Chocolate-Filled Walnut Cookies

Wow.  I thought I'd like these cookies, but I didn't think they would be quite that good.  I've had these walnut cookie molds for four years now, and they sat wrapped in their plastic packaging until this week.  I don't know why it took me so long to try them out.  Of course it's not the molds that make the cookie great, but the recipe.  When filled with chocolate ganache, the flavor is reminiscent of a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts.  As good as that is, I prefer them unfilled because they actually taste close to pecan pie, with that deep brown sugar and nutty flavor.

Top-left: Shnooky with our current cat, Gandalf the Grey. Bottom-left: Shnooky (left) with his big brother, Baby.

Before I go further, I wanted to dedicate this post to my beloved cat Shnooky, whom we lost three weeks ago.  I've been feeling down and a little lost without him, and we'd been together for one-third of my life.  He was as kooky as his name, and he made me laugh a lot.  He was "little buddy" and "sweet pea" to me, and he loved sunbeams and charging squirrels and birds outside the window with his "battle cry."  I even miss him walking all over me, demanding to be fed, as I slept in the mornings.  We feel sad to have lost two cats in two years, but we try to remember them with smiles instead of tears.

Back to the less-sad subject of cookies.  Don't have walnut molds and don't want to buy them?  You don't need to.  After I filled all 50 molds, I used a cookie scoop to make 3 more mounds, and they baked up on the cookie sheet just fine.  I can't tell you about the experience of filling those with ganache, because we ate them first.  Take note, though, that you can't use those cookie scoops (even the "teaspoon-sized" ones) to fill the walnut molds; those will give you too much dough.  Use the teaspoon in your measuring spoon set.  I would have preferred the ease of a spring-loaded scoop.  I also thought I would include these in our Christmas cookie baskets this year, but they appear too fragile to hold up in the mail.  Still, they would make a lovely gift hand-delivered for the holidays.  Or just good for eating on any old afternoon.

Rosemary-Lavender Shortbread

One day, on an impulse, I bought a small bag of culinary lavender.  Then I wondered what to do with it.  I had always associated lavender with soap and potpourri, and imagined lavender ice cream or lavender baked goods would taste soapy.  I'm glad to report this shortbread is not at all soapy.  I'd call it herbal and lightly floral, and I wasn't prepared for the glowing reaction it got.  See, I liked the cookies well enough, but I was dreaming of chocolate ice cream, or summery peach cobbler.  And I didn't want a load of buttery shortbread around the house, so I brought the cookies to work.  Their unusual flavor combination, cute teapot shapes, and pretty sprigs got plenty of attention, and lots of compliments.

Squares of shortbread dough flecked with rosemary and lavender. Press some rosemary sprigs into some
of the shortbread for a decorative touch. Then everything gets a dusting of sugar.

The shortbread is sandy and buttery, and accented with honey along with the lavender and rosemary.  Make sure you use dried culinary lavender; the leaves in the sachet that scents your drawer might have chemicals on them.  I adapted this recipe from Epicurious to include the lavender.  I also altered the method to make lots of cutout cookies that would hold their shape when handled, as opposed to two simple rounds scored into triangles.

These are perfect for a fancy tea, but since the temperature hit 90 yesterday I made a strawberry oolong iced tea steeped with lavender.  For a bit of color, splash in about a teaspoon of cranberry juice.  Pour over ice, cool down, and have a cookie.

Hazelnut Baci

Sometimes summer makes me overlook chocolate.  I get so excited about strawberries, peaches, plums, cherries, and especially watermelon, that chocolate can get relegated to all the months I don't enjoy these fruits in season.  Then I tasted these cookies at a picnic, and liked them so much I had to make them.  Soft, crackly chocolate-hazelnut cookies sandwich a layer of Nutella in little bites.

We enjoyed them at our recent Jane Austen book club picnic at World's End, and boy do we know how to do picnics right.  My contributions were fried chicken, scones, and plum skillet cake.  Rebecca made her "Austen" cucumber sandwiches and the most delicious nectarine-steeped iced tea, and brought real china teacups!  And Mrs. Hot Potato, or "the Mrs.," as she's known on her blog, made these hazelnut baci and lemon-lavender shortbread.  Yum.

The Mrs. adapted her Baci di Cioccolato (chocolate kisses) recipe to use hazelnuts instead of almonds and Nutella instead of ganache.  I followed her instructions but was stumped about measuring out the dough.  The original recipe calls for shaping the dough into logs of a certain diameter and then cutting up pieces.  That sounded fussy, so I can see why the Mrs. used an ice cream scoop.  I didn't know what size she used, and if I wasn't making these on my wacky schedule in the middle of the night I would have asked her.  I used my "tablespoon" scoop, but those turned out too big, like Oreos, and a little flat though they tasted just as good.

