#30. Uighur Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

....or, rather, Oatmeal Uighur Raisin Cookies....

A good friend supports your crazy plan to make 57 different cookies in one year.

An excellent friend brings you back raisins (and cheese) all the way from Xinjiang province so that one of those 57 types of cookies can have a sort of, shall we say, Uighur flair.

Meet my excellent friend, intrepid traveler, and brilliant writer, Alice Levitt.

We both enjoy tights of bright hues, dinners of multiple courses, and, obviously, staring contests of unpredictable duration.

You should follow Alice to learn more about her incredible trip to Xinjiang, but first make these cookies so you have something to nosh on while so doing.

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned oats

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

• ⅛ teaspoon allspice

• ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• ¾ cup light brown sugar

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup raisins from Xinjiang

Directions

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

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, and allspice. Set aside.

3. In a separate mixer bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar using a hand-held or stand-up mixer.

4. Add egg, maple syrup, and vanilla.

5. Beat dry mixture into wet mixture, one 1/4 cup at a time, until thoroughly combined. Batter will be thick like cement. It will not taste like cement.

6. Add raisins to better and mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula.

7.  Portion golf ball-size scoops of dough approximately 1.5 inches apart on cookie sheets.  

8. Bake 15-16 minutes for soft, chewy cookies; 20 minutes (or longer) for crispy cookies. 

#19. Palmiers

David Lebovitz's account of buying and renovating an apartment in Paris has the singular distinction of being the only food memoir I have read thus far that simultaneously made me ravenous (for all the delights available at French markets) and nauseated (due to the byzantine rules and regulations governing, well, pretty much all aspects of French real estate). Fortunately, more often appetite won over anxiety, which is why I was inspired to make palmiers after reading Lebowitz's mention of this glorious cookie. 

Please don't sue me Mr. Lebovitz!!

These cookies are exceedingly simple and the only aspect of the preparation that may trip you up is the folding. Epicurious has a great step-by-step pictorial guide.

Ingredients

• 4 sheets puff pastry (defrosted)

• white granulated sugar (at least 1/2 cup)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scatter about 1/8 cup of sugar on a clean surface (e.g., your kitchen counter). Cover with puff pastry sheet.

2. Sprinkle more sugar evenly over top (i.e., non counter-facing side) of pastry sheet. Roll sheet into a 10-inch square with a rolling pin.

Let the folding begin!!

3. Fold in two opposite sides of the pastry sheet square to meet in the center. Repeat, folding in again same sides of the pastry sheet. 

4. Cut folded pastry crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. 

5. Place slices on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with sugar.  

6. Bake until light brown on one side (about 6 minutes), then turn over and bake until other side is equally brown (6 more minutes). Cool completely.

7. Repeat the process with remaining pastry sheets

Try not to consume all at once.

#18. Cranberry Shortbread - Mostly Martha But Some Bridey

I made this delightful shortbread almost two weeks ago, but with family visiting and some travel, I am woefully behind in posting the recipe. This recipe is adapted from one by Martha Stewart for Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate my heart-shaped cookie cutter and had to settle for shortbread stars. Some of which broke apart, perhaps because I too vigorously pounded the cutter into the shortbread. Learn from my error!

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 2  cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Not Celsius. That would be bad.

2. Combine butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt in a large bowl using a wooden spoon and a lot of upper arm strength.

3. Gradually integrate dried cranberries.

4. Press dough evenly into an 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.

5. Cool shortbread for roughly 20 minutes.  Use your cookie cutter (shape of your choice) to cut out cookies. Place on pretty platter for others to admire. If they don't, demand so.

6. Eat remaining shortbread then and there, or save crumbles and bits for ice cream topping.  

14. Potato Chip Cookies - St. Patrick's Day Retrospective

Okay, guys, here's the deal. I hate to admit it, but the Irish don't have a rich history when it comes to developing their own cookies. Or, for that matter, sweets. Or, actually, for that matter, food. Thanks to the feckin' Brits' control over Ireland and, specifically, their land distribution practices, the Irish had to rely on the potato for sustenance since that crop was one of the few that (usually) grew well in their meager land allotments.  So, it was all tato all the time, which, as you can imagine did not inspire much diversity in cuisine. And, of course, the shit really hit the fan when a destructive fungus caused a blight in potato production. 

So, I wanted to make potato cookies on St. Patrick's Day as a reminder in some ways of how far Irish cooking has evolved in just over 100 years. The island is now home to some of the best restaurants in the world led by game-changing chefs who are using local ingredients to make elegant innovations of Irish classics as well as some who are doing their part to preserve tradition by churning out elevated versions of Irish staples.

Most of the recipes I found (and there weren't many) that used regular ol' potatoes didn't interest me. HOWEVER, when I stumbled upon a plethora of potato chip cookie recipes, then I really got excited.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 cup butter

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 cup chocolate chips

• 1 cup butterscotch chips

• 1 cup crushed potato chips

• additional crushed potato chips for coating

Directions

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

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3. Using a hand-held mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add in eggs, one at a time until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla extract and beat until well-blended.

4. Gradually add dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredients, beating well.

5. Using a spatula or large spoon, mix in chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and crushed potato chips.

