inevitable because of the toughness of the peel and core.  If necessary, use a paring knife instead of a peeler, and slice as close as you can to the core without cutting into it to get as much of the fruit as possible.

If you can’t find fresh quinces, quince jam or paste can frequently be found at Latin American, Indian, Pakistani, Greek and Middle Eastern groceries.

Since this makes a large amount of sauce and we’re a small household even with holiday guests, I usually freeze half the batch for Christmas.  It will keep perfectly well for even longer than that month in the freezer, and that’s one less thing to do when you’re up to your eyeballs in holiday cookie baking and gift wrapping.

Brown Butter Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

While driving home through a particularly nasty thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, I had a good long think about what I wanted to do for Sunday Night Cookie Blogging. I really wanted a simple cookie, without any chocolate after last week’s brownie blitz, and with a strong butterscotch flavor.

On getting home, I rummaged through the cupboards for more candidates in the pantry elimination, and, noticing the unopened tub of old-fashioned oats, remembered the recipe for crisp oatmeal cookies I’d been meaning to try from Cook’s Illustrated several months back. Digging the magazine out of the pile on top of the microwave, I was pleased to see that the coconut variation conveniently called for exactly the amount of sweetened coconut I had left. The decision practically made itself.

While the recipe sounded great, I didn’t think it would have quite the butterscotch depth I was craving, so I decided to really amp things up by browning the butter first. Because I also prefer smaller cookies, I cut the size of the cookies in half.

The resulting cookie not just met but exceeded all my expectations, and was wildly popular with the coworkers, who snarfed them all up well before lunchtime. It’s unassuming in appearance, but those humble little freckles pack a wallop of noisette intensity, and the texture is shatteringly crisp and light. It’s a very grown-up oatmeal cookie, elementally airy and earthy at the same time, and I’ll absolutely be making it again. Next time, I might make it even more sophisticated by trying the suggestion of sprinkling with flakes of Maldon salt or fleur de sel on top before baking.

Flecks of Toasty Buttery Goodness

In the win-win-win column, it also used up all my remaining coconut and half the oats, but the important thing is that these are spectacularly delicious.

Brown Butter Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
( Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated January/February 2008 )
Makes 5 dozen

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned, not instant or quick)
1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and bring to a simmer. Lower heat as necessary to maintain a vigorous simmer and continue to cook, swirling occasionally, until butter separates into a dark golden liquid layer and a deep brown layer of caramelized milk solids and gives off a nutty aroma. Be careful not to let the solids turn black.

Pour butter into a liquid measuring cup, making sure to get all the delicious brown solids out of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it solidifies.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars until fluffy, scraping down the sides once. Beat in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Scrape down again, return to low, and mix in the oats and coconut until uniformly incorporated. Cover the dough and chill until firm enough to roll into balls, at least half an hour.

Preheat oven to 350, and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons (I use a small scoop) and roll into balls. Place balls on sheet 2 inches apart and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness with your fingertips.

Bake until golden, 14-16 minutes. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool completely on the sheet. Once cool, store in airtight containers to maintain crispness.

Notes:

In case you’re nervous about browning butter and want to have an idea of what it should look like, here’s an expert’s take on it.

If you’re not a coconut fan, you could leave it out and increase the oatmeal to the 2 1/2 cups in the original plain version, although I still urge you to brown the butter.

I won’t even bother with the usual feeble attempt at excusing the lags in blogging. Let’s just look at the pretty picture and forget all about it, OK? Right, moving on…

This lovely little morsel evolved out of my interest in this recipe, which I ran across mid-week and knew I wanted to try over the weekend. I love dulce de leche and I love coconut, so the idea of combining them was irresistible. I stocked up on coconut milk and happily boiled away until I had two and a half cups of caramel, which was…

…to be honest, not everything I had hoped for. I had wanted a clean coconut and caramel flavor, but the brown sugar flavor was a bit overwhelming and it imparted a less than stunning greyish cast to the finished gel. It was still tasty, though, and I still love the idea, so I might try it again soon with white sugar instead.

