Eggnog Snickerdoodles

It's snack day on the pickle ball courts!  To make these festive cookies, I needed egg yolks and rum extract.  As it so happened, I had egg yolks left over from the chocolate-almond spice cookies, and surprisingly half a bottle of rum extract in my cupboard.  (I wonder how old that is...  The only thing I can remember making that was rum-flavored were these cupcakes, but they used real rum.)  I halved the recipe to make 12 cookies and changed the butter and salt, as shown.  The original recipe calls for baking the cookies on parchment on a rimmed cookie sheet; I opted for greasing an unrimmed sheet, which worked fine.  This is the full recipe, which makes 24 approximately 3¼-inch cookies:


3½ cups (445 grams) all-purpose flour 
1½ teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (225 grams) unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1¾ cup (350 grams) granulated sugar, plus ¼ cup for rolling
1 ⅛ teaspoon kosher fine sea salt
1 large egg plus 2 yolks, at room temperature
1 tablespoon rum extract
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar and baking soda, and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, 1¾ cups sugar and the salt on medium-high until very smooth and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Return the mixer to medium speed and add the egg and egg yolks, incorporating each before adding the next. Add the rum extract and continue to beat for another minute or two. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Set the dough aside to hydrate for about 10 minutes while you prepare to bake.

Heat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two baking sheets. Make the nutmeg-sugar mixture by combining the remaining ¼ cup sugar with the nutmeg in a small bowl.

Roll the dough into balls slightly larger than a golf ball (about 44--47 grams), then roll each dough ball in the nutmeg-sugar. Transfer the balls to the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart, and bake 10 to 13 minutes, rotating pans and switching racks halfway through, until slightly puffed and just set. Let the cookies cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. These cookies are even better the day after they're made, and will keep for 4 days sealed in an airtight container.

 

A note about the salt...  The recipe simply calls for kosher salt, but not all kosher salts are created equal.  Diamond Crystal kosher salt is very popular amongst celebrity chefs for some reason, but you have to use a lot more of it than you do Morton kosher salt, and both are coarse, which also affects the volume measurements.  I further complicated it by using salted butter instead of unsalted.  Most cookie recipes call for a little extra salt even when using salted butter.  Seems to me snickerdoodles run on the slightly less salty spectrum of cookies, so I added only a small amount extra; it was adequate.

At a little over 10 minutes, the cookies still looked wet within the cracks and I didn't consider them "set"-- they felt very fragile and dented easily when touched.  At 12 minutes they were pretty much the same.  At just over 13 minutes, the edges felt quite firm-- perhaps too firm-- so I took them out.  Vaughn kept referring to them as custardy; mine most certainly are not -- they should have come out just a bit sooner.  They had a very firm "tooth" and were crunchy on the bottom, but softened over the next two days.

Conclusion:   They really do taste like eggnog!  The flavor is very subtle.  They were very buttery and smelled like shortbread.  I definitely could taste the artificial aftertaste of the imitation rum extract in the dough, and was still detectable in the final cookie, but not as much so.  They were overall quite good.  I initially thought they were too sweet -- I felt it overpowered the delicate eggnog flavor -- but seemed less sweet by the next day.  I would make these at least a day in advance of when I was planning on serving them.

 Recipe:  Eggnog Snickerdoodles via Vaughan Vreeland for New York Times Cooking

Chocolate Molasses Bat Cookies

 

I've been wanting to make these bat cookies for a while-- they're cute and sounded really tasty, although I had to make a few modifications to accommodate my ingredients.  I didn't want to buy the specialty dark cocoa, so I just used regular, forgetting that you have to watch your leavening agent if you switch around your cocoa powder.  (However, natural cocoa is more chocolaty, so that also affected the flavor a bit.)  I used salted butter and reduced the added salt.  Then I decorated the bats using sanding sugar because it's more sparkly than regular granulated.  I also modified the directions slightly (I didn't note my changes).  Using a 5-inch cutter, I baked the cookies 10 minutes, rotating halfway through, but my oven did not maintain a consistent temperature.  (With the first batch, it was 300 at the 5-minute mark and 350 when I removed them.  Presumably it averaged out.)  Baking 10 cookies at a time, I chilled the sheet outside in the cool night air between batches.  As my dough circles got smaller, I switched to a 4-inch cutter and baked those for 8 minutes.

