A Little Holiday Review

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday season - it's hard to believe the 2013 holiday season is over! From getting ready for Thanksgiving, to hosting Christmas and celebrating New Year's Eve (which is actually Nick and my anniversary), it's been a bit of a whirlwind! With only four weeks between the major holidays, we only had a day of relaxing before it was time to get the house ready for Christmas. In no time we had the stage set for the next holiday.

Christmas Tree Decorated

It's always fun decorating the tree because we have collected so many ornaments from our travels that we get to re-live those trips as we decorate. I have to say, Arthur had some trouble with the tree and seemed to enjoy the taste of our sentimental ornaments a bit too much and gobbled them up! While some of them cannot be replaced, the one from our honeymoon is being replaced by the resort after we sent a desperate email!  Phew!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

When it comes to Sesame Street, Cookie Monster is by far my favorite character.  I think he's a hoot, and the fact that he and I share an extreme love of cookies doesn't hurt!  When Nick and I were heading up to Lake Winnipesaukee for the weekend, I thought some delicious fall cookies would make a great addition.  When I stumbled on Pumpkin Snickerdoodles I knew these would be perfect!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

The Necessities (adapted from Pennies on a Platter)

Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies

Before I even moved out on my own, I knew I wanted to have my own recipe box just like my Mom's.  Even more, I wanted all of the delicious recipes I had grown up with, made with loving care (among other things) by my mother.  So, for about a week I sorted and copied loads of recipes to give my recipe box a good start.  My mom actually gave me some of the recipe cards written by both of my grandmothers, as well as one of my great grandmother (who I never met!).  There's plenty of nostalgia every time I go searching for something to make.

One of the recipes I copied was the Neiman Marcus Cookie.  This was not something we happened to make often at all, but I always loved the ingredients.  I think we never made them due to the number of the ingredients - we were always missing something.  Because Nick and I have been doing some cookie testing for our wedding, I figured it was a good time to bring this recipe back into the rotation.  The name comes from the actual Neiman Marcus department store.  Turns out this is their signature chocolate chip cookie that people always ask and rave about.  Having never heard about it from anywhere other than my mother's recipe box, I will take their word for it!  There is a story on the internet that says the reason this recipe got out was because the store over-charged ($250 rather than the $2.50) for a single cookie, but many claim that its false.  Regardless of how the recipe got out - I am just happy its out there because these are some delicious cookies!

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Corn Meal and Lime Cookies

Since I was in the mood to bake, and with an audience of taste testers at a birthday party later that evening, I decided to add to a menu that already included Coconut Macaroons (in case they did not go over well) and also make the Cornmeal-Lime Cookies from Joann Chang's Flour cookbook.  Nick loves lime flavoring and had been wanting to try these for a while, so why not give it a go?  I was curious to see how the consistency with the cornmeal in cookie would taste, but the flavors sounded delicious.

The Ingredients

Coconut Macarooners!

I love all things coconut and have been looking at making the macaroons in the Flour cookbook for a while.  When Nick and I were responsible for bringing a dessert to a party it proved to be the perfect excuse to make them!  The post's title is from when Cookie Monster was auditioning for SNL on Facebook and he impersonated McGruber, calling himself Macarooner - too funny!  While these cookies tasted pretty good, they did not come out looking the way they were supposed to.  So here is the story of how I made the cookies that tasted great (people confirmed that!), but with some places noted where things did not turn out the way they maybe should have!

Macaroons!

Welsh Cookies - Classic Family Recipe

This a very different type of cookie recipe, one that has been in my mother's family for quite a long time.  Whenever my grandmother (my mom's mom) came for a visit from upstate New York, this seemed like one of the go-to recipes we would cook together.  I have so many memories of cooking these - from the bowls we used (a nice 70's orange) to rolling out the dough, to the cookie cutters.  I always looked forward to making these with my grandmother since it was something special we would do together.  As I became more into baking myself, these Welsh cookies always seemed to be the first recipe I would pull out of the recipe box.

Welsh Cookies!

Homemade Oreo's- so worth it

For the Fourth of July this year I knew I wanted to bake something, I just wasn't sure what. After a little thought I realized that this would be the perfect occasion to attempt the homemade Oreo's in Joanne Chang's cookbook (I have been on a bit of a kick, obviously!)

After some issues with not fully reviewing the Coconut Cream Pie recipe all the way through, I made sure to look this one over very carefully! So, I knew that the first step did require some refrigeration, but also there was a helpful overnight hint from Joanne to take advantage of.

America's Test Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge!

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that chocolate chip cookies remind me of growing up and being in the kitchen with my mom baking - a bit of Americana.  Most people have their own twist on traditional recipes passed down through their family.  Each of my friends would trade secrets that we learned: for example, my mom, who learned from HER mom, always used shortening (Crisco) rather than butter or a mixture of both, which created a puffier cookie.  I find it very difficult to break from the traditions I learned from my mom - to this day I still use Crisco when baking anything, from cookies and pies to frosting.  This may seem really odd to some, but its the way I grew up doing it.  The first time I made my chocolate chip cookies for Nick, I really hoped he liked them (even though they were different from what he may have learned growing up) because the little tweaks I learned are things I want to pass on to my children.

All that being said, I still love to try out new recipes to see if there are new techniques that would make me want to try to change my ways.  When I recently saw the America's Test Kitchen Boston blogger challenge to make Cooks Illustrated's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, I could not resist giving it a go.

Cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cookies Stuffed With Oreos Exist!