In the meantime, I had two and a half cups of this interesting goo. In trying to find uses for it, it occurred to me that the taste and texture were very much like the filling for German chocolate cake, only more coconutty. A few quick mental hops later, I had pulled together the following recipe by adapting one of my favorite old-fashioned chocolate fudge cake recipes, from Scharffen Berger’s house cookbook, The Essence of Chocolate. I carried the coconut theme even further by substituting coconut milk for the heavy cream in the frosting, which worked seamlessly. Since coconut milk is shelf-stable and always in my cupboard, unlike cream, which I have to make special trips for, I will probably do this all the time in the future.

As I discovered when I brought them to work this morning, German chocolate cake has a massive fan base. There are a fair amount of steps involved here, but these were such a huge hit that I will definitely pull out the recipe for special occasions. If you’re so inclined, you can turn this back into a full-sized cake by following the baking instructions for the original recipe.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 36

For the coconut caramel:
2 14-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the coconut ganache:
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cupcakes:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons espresso powder
1 cup boiling water

For the coconut-pecan topping:
1 cup coconut caramel
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

To make the caramel:

Whisk ingredients together in large heavy pot over medium heat until sugar has dissolved and mixture comes to a boil. Lower heat and simmer vigorously, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened to a caramel texture and reduced to approximately 2 1/2 cups, about 30-40 minutes.

Transfer to glass jars and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate once cool.

To make the ganache:

In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and coconut milk and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6 minutes.

Remove from heat, add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted. Pour into a bowl and stir in the vanilla. Cool until thickened to a spreadable consistency.

To make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 3 cupcake tins with paper liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda on low speed.

In a liquid measuring cup, mix together eggs, oil and milk. Add liquid ingredients to mixer and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Dissolve espresso powder in boiling water. Reduce mixer to low speed and add water mixture, blending just until a very liquid batter forms.

Ladle batter into lined cupcake tins, filling each cup just over half full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until tester inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in tins.

To finish the cupcakes:

While the cupcakes are cooling, spread the pecans and the coconut on separate quarter-sheet pans and toast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until pecans are fragrant and coconut is pale gold. Stir midway through toasting to prevent the coconut from burning. Set aside to cool while frosting the cupcakes.

Frost each cupcake with a generous amount of ganache, then set aside briefly to set up while finishing the topping.

Chop pecans medium-coarsely and mix together with coconut and approximately one cup of the caramel, or just enough to bind the pecans and shredded coconut together. Top each cupcake with a large scoop of the sticky mixture, and serve.

Recipe Below: Filet Au Poivre 8 Servings

Presented by: Chefuniforms.com

Chef Holger Strütt’s career spans three continents and many countries, all bringing him to a high level of culinary excellence, applied at Chops Lobster Bar in Boca Raton, Florida. In his native Germany, he made his first strides to a career in the kitchen at the young age of 15, when he decided to pursue vocational training in the culinary arts. His impressive resume includes positions in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, where he perfected the finer points of regional European cuisine. Chef Holger believes in perseverance, consistency, attention to detail and leadership by example. He thrives on the pressure of a busy kitchen and he knows that working at the helm of Chops Lobster Bar’s kitchen is always an exhilarating experience. He has an intense hands-on approach to managing his kitchen and enjoys working with the talented chefs of south Florida. I had a chance to catch up with Holger to ask him about his experiences as an Executive Chef and wanted to share this with you. I invite your comments.

Why did you want to become a chef? My sister worked in a restaurant and introduced me to the business. I was 15 when I had to decide what I wanted to do in life.

What education would you recommend for aspiring chefs? Definitely go to Culinary School and after that go and spend some time in Europe, Germany, France, Switzerland or Austria to learn the basics and the European way of cooking.

What do you recommend for on job training? Don’t be shy of spending 12 hours a day in the kitchen and work closely with the chefs. Get as much input as you can while you’re in the beginning stages of your culinary career.

What is your greatest challenge in getting the ingredients you need? I am very fortunate to work with the best purveyors in the country. Sometimes it takes a little longer for products to get to Florida.

Has the price of energy affected your industry? Absolutely. You have to be very cautious with when you turn your equipment on and off. Power and water are not cheap.

I know that previously you were a chef in Northeast and now you are in South Florida, are their differences in dining trends including types of food? Of course. In New York you find every kind of cuisine and the quality is very high. It is very difficult to find some ethnic foods here in south Florida.

Do you see any dining trends surfacing for the future? I believe that Classic dishes are going to come back very strong. Traditional food like Crab Cakes, Beef Wellington and Dover Sole always are favorites and that will not change.