For 22 large cookies and 9 medium cookies, here's what I used:

2½ cups flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate powder cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
Silver edible sugar pearls
granulated sanding sugar

In a large bowl whisk together first 7 ingredients until well combined; set aside. Cream together sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl. Add egg and beat until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add molasses, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture and beat until just combined, about 1 minute. Divide dough in half. Place each between two pieces of parchment paper, and roll to a 3/8-inch-thick disk. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Dust countertop with cocoa powder. Transfer dough to countertop and cut cookies with a 6-inch bat-shaped cutter or desired size (adjust baking time accordingly). Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake about 12 minutes, rotating baking sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are firm around the edges. Using tweezers and working quickly, press 2 sugar pearls into each cookie for eyes. (As the cookies start to cool and dry, the surface will crack when you press the pearls in if you take too long.)  Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Use a new paintbrush to lightly coat the tops of the bat wings with water. Sprinkle with sugar and allow to set.

My dough was very soft, more like batter-- I had to let it chill for a bit outside before I could even divide it.  (It might have been because my butter got too soft and my kitchen was warm.)  Since I was making smaller cookies, I rolled the dough thinner as well.  Being a heavy butter cookie, I knew the dough would spread.  I question the use of baking soda-- it started to react before I'd even gotten the dough rolled out, creating little air holes and making the dough fluffy.  That might have been because I used natural cocoa powder instead of dark cocoa powder, which is less acidic and wouldn't have reacted as much.

It's not necessary to cover your surface with cocoa powder before laying your dough out-- you can use plain flour.  It will soak in during baking and disappear.  Dipping the cutter in flour might leave a small amount of residue around the edge of the cookie, but it's easily wiped away.

It's a little tricky getting the sugar pearls placed-- it's a little like that children's toy with the box you have to tilt from side to side to try to get the little balls into their holes.  I'd place them with the tweezers then try to press them in with my finger, but too often the pearl stuck to my finger just long enough to be pulled loose and then I was chasing it around the pan.  Pressing too hard with my finger would smoosh the cookie.  Once in place, you have to tap the pearl down so it's flush with the cookie surface, otherwise it just falls out.  In the last batch, I tried a few pearls in the raw cutouts to see if that would work, as they were much easier to place. It worked beautifully.  In fact, even better, because it pushed the pearls forward so they were slightly above the cookie surface but still secure.

You also have to think about the logistics of making these.  They're definitely not a cookie to be made on a hot day-- the dough was so soft, and remained firm only a few minutes outside of the refrigerator.  (Probably why we're directed to make them thick.)  To keep the dough firm and usable, you have to refrigerate it completely flat-- for me, that's a challenge.  I divided my dough into thirds and, using a narrow, 5-inch cutter, got 5 cookies initially from each portion.  In the time it took me to cut out those 5 cookies and press the remnants together, the dough around the edges had already softened back to a batter state.  (Another reason to divide it into smaller portions.)  Just some things to think about before getting started.

Conclusion:  I had assumed these would be rich and chocolaty.  It wasn't until I was actually making them that I realized how very much molasses they contained.  It's the dominant flavor; I'm definitely not picking up the spices.  (I didn't really expect to with those small amounts.)  The cocoa (especially if using dark) just adds a bit of roastiness to the flavor.  Even though there's no ginger in this recipe, the spices that are there and the molasses made my brain taste gingerbread.  I was expecting a chocolaty cookie and instead it registered more as gingerbread, which isn't a flavor associated with this time of year.  An excellent dunking cookie for coffee, these were surprisingly crisp even when soft baked; careful timing would allow you to adjust the crispness to your liking (although they'd never be a soft cookie.  It's all that butter!)  If you could manage to cut out the pieces quickly and keep it cold, this dough would be great for a haunted house, as it's very firm.  If I made these again, it would be in a different shape for a different occasion.

