Hot Cookie - the Archive

My friend Gitte brought along a batch of Chocolate Ginger Shortbread. These refrigerator cookies needed several hours of chilling, so she made them up the night before. It is a handy thing to do when you know you are expecting company and want to have some fresh cookies to serve. They roll into a tube shape and you can cut as many as you need from the roll, saving the rest for another time. Gitte's Chocolate Ginger Shortbread Never mind the cookies. Gitte gave me the best kitchen tip of the day. She reuses butter wrappers whenever she can. When the piece of parchment I cut did not cover the entire baking sheet, she reached for the butter wrappers to fill in the empty spaces. Why didn't I think of that? She was reluctant to have me spill this tip in my blog. "Maybe you'll find it's toxic or something!" It turns out that lots of people keep their butter wrappers and reuse them to butter a pan. And for many other purposes. See the comment

Here's what I took to Christmas lunch at Jill and Mara's. Clockwise are: Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti (a recipe from local teacher Iole Aguero), Anise-Scented Fig and Date Swirls (ice-box cookies from the book), Mocha Toffee Bars, Walnut Acorn Cookies (this time made with almonds inside the cookie and pecans on top), and (center) Bourbon Balls, a family favorite version I've been making for 30 years. The mischievous elves did not get even one.

#37 Trios (2007) Trios, just before baking. These thumbprint cookies, arranged in threes, were the most colorful of those we baked during our daylong cookie extravaganza (see December 20 post). We filled the holes with a trio of apricot, currant and raspberry jams, each one a festive ornament. My niece and sister-in-law liked using the end of a wooden spoon to poke the holes in the dough balls. The technique gave a uniform and professional effect. As instructions go for thumbprints, these were a bit high-maintenance. The dough wanted to be chilled before rolling into balls and again after forming and filling each cookie with jam. I think one or both chills can be eliminated because the dough seemed plenty firm to hold up to rolling and poking. The recipe is here . Angela melts the chocolate in the double boiler and spreads it on the dough (right). #38 Mocha Toffee Bars (1987) Besides the cashews and chocolate, the best part of this recipe is the "What's

Mixing, rolling, dropping - cookies, that is. Julie and Gitte (foreground) drop dough for Mini Black & White Cookies. My kitchen came alive on Sunday with clouds of confectioners sugar, flurries of flour, the whir of the mixer, and the hum of conversation while rolling, dropping and dipping cookies. Never have so many cookie bakers graced my home at one time. A true hive of activity buzzed for more than the allotted four hours, as friends took pity on my blog task and polished off 10 recipes from the Gourmet Cookie Book . My descriptions of the cookies will be brief in the next couple of posts, but they will include many photos of our fun and the bakers' opinions of the cookies. And we did have opinions. Some positive, some negative. Some of my guest bakers might as well have been tasting different cookies altogether, so varied were their reviews of the same cookie. I confess I have been concerned that my recipe reviews have been a bit harsh, but bolstered by the

Readers may have noticed that my writing has sort of "blogged down" of late. What with OOT trips and the holidays, not much cookie baking got done. I feared I'd be baking from the same book till next summer. What to do? I've invited some friends to a "Bogged-Down-Blog Cookie Baking Party." Like a cookie exchange where we all get to take home a variety of cookies, except we'll all make the cookies together. And all from The Gourmet Cookie Book. Each friend is bringing an ingredient -- a pound of butter, some flour, pine nuts, molasses, an extra cookie sheet, even a rosette iron. The oven will be working overtime, I'll be taking photos while we bake our way through 10 recipes. My counters are cleared for action. Time for some rest before the extravaganza! Posts to follow.

I wish I could say these cookies had an interesting shape, or showed off the baker's talent, or boasted a great flavor combination. Three strikes. I'm giving "Shoe Sole" Cookies the boot. Small round shapes were easiest to form. First, what could be appetizing about a cookie that in any way resembles a shoe? I'm thinking leathery, flat and hard. Not much going for it in the marketing department here. In fact, the only resemblance to a shoe sole is the shape. The recipe has us using an oval cookie cutter to mimic the shape of a shoe - not a pretty shape in my opinion. I cut mine into circles and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. A ring around the edge remains white because that is the part that is puffing up during baking, and not browning. These do have a light texture, owing to the Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry. That's right, "puff paste" and sugar - the only two ingredients in this recipe. Pastry from the freezer and sugar? No talent nec