Hot Cookie - the Archive

On Sunday, my nephew asked me for my bourbon ball recipe. Not one from the Gourmet Cookie Book -- one of those recipes I haven't gotten around to -- but the one I make for Christmas brunch, and other cold-weather parties to get us all through the winter. My recipe comes from a 1970's yellowed 3 X 5 card. Typed on an actual typewriter. My mom found the "Coconut Rum Balls" recipe somewhere, set me to typing the recipe for her card file, then set me to making them. I kept making them. One year, we were out of rum and I'd tasted a friend's bourbon balls (in the '70's these things were everywhere), so I used bourbon and never looked back. Bourbon Balls 2 cups finely crushed chocolate waters 1 cup sifted powdered sugar, more for rolling 1 cup finely chopped pecans 1/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup bourbon Combine all ingredients. With hands -- and this is the fun part so no fair using a spoon -- mix until all ingredients are well combined. The mixt...

One hundred years ago today, my mom was born in Oakland, California. I had hoped I'd be celebrating with her this weekend, but she didn't quite make it to her hundredth birthday. She died in April, and I poured myself into a research project ever since, giving me time with the familiar before turning to the business of grief. I haven't completely ignored the grieving process. After a healing memorial gathering surrounded by friends and relatives, my family loaded a U-haul truck to bring home Mom's small but prized collection of antiques. I have found places in my home for Victorian cranberry glass, Dresden porcelain and marble-top tables, but boxes remain in my garage, filled with memories and emotions to work through. I find the grieving process gave me enough energy to meet tight research deadlines, but not enough energy to do what gives me joy. Only when the research project was done have I returned to my mixing bowls and made my first batch of cookies for friend...

Swirls are more decorative than ingredients suggest. These two-toned cookies dress up a plate more than their earthy ingredients have a right to do. The fig and date mixture spreads on a rectangle of dough and the whole mess gets tucked into a long roll and chilled. Cookies can be cut from the roll in batches, and the roll stores for up to a month. I'm not sure the anise gives the fruit enough punch to distinguish these cookies from the flavor of your basic Fig Newtons. The dough needs more flavor, too, but rolls out easily, so forms a sturdy base. I'm thinking lemon zest could come to the dough's rescue. The festive look of the swirls is worth a bit more experimentation with flavorings. I tried substituting brandy for the water in the fruit puree, but that turned out to be a waste of good brandy. The flavor did not come through. Have an idea for a filling flavoring? The recipe is here and here .

Almonds are real work-horses in gluten-free baking. They are the basis for these rolled out cookies. You don't have to be on a gluten-free diet to like them. They are a stunning blend of the nuts, chocolate and spices (cinnamon and cloves). Bonus is that they roll out easily for cutting into shapes. I didn't find the dough sticky as the recipe suggests. These roll out easily between sheets of wax paper. They do want to sit for 3 hours before baking. They are meant to be crisp! These cookies, originally from Switzerland, have a firm consistency that holds up to handling. Add to these features the subtle spices (cinnamon and cloves) that most people don't combine with chocolate, and these are winners. They remind me of Mexican chocolate used for hot cocoa. The one drawback is that the sugar in these cookies gives a gritty consistency. I would try a superfine sugar next time. Ingredients storage note: The dough gets mixed in a food processor, and because you sta...

Remember these books? Waldo, the character in the red and white striped shirt and hat is hidden among dozens of busy characters on each page of these picture books, and you have to find Waldo. He is surrounded by a flurry of activity everywhere you look. The last two months, I've lived in Waldo's world. Each trip to clean out my mom's home I was surrounded by a cast of characters and a list of errands. Even after I hired a property manager (a most empowering thing to do, if it is a good one, and I have a good one), I had decisions to make every time I turned around. On my last trip alone, I chose a new garage door, hired someone to conduct an estate sale, recycled medical equipment, exchanged emails with an electrician, posted furniture for sale online, met with a chimney sweep, and met with a color consultant about house paint, indoors and out. I forget what else. The main work of sorting mom's stuff, of choosing which mementos to keep, which memories to treasure m...

This is the last and much delayed post in a series of articles about one fantastic afternoon of baking cookies with friends. #43 Acorn Cookies (2000) These take the prize for cutest cookie of the day. The dough pieces, formed into egg shapes drop onto the sheets and only get their acorn essence when the wide end of the cookies are dipped into chocolate, then nuts. Dipped in pistachios, the acorn cookies on the left get a festive holiday green tinge; those on the right are dipped in pecans. It took a while to figure out "the size of an acorn," which is about a teaspoon. Once we got our portions down to size, there were plenty to go around; the cookies filled three cookie sheets. The recipe calls for walnuts, inside and out. But you know my preference for pecans. I thought this recipe would be very much like Mexican wedding cakes, but this recipe wants brown sugar, whereas the south of the border delicacies always want powdered sugar. I think the powdered sugar...

New Year's Greetings... to all who have spent a few minutes on the pages of my blog. A year ago I promised to bake a cookie per week and drop ten pounds. I was off to a great start when, as you might expect, life intervened. So, where am I now? I have accomplished about three-fourths of my goals. And it's a three-fourths I can be proud of. I have lost 7-8 pounds, depending on which day you ask me, and the cookie count is up to 46 baked, not all blogged. My 70 blog posts amounted to about one post per week, as planned. Just not every blog was about a cookie. I'll admit at times the blog was a slog, and I've considered ditching the baking, the writing and my goals altogether in favor of some other very important task. Let's see. My garden needs weeding, the deck sweeping, several closets have been ignored for years. I'd really like to get on that quilt project I promised my daughter a while back. And my mom's house needs clearing out. All projects for t...

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...

Fall has colored my days especially well this year, but they tell me that winter is on its way. Seattle maples held fast to their leaves until a couple of wind storms, and now a drenching rain blasts the color onto lawns awaiting my rake. The last of the summer veggies on my window sill, like me, prefer to be inside. The winter Delicata squash I dragged home on a trip through Eastern Washington are a dinner vegetable staple twice a week. More pears and apples than cereal grace my breakfast bowl. But as a child in Oakland, California, I best remember fall for the figs and persimmons. The last fruits harvested prefer a long, warm summer. So do I. I have that in common with figs and persimmons. Even now, the small display of orange and purple at my local grocery store turns my head. But $7 for a basket of figs? And only Fuyu persimmons - the hard, crispy kind. Where are the Hachiyas I'm used to? The kind that feel like a sack of mush before you can eat them. California persi...

Steve Hartman's remembrance of Andy Rooney this week would have been unmemorable, at least for me, except for Rooney's comment about -- ginger snaps: I like ginger snaps with milk.  But it's always hard to come out even. You either need one more ginger snap or another swallow of milk. It's just as hard to imagine the mountains Andy Rooney would make of such molehills. Why were his many essays at the end of each 60 Minutes episode so appealing? Perhaps he'd find the crucial pet peeve for some segment of the audience. Maybe his musings endeared us to him in the same way Uncle Les's "quirky" outbursts did at holiday gatherings. Maybe it was the way Rooney could make a story out of nearly nothing. Rooney was easily irked. And easily amused. And he found just a different enough perspective about things we so easily take for granted that we were forced to think about them all over again. Now, where did I put those ginger snaps? I like 'em with o...