Recipe:  Spiced Chocolate Bat Cookies via Country Living

Vanilla Cornmeal Wreath Cookies

I made these cookies many years ago and found them less than exciting, but thought they had promise.  The original recipe has you coating corn flakes in egg white and applying them to the surface of the cookies in a leaf pattern.  I didn't find this to be a good addition for a number of reasons.  For one, corn flakes always taste like breakfast cereal, and that's not a flavor I want in cookies.  Second, when the cookies were fresh, the corn flakes were tough and unpleasant, although they crisped up after a couple days.  Lastly, it was a process that was extremely time-consuming.  The flakes were a nice touch as far as appearance, but the cookies are a bit dry and I had decided they needed a bit of frosting, which would further make the topping unnecessary.

For 17 3½-inch cookies, here's what I used:

1⅛ cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon anise extract, optional
1 large egg, room temperature

Sift together the flour, cornmeal, and baking powder. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla, and anise (if using) to the butter and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add the egg (one at a time if doubling the recipe) to the butter mixture and mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Stir the flour-cornmeal mixture into the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula; it will be a stiff dough. To make dough easier to handle, chill until firm. Divide the dough into 17, 1-inch balls. Make a hole in the center of each ball with the tip of a wooden spoon and work each piece of dough into a doughnut shape with a 1-inch hole and about 2 inches wide. Use scissors to snip 1/2-inch long angled cuts, about 1/2-inch apart around the outside ring of each cookie. Arrange cookies on greased cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. (Optional: freeze cookies on the sheet until firm, about 10 minutes.) Bake at 350F until just golden around the edges, about 14 to 18 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Frost and decorate.

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and very fluffy.  Add green gel coloring and use a large star tip to decorate cookies, immediately sprinkling each with red nonpareils. Allow frosting to dry until firm.

A ridiculous number of the nonpareils fell off while I was sprinkling them on (I had frosted all the cookies and then added the sprinkles-- the frosting had already started to dry), until I finally placed each cookie in a small bowl so I could collect and salvage the deserters.

I over baked the cookies slightly, getting them a little too brown around the edges.  They were a little drier than I would have liked, but I think a minute or two less time in the oven would have fixed that.  I had to be a little stingy with the frosting and barely had enough as it was-- they could have used just a tiny bit more, both for flavor and appearance. 

Conclusion:  It still needs tweaking, mostly just on the bake time, but I was pretty happy with the results.  (I discovered chopped peanuts would be a good addition, either in the cookie or sprinkled on top of the frosting.)  The frosting not only adds moisture and sweetness to what is otherwise a somewhat dull cookie, but also provides a buttery richness to the corn flavor.  While it will never be the most exciting cookie on the plate, the subtle flavor and texture is a nice contrast to the outspoken fruits, nuts, jams, and chocolates of a traditional holiday cookie assortment.

Recipe:  Cornmeal Wreaths via Food Network

Gingerbread holiday cookies

I made this recipe once before when I made these gingerbread trees.  I followed it almost exactly that time and really liked the results.  This time I made a few more tweaks, including modifying the flours I used.  I also halved the original recipe.  To produce perhaps two dozen cookies (of varying sizes) plus three tiny houses, here's what I used:

6 tablespoons salted butter, softened
3/8 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/8 cup unsulphured molasses
1/2 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon whole milk powder*
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup King Arthur white whole wheat flour (12.2% protein)
1/4 cup Trader Joe's all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 1 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 heaping teaspoon Tellicherry black pepper, freshly ground

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth, 3–4 minutes. Add the molasses and continue mixing until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and continue mixing until homogeneous, about 2 minutes more. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients; add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until completely blended. On a lightly floured sheet of waxed paper, press dough into a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, roll the dough out to between 1/8" and 1/4" thick, depending on your preference and the handling of your dough.  Chill between activities as necessary for ease of handling, which might mean placing the rolled dough and/or cut cookies in the refrigerator or freezer for several minutes.  Bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness and preference for soft or crisp cookies.  (For soft cookies, the edges should be semi-firm but the centers still soft.)  Cool on baking sheet a few minutes, then move to a wire rack.

*The original recipe calls for 1½ teaspoons of milk.  I don't know what role such a small amount of milk plays.  The dough was very soft, so I doubt extra moisture was needed.  Perhaps it helps keep the cookie soft, the way milk helps produce a soft bread.  This time, I used milk powder instead, without trying to figure out how much powder equaled that amount of liquid milk.  A teaspoon was probably too much, but I don't see that it would cause any harm.

