The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Please, Sir, I want S'more

I've been wanting to make some kind of cookie with stuff in it.  Like chocolate chip with nuts...or oatmeal with coconut and golden raisins and nuts and chocolate chips and candied ginger and all the other scraps in my pantry.  You know, a cookie like that.

So I went foraging.  And I found, among other things, mini marshmallows (which I don't remember buying, but I must have made something with them because it wasn't a full package.  Or I just ate a huge handful of them and guiltily hid the bag behind instant oatmeal and packages of raisins.)...and some partially-gnawed chocolate Easter bunnies (with crispy rice mixed into the chocolate!)...and that led to me looking on the very top shelf - and sure enough, there were some graham crackers.  Oh, that's right - because I'd made the crust for that Florida Pie a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, as you could tell from the title, I made S'more Cookies.  Never made them before, so I just followed a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and made some alterations and, voila! - cookies that the whole family could enjoy! 

And here's what I did...

S'more Cookies

Ingredients:

2  1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup shortening (I was entirely out of butter, thanks to Dorie and all her wonderfully butter-laden concoctions that I've made recently)

3/4 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1   1/2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

about 1 cup mini marshmallows

1  1/3 large low-end quality chocolate Easter bunnies (with crispy rice bits in them), roughly chopped

6 whole graham crackers, broken up

~~~~~

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., and get some cookie sheets ready and line them with parchment paper.  I made 48 cookies exactly, just so you have an idea of how much you're making.

Cream the butter and sugars together til sort of light and fluffy.  I really, really don't like using shortening, but I just was too stubborn not to go ahead with the cookies, so I tried not to cringe at the sugar/shortening blend, but really, it just looks odd to me.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and combine thoroughly. 

Add in the vanilla too, and combine.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt, and add that to the batter, and mix until just combined - don't overbeat.

By hand, (well, with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula), mix in the marshmallows, bunny bits, and graham crackers.

With your hands, scoop up portions of dough about the size of a golf ball and place on the baking sheet, leaving space between them, because they will spread.  If your hands get too sticky, run them under water and leave your hands a bit wet - the dough won't stick.

Bake about 15 minutes (depending on your oven), rotating pans once mid-way through.

Allow to cool a bit on the pan before you try to take them off, because the marshmallow will cling to the parchment paper, to other cookies, to your arm, to the phone - pretty much to anything it can grab.

Hand them out to your family and see how they like them.  Or hoard them for yourself.

Flavor-wise, they've got a dark, molassasy flavor, which comes from using two dark sugars instead of white and light. 

Also, the taste and texture of the melted-and-cooled mini marshmallows reminded me of rice crispie treats. 

The chocolate?  Terrible.  Well - acceptable, but it's just hacked up Nestle Easter Bunny chocolate, so it's not going to blow anyone away.  But still, it suited my purpose, which was to clean out some stuff from the cupboards and turn that into cookies.

Mission accomplished.

Lemon Sugar Bites

I needed to make some sort of desserty thing to bring to the party on Saturday, and I was going to do something fancy but ran out of time.  I'd made a big batch of short dough, some of which I used for last Thursday night to make little guitars and musical notes.

But I still had a lot of it left.  I was going to make other cut-out cookies and decorate some and let the kids decorate others, but like I said, I ran out of time.

So here's what we did.

I took the zest of one lemon, and about a cup of granulated sugar...put them in the food processor and buzzed them around til the zest was chopped up pretty fine and incorporated into the sugar.

Then I took pieces of the dough, rolled it into little balls (about the size of...hmm...smaller than a ping pong ball), then rolled the dough balls in the lemon zest/sugar mixture, put them on a parchment lined baking sheet, and pressed down to flatten somewhat.  Maybe to about a third of an inch thick or so.  I baked them in a 350 degree oven until just starting to turn golden around the edges.  Once cooled, the outsides were sugary-crisp with the tang of lemon, and the insides were buttery and ever so slightly soft. 

Nothing fancy about them at all. 

