I must admit I am very fond of and easily swayed by the pages of Bon Appetit magazine. This month has been no exception. Magazine holiday editions are often hard for me to get through. Full of gift ideas and ads for things to buy I typically get discouraged and never make it to the dishes. Bon Appetite still had a slew of new things to try and great ideas for the coming holiday feasts.
I decided to knock out a few different cookies to see if any should be added to my usual lineup of holiday favorites. I usually look to see if there a new technique or ingredient I’d never tried. I settled on four recipes: chewy ginger cookies, almond oat lace cookies, cardimom crecents and lemon sugar slice and bake. Each with a specific goal in mind.
The chewy ginger cookies called to me. I know that sounds odd but any time you talk bootstrap molasses or three kinds of ginger (fresh grated, candied and ground) in the same recipe I’m in. It reminded me of the day I found molasses cookies in the cabinet on a weekend at my dad’s. Typically I amused myself at home during the weekend while my dad was at work. Often this consisted of raiding the pantry or bike rides to the nearby Dairy Queen. One of the few times I have made myself sick from overconsupmtion was after finding these molases cookies. My own cookies today turned out great! Crunchy bottoms and puffy soft center’s. I only wish I had found the raw/sanding sugar to roll them in as I am sure that would have helped the crunch factor. More on that later.
Almond oat lace cookies? Similar cookies with the term “lace” in them have been popping up on my radar lately. As far as I could tell they were sugar rich, lite on flour with a thin flat appearance. Little did I know the carmelized and crunchy goodness that awaited. These things were fatastic! As expected they take constant monitoring or they go from golden to black in a heartbeat. I’d learned a similar lesson making parmessean crisps and cups a few years ago. I look forward to using these with homemade ice cream in the future.
Cardimom is not a spice that often comes up in my cooking. I’ve seen it in indian food and asian dishes but never worked with it directly. I was surprised to learn it is part of the ginger family. The scent was intoxicating and mimicked nutmeg and allspice qualities. These crecents turned out lite and airy with a pleasant crumble. Using powdered sugar as an afterbake coating proved a challenge and will take a little more investigation. The best part of this recipe was hand forming each cookie. Any repetative activity sparks my mind to imagine. Flashes of some elderly grandmother, lovingly making each cookie just right for that favorite grandchild who will soon be visiting.
The last slice and bake was more of an afterthought. Who doesn’t like having fresh baked cookies at a moments notice. I did three batches of this and popped them in the freezer. Once frozen one was used to bake and taste for a frame of reference. The others will get pulled out over the next few months. If you’re going to get the kitchen dirty why not make extra? You will only thank yourself that night at 11 PM when you remember you were supposed to bring a dish for the next days office celebration.
So for your viewing pleasure, here is a small plate of creations from cookiepalozza…
So what did I learn? I few very important things!
Planning is more than just ingredient and prep lists. When I made the chewy ginger cookies I failed to realize just how much crystalized ginger it used. 1/2 a cup. If you are buying your spices in a major grocery store that would be a whole spice container! Guess I won’t be making that second batch. Oh and look for the line that tells you how many the recipe makes. If it’s not listed you may be in for a surprise.
Drizzling melted chocolate onto a flat surface is not my forte. Thick strands give way to very thin strands a lot faster than you think. While it may look nice it the photo, rest assured there are many more that aren’t so pretty left behind.
Last but not least, don’t be fooled by the pictures. The crecents I saw were prefectly formed and beautifully dusted. The recipe called for the warm cookies to come straight from the oven into the powdered sugar while still warm. The steam still coming from the cookies is supposed to make the sugar stick to the outside of the cookie. What it did for me was make a grey wet paste on the outside of my cookies that stuck to the plate instead of the cookie.
Luckily! I have several “grandmothers” who came to mind. I am sure an afternoon lesson would be just the thing to get the holiday season started. I’ll start making a few calls and copy a few recipes to share of my own.
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