I decided to leave out anise seed, which I had used previously, because what I have is getting old and tasting a bit herby, but I think it would be a good addition if fresh.  I doubled the allspice called for because, although I ground it from whole berries, there wasn't much flavor.  I got the idea to add a spicy black pepper from these gingerbread men.  I'd also like to try adding turmeric-- maybe next time.

I didn't have any bread flour as called for in the original recipe, but the white whole wheat I used contains the appropriate amount of gluten-forming protein.  The Trader Joe's AP flour has a higher protein content than the Gold Medal, but I don't know whether it's the right type for gluten formation.  So I might or might not have the intended amount of gluten in the dough.  And I'm not convinced it makes any difference anyway, because any bread baker knows it takes a lot of kneading to create gluten, and that doesn't happen in this recipe.  (Although I did let the dough rest for two days; time will also cause gluten development.)

I baked the light bulbs 8 minutes, the ladies 7½ minutes (I failed to turn the pan and one started to over-brown on the edge), and the smallest pieces (which were the house parts) 6½ minutes (which wasn't enough-- they felt undone rather than soft-baked, but still turned out okay.)

Conclusion:  Initially, these tasted too sweet!  Like, WAY too sweet.  How could that be?  Was it the sugar topping?  And I even questioned whether they were too spicy.  But after a few days, they tasted better.  (The tiny houses had a little royal icing gluing them together and that was not too sweet of an addition, but might have been if they'd been decorated.)  It was probably a combination of letting the flavors blend and my getting away from them for a fresh approach.  These should probably be made and stored for at least a week before eating as they seem to get better with time.  I finished the last of them on March 1 and they were still soft, spicy, and delicious.

Recipe:  "Spiced Gingerbread Cookies" from The Cookie Book by Rebecca Firth

Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookies

I typically give stink eye to anything not home made at Christmas, but occasionally we all have to take short cuts.  I saw these sugar cookies, plain and awaiting decoration, in the store and, upon investigating the ingredients, didn't see anything too offensive.  I was supposed to be bringing cookies to pickle ball and decided to fix these up for the occasion.

I melted about 1/2 cup of milk chocolate and unsweetened chocolate together and spread that on the bottom of the cookies.  Then I frosted the tops with peppermint buttercream, sprinkled them with crushed peppermint candies and let that dry, then dragged stripes of chocolate across the top.  

I was worried about the frosting tasting like mouthwash, so I added the extract very slowly, 1/4 teaspoon at a time.  It was too mild, too mild, too mild... and then suddenly mouthwash.  Aaagh!  I frosted the cookies anyway and let them sit out overnight, hoping that would evaporate some of the mint flavor.  It did.  The next day, they were pleasantly minty and no mouthwash.  (I think there's an option for "mint" extract in the store that might be more mild than peppermint.)  The open air, plus being eaten with the cookie rather than off a spoon probably both contributed to the improved flavor.

I also discovered there's an art to getting chocolate just the right consistency to get a thin stream:  if it's too cool OR too warm, it clumps.  Weird.

After all that, pickle ball got rained out.  More cookies for me.

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
5/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream 

Cream together the butter and extract until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and very fluffy.  Add in heavy cream, a little at a time, until the desired spreading consistency is achieved.

Conclusion:   These still tasted a little commercial (what is it they do to factory cookies to make them taste that way??), but overall they tasted good and I really liked how they looked.  They were fairly large cookies and were a bit too rich to eat one all at once, so I had to break mine in half whenever I indulged.

Spiced Butter Cookies: snowflakes

 
This is the same recipe I used last November for these fall leaves.  

In fact, it's the same batch -- I saved out two thirds of the dough and froze it so that I had it to use for Christmas cookies.  That quantity of dough yielded about 3 dozen cookies.  (I actually baked only 29 cookies, but after all was said and done,  I realized I still had about 3/4 cup of dough in the refrigerator.)  The recipe is supposed to make 6 dozen, but I didn't roll either batch quite thinly enough for that.

I used a 3-inch cookie cutter and sprinkled the cookies with sparkling sugar before baking.  Based on my experience with the leaves, I watched the bake time carefully and didn't let them get too firm.  I also did not use an insulated baking pan.  They came out perfectly.

Although I still think they taste a lot like graham crackers.