They just taste good.

 

Ravioli Dolci

I was originally planning to make a Ricotta Pie or Rice Pie for Easter, but when I was perusing recipes, I found this one for sweet fruit and nut pockets, or Ravioli Dolci, and I decided to make them instead.  They sounded interesting, they didn't require refrigeration, and, best of all, I had everything I needed and wouldn't have to go to the grocery store.

The recipe is from Lynne Rossetto Kasper's book The Italian Country Table. 

The recipe is actually called "Apricot-Pistachio Pockets" and I really thought I had dried apricots in the pantry, but I didn't.  So I've made one change - I've substituted golden raisins for the apricots. 

There are two components to the cookie - the pastry and the filling. 

Here's what you need for the pastry:

1  3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1  3/4 cups cake flour

1/2 cup blanched whole almonds, finely ground

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

shredded zest of 1/2 lemon

shredded zest of 1/2 orange

2 T light corn syrup

2-3 large eggs

And for the filling:

Generous 1/2 cup (1/4 lb) dried apricots (or, in this version, golden raisins)

2 T sugar, or more to taste

Pinch of salt

Shredded zest of 1/2 lemon

2/3 cup water

1/4 cup dry Marsala (I didn't have dry.  I used sweet.)

3 generous tablespoons shelled salted pistachios, coarsely chopped

And you'll also need

1 large egg, beaten for glaze

1/3 to 1/2 cup Galliano or grappa di Moscato (optional) (I'm not using either - I don't have 'em)

And here's what you do:

In large mixing bowl, thoroughly blend the flours, almonds, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the softened butter and citrus zests and with your fingertips, rub together the ingredients until they resemble coarse meal. 

In a small bowl, beat together the corn syrup and 2 eggs.  Using a fork, toss with the flour mixture until the dough is moistened and clumps together.  (I did everything in my stand mixer.)  If it seems dry, beat the remaining egg and toss with the dough to moisten.  Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and chill 30 minutes to overnight.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the apricots, 2 T sugar, the salt, lemon zest, water and Marsala. 

Cook over low heat, covered, until the apricots are soft and the mixture is thick, 20 to 30 minutes.  If mixture is still very liquid,

uncover and cook down.  Taste for sweetness, stirring in more sugar if needed.  Remove from the heat and cool.

Puree the apricot mixture in a food processor. 

Stir in the pistachios.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, or butter it.  On a floured surface, roll out the pastry 1/16 inch thick. 

Cut into rounds with a 2  1/2 inch scalloped biscuit cutter, or a drinking glass. 

Place half of the rounds on the cookie sheet (you may need to do this in 2 batches) and top each round with 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of filling.  Moisten their rims with water.  Top with the remaining rounds and seal the edges.  Brush with the beaten egg.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Lift off the sheet and cool on racks. 

Store the cookies up to 10 days in a sealed tin in a cool place.  To finish with liqueur, sprinkle each cookie with about 1/4 tsp liqueur just before setting out.  (I didn't do the liqueur part.)

These are delicious.  I've never made them before, but I am definitely adding them to my cookie repertoire.  They're sweet (clearly) and crunchy and lemony and a bit chewy.  Alex, in particular, loves them.  The book said the recipe would make about 40 cookies - I made 48 and a half.  (I miscounted and had one extra round of dough left at the end.)

So go on and give these a try.  Trust my son - he knows his cookies.

Florentines (Almond Lace Cookies)

Florentines are crisp, delicate cookies that are pliable when taken from the oven and may be cut with cookie cutters or formed into shapes while they are still pretty hot.  They are often used as a garnish, or "crunch component" in plated desserts, and that's what I've used them for in a couple upcoming posts. 

Anyway, without further chit chat, here's how you make them.

You will need:

3 oz flour (pastry flour is suggested, but you can use AP as well.  I did - it's what I had on hand.)

3 oz granulated sugar

3 oz softened unsalted butter

3  1/2 oz corn syrup

3 oz blanched almonds, sliced and crushed

Combine the butter and sugar in a mixer,

Then add the flour.  And then the corn syrup.  Beat until creamy.  Then add in the crushed almonds and mix until the nuts completely incorporated.

Scrape the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper

and form into a log, lengthwise on the parchment paper.

Roll the parchment over the dough log and tighten, using a bench scraper to help squeeze the parchment against the dough and tighten the whole thing so there are no air bubbles and the log lengthens and its diameter becomes uniform - about 1  3/4 inches or so.