How much of the recipes are Chops corporate and how much is your own? Many of the signature dishes are from the restaurants in Atlanta. I also developed many recipes with the owner and his son. I also do a lot of specials. When the specials become popular and the owner likes it then we might put them on the menu.

What fabric and style of uniform do you enjoy wearing most? I prefer Egyptian cotton and recently started to like short sleeve jackets.

What is your method of developing your sous chefs? I like for them to spend as much time with me as possible and pay attention to what I do during the day. You learn a lot by listening and observing and by being in the kitchen, not at home. We have a job that demands a lot of time being at the restaurant. But if you work hard, the profession of a chef can be a lot of fun and very rewarding in many different ways.

Do you try to create a team spirit and environment with the kitchen staff? If so how do you accomplish it? You have many different characters in the kitchen and most of them need a different management style. We spend a lot of time together in the kitchen, so it is important to have fun, but never forget why we are here. We have to produce quality food and make sure that our guests leave happy. I have a young team and I believe in teamwork. Teamwork is the key for a good spirit in the kitchen.

When preparing your menu do you consider health and try to prepare foods that are healthier? You always have to have both; Healthy food and then hearty food which is not so healthy. In Chops Lobster Bar, I have many health oriented people that like light food, so some of my fish dishes are very healthy in comparison to my meat dishes that are mostly steaks or braised meats.

Do you notice any resistance to unhealthy dishes? Yes. Many of our guests don’t like too much butter or any kind of fat.

Do you enjoy dining out in your free time? Yes I do. I like to try new restaurants. There are also some restaurants where I like to go on a regular basis.

Do you try to experience the food at your competitors? Do you ever get ideas from competitors? Not really. I like to cook food that I like and my guests like to eat. I go to the competitors for dinner, but don’t steal recipes. Although, you might get ideas you can work with.

Do you think it is important to visit the markets rather than just have standard orders? I am sure if you go to the market you see things that you would like to cook rather than just ordering the food. Not too many chefs’ though have the luxury of time to drive to the fish or produce market every day. My purveyors have such a large variety of things that I don’t really need to go to the market.

How do you test a new recipe without putting it on the permanent menu? I try it as a special for a couple of weeks and then take it off. If people keep asking for it I will bring it back and after discussing it with the owner it may appear on the menu.

Do you pick the wines or is there a separate beverage manager? We have a Beverage Manager, although I love good wines.

If so does he try to pick wines that work well with the type of food that chops is known for? Yes, he tries to pick wines that work well with Steaks and Seafood.

What is your advice for planning a menu for a new restaurant? You have to consider what the majority of people want to eat. It can be different from State to State and City to City. Make sure that the food is tasty and not too wild. Don’t go crazy putting too many ingredients on the plate. Keep it simple!

As a special surprise, Chef Holger offered up one of his recipes that will be sure to make your mouth water and your taste buds tingle. Let me know how it comes out.

Filet Au Poivre 8 Servings

• 8 each Filet Mignon (8 ounces each)
• 4 tablespoons ounces vegetable oil
• Salt
• 1 cup cracked peppercorns (black, white and green)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cups sliced Portobello mushrooms (see recipe)
• 2 tablespoons shallots, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons chives finely cut
• 8 port wine shallots (see recipe)
• 2 cups peppercorn sauce (see recipe)
• 3 tablespoons green peppercorns (canned)
• I cup port wine glaze (see recipe)
• Brush the steaks with the vegetable oil and season both sides with the salt. Crust the filets with the cracked peppercorns on one side. Heat up 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a sauté pan and sear the steaks on both sides. Place the steaks on a baking pan and put them in a pre- heated oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes (medium rare).
• Place the butter in a pan with the Portobello mushrooms. Garnish with the shallots and chives.
• Pour 2 ounces of peppercorn sauce in the middle of a plate and place the filet mignon in the middle of the plate. Place the Portobello mushroom on top of the filet and a port wine shallot on top of the mushrooms. Poor one tablespoon on port wine glaze over the shallot.
• Garnish the sauce with the canned green peppercorns and the port wine shallot with some chives.

Recipe for Portobello Mushrooms:

• 1 pound Portobello mushrooms (stems removed)
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• ¼ cup garlic cloves, halved
• Drizzle half of the oil in a sauté pan and place the Portobello mushroom topside down. Garnish with the thyme and garlic. Drizzle the other half of the oil on the Portobello mushrooms and place in a pre-heated 400 degrees oven for about 8 minutes or until tender.

