Checkerboard Cookies:
Cut each 1/4 inch. bake 350/ 10-12 mins
Start with white dough in mixer bowl:
Cream
1 lb butter (room temp)
1 cup sugar
Add:
2 eggs, one at a time
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp orange zest
Add:
5 cups flour
Put the dough in a big zip lock bag and flatten into a big square.
Now make chocolate dough using same bowl/beater:
Cream:
1 lb butter (room temp)
1 cup sugar
Add:
2 eggs, one at a time
Add:
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp orange zest
Blend and add:
5 cups flour - minus 12 tbsp (almost a cup)
12 tbsp cocoa
Put the dough in a big zip lock bag and flatten into a big square.
Chill dough. Once chilled slice into long pieces (square) and use chocolate and white dough to alternate to create a checkerboard affect.
Slice 1/4 inch thick and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes
Crackle Cookie (x4 original recipe)
Makes 144 cookies
Bake 350 /12-14 mins
Melt:
26 oz melted dark chocolate
Mix Dry:
5 cups flour
2 cups cocoa powder
8 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 tsp vanilla
Cream:
1 lb butter
5 1/3 cup brown sugar
Add:
8 eggs
Final wet ingredient for alternating with dry ingredient:
1 1/3 cup milk
Confectioners sugar, for later
Don’t preheat the oven yet, this dough will need to chill for 2 hours or so.
Melt dark chocolate gently.
Mix dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt).
Cream sugar and butter together, then beat in eggs and vanilla.
Pour melted dark chocolate over the creamed butter and sugar, blend, then add dry ingredients & milk (alternating between the two to prevent puffs of flour getting all over the place).
The dough will be very sticky. Cover the bowl loosely in plastic wrap and chill for approx 2 hours, or until dough is hardened and can be handled.
Preheat oven to 350. Scoop out spoonfuls of hardened dough, roll between your palms to form a ball, then toss the ball into a bowl of powdered sugar to coat it. If the dough gets too sticky to handle, pop it back in the fridge or freezer to cool it back down. Line cookie up on the sheet (not too closely – they spread) and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.
Use a spatula to handle them after baking to avoid fingerprints on the powder sugar.
Elfin Shortbread Bites
Double recipe if desired, meaning repeat the recipe once again after
Bake 325/ 12-14 minutes
1 lbs butter, chilled cut into small cubes.
Cut in:
5 cups flour
12 tbsp sugar
Once it starts to come together like dry crumbs add:
8 tbsp red and green sprinkles or 4 of each
Add all into a big ziplock bag and flatten with a rolling pin.
Chill and cut open the bag, slice shortbread sheet into 1 inch squares and bake
Perfect GingerbreadMakes 18 medium/large gingerbread men
350/8 for medium cookies and 10 for larger gingerbread men
Ingredients:
Cream:
1 1/4 cups (283 g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (220 g) light brown sugar
Add:
2 eggs
Add:
2/3 cup (220 g) cooking molasses OR (1/3 fancy molasses and 1/3 black strap molasses)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Blend:
6 1/2 cups (815 g) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Incorporate dry ingredients little by little without mixing too much.
Chill dough in zip lock bags and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness, cut in desired shapes and bake
Basic vanilla dough (thumb print cookies)
Bake 350/12 minutes
Cream:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
Add:
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Add:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Chill dough in zip lock bag or in bowl covered with plastic.
Assembly:
1 egg white
Chopped pistachio
Apricot Jam
Directions:
Whisk together flour, and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until combined.
Follow the instructions below for the basic dough, once it's made and chilled a bit roll them into small balls (bite size)
Next you poke a small hole in the centre with the back of a wooden spoon.
Beat a little egg white until frothy and set aside, then dip the tops of the cookies in the egg white and into the chopped nuts or coconut, it will stick to the top nicely.
