#45. Festive Crispy Coconut Cherry Mounds

I like these cookies because they check so many boxes: crispy (yep!); fruity (yep!); buttery (yep!); moist (yep!); and (most importantly) seasonal color scheme (yep!).

The sweet creamy taste of the coconut well complements the slightly tangy cherry glaze, which adds soft textural contrast to the crunchy base.

You can use jam instead of pie filling, but I find the whole berries better suited to these cookies.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup brown sugar 

• 1 egg

• 1 Tablespoon coconut extract

• 2 ¼ cups flour

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• green sprinkles

• cherry pie filling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar using a hand-held mixer.

3. Beat in egg and coconut extract. Set aside.

4. In a medium-size bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, as green sprinkles (the more, the greener your goodies!)

5. Gradually add dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.

6. Place spheres of dough evenly spaced on baking sheet.

7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until cookies are dark brown around the edges.

8. Cool completely. Top each cookie with 1 to 2 teaspoons of cherry pie filling.

#35. Spritz Cookies - 1st Attempt

Let’s hope practice makes perfect, or at least, passable.

In the middle of sweaty July, I bought a heavily discounted Wilton Spritz Cookie Press at Kroger with dreams of churning out batches of beautiful spritz cookies during the holidays.

I did not anticipate using the machine would be So. Damn, Hard. Yes, I followed the directions, which promised that “one click” was all that would be required to produce a single cookie. Hence, in theory I would just click click click my way to a dozen cute spritz cookies.

I’m sure they taste good…

In practice, three solid pumps of the press were required just to dispense enough dough for a decent-sized cookie, which then sagged rather than retaining the sharp edges of its shape. I think a YouTube tutorial is in my future.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 1/2 cups butter

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 egg

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

3. Select press design for cookies and assemble press according to directions. Or not, hah!

4. In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Set aside.

5. In a separate mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar using a hand-held mixer.

6. Gradually beat in egg, vanilla, and milk.

7. Slowly beat in dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredient mixture.

8. Load dough into press….and….um…..try to use it correctly.

9. Bake whatever emerges in oven for 12-15 minutes.

10. Eat while perusing interwebs for technical support.

#28. Lavender Cookies-ish

Inspired by reading a food memoir about Provence, I decided to bake with lavender.  Dried lavender flowers are usually available at specialty markets; I purchased more than what I needed for a piddling at Central Market.

Because lavender tends to impart a flowery flavor (duh), it is crucial to 1) use sparing amounts lest your cookies taste like garden section of Home Depot 2) balance the botanical with another element, such as vanilla.

Don't let the aforementioned lecture fool you into thinking I know what the hell I am doing. 

Although I made "simple" lavender sugar cookies using a well-reviewed recipe, it was a total fail. What emerged from the oven were lavender pancakes, not cookies. There are many reasons why this may have happened. Next time (and there will be), I will need to be more careful with measurements and ingredients. 

Rather than waste the dough, I decided to circumvent the issue by curtailing the excessive spreading via baking some of the dough in cookie cutters. Genius, yes?

NOPE! Second attempt only produced a mess.

Fortunately, I still had some dough, so I decided to cut my losses and bake a cookie custard, of sorts.  Consider it my lavender lemonade from two batches of lemons.

#24. Dorie Greenspan's Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

Dorie Greenspan is a baking genius.

I would say a "master baker" but the pun distracts from her enviable prowess as a manipulator of flour, sugar, butter, and salt. I received her book Baking as a wedding gift and it's been a second Bible ever since.  

I was initially tempted to make her chocolate cloud cookies, but was in the mood for a biscuit that would pair well with tea. These flaky, mildly sweet vanilla cornmeal shortbread are the perfect nibble with a cuppa Irish breakfast. 

The recipe below (only slightly modified) is that of Dorie Greenspan.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup cornstarch

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted, room temperature butter

• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Directions
1. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk in the cornmeal, and set the mixture aside.

2. Add sugar, butter ,and extract to the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl, the bowl and, using either your stand mixers paddle attachment or whisk, or a hand mixer, beat on medium speed until the mixture is very smooth (about 3 minutes).

3. Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until the flour streaks have disappeared into the dough (do not over-mix).

4. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the dough (which will be soft and sticky) into a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag.

5. Leaving the top open, place the bag on a flat surface and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2-inch rectangle that's about 1/4-inch thick. Be sure you don't roll all the way to the open end of the bag, you want to still be able to close it. As you are rolling the dough, turn the bag occasionally to prevent creasing.

6. Pressing out as much air as possible, seal the bag and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours. The sealed dough will keep for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.

PAUSE

7.  Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 350F, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silplat mats.

8. Place the dough-filled plastic bag on a cutting board, slit it open, and discard the bag. Using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the prepared baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork (be sure the tines go all the way through to the baking sheet).

9. Place the baking sheets in the oven and immediately lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking time. The cookies should be set and just slightly golden.

10. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.

11. Eat with abandon.

Makes 32 cookies

#17. Sesame Jam Thumbprints

I have the soundtrack to Hamilton stuck in my head, and all those lyrics about the American Revolutionary War made me think about the Boston Tea Party, which made me think of tea, which made me think of...you guessed it: cookies. 

In pondering what type of cookies pair best with tea (and what type of tea), I have decided to eschew pontificating (hah!) on the minutiae of what might define a 'tea cookie' vs. a 'non-tea cookie' and assign only two requirements.

First, the cookie must look reasonably cute/pretty as it functions as much as adornment for a tea tablescape* as it does as a snack. Second, it must benefit (i.e., taste even better) via a dunk in your tea of choice.

Jam thumbprints in my mind satisfy both of these requirements, and making them afforded me a convenient way of using more of my father-in-law's delicious homemade jams. Yes, he makes jam from scratch in multiple flavors. Also, the cartoons for the labels for his jam. And chairs, for that matter. Show-off.

Sesame seeds may seem like an odd choice, but ironically, I like their crunchy "nutty" contrast to the fruity soft jam better than that actual nuts would provide. They also make these cookies smell wonderful in the oven.

*Sorry but if smize gets to be a word, so does tablescape.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup of sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• Pinch of salt

• 2 cups of flour

• 1/2 cup sesame seeds (more if needed)

• 3/4 cup of your father-in-law's homemade jam 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.. Using a hand-held mixer, beat butter and sugar until combined and creamy.

3. Add in eggs and vanilla extract.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

5. Gradually add in dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredient mixture, beating well.

6. Place dough in fridge for 30 minutes.

7. Roll dough into balls roughly 1 inch in diameter. Coat liberally in sesame seeds.

8. Press down with your thumb to make a small well in the center of the cookie. Fill with 1/2 teaspoon of jam.

9. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until slightly firm. Or longer, if you want really toasty, roasty sesame seeds.

10. Enjoy with a mug of milky Earl Gray.