Recipe for Port Wine Shallots:

• 2 cups port wine
• 2 cups red wine
• ½ cup sugar
• 8 shallots, peeled, whole
• Poor the wines and the sugar in a narrow sauce pot and reduce half way. Add the shallots and cook for 15 minutes or until tender.

Recipe for Peppercorn Sauce:

First Stage:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 5 each shallots, sliced
• 8 each garlic cloves, cut in half
• 3 twigs fresh thyme
• 1 each bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon whole white peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon green peppercorns, dry
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Second Stage:

• 1 cup brandy
• 1 tablespoon whole white peppercorns, freshly ground
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, freshly ground
• 1tablespoon whole green peppercorns, dry, freshly ground
• 2 quarts veal stock, (available in any supermarket)
• 1quarts heavy cream
• Pour the oil into a sauce pot and bring to the first smoke point.
• Add the mushrooms, shallots, garlic, thyme, bay leave and whole peppercorns and cook until slightly caramelized.
• Season with the salt.
• Deglaze with the brandy and reduce until dry.
• Add the ground peppercorns and veal stock and reduce.
• Reduce the sauce to a glaze.
• Whisk in the heavy cream, bring to a boil, adjust the salt if necessary and strain through a fine strainer.

Recipe for Port Wine Glaze:

• 1 cup port wine
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 pound butter, room temperature, diced
• Pour the wines and sugar in a narrow sauce pot and reduce at medium heat down to a quarter cup. Then pull the pot away from the heat to the edge of the stove. Whisk in the butter cubes in small amount until emulsified. Do not boil the sauce.

Bon Appetite!!

Visit Chops Lobster Bar Website for Dining Locations in Atlanta and Boca Raton

http://www.chopslobsterbar.com/

For reservations in Boca Raton, Fl, please call: 561-395-2675

My official policy is that the holidays are not over until I say they are, and I generally don’t say they are until after my birthday at the end of January, so there’s still time for holiday cookie baking as far as I’m concerned.

Depending on how organized I am in any given year, I launch the holiday cookie baking season the weekend of Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December. As I have quite a number of people on my cookie recipient list and some of them are significant distances away, my seasonal selection has been biscotti-heavy of late, because biscotti are easy to make in large quantities, are infinitely variable, keep for weeks, and ship well. Gingerbread, amaretti, shortbread, and other dry and crispy cookies are also must-haves, although I also like to make a few more delicate offerings for strictly local and immediate consumption.

I made six different cookies this year, two of which I have already been blogged about: Meyer lemon-rosemary shortbread, and Anzac Biscuits. Three new whim-driven experiments also joined the gift boxes: two variations on a pistachio-chocolate theme, and a jam and almond diamond that was too fragile and perishable to mail out but which was a huge hit when handed out at the office.

The pistachio-chocolate biscotti came from my constant fiddling with biscotti additions, and started out as a pistachio-dried apricot version I thought would look festive for the holidays last year. Unfortunately, the apricots turned into little pieces of shrapnel after that much oven drying, so I swapped them out with dark chocolate, remembering how well my earlier walnut-chocolate chunk version had turned out. Besides tasting wonderfully exotic and adult, the bright green nuts and dark brown chocolate make for a smashingly dramatic look.

The amaretti are the result of a market failure. Last winter I discovered cacao nibs, the roasted beans chocolate is made from. Much like coffee beans, cacao nibs are crunchy and loaded with flavor, tasting like a cross between pure dark chocolate and toasted nuts. I fell fast and hard, and instantly went about looking for ways to use them. In the middle of making my own amaretti when I couldn’t find them in my neighborhood haunts and couldn’t be bothered to make a trip to the specialty store, it occurred to me that cacao nibs were nut-like enough to be swapped out for part of the ground almonds in my recipe. I tried it, and loved the sophisticated results. I later substituted hazelnuts for the almonds, since the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate is so perfectly Italian, and their stronger flavor also stood up better to the nibs. The downside is that hazelnut skins are bitter and absolutely must be removed before using them. Given that I’m feeling both lazy and extravagant this time of year, I usually end up springing for blanched hazelnuts instead of toasting until the skins split and laboriously rubbing them off with a dish towel.