Almond-Cardamom Butter Balls

These are similar to Mexican wedding cookies, not quite as buttery or rich, and not as sweet since they're not covered in sugar.  (I see now I was supposed to sprinkle them with powdered sugar... oops. Oh well. Per the photo in Bon Appétit, they get a very light dusting.)

For a yield of 25 cookies, here's what I used:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1¹/₃ cups powdered sugar, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom*
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup finely chopped, toasted almonds

Preheat oven to 325°F. Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar in food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine meal, using on/off turns, then process continuously until dough begins to gather together. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Space 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet; bake until just firm to touch, about 20 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely. Sift lightly with powdered sugar. Store in airtight container.

*I couldn't taste the cardamom, so I added another 1/2 teaspoon.  Despite grinding my cardamom from seed, it must still simply be too old to be viable, because it was still completely undetectable.

Initially, these tasted strongly of toasted almond, so I recommend toasting the almonds quite lightly so as to not add too much flavor. Curiously, these did not taste like spice cookies.  I really didn't pick up anything besides toasted almond.

Conclusion:   Easy to make, they store well and very are Christmassy.  I'm sure they'd have been even better if the cardamom had been there.

Recipe:  "Almond-Cardamom Butter Balls" via Bon Appétit, January 1989

Brandied Fruit Bars

 

I'm never quite sure what I'm going to get with bar cookies that have some sort of gooey layer.  I took a chance with these... They might be spectacular, or they might be a dismal failure.  They were neither.  Read on.

I'm not sure how well these went over as I never got any feedback.  Perhaps that's telling in and of itself.  I'm afraid most people thought they were chocolate, in which case they would have been in for a surprise.

How many bars this actually makes depends on how well you can get your knife through them.  I originally cut them (with great difficulty) into 25, 1.5" x 1.5" squares.   But they're quite sweet and intense, almost more of a confection, so I later cut each of those squares in half, which made them a bit messy looking.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup golden and/or dark raisins
1/3 cup dried cranberries*
1/3 cup snipped dried tart apricots
1/3 cup brandy or water
1¹/₃ cup all-purpose flour, divided
1¹/₃ cup packed brown sugar divided
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/3 cup chopped pecans
powdered sugar

In a small saucepan stir together dried fruit and brandy. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand for 20 minutes. Drain.

Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium mixing bowl stir together one cup of the 1 cup flour and 1/3 cup of the brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture into an ungreased 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake about 20 minutes, or until golden.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixture for 4 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1/3 cup flour, the remaining 1 cup brown sugar, vanilla, and salt until combined. Add drained fruit and pecans and stir to mix. Pour the filling over the hot crust, spreading evenly. Bake about 40 minutes more, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (If necessary, cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes to prevent overbrowning.) Cool in pan on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into bars.

*Presumably these are sweetened, dried cranberries-- I think that's the only kind of dried cranberries on the market.

I had a number of problems with these.  First, I pressed the crumb mixture too firmly into the pan and it ended up rock hard-- not the most pleasant bite, and very difficult to cut through.  On top of that, I might have overbaked it slightly; it was in for only 17 minutes, but the temperature has slid up to 375F.  Then I'm pretty sure I overbaked the top part as well, because it was firmly affixed to the edges of the pan and very difficult to get free and to cut through.  Even the filling in the middle of the pan was sticky and firm.  It took a LONG time to get these cut and out!  (Lining the pan with foil so the whole batch could be lifted out in one piece and then cut might be a solution.)  The resultant cookies were sticky and chewy on top, practically crunchy on the bottom.  The saving grace was that it's been raining non-stop and they became more manageable as they absorbed some of the dampness in the air.

There was no distinction of various fruits topping, just one homogeneous taste and texture.  There are similar recipes that are better, so I wouldn't be inclined to try this again.  If I did, it definitely needs fewer raisins and more tart fruits; more or chunkier nuts would add texture and help cut sweetness.  Dark chocolate chips might actually be a good addition to the fruit mixture to provide some contrast.

Conclusion:  Overlooking the texture issue from these being overbaked (and the hassle getting them out of the pan), I'm not sure I liked the flavor. The individual fruits were not distinguishable, rather they tasted like date squares, and the pecans were completely undetectable.  Since the topping was so sweet, I'd reduce the sugar in the base.  These did mellow, soften, and improve over subsequent days. (They keep well.)

