A very long post on very good cookies

So, it's the Sunday night before Christmas (err...Monday morning...). Most people fall into one of two categories right now: relaxed, everything is purchased, maybe some things are even wrapped.  Or: you find yourself frantically scouring Amazon for toys in certain age ranges, but only ones that are eligible for Prime high-speed shipping, and cursing the ones that meet that criteria but still have "out of stock" in small-but-deadly red font.  I actually fall into both of these categories simultaneously, but that's for another day. Here's the thing, people: you need sustenance. And maybe you need some cookies for that cookie swap you totally forgot about. Or maybe you just want the room to smell like something baked and delicious instead of desperation and smoking credit cards.  Either way, I've got a recipe for you.

Last weekend, I went on a baking spree.  And I do mean spree. I made somewhere around 400 cookies (three different kinds). The impressive stats: I went through 2 dozen eggs, 12 pounds of flour, 8 pounds of sugar, and 4 pounds of butter. My home smelled amazing, my kitchen looked like a bakery bomb went off, and I learned a few more recipes. Two successes, one not so much (gingerbread men were quite a bland disappointment). What follows are the stories of two great cookies.

For those of you oddballs with time on your hands...I give you: Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. A number of years ago, in a phase of unemployment, I gave no Christmas gifts beyond my parents. Instead, I baked. For everyone. I was living with my parents at the time, and how my mother let me go that haywire in her kitchen for that long I don't really know. But I learned something very, very important...nothing is more valuable in this world than a serious KitchenAid stand mixer. They're pricey (at least the big solid ones) but they are worth every penny. This recipe was a prime example. It's not super complicated - dump ingredients in, let mix, bake, cool, slice, bake again - but doing that first bit with a hand mixer sounds nightmarish, given how thick this dough gets. Anyway: I made these, although with pecans, and wrapped in pretty boxes with the recipe included - not super complicated. No joke, people started calling me Martha Stewart. I think I got better reactions to those cookies than to most actual gifts I'd given in past years.  So, I share this with you in that spirit. The particular fruit and nut combo is up to you, although you probably don't want to go to far astray unless you're also removing/substituting the almond extract.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti 
Source: Real Simple

Makes 40 cookies
Hands-on Time: 15m
Total Time: 1hr 30m

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup shelled roasted pistachios
[note from your blogger: as mentioned before, I think any fruit and nut combo would work here. I haven't tried other dried fruits but have yet to actually use pistachios. I tried hazelnuts this year - tasty (and local!) but fair warning: BUY THEM CRUSHED if you don't own a serious food processor. I was afraid those hard nuts were going to damage the blades of my little chopper attachment to my stick blender.]


Directions
1. Heat oven to 350º F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until just smooth. One at a time, beat in the eggs. Mix in the almond extract. Add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the cranberries and pistachios.

3. Divide the dough in half and shape into two 10-by-2-inch logs. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until just golden around the edges and firm to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes [Note from your blogger: don't rush this step - it needs the full cooling.]

4. Reduce oven to 300º F. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs into ½-inch-thick slices. Arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake until dry and crisp, 15 to 18 minutes per side.


For those of you with somewhat less time (although you'll still need some), I'll direct you to Lemon Shortbread Sables. This has minimal actual prep time, but does need to spend a decent amount of time in the fridge. The longer the better, it seems. Also, once you are actually cooking them they need to be turned halfway through baking (which is 5-6 minutes). So: make the dough, put in fridge, go to bed. Sometime the next day, bring your laptop into the kitchen and get baking (it's just slice and bake at that point). This way, you can shop and bake at the same time. These cookies are so wonderfully light that they cool in minutes on the rack, so you can get into a little rhythm as they keep coming out of the over, and you end up with a lot of little cookies (they should be about the size of a Nilla wafer, maybe smaller) fairly quickly. The cookie itself is an amazing just-right treat - light, delicately crumbly, salty and sugary and a little teeny bit crunchy. Delicious.

Full disclosure on the sables...this is now two posts in a row with a recipe from Amanda Hesser. This probably means, for fear of a lawsuit, I will have to stop posting her recipes now. Although it should be noted this is actually an adaptation, found on another site entirely.

Meyer Lemon Sablés
Source: the wonderful Orangette, where they are adapted from Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte
Makes ~70-80 cookies, depending on your dough-snacking tendencies.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 Tbs finely grated Meyer lemon zest (from about 2 good-size fruits) [note from your blogger: I used two fairly large regular lemons, and they were great.]
¾ tsp coarse sea salt or Kosher salt
4 large egg yolks
¼ cup coarse Turbinado sugar, for rolling logs of dough

In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, and whisk to mix thoroughly. Set aside.