Then twist the ends and tie them to seal, and place in the freezer or fridge until the dough is firm.

When the dough is cold and firm, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and get out a pan and line it with either parchment paper or a silpat, if you have one.

Cut 1/8 inch slices from your log of dough (though in looking at the image below, obviously I cut them thicker.  I wanted large circles for my recent purposes).

Place on the baking surface, with plenty of space between them, as they spread quite a bit as they cook.

You only want to do a few at a time, if you're planning to shape them in any way, as once they start to cool they will become less pliable.  If that happens, you can put them back in the oven briefly to warm (and soften).

You want to bake them until they are completely golden brown.  The ones you see below are only just starting to brown around the edges.  See how much they spread when they cook?  That's why you want a lot of space between them.

Ah, this is better:

Now, when you first take them out, they will be way too hot and way too soft to work with. 

In the picture above, I'm trying to lift up the edge of the cookie with a spatula - it's too soft to hold together with the rest of the cookie - if I continued to lift, the cookie would tear. 

Wait about a minute once you take them out of the oven, and then try.  They should come off the parchment or silpat easily.  They will be hot, there's just no getting around that if you want to shape them or use cookie cutters. 

If you want to cut out specific shapes, place the soft cookie on a cutting board and press down HARD with your cookie cutter.  The nuts make it a little harder to cut through than you might expect.  Once you've pressed the cutter in to the cookie, pull or cut away the outer excess cookie and then lift the cutter.  (The trimmed edges are great crumbled up and sprinkled on ice cream.  Or you can just eat them while you work.  Or feed them to the birds.)  Set the cookies on a rack to finish cooling.  Keep in mind these are very, very brittle, so handle them gently.

Another option is to shape the cookies - the whole cookies, right off the silpat - into a thin cylindrical cookie.  This can be filled with whipped cream, or dipped in chocolate, or just left plain.  Anyway, here's what you do:

Get a few wooden spoons with straight handles ready.  Lift a hot cookie up and drape one end over the handle of the spoon.

Working quickly, roll the rest of the cookie around the spoon handle and set on a rack to cool.

Once the cookie has firmed up, remove the wooden spoon.

Another option - something I didn't do this time around, so I don't have a picture - you could press the cookie into a ramekin or a small cup or a muffin tin to form little cookie cups.

You can also wrap them around metal cone forms to make little cookie cones.  Or just shape them by hand into something free form.  Have fun!

Here are a bunch that I did recently, in preparing for this post and some of the "Valentine's Day Ideas" posts:

Now, another thing you can do is melt some chocolate

You can microwave it if you want to, but just nuke it for short periods of time - 30 seconds - and then stir, then 30 seconds and then stir - so you don't burn it.

 

When it's all melty and smooth, one thing you can do is take one of your heart cutouts (or whatever shape you did) and spread some of the chocolate on one cookie and then sandwich that with another cookie.  The chocolate will seep through the holes of the cookie a bit before it hardens.  Here's what you get:

Or you can spread it just on one half of a cookie...

Or drizzle some chocolate over the cylinders...

 

Or dip the ends of cylinders (or cones, in this case) directly in the chocolate...

Be creative!  Have fun!  And remember - you get to eat your mistakes!

Warning (with the final update!) : Despite What the Calendar Tells You, Christmas isn't Over Until the Christmas Cookie Posts are Done.

UPDATE - 1/11/08 at 11:05 am, eastern standard time...

That said, I'm going to try, in my two hours of childless, husbandless time this morning, to put up the remaining 4 posts about cookies (and candy) I made before Christmas.  Because I have to.  I took pictures and everything.

I know.  I really need to work on my organizational skills.

Anyway, here goes nuthin....

UPDATE:  It's not gonna happen.  I've got one post done (see below), and maybe I'll get another one done before I have to get the kids...uploading the pictures slows me down, but I can't just post a recipe without illustrations.  Where's the fun in that?  Where's the sudden hunger pangs?

FURTHER UPDATE:  Okay, well 2 out of 4 done before I went to get the kids.  That's not too bad.  Hopefully I can get the other two done some time later today.

THIRD UPDATE:  It's ten past ten - and I finished another post (see below).  One to go.  And I'll do it tomorrow because I'm DONE for today. 