Although I was willing, nay, happy to pay the usurious prices charged by Whole Foods, they were just not to be had this time, so when I got home, I considered my pantry options. Spotting the pistachios, I gave them a try and was happily surprised when I bit into the first finished cookie and discovered that, while different, it was just as good. I’m sure I’ll continue to shell out for the hazelnuts, since they are my favorite nut, but the pistachio option is one to keep. Equally delicious but half the price and none of the bother. What’s not to love?

The final cookie is a twist on the America’s Test Kitchen take on the “one dough many cookies” idea in The New Best Recipe. I’m really not a fan of the plain sugar cookie, both because I find them boring and because I have no patience for cookie cutters these days, but I had faith in the ATK people and liked the idea of the chocolate-hazelnut bar cookie alternative they suggested. Since I had just done two chocolate-nut cookies, though, I wanted to do something a bit different. I thought of spreading the warm cookie base with seedless blackberry jam and sprinkled it with roughly chopped toasted almonds instead. The buttery crust, bright fruit and caramelized nuts ended up tasting like a deconstructed Linzertorte, and their fancy, stained-glass sheen are perfect for this time of year. As I discovered when I took them to work the next morning, they are too sticky and tender to travel well, but they are so easy to throw together, please consider inviting people over for these and a cup of tea.

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Biscotti
(Makes 4-5 dozen, depending on how thinly you slice them)

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 1/2 cups shelled pistachios
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Blend the butter and sugars together in a mixer until fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and espresso powder and add to the wet mixture, beating again gently until just combined. Stir in the pistachios and chocolate.

Divide the dough in half and shape into two 12-inch loaves on the baking sheet. Bake until light brown and beginning to crack, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

Lower the oven to 300F. Slice the loaves on the diagonal with a serrated knife into 1/4 inch slices. Place the slices in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake again until toasted and golden, about 15 minutes. Turn over and bake again until crisp, an additional 10-15 minutes. If the cookies are not sufficiently dry at that point, turn the oven off and leave several hours or overnight to cool.

Notes: Thinner is absolutely better in this case, as you want crisp but not tooth-breaking cookies, so fight the urge to slice them any thicker than 1/4 inch. You could use either raw or roasted pistachios, but using raw will help preserve the beautiful green color a bit better by preventing over-toasting.

Pistachio-Cacao Nib Amaretti
(Makes approximately four dozen)

1 cup roasted, unsalted shelled pistachios
1/2 cup roasted cacao nibs
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 egg whites
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the pistachios, nibs, cornstarch and powdered sugar in a food processor and pulse until the nuts and nibs are very finely chopped.

Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the granulated sugar in a slow stream while continuing to beat until a stiff and glossy meringue forms. Beat in the vanilla.

Gently fold the nut mixture into the meringue with a rubber spatula. Scoop the batter onto the baking sheets with a tablespoon-sized ice cream scoop, approximately twenty cookies per sheet. (Since they will not spread very much, they can be spaced closer than usual.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cookies begin to crack slightly. Lower the oven to 200 F, leaving the door ajar to release excess heat, and bake until completely dry and crisp in the center, 30-45 minutes. The oven can also be turned off and the cookies left overnight to dry.

The cooled cookies can be kept in an airtight container almost indefinitely, and ship beautifully.

Jam Almond Diamonds
(Makes approximately 4 dozen, not including the waste along the edges)

1 1/2 cups whole almonds
2 1/2 cups (12.5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup (5.5 oz) superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature but still cool
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups seedless jam of choice

Adjust rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

While preparing the cookie dough, bake the almonds in the heated oven until toasted and golden. Remove and allow to cool, then chop coarsely.

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a mixer until combined. With mixer on low, add butter one piece at a time, then continue to mix until mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix until dough just begins to come together.

Press the dough into an even layer in the baking sheet and bake until golden brown, approximately 20 minutes. Immediately after removing from oven, spread with the jam and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Cool to room temperature, then cut into 1 1/2-inch diamond shapes.

Notes: You will have a fair amount of waste, since there’s no way to get perfect diamonds without creating triangles, trapezoids and the like along the edges, but I consider the waste the baker’s tax and will happily reserve it all for my personal consumption. If you want to avoid the waste and don’t care as much about a pretty shape, you can just cut the cookies into squares or rectangles instead.

