Hot Cookie - the Archive

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...

My "skewed distribution" cookies. If you like playing with clay, you'll love making these cookies. Form a long rope of the chocolate part and wrap it in the vanilla part. Bake the two long cookie bars once, then slice (like biscotti), and bake cookies flat for another 5 minutes. Sounds doable, right? The trick is to get each half of the dough the same consistency. The recipe doesn't accomplish that goal; the center is too stiff and the vanilla covering too flabby. I hate flabby. Chocolate center is too dry to hold together. Vanilla layer spreads and spreads. The problem is the timing of the dry ingredients. The recipe wants you to incorporate a full 1/4 cup of cocoa (dry ingredient) plus a half cup of almonds (another dry ingredient) to the chocolate half, at the very end of the mixing. The result? A stiff chocolate dough that barely holds together. Meanwhile, the vanilla layer gets no compensating addition of flour to firm it up. So, the vanilla outer...

Filling are Sour Cherry Lemon Jam by Earth & Vine Provisions on the left, and my friend Gitte's Tangerine Marmalade, right. Rolled cookies require two extra steps that I try to avoid - refrigeration and rolling.  If I wanted to roll out dough, I'd make a pie.  But I promised to make all these darned cookies, or pretty near all.  Out came the rolling pin. With 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal, you'd imagine a hearty good-for-you cookie that would be representative of the 1940's, when this recipe appeared in Gourmet Magazine . You'd be half right. The cup of butter nixes the healthy thing, and gives these a high-fat pastry texture. This recipe also calls for pastry flour, a low-gluten flour and second-lowest in protein content of the four most common flours (cake, pastry, all purpose, and bread). Pastry flour contributes to a light texture that breaks apart easily. I was never good at reading all the instructions before beginning a task.  I had just added the baking...