Recipe:  "Brandied Cranberry-Apricot Bars" via Better Homes and Gardens "Our Best Holiday Menus", December 2005

Chocolate Peppermint Spritz

 

Spritz are a great cookie when you want a lot in a hurry, and they're dependable for being consistent, thanks to the cookie press.  Chocolate isn't really a part of my Christmas holiday, at least not as a main character, but peppermint brings a festive touch to these chocolate spritz cookies.  The recipe doesn't call for any peppermint in the cookie itself, but I wanted a little mint flavor there and not just in the topping, so I added a little extract to the dough.  While I made the full recipe of the cookie dough, I cut the drizzle quantity in half.  If you want cookies that are richer with chocolate flavor, by all means use the full quantity, but realize that your spritz pattern might get lost in the topping.  Normally I prefer cookies made with salted butter, but in this case the lack of salt might have been a better option.  They didn't taste salty, but they did taste buttery with more umami, which chocolate and peppermint lack in themselves.  Sometimes the absence of umami is okay.

Here's what I used to yield 50 cookies:

1³/₄ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1¹/₂ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract 

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

 

Drizzle (half original quantity)

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract

Crushed candy canes, for decorating

Preheat the oven to 325˚. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the extracts and egg until just combined. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder; reduce mixer speed to medium low and beat in the flour mixture until just combined. Fit a cookie press with a wreath disk. Press cookies 1 inch apart onto 2 unlined baking sheets. Bake one pan at a time until cookies are crisp and set around the edges, 18 to 22 minutes. Immediately remove the cookies to a rack using an offset spatula and let cool completely. 

Combine the chocolate, heavy cream and butter in a medium heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted and smooth, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir in the peppermint extract; let cool 5 minutes. Transfer the icing to a resealable plastic bag, snip off a corner and drizzle over the cookies. Immediately sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Let set about 30 minutes.

Usually you need only a few test presses to figure out what the best press quantity is for the dough and design you're using, but for some reason I kept getting irregular quantities. Oddly, I had trouble getting these cookies to press out evenly:  some were too fat, some were too thin.  I don't know what the issue was.  It's easy enough to scrape the defective presses back into the bowl and do it again, but it was getting frustrating.  Otherwise, the cookies came together easily and baked nicely.  (I baked them about 17-18 minutes.) 

I was nervous about the topping, feeling I had to rush it and afraid the chocolate would harden before I got the candy to stick.  I needn't have worried; the ganache stayed soft for a long time.  There's plenty of time to apply both the melted chocolate and the candy.  Sprinkling the candy, however, is easier said than done -- I ended up with a lot on the counters and floor (which I can tell because I keep sticking to it.)  It tended to collect in the hole and had to be picked out.  Again, if I'd known I had plenty of time to fuss with it, it wouldn't have been so nerve wracking.

Conclusion:  These were good, though I'd prefer them more minty; most of the peppermint comes from the candy.  A bit fussy and messy to make, though, so not a recipe that can be knocked out in short order.

Recipe:  Chocolate Peppermint Spritz via Food Network Magazine, December 2019

Ginger Rum Balls

Swedish meatballs, anyone?  Oh, wait... these are the rumball cookies.  Fooled you!  What a disappointment.  Read on...

I thought I'd be whipping these together quickly -- it was anything but quick.  Everything needed to be finely chopped, which is very time-consuming, and then all the balls rolled individually.  Could you do it in a food processor?  Probably, but you'd likely get uneven texture with some larger chunks and lots of pulverized dust.  These should have some bite to them, not be like mush, but chunks will make them fragile and not hold together.

That wasn't the only problem with this recipe.  Shockingly, I couldn't find gingersnaps (seriously???), so I had to improvise with graham crackers and extra powdered ginger.  (I could have used Nilla wafers, but I don't like them and they're too sweet.  Then again, I don't like graham crackers either.)  It "worked" in that they came together, but I didn't care for the results at all.  You have to start with a base you like-- all the additives aren't going to fix it if it's not tasty to start with. 