6. Form dough into balls roughly 1 inch in diameter. Coat balls in crushed potato chips and place on baking sheets, evenly spaced.

7. Bake 10-12 or until desired firmness. (I like a gooey cookie.)

#13. Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching and as a woman of second-generation Irish descent it is my cultural duty to consume as many green things as possible in the days approaching March 17th. Tinging cookies simply with some food coloring is a cheap trick, but one, I think, made more forgivable if the the source of the flavor of your baked goods is naturally green.  Like mint!

This is why I give zero fucks about coaxing an emerald hue out of the frosting for these cookies via a few drops of McCormick food coloring. 

And for all the omadhauns who will cry foul at this post for its lack of 'authenticity' when it comes to a 'real' Irish cookie, look for my #14 post.

Ingredients (Cookies)

• 1 cup  flour

• 1/4 cup baking cocoa

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients (Frosting)

• 4 cups powdered sugar

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 1 tsp mint extract

• 4 tbs milk

Save some for the sandwiches!!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. Set aside

3. In a separate (larger bowl), cream butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with hand-held mixer. Add egg and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.

4. Gradually add dry ingredient mixture until thoroughly incorporated.

5. Drop equal-size scoops of dough evenly apart on sheets. Using an ice cream scoop really helps! Place in oven and bake approximately 17 minutes until surface is a bit wrinkly and cookies are only slightly soft to touch.

6. Transfer cookies from sheets to cooling racks. Cool thoroughly. If not, you will be very sorry.

7. In a medium bowl, beat 2 cups of powdered sugar with butter until creamy. Add salt and mint extract until thoroughly combined.

8. Add remaining (2 cups) of powdered sugar and milk, mixing well.

9. When your cookies have cooled sufficiently, place approximately 1 tablespoon of frosting on underside of one cookie. Top with another cookie. It's really not that hard.

10. Repeat for as many cookie sandwiches you desire. Consume any excess frosting as a 'snack' to tide you over before a cheeseburger dinner.

#11. Lemon Polenta Cookies

This post could also be titled, "Why I Need To Invest In Quality Piping Tips." Because when you get to the part of the recipe that calls for shaping your batter into elegant corrugated swirls and discover you only have icing bags but no tips, you have to try very hard not to make your polenta cookies resemble yellow poop logs.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I found a lovely recipe for polenta cookies in my Martha Stewart cookbook,  and adapted the recipe to give them a more lemon-forward flavor. Sorry, Martha. 

I like how gritty texture and earthy taste of the cornmeal are tempered via the inclusion of some citrus. Though heavy on the butter, the light flavor of these cookies makes it dangerously easy to eat half a dozen in short order. Fortunately, these cookies freeze very well should you want to create a stopgap to prevent you from downing the whole batch.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups plain flour

• 1 cup polenta or cornmeal

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 egg yolk

• 2 teaspoons lemon extract

Directions

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

2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, polenta, and salt until thoroughly combined.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined. Add egg and egg yolk, mixing well. Add lemon extract.

4. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients (large bowl) and combine thoroughly.

Now, what you should do:

5a. Fill piping bag fitted with star tip with batter. Dispense into lovely swirls onto your baking sheet.

What I did.

5b. Shout, "FML!" to the kitties. Spoon batter into piping bag. Cut off point so batter dispenses just in long even tubes. Dump, er, dispense batter and shape by hand into spirals and braids.

6. Bake cookies for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

#9. Cornish Fairings

I am a Ginger who happens to love ginger. Considering my sensitivity to spice, I surprise myself with how much I enjoy a really fiery ginger ale like Boylan's or a heavily spiced gingerbread. Although I have been fortunate enough to have spent a considerable amount of time in England (the perks of being a Dickens scholar and having a terrific friend who lets me stay with her in South Kensington), I had never encountered Cornish fairings. Maybe I was distracted by all the Millionaire's Shortbread, of which I consumed roughly a million pieces per visit. 

The word "fairing" originally referred to any sort of goody vended at British fairs but eventually came to specifically represent a type of biscuit or cookie usually made with ginger or other baking spices. The "Cornish fairing" became a household name in the late nineteenth century when one intrepid Cornish manufacturer began mass producing them for mail orders. 

Golden syrup can be found online, or at most shops that specialize in foreign and/or British comestibles, like Rice Village's The British Isles Shop. You can use maple syrup, but the extra investment/errand is worth it for its distinctive, buttery, honey taste.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp nutmeg

• 4 tsp ground ginger

• pinch of salt

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1/2 cup caster (very fine) sugar

• 5 tbs golden syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

4. With a sturdy spatula, add butter in small chunks until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Small, greasy ones, that is.

5. Add in sugar. Then gradually stir in golden syrup.

6. Flour your hands slightly, then shape dough into a large ball. Refrigerate for about 30 min.

7. Place golf ball-size pieces of dough on cookie sheets, leaving ample room in between.

8. Bake for 10-12 minutes until balls have spread flat, turned golden brown, and assumed a crinkly surface texture.

9. Cool on wire racks. Enjoy with a cuppa.*

*That means 'tea' in British.