As I mentioned previously, one of my finds at the farmer’s market this weekend was rhubarb, another later-in-life love. I don’t think I ever had it until well into adulthood, but as with cranberries, I fell hard and completely, and when it’s in season, I snatch up all I can and freeze some for the rest of the year. For the inaugural rhubarb recipe of 2006, I decided a bar cookie might be nice, with a sweet-tart layer of rhubarb sandwiched between two buttery layers of cookie dough.

In order to develop this recipe, I combined and modified components from two separate recipes. On the one hand, I had a recipe for a strawberry-rhubarb bar in The All-American Cookie Book, but the oat-and-nut-fortified dough from a raspberry bar recipe in my latest cookbook acquisition, The New Best Recipe by the America’s Test Kitchen chefs, sounded much better than the plain short pastry dough in the original cookie. I decided to combine the two and hope that the combination of the superior elements would result in a superior bar cookie.

The end product of this tinkering was not perfect, because the filling was a bit too loose and the cookies don’t have quite enough structural integrity to cut as cleanly as I’d like. The flavor is great, though, and I like the firm but tender texture and the toasty nuttiness of the dough. Next time, I may fiddle with the amount of thickener, or possibly try a different kind of, or slightly less, jam. With a bit more work, this could go from a very nice but homey cookie to a refined and suitable addition to a springtime tea tray.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Bars
Makes 24 1×2-inch cookies

Filling
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 lb rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 10-oz jar (1 1/4 cups) strawberry jam
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Grated zest of one orange

Crust and Streusel Topping
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, slightly softened, cut into 12 pieces

In a heavy, nonreactive saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon until evenly distributed. Stir in the rhubarb, jam and orange zest and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rhubarb begins to soften, approx. 6-8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Place the oven rack in the lower two-thirds position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with two strips of parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil, letting the strips overhang the edges of the pan to serve as a sling for removing the cookies later.

In a mixer, mix the flour, oats, granulated and brown sugar, baking soda, salt and walnuts at low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter, continuing to mix on low speed until the mixture is well
blended and resembles wet sand.

Press two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of the pan and bake until it starts to brown, about 20-25 minutes. Spread the strawberry-rhubarb filling over the crust and sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture evenly over the filling. Bake until the filling bubbles around the edges and the top is golden brown, approximately 35 minutes, rotating once during baking.

Cool on a wire rack until room temperature, approximately 1 1/2 hours. Remove the cookies from the pan by lifting the edges of the foil or parchment, and cut into squares.

It’s been a while since the last round of Sunday night cookie blogging, and since I was nowhere near energetic enough to attempt any confectionary pursuits tonight, I decided to revert to one of my favorite cookies, the molasses spice cookie. Soft, chewy, warm with cinnamon and sharp with ginger, this cookie seems to please nearly everyone, and as an added bonus, the recipe I use most often is a snap to put together at the last minute because you melt rather than soften the butter.

The original recipe, from The Village Baker’s Wife, is fabulous on its own, but that doesn’t mean I can be trusted to leave well enough alone. I’ve been tinkering with it in various ways since the second batch, when I added crystallized ginger bits, and this time, I decided to push it even further. A while ago, I wondered what would happen if I added Chinese five spice powder to ginger cookies, and was pleased enough with the results to increase the amount this time from a very conservative 1/4 teaspoon to a full 1/2 teaspoon. I was also intrigued by a recipe for Joe Froggers, which added rum to the dough. I was reaching for the rum when I spotted the bottle of bourbon sitting next to it, and suddenly thought that would work even better with the five spice, since it’s more assertive.

The product of all this tinkering was an even better molasses cookie, with an exotic complexity from the additional spices and a lovely aroma from the bourbon, which does play exceptionally well with the ginger and star anise. Next time, I will probably add even more ginger, of both the powdered and the crystallized variety, because nothing is ever gingery enough for me, but I think the five spice/bourbon combo is a keeper.

Five-Spice Molasses Cookies
Makes approx. four dozen

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 tablespoon bourbon
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup crystallized ginger bits

1/4-1/2 cup raw or turbinado sugar, for coating

Preheat the oven to 375 F, and line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.