Next use a small spoon or tiny piping bag to drop a tiny bit of jam into the centre (the thumb print/hole you made with the wooden spoon) not too much jam or it will over flow.
Bake on 350 for 12 mins or so.
Linzer Cookie
Roll and cut each 1/4 inch thick/330 for 12-15 minutes
Ingredients
Cream:
1 lb butter softened
2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Add:
4 egg yolks
vanilla
2 teaspoon lemon zest
Blend and add gradually:
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup seedless strawberry jam
Powdered sugar
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 330F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
In the work bowl of your stand mixer, cream together butter and powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks one at a time, then lemon zest. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, almond meal and salt, then gradually add dry ingredients to the butter mixture, beating just until blended. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Cover and chill 1 hour.
Roll each portion to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 3-inch heart-shaped cutter. Cut centers out of half of cookies with a 1 1/2-inch heart-shaped cutter. Make sure that you have an even number of solid and cut out cookies. Bake for 15 minutes; cool on wire racks.
Spread solid cookies with jam. Lay all the cutout tops on a parchment lined tray and sprinkle the powdered sugar over them all and then pick them up gently and sandwich onto the jam bottom layer. Place individual cookies onto a paper cupcake liner or onto a serving plate. Try to save the cookies in a container and prepare them with jam/sugar before serving or placing in a tin to give away.
Meringue
Bake 200 for 1:15 minutes and turn over off and allow to sit for 3 more hours or overnight without disturbance.
Heat over double boiler until sugar is no longer crystal and dissolves, feel with fingers.
3 large egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
Add:
Large pinch of salt
Large pinch of cream of tartar
Add flavour:
Vanilla
Flavouring drops (peppermint - cinnamon - whatever you like)
Whisk on high speed until glossy and stiff.
Red Gel-paste food coloring
1 kebob skewer
1 zip lock bag or piping bag with piping tip (depends on the look you would like to achieve)
Or alternately add green food colouring and make trees
Directions:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Combine egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a pot of simmering water, and stir until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes. Add salt and cream of tartar.
Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 7 minutes. Add desired flavourings or vanilla extract.
Using a small paintbrush, paint 2 vertical stripes of food coloring inside a pastry bag on opposite sides - remember to fit the piping tip first and prep the bag by placing in a cup for easy handling.
Fill bag with meringue, and pipe 1 3/4-inch circular shapes (they don't need to be perfect rounds) 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. As you finish piping each shape, apply less pressure to pastry bag, and swirl the tip off in a circular motion.
Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft inside, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Do not remove from the oven and let them sit overnight with the oven off.
Store in a metal canister or tin away from heat or moisture.
(Double recipe for amount I made)
Sable Cookies
These delicate, crumbly cookies hail from France's Normandy region and are delicious plain, dipped in dark chocolate, or sandwiched with jam. Once you have a handle on the basic recipe, try adding almonds, orange zest, or other flavorings. Adapted from "Entertaining."
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for baking sheets
2/3 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 large egg yolk, for brushing as needed
Sanding sugar, if desired
Line baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.
Place butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor; process until creamy. Add egg yolks, salt, and vanilla; process for 30 seconds until combined. Add 1 cup flour and process until smooth. Add remaining cup of flour to processor; process to combine. Turn dough out onto work surface and form into flat square; wrap with plastic wrap and transfer to refrigerator until chilled.
Place a nonstick baking mat on work surface. Place half of the chilled dough on baking mat; top with a sheet of plastic wrap. Roll out dough between baking mat and plastic wrap until it is 1/8-inch-thick. Transfer to fridge to chill until firm, about 30 minutes. Repeat process with remaining dough.
Using a 2-inch round fluted cookie cutter, cut out dough and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Transfer baking sheets to refrigerator until dough is chilled, about 20 minutes. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat process with remaining dough. Transfer to refrigerator and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix together remaining egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water; brush tops of cookies with egg white mixture. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Transfer to oven. Bake until cookies are pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