A week ago I got an email from an old friend who is currently living in San Fransisco with a recipe she suggested I blog about.  I clicked into the link and could not believe what I was seeing - an actual chocolate chip cookie that was stuffed with an Oreo!  Who thinks of that type of amazing craziness?  I will tell you: the lovely Jenny from Picky Palate.  Being relatively new to the food blogger world, I only recently stumbled upon this site, but I have been hooked since.  She has so many great ideas, from the simple to more the difficult, that will work for any and all occasions.

Knowing this past weekend was going to be a bit busy, I was totally looking forward to a relaxing Friday night watching TV and making the most ridiculous cookies to date!

Chocolate Chip Cookies Stuffed with Oreos and Heath Bars adapted from Picky Palate:

YUM!

No-Bake Fudgy Oat Cookies - Easy and Delicious

My mom got me "The Taste of Home: Cookies" recipe book for Christmas this year, so I was excited to try out one of the recipes I was eying  and to bring them to a dinner we were attending.  Even better, the recipe we chose was for drop cookies that required no baking!  So, I was hoping they would turn out well because they seemed like one of those good recipes to have on hand when you quickly need a dessert.  I was pleasantly surprised when they actually came out well and actually got compliments!

Yummy Cookies

Espresso Chip Meringues

Randomly Nick and I were talking about cookies.  I honestly cannot remember why we got started on the topic, but the next thing you know, I am off to the races attempting to make meringues.  Why meringues over the thousands of other types of cookies you ask??  Well because we got it in our heads these were "healthy cookies," mostly air - that and we had all the ingredients.  Also, it didn't hurt that we had a meringue cookie from Flour and it was delicious.

Nick found a fun looking recipe by Giada de Laurentiis so I went for it.

The necessities...

• 3 egg whites, at room temperature
• Pinch fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup superfine baker's sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 2/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

The Ingredients

Semi-Homemade by Erica

We had a holiday cookie swap at work today.  It was generally expected that we each bring in some sort of homemade treat to share.  I wanted to make something tasty but easy - I was baking on a Monday night and did not really feel like going all out.  Recently I saw this recipe on Framed Cooks and the cookies received rave reviews so I thought I would give it a go.  Framed Cooks adapted this recipe from Allrecipes.

All you need is:

• 8oz thing of cool whip
• 1 box of cake mix (I used lemon)
• 2 eggs
• about 1/3 cup of confectioners sugar

The ingredients

200 Butter Cookies!

So maybe I underestimated what really going for it meant.  My mom was a bit more involved in the cookie process than I remember.  I guess I was not the dedicated helper that I remember.  This was a three day process...Saturday was making the cookie dough, Monday was rolling the dough out and cutting it into 200 fall appropriate shapes and Tuesday was frosting and decorating with sprinkles of a fall variety.

I thought I had a turkey cutter from last year, but that disappeared back to my mom's house.  Of course that was not realized until every turkey cookie cutter was sold out in the city.  Magically, Nick came back with some other fall themed ones, like a pumpkin, acorn and a squirrel.  The squirrel, however, turned out to be very difficult, his little hands and feet were so small and narrow, it made it difficult to cut out in one piece.  Eventually we were able borrowed a turkey, so our Thanksgiving/fall theme was complete.  

The Cookie Cutters

The Kitchen Aid Mixer and The Butter Cookies

I grew up in a house where each Christmas my brother and I "helped" make butter cookies.  We looked forward to the process of every year; making the dough, waiting for it to chill (hours seemed like days), cutting the cookies (the angel from 1930 was my favorite), frosting them and adding just the right amount of sprinkles.  One year (after college...yes I was in my 20's) my mom actually did not make the cookies and Christmas was just not the same.  We took the butter cookie tradition very seriously. 

Eventually, butter cookies were made for all sorts of holidays, whichever we had the cookie cutters for.  We always made the cookies with an electric hand mixer, licking the mixers when we were done.  We never used a Kitchen Aid mixer, we never had one.  Over time, I became a bit stuck in my ways (shocking, I know) and on principle used a pastry blender, fork, or an electric hand mixer when baking.  Nothing more...

When Nick moved in, he brought along his Kitchen Aid mixer and, I do not have an electric hand mixer here.  This Thanksgiving, my mother asked me to make the butter cookies as a dessert.  To make the dough, you need to mix in a pound of butter (when you double the recipe, but I figure if you are going for it, you really need to go for it).  To mix a pound of butter by hand it would take some time and a LOT of elbow grease.  So I decided to break down and use the Kitchen Aid mixer...


All Ingredients Added

The results were AMAZING...sadly, I am a convert.  I know, I caved pretty quickly.  The mixer made swift work of the dough.  At one point though, I thought I might be killing the motor because the dough is pretty thick and the mixer slowed down a bit, but the Kitchen Aid powered through.


Working its magic!

All Wrapped Up

I will post the finished product after they have been fully decorated in a Thanksgiving way!

Everything worked so well that afterward, I made brownies with the Kitchen Aid mixer, which clearly could have been made stirring with a wooden spoon.  Again though, the batter, made from scratch, blended together faster than I could have done with my old school ways...

My one Kitchen Aid caveat, since I still have the smallest Beacon Hill kitchen, the Mixer spends most of its time in the storage under the stairs.  Unless I have pretty thick batter to make (like the butter cookies), I will probably stick with traditional methods like a spoon, a fork or a pastry blender.  However, when I get my big kid house and the Mixer can sit out on the counter, and not take up a precious amount of counter space, I will use it for everything under the sun I am sure!