Melt the butter and place in a large mixing bowl, allowing it to cool to room temperature. Once cool, add the granulated sugar, molasses, egg, and bourbon, and mix well. Add the sifted dry ingredients and stir until barely blended, then stir in the crystallized ginger. Cover the bowl and chill for at least 15 minutes.

Place the raw sugar in a small bowl or plate. Scoop out the cookie with a tablespoon-sized scoop and roll into one-inch balls, coating each ball with the raw sugar. Place the coated balls two inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake 9-10 minutes, allowing the cookies to cool on the sheets for several minutes before removing them to a rack.

Notes: I would think that you’d want a good-quality bourbon here, with enough spicy undertones to compliment the spices in the cookie. Since His Lordship is picky about his bourbon, we keep the top-shelf stuff around anyway.

I keep the Ginger People’s crystallized ginger baking bits around for cookies and the like, since it’s easier than chopping bigger chunks of ginger, which tend to try to glom back into a mass rather than distributing evenly into the cookie batter. If you can’t find the baking bits or don’t want to bother with an additional product (and I’d hardly blame you), it would be a good idea to finely chop the larger chunks and then toss them in a bit of extra sugar so they’ll separate into discrete bits.

If you don’t have raw or turbinado sugar, you can use an additional amount of granulated sugar for dredging, but the bigger crystals add a really lovely glittery quality to the finished cookies, as well as a hint of crunch.

I’m in the middle of the holiday cookie baking frenzy, having already made three kinds of cookies in the past week. One was an experimental batch to use the snowflake cookie cutters I bought in a holiday-induced bout of temporary insanity which made me forget that I have insufficient patience for cookie cutter cookies. The other two are going to be mailed out as holiday gifts, so I’m not going to post the recipe yet, so as not to spoil the surprise.

In the meantime, there has been some demand for the recipe for the cookies I sent out last year, an almost laughably Californified but still addictively yummy shortbread that combined two wonderful flavors abundantly found in California gardens: rosemary, which grows like kudzu and is used as cheap ground cover, and Meyer lemons, which are intoxicatingly floral and aromatic, but often difficult and expensive to find if you don’t grow them yourself. Since I had to leave my beloved Meyer tree behind (along with my kaffir lime, which I miss nearly as much) when we switched coasts, I have to make do by mixing some orange zest in with ordinary lemon zest, which evokes some of the same magic and is far better than lemon zest alone.

Rosemary-Meyer Lemon Shortbread
Makes about 4 dozen

1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons very finely chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons freshly grated Meyer lemon zest (or 2 tablespoons regular lemon zest and 1 tablespoon orange zest)
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter, sugar, rosemary and zest in a mixer until very light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated, taking care not to over-mix, which would make the cookies tough.

Divide the dough into two equal blocks, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each block to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut the dough, using square or round fluted-edged cookie cutters approximately 2 inches across, and place the cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Place the cookie sheets in the freezer or refrigerator briefly to firm and cool the dough again and avoid spreading in the oven.

Bake in the center of the oven for 12-14 minutes, or until pale gold but not browned. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Notes: The amounts of rosemary and zest can be varied according to your tastes. I wouldn’t add much more of the rosemary, but you can decrease it at will, and you can also increase the amount of zest if you prefer even more lemony cookies. Also, you can gather the scraps after the first cutting and roll out another batch, although the quality will decrease a bit from the first. They will still taste lovely, but the texture won’t be quite as meltingly delicate.

No matter how skilled you are (and I make no claims to being anything more than an enthusiastic and fairly competent amateur), cooking is always a crapshoot. You increase your odds by having the basic skills down, choosing your ingredients well, and using reliable recipes, but some element of chance always remains. Sometimes it’s happy serendipity and you get an outcome even better than you anticipated, and sometimes it all goes disappointingly wrong. Today, I got lucky.

For this week’s cookie blogging, I tried to re-create a biscotti recipe my mother used to make when I was a kid, but has long since lost. They were walnut biscotti with the sharp, earthy bite of a significant quantity of black pepper, which sounds very odd but, in fact, worked wonderfully well. I’ve madly Googled “walnut pepper biscotti” and endless variations thereon for months, but none of the recipes I’ve uncovered have gotten the “eureka” from Mom, so I decided to try winging it to see how close I can get.