Wonder about using sanding or sparkling sugar?  Don't.  I experimented, and it was pretty but too crunchy.

For my second try, I did what I call "the insurance policy": I froze the dough balls to help maintain a round shape and made them in 3 sizes, figuring one of those sizes had to be right.  Turns out using the tablespoon scoop and then halving those pieces makes the perfect two-bite cookie.  And this cookie is definitely making an appearance come Christmas cookie basket time.  Some relatives will be very happy indeed.

Butterflies kept us company during the picnic.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

"Oooh, big cookie," Joe said as he walked past the cooling skillet.  This just looks like a fun recipe.  It's also easy to throw together, and you save a little time from the usual scooping of smaller cookies onto a baking sheet.

The drawback?  It's a bit dry.  The original recipe didn't have any such complaint in its reviews, so I hope it wasn't because I replaced a quarter of the flour with white whole wheat flour.  Or maybe other people used skillets that weren't cast iron -- which conducts more heat -- like I did?  Some people even commented that they used pie pans.  Maybe because I decided to forgo the ice cream and caramel sauce.  If you have a skillet variation you recommend, leave me a comment.  I'd like to give this another go!

This post was shared with:
Tea Party Tuesday
Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweets for a Saturday

Stained Glass Cookies

These Stained Glass Cookies are works of art.  Hold them up, and you can see through their candy centers. They can look like red glass ornaments on your cookie trees, and the cutouts in turn can be decorated with colored sugar and adorn another cookie tree.  They were a gorgeous addition to my Christmas cookie baskets.

These ornament cookies look almost too pretty to eat, like they should be hung up on a real tree to catch the light.

And for some variation, a light brushing of water followed by a sprinkling of colorful sugar also makes your cookies festive.

The method couldn't be easier.  After the cookies bake for a few minutes, pull them out and sprinkle crushed hard candy into the cavities, then bake a little longer.  But Joe and I were doubtful, and you should have heard us preparing.

I don't think the oven is hot enough to melt the candy.


Of course it is! ... but if I pile it too high, will it overflow?


Is the the candy going stay in place or flow like a river?

I can tell you that the candy will spread, but only so much.  So you may want to sprinkle a little extra in the points of those stars and snowflakes.  And our little mounds of crushed candy sat taller than the cookies, but did not overflow.  Try it ... I bet people will tell you they've never seen anything like it!

Thumbprint Trios

These are fun to make, and to eat. They're three thumbprint cookies stuck together and filled with different jams -- strawberry, raspberry, and apricot. I also like how easy they are, and how decorative they look for the holidays.

Trios from Gourmet (December 2007)
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 sticks (½ lb) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
About 2 tbs each of seedless raspberry jam, apricot preserves, and strawberry preserves

Whisk together flour and salt. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until very pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes, then beat in egg and vanilla. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms. Divide dough in half and form each piece into a 6-inch disk, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.


Preheat oven to 350° with rack in middle. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.


Roll 3 separate level teaspoons of dough each into a ball, then flatten each ball slightly (to 1 inch wide and less than ½ inch thick). Arrange them in a triangle with edges touching in center.










Then make a deep indentation in the center of each round with a wooden spoon handle. Make more cookies, arranging them 1 inch apart on baking sheets.










Fill indentations in each cookie with about 1/8 tsp jam (each cookie should have 3 different fillings).




Bake until cookies are baked through and golden brown on edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Bake more batches on cooled baking sheets lined with fresh parchment.

Dough can be chilled up to 2 days. Cookies keep, layered between sheets of parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.

It's Almost Christmas: Linzer Cookies

My sister pleads with me to make these throughout the year, but they're a bit labor-intensive so I only make them before Christmas. The hazelnut dough lends a bit of spiciness, the red raspberry jam makes them festive, and the snowy dusting of confectioners sugar reminds me of Christmas. I bake the cutouts from the middle as bonus bite-sized treats. I also give them away as holiday gifts in colorful Chinese take-out boxes I get from the party store. They won't fail to please!