Here's what I used, which yielded 25 approximately 1-inch balls:

2 cups gingersnap crumbs, about 56 cookies 12 graham crackers (1¹/₃ packages)

1 cup walnuts, toasted

1/2 cup dark raisins, finely chopped

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons dark rum

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1/2 teaspoon 1 tablespoon ground ginger 

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup powdered sugar (used, but shouldn't have)

2 tablespoons VERY finely chopped, crystallized ginger

 

Spread 1/2 cup gingersnap crumbs in shallow dish; set aside. In large bowl, combine remaining 1½ cups gingersnap crumbs, walnuts, raisins, milk, rum, orange peel, ground ginger, and nutmeg; stir until thoroughly blended. Shape mixture by level tablespoons into balls. Toss reserved gingersnap crumbs with crystallized ginger; roll balls in mixture to coat thoroughly. Store in tightly covered containers in cool, dry place at least 24 hours and up to two weeks.

 

My recollection of rum balls is that they're almost always far too sweet.  They start with a sweet cookie, then add even more sugary ingredients, resulting in something more like a confection than a cookie.  My aim was to keep the sugar content in check.  So imagine my surprise when I tasted the dough and thought, "It could use more sugar."  Besides, it seemed a little wet.  So I added a little powdered sugar.  However, these firmed and dried quite a bit over the following days and didn't need the added powdered sugar, either for flavor or texture.

Mixing them was a bit of a disaster.  When I tried to roll the balls in the coating, all the crystallized ginger fell off.  The balls were too dry!  I finally threw all the balls back into the bowl, dumped in the coating mixture and blended it all together.  (This would have contributed to the cookies firming up considerably, even though I threw in a hearty splash of rum.)  I would not attempt again trying to keep the crystallized ginger on the outside, but would just mix it in to start with.

In the end, they tasted like a commercial cookie, slightly lemony.  (I have a flavoring called "Princess Cake" that is slightly lemony and reminds me of the flavor of commercial baked goods.  It's probably what the graham crackers had been flavored with.)  And the ginger flavor kept changing:  at first it was just a sensation of heat; after a few days it became somewhat floral, almost soapy; after two weeks it had mellowed and practically disappeared, leaving just a trace of heat behind.  The raisins shined through everything, but not so much the orange or other spices, and the rum disappeared in short order.

Conclusion:  Sorely disappointed.  Not distinctly gingery, only mildly rummy.  Mostly they tasted like store-bought raisin cookies.  And they were ugly!!  (I don't have a photo of the magazine's product, but everything about them is brown.)  But I'm hesitant to toss the recipe because I messed up on the main ingredient.  Then again, there are a lot of other recipes out there.  This one was a fail.

Recipe:  "Ginger-rum Balls" recipe card from women's magazine

December ABC challenge: Chocolate Gingerbread Cake

 

This month's challenge is a favorite holiday dessert.  For many years, this has been one of my trusty go-tos for a holiday gathering.  It's delicious, easy to make, usually foolproof (see explanation below), and the best part is that it's better after a couple days, so it can be made ahead.

2 1-ounce squares semisweet chocolate
2 cups all-purpose flour
2¹/₂ teaspoons ground ginger, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 cup dark (unsulphured) molasses
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour (or use cocoa powder) a 9'' springform pan.   In a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate, stirring constantly until smooth.  Remove from heat to cool. 

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine flour, 1½ teaspoons ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg to blend thoroughly; beat in molasses and buttermilk.  Reduce speed to low; gradually beat in flour mixture.  Beat in melted chocolate until well blended.  Pour batter into prepared pan; bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan to rack to cool completely.   To decorate, in small bowl combine cocoa powder and remaining 1 teaspoon ginger; sprinkle evenly over cooled cake.

Thanks to a boyfriend who didn't know that the heavy aluminum plate the cake I made him was resting on wasn't disposable, I lost the bottom to my 9" springform pan.  No good deed..., as they say.  (Note to readers:  never turn over a cake to others that's still on the springform bottom -- you'll never see it again.)  I should have tried making this in a standard 9" cake pan -- I'm sure it would have worked fine.  But instead I used an 8" springform and it did NOT work well.  I didn't reduce the temperature (I probably should have), but I did bake it about another 15 minutes.  I also probably should have put foil around the top edges once they'd cooked.  I even have cake pan insulators that help a cake bake evenly, but I completely forgot about them.  I was hoping the center would eventually rise as it completed baking, but it actually sunk lower.  (Possibly from all my jabbing with a cake tester to see if it was done yet.)