Having had good results with the last batch of biscotti from a Todd English recipe, I decided to modify the recipe for Cardamom Almond Biscotti from The Figs Table. I figured cardamom and pepper were similar enough that they could be swapped 1:1, and almonds and walnuts are equally easy to exchange. Although I knew the original recipe did not have espresso powder in it, I decided to leave it in, just to see how the combination would work.

The raw dough was lovely to work with, very pliable and easy to shape, and because you don’t have to soften the butter, it’s great for impulse baking. It was also very tasty, buttery and warm from the coffee and pepper, with a slow cumulative burn rather than a nose-tingling initial bite. I sneaked a few bites of the still-warm dough after the first baking while I was slicing it for the second round, and it was even better.

The end product is fantastic. It’s almost nothing like the taste I was originally going for, because the original did put the black pepper front and center, but it’s absolutely great in its own right. Here, the coffee marries with the pepper, the vanilla, the orange, and the walnuts to make a full, deep, round combination that is much more than the sum of those parts. I am really pleased. I can even see these becoming something of a signature cookie, if I can come up with a sexier name than “Black Pepper Espresso Walnut Biscotti”. (Maybe something like Indonesian Biscotti, since black pepper and coffee are both grown there.)

Here’s the recipe:

Black Pepper Espresso Walnut Biscotti
(Makes 4 dozen)

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 extra-large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon dried orange rind (available through Penzey’s), rehydrated (or 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating thoroughly, then mix in the vanilla and orange zest.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, espresso powder, and black pepper until homogeneous. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in two or three batches, mixing just until combined. Stir in the walnuts.

Divide the dough into two equal batches. Shape one half into a log 12 inches long by approximately 4 inches on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until evenly golden brown and slightly cracked on top. (While the first half is baking, refrigerate the remaining half.) Set aside to cool, and repeat the baking process with the remainder of the dough.

Lower the oven to 300 F. Using a serrated knife, slice the mostly-cooled logs on the diagonal into 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the biscotti on an ungreased, unlined cookie sheet, flat side down, and bake for 20 minutes, flipping the cookies halfway through. Allow to cool completely on the sheet, then store in an airtight container.

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I had these biscotti for dessert tonight, along with the leftovers of an equally experimental mascarpone-based mousse I threw together on a whim yesterday. Since that showed definite promise but still needs a little tweaking, I won’t post the recipe yet, but I hope to perfect it very soon. Since coffee was also a major flavor element in the mousse, it went beautifully with the cookies, which provided a lovely crisp contrast to the cool richness and creaminess of the mousse. I think combining the two elements with a third (perhaps poached pears or something similar) might make for a really elegant special-occasion dessert.

Just to show that not all my experiments go that well, I’ll also share my most recent cooking faux pas. Two weeks ago, I bought a beautiful basket of fresh purple figs. As I always do when I buy figs or similarly pricey, relatively rare, short-season produce, I got ambitious. I decided to try for something like a spectacular dessert I had several years ago at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco (thankfully, on someone else’s dime), a napoleon made with fresh figs and a honey mousse. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to reproduce that recipe, but I thought I might make something evocative, if simpler, by baking the figs with port and making a frozen honey mousse I’d been eyeing for a long time in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The mousse was very simple: egg yolks, honey, and cream, with some flavorings and pistachios mixed in before freezing.

Since the recipe called for a strong-flavored honey and I only had very mild varieties at home, I went to the honey vender at the farmer’s market, and asked for a strong one for cooking. He gave me a smartweed honey that was almost molasses-dark, recommended for baking. When I got it home, I opened it and gave it a taste while preparing the rest of the ingredients. It was strong. Really strong. A little alarm went off in my head, that while this might work in baked goods because it could stand up to the heat, it might be too medicinal for use in that recipe. I didn’t listen to that instinct, though. I figured all the fat and the freezing would dull the flavor, and that I should just give it a chance.

Well, I was wrong. Even after mixing with the egg yolks and the whipped cream, even after freezing, it was way too pungent for even the most assertive fig. It had an almost menthol-like top note which, although it did fade after the initial taste, still killed the flavor of the fruit. We didn’t even finish the batch, and I had to toss out the remaining half. The moral of the story? Cooking is as much about listening to your instincts as it is about honing your skills. If it doesn’t smell or feel right, don’t trust the recipe to fix it for you.

Next weekend, schedule permitting, we’ll have another installment of Celebrity Chefs I Hate.