Linzer Hearts from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

Instead of hearts, I use a round cookie cutter and holiday-themed mini cutters

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1 cup (4½ oz) blanched hazelnuts

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

½ tsp freshly grated lemon zest

½ cup raspberry jam, for filling

¼ cup confectioners sugar, for dusting

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a food processor, pulse hazelnuts until finely ground. Whisk the ground hazelnuts into the flour mixture; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks, vanilla, and lemon zest; beat to combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With mixer on low speed, add hazelnut-flour mixture, and beat until just combined, 10 to 15 seconds.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface, divide in half, and shape into flattened disks. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator, and let stand until softened slightly. (This will help keep the dough from cracking when rolled.) On a large piece of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour, roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness. To prevent sticking while rolling, occasionally run a large offset spatula under dough, and add more flour to the top or bottom of dough. Transfer parchment paper and dough to a baking sheet; freeze until firm, about 20 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. (You can stack the parchment and dough.)

Preheat the oven to 325°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove one sheet of dough and parchment from freezer; working quickly, cut into heart shapes with a 3-inch cookie cutter. Cut out center from half the shapes with a 2-inch cutter. Using a wide metal spatula, transfer open hearts to prepared baking sheets, about 1½ inches apart; freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. (You can bake the cutout centers for bite-size cookies, or reroll them to make the larger hearts.)

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are crisp and lightly golden all over, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. (Cooled cookies can be stored overnight in an airtight container at room temperature before filling.) Spread the flat sides of the whole hearts with about 1½ tsp jam. Sift confectioners sugar over the open hearts. Just before serving, top open hearts with jam. Cookies should be eaten the day they're filled.

Italian Tricolor Cookies

These cookies take me right back to childhood. The section of Brooklyn we lived in had lots of Italian bakeries, so we never lacked sweets. These "rainbow cookies" or "7-layer cookies," as they're known, are my favorite, along with those butter cookies sandwiched with the apricot or raspberry jam half-dipped in chocolate with sprinkles (anybody got a recipe for that?). These tricolor cookies are sweet and almondy, and a perfect way to kick off Christmas cookie season.

The recipe calls for flavoring one layer with cocoa, and coloring another layer orange. I was out of red food coloring and unable to make orange, so I went with green, which looks avacado-y in this photo. I also only had one 8x8 inch pan, but these round cake pans worked out ok. The shapes didn't match up at the end, but I cut my way around them.

I don't recommend cookie cutters for the finished product, since the assembled layers were taller than the cutters. Sliced rectangles worked out the best. However you cut them, though, they'll taste great!

Baked Tricolor Cookies from Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

For the cookie layers

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

7 oz almond paste (recipe follows, but I used storebought)

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp pure almond extract

1½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

3 large eggs

Grated zest of 1 orange

Orange food coloring (liquid or gel)

2 tbs dark unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

For the filling

2/3 cup apricot jam

2 tbs amaretto liquer (I left this out)

For the glaze

6 oz dark chocolate (60% cacao)

1 tsp light corn syrup

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter three 8-inch square baking pans. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper and butter the parchment. Dust with flour and knock out the excess flour. (I used cooking spray in place of the butter.) Sift the flour and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the almond paste, sugar, and almond extract together until small crumbs form. Add the butter and beat on high speed until the mixture is combined. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add the orange zest and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in three parts, beating on low speed after each addition until combined.

Divide the batter among three small mixing bowls. In the first bowl, add a few drops of orange food coloring to the batter, and mix well. Continue to add a few drops of food coloring and mixing until the batter is medium orange in color. In the second bowl, add the cocoa powder to the batter and whisk until fully incorporated. Leave the third bowl plain.

Pour each batter into a prepared pan and smooth the tops. Bake the layers for 12 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each layer comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely. Remove the parchment.

In a small saucepan over low heat, stir the jam and amaretto until warmed through and completely blended, 3 to 5 minutes.

Place the chocolate layer on a serving rack and evenly spread half of the apricot jam over the top. Top with the plain layer and spread with the remaining apricot filling. Top with the orange layer and let the layers sit in the refrigerator for 5 minutes (or while you make the chocolate glaze).

In a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly.

Spread the glaze over the top of the bar cookies, completely covering the orange layer (some glaze may spill down the sides of the cake). Place the tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate topping completely sets (about 1 hour). Remove the tray from the refrigerator, wait 30 minutes for the chocolate to warm up, and cut into 20 individual squares or use a small cookie cutter to cream your own shapes.

The bars can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 4 days.

Almond Paste

1½ cups finely ground almonds

1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted

½ tsp pure almond extract

Put all the ingredients in a food processor with 2 tbs water and process until a paste forms. Remove from the processor, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use. Extra almond paste, tightly wrapped, keeps well in the freezer.