I'M DONE!!!

Let the rejoicing begin.  And please see below for the final installment of the Christmas Cookie Marathon.

In the Cookie Jar: Torrone

Before you say "hey - wait a minute - torrone is a candy!  Not a cookie!" - I realize that.  And I sat here just now thinking about that and wondering if I should make a whole new category for candy...or should I just lump it into the "On My Menu" list?  Or?  Or?  It froze me in my tracks.

Fortunately, my sister interceded and made this insightful comment: 

"Well, you can still put it in a cookie jar."

And you know what?  I can!  And you can, too!

So let's cook up some sugar, shall we?

The recipe I used can be found here - it's on the Food Network, courtesy of Emeril Lagasse.

One of the things you'll need is edible wafer paper. 

I initially ordered mine from Sugarcraft, but that very same day I got a call from someone in their customer service dept to let me know they were out of stock.  While this threw a monkey-wrench into my plans, I really, really appreciated how quickly they called me.  I was able to order it from somewhere else the same day.  But still - go check out their website - if you are into any kind of baking or sugar work or candy making or just bored at work, they've got a LOT of cool tools and gadgets and products to look at.

I ended up ordering the wafer paper through GourmetSleuth.com.  That's another cool site as well, and it's more about all kinds of cooking, not just baking.  I need to go back and browse around - they seem to have a heavy focus on Mexican cooking supplies, which is appealing to me....

Anyway - you will need some of this wafer paper.  The torrone is very sticky and unless it has something like the wafer paper to adhere to, it will just reach out and wrap itself around anything or anyone in the way.  Really.  Remember how I used to have a cat? 

Okay, so you've got your wafer paper trimmed and placed in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan, per the recipe, and you've got all the ingredients assembled - those would include granulated sugar, honey, egg whites, confectioners sugar, toasted almond slivers, and lemon zest.

You will also need a candy thermometer - the temperature of the sugar is rather important.

So first thing you'll want to do is get your sugar and honey heated in a sausepan.

While that starts to melt together and heat up, you should have everything else ready to go.  This means you'll want to pre-toast the almond slivers and have your lemon zest all grated and standing by.  And you'll also want to have your egg whites already in the SUPER CLEAN bowl of your mixer, and the sugar ready to pour.  Once the sugar reaches the proper temperature, a lot of things will need to happen rapidly (I typed "rabidly," which could also apply) so you need to be ready.

The sugar mixture will take a while to come up to the proper temperature.  Which is fine, because it's kind of cool to watch the progress...

Little hot spots of honey lava, bubbling up to the surface.  Stir it a bit so it doesn't scorch....

So what temperature are we at right now?  We need to bring it up to 315 F....

Not there yet... If you can't stand waiting, you could always start whipping the egg whites. 

You want to bring them to soft peaks, and then add in the sugar and bring it all up to stiff peaks.  Don't over-beat them - they'll dry out.  In fact, if you want to just get the egg/sugar mixture to a soft peak stage and leave them there until just before you need them, you can do that, too.

Okay, let's take a peek at the sugar again.

We're making progress...

Temperature is climbing...

I am pretty sure I mentioned this before in my post about Pecan Squares that you need to be VERY CAREFUL when working with boiling sugar.  Anything boiling will hurt if it pours or splatters on you, but boiling sugar is sticky, and if it sticks to you, trust me, IT. WILL. HURT.

Okay, back to staring at the boiling sugar....it's kind of mesmerizing...hypnotic...very cool...

Okay, keep an eye on that thermometer - we're getting close now.

Okay, put your camera down and be ready to get this pot off the heat.  When you hit 315, pull it off the burner and stir the mixture to cool it slightly - to 300.

If you haven't done so yet, now is a good time to bring the egg whites from soft peaks to stiff peaks.  Once the sugar is down to 300 F, it's time for the tricky part.  With the mixer still running (at a slow to moderate speed) pour the hot sugar SLOWWWWWWLY but STEADILY into the egg whites (meringue).  You want to try to run it in a thin stream right down the inside of the bowl - not actually touching the edge of the bowl, but just barely in.  Main thing is, you want to try to avoid having the hot sugar drizzle onto the whisk attachment and splatter hot sugar all around the room. 