Conclusion:  As a long-time trusted recipe, I'm disappointed in how it turned out this time.  It was still rich, moist, and delicious, but the flavor seemed a little too intense.  It's possible that was a result of the changed texture from improper baking, or perhaps my tastes have changed.  (Admittedly, it's been a while since I've made it.)  You have to be careful with the cocoa powder on top--if it's at all loose (as it was this time on the smaller cake), it can make people choke.  A light drizzle of dark chocolate ganache might be a good addition.

Recipe:  "Dreamy Chocolate Gingerbread Cake" from a magazine, circa 1980-something

Spicy Gingerbread Trees

 In my hunt for the perfect gingerbread cookies, I'm trying this Saveur recipe.  The base of this is very similar to the winning gingerbread cookie by Erin Campbell in the Food Network Holiday Baking Championship Season 1, but much more highly spiced.  In fact, this has more spices in it than any other recipe I've looked at.  I was a little concerned, but I like spicy gingerbread, and these are mostly for me.

The recipe is quite fussy in that the dough needs to be chilled once (it was very soft), then you roll it out and chill it again, then you cut it and chill it again... and lots of sheets of parchment paper. I get annoyed by these recipes that require you to chill a whole baking sheet.  I don't have that kind of room in my refrigerator or freezer!  It's always a hassle. So if you want the exact directions, please refer to their recipe page. And ironically, although the description states that "the additional protein in the bread flour helps to retain gingerbread’s sharply cut shapes," the photo on the recipe page shows cookies with typically rounded edges.  (There's also supposed to be a photo of mini gingerbread houses, but I'm getting a video for some savory casserole in its place.  Way to go Saveur.)

I made slight modifications in the recipe, shown in italics and strikeout.  Here's what I used:

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsulphured molasses*
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups bread flour (11-13% protein)
1¹/₂ cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon anise seed, ground

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth, 3–4 minutes. Add the molasses and continue mixing until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and continue mixing until homogeneous, about 2 minutes more. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients; add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until completely blended. Divide the dough into two equal halves and, on a lightly floured sheet of waxed paper, press each half into a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Wrap each tightly and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, roll the dough out to between 1/8" and 1/4" thick, depending on your preference and the handling of your dough.  Chill between activities as necessary for ease of handling, which might mean placing the rolled dough and/or cut cookies in the refrigerator or freezer for several minutes.  Bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness and preference for soft or crisp cookies.  (For soft cookies, the edges should be semi-firm but the centers still soft.)  Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes, until quite firm, then move to a wire rack.

*Saveur used regular molasses in their modified version of the original recipe.  This would make their cookies sweeter.

                        

I was undecided whether or not to add the cardamom (because I think it gets lost in spice mixes), but in the end I did.  I wasn't sure whether I liked the addition of anise seed, but eventually I forgot it was there.  I sifted my flour before I measured, which I think had me using less flour than the recipe should have had because my dough was so soft.  I refrigerated it for two days, but my dough was so soft right out of the refrigerator I didn't need to let it sit on the counter as directed in the original recipe.  Throughout rolling and cutting, I chilled the dough as needed; sometimes I needed to chill between actions and sometimes not. 

I rolled the first batch to 1/4" thick, or perhaps a little thicker, and baked them on an air-bake pan for 8 minutes -- they were underbaked.  The trees deflated, leaving the surface crinkly, and the larger house pieces were still raw in the middle.  They also cracked on the edges when I tried to recut them after baking.  The rest of the cookies were baked on a standard cookie sheet, which worked much better.  The thicker ones I baked for 9 minutes and they turned out well, but after that I rolled them thinner. 

      

Conclusion:  True to the originator's word, these cookies stayed soft!  Amazing, since there was only butter, no shortening.  Not too sweet, and nicely spiced.  I found a few of these forgotten in the cupboard months later and they were still just as tasty.  I craved them after that.   These might have to become a personal winter staple.

Recipe:  "Spiced Gingerbread Cookies" from The Cookie Book by Rebecca Firth
Another tempting recipe of hers to try is Spiced Chewy Molasses Cookies!