The hot sugar mixture will double the volume of your meringue, but that will go back down as the mixture cools a bit.  Keep the mixer running to help cool the sugar/meringue.  It will thicken as well.  At this point, fold in the almonds and the lemon zest.

Now another fun part - but without the burn factor.  Get your 13 x 9 inch baking pan, already lined with the wafer paper...You'll need to pour the mixture into that pan and very gently spread it to fill the pan evenly.  The stuff sticks, like I said before.  You can dip your fingers in water and press the torrone gently into the corners of the pan - the water will help prevent sticking.  Once you've got the mixture pretty well spread out, then top it with the other trimmed pieces of wafer paper.  Let it cool on a wire rack for a bit.

Then, with a "no guts, no glory" attitude, flip the pan over onto a sheet of parchment, and your giant piece of torrone should come out.  If it doesn't...give it a minute - the weight of the candy should release whatever hold it has on the inside of the pan.

(I let mine cool on the rack, and as it cooled, it drooped into the spaces between the wire...which is why I'm suggesting the parchment paper.)

Let it finish cooling, and then cut it into pieces.

I'll tell you this - it's very smushy and will be...um...challenging to work with.  But it's fun, and it'll impress your friends, who didn't realize you could actually make candy.

Someone told me it tastes like those "Bit O Honey" candies...not my personal favorite - the honey, I mean, but it's authentic - Torrone is traditionally made with honey.

I would like to try another recipe, with different flavors.  When I do, I'll let you know how it comes out.

In the Cookie Jar: Gingerbread Houses

I've never made a gingerbread house before.  Well, actually, I made one from a kit back when I was maybe 13 or so.  But I had never created my own templates - until now.  Well, last month.  (December.) 

We were watching a Gingerbread House competition on the Food Network and Alex said he wished we could make one some day.  So I thought - I'm already making a zillion cookies - what's one more project? 

Honestly, I had been wanting to make one anyway; I just didn't think I'd have the time.  But hey, if my kid wants to make a gingerbread house, then that becomes the most important project.

So, I have a good sturdy gingerbread recipe that I'd used in the past to make gingerbread bowls.  I hoped to do gingerbread bowls this year (well, last year, since I'm writing in January), but I wasn't sure if I'd have time.

The recipe is from Marcia Adams' book Christmas in the Heartland, published by Crown in October 1992.  It's a beautiful book - not just recipes, but crafts and traditions and information and a cozy warm feeling. 

But I digress.

Here we go...

The wet ingredients...and their good friends, the fats and sugars:

2 cups of unsalted butter (4 sticks), room temp.

1  1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup molasses

1  1/2 cups dark corn syrup

4 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp orange extract

6 large eggs

And...

The dry ingredients:

17 cups all-purpose flour

2 T baking soda

2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

(This is a big recipe.  You can cut it in half if it's easier to work in smaller batches of dough.)

Okay, in your mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add in the molasses, corn syrup, extracts and eggs while the mixer is still running

and beat until well combined.

While the mixer is running, combine all the dry ingredients in another bowl with a whisk.

Add the flour mixture gradually.  The dough will become extremely stiff, and you will probably have to finish by hand, either in a bowl or on a board.

Divide this into quarters, wrap in plastic and put this in the fridge.

Now, about the template.  I decided I would make two houses so that each of my kids could decorate one, rather than suffer the hell of them fighting over who gets to do what to this wall and that roof.  And since it was the first one I was designing, I figured I should make it simple.

I have these square 12" x 12" sheets of graph paper that I'd bought for designing quilt squares and applique pieces.  I drew a rectangle 6" x 8 " for the longer sides of the house, and a narrow rectangle 4" wide with a point at the top for the short side pieces - 8" at the highest point and 6" at the lowest point, and then the roof, which was 9" x  4".  Fortunately all 3 template pieces fit on the one sheet of paper.

Then I taped the single sheet of paper to my countertop and covered that with a sheet of parchment and taped that down.  then I traced the templates onto several sheets of parchment, so I'd have many sets, just in case any ripped or got damp and curled or anything like that.

Then I cut out all the pieces and set them aside.

Now - take out one of the pieces of chilled dough and roll out to about 1/4 inch thick.  Try to roll it out so that you can fit several pieces of the template on it at once.