Put the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl). Beat (with the paddle attachment, if you’re using a stand mixer) on medium-low speed until the butter is creamy; then add the confectioner’s sugar and beat for a minute. Add the granulated sugar, and beat for a minute more. Sprinkle the lemon zest and salt into the bowl, and mix briefly to just combine. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing briefly to incorporate after each addition. With the mixer on low, add the flour in three doses, mixing just until the flour is absorbed. Use a rubber spatula to do any last scraping and stirring; do not overmix. The dough will be quite thick and dense and sticky.

Divide the dough between two large sheets of wax paper. Using the paper as an aid, smoosh and roll and shape one blob of dough into a rough log about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Roll up the log in the paper, and twist the ends to seal it closed. Repeat with the remaining blob of dough. Chill the two logs until the dough is cold and firm, at least two hours and up to a couple of days.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and set a rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Put a large sheet of parchment paper on the counter, and pour the Turbinado sugar onto it, making a ridge of sugar approximately the length of the dough logs. Remove a log from the fridge, unwrap it, and roll it lightly in the sugar to press the crystals into its sides. Coat the log as thoroughly as you can; then slice it into ¼-inch-thick slices. [I found that a thin paring knife works well.] Lay the slices on the baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Refrigerate the remaining dough.

Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes or until just golden around the edges, rotating the sheet 180 degrees halfway through the baking time. [Keep in mind that the cookies will continue to brown a bit after you have removed them from the oven, so it’s best to err on the pale side.] Cool them on the silicone mat or parchment paper on a wire rack [note from your blogger: the parchment is crucial: remember, you're dealing with a lot of butter here. This keeps the cookies from getting gridded on the bottom]. Repeat with remaining dough.

Store the cookies in an airtight tin at room temperature for up to three days, or freeze them in a Tupperware, with a sheet of wax paper between each layer.

Orange root vegetables, again - this time, success!

Last weekend, I made an announcement: for the upcoming week, there would be no eating out. (Obviously this was accompanied by dramatic hand gestures) My fridge is absurdly full, I'm teetering on wasting things as they spoil, forgotten, in my produce bin, and I'll be traveling for the holidays and need to clear the fridge.  EPB was game for this, and so it was to be. In truth this didn't work out all that well - I think we still ate out at least once, and I definitely had a couple pasta dinners - one of which only added to the fridge, the exact opposite of the goal.

But then! Wednesday night, I was packaging the produce from that morning's Full Circle delivery. Included was a bulb of fennel, yet another familiar-yet-intimidating ingredient for me. I've had fennel in things - salads, I guess - and enjoyed it, but never have I worked with it. I puzzled over it for a moment, and then instead of heading to the internet like I usually do I headed for the cookbook shelf. Years ago I acquired a copy of Cooking for Mr. Latte. I picked it up because it looked like an interesting memoir - some storytelling involving food, what's not to love? In the past year, though, I've found myself turning to it again and again for recipes. And that night, I had a feeling someone like Amanda Hesser would have some sort of interesting idea for a bulb of fennel.

Something else to know before I go on - separately, I had been contemplating making some sort of carrot puree soup, assuming I could unearth a recipe. Compliments again of Full Circle, I had accumulated 1.5 pounds of carrots, which seemed like a lot of dinner side dishes.

So: back to Wednesday night. I open the book, flip to the index, skim down to F...fennel...and lo! Not on are there fennel recipes, but the first one I see is: Carrot and Fennel Soup. Obviously, that was meant to be. It turned out to be exactly what I was looking for - creamy and flavorful, but somehow light. Easy, but just a little different. And the best part: fennel bulb aside, most of the ingredients are the sort of thing you'd typically have laying around.

Amanda recommends a tasty-sounding meatloaf with this. That would probably be great. Since we're in Seattle and it's finally Dungeness season, meaning they're fresh-caught, just off the boat that morning, and $3.99 a pound, we opted for those instead.

[Caveat from your blogger: the published online versions of this soup are a few years earlier than the book, and the recipes are different. I'm going on the assumption that the book version was refined and further perfected, so will adapt that for this blog, since that's the version I used. You all should really buy the book.]

Carrot-and-Fennel Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium fennel bulb, stalks cut flush with the bulb, and coarsely chopped; fronds reserved
1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and thickly sliced (approximately 4 cups)
1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup sour cream
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

PREPARATION

1. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter until foamy. Add the chopped fennel and cook, stirring, until softened and turning golden. Add the carrots and garlic and cook another minute. Pour in just enough water to cover the vegetables (about 3 cups, depends a bit on your saucepan) and season with salt. Simmer, covered, until the carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes [note from your blogger: it was more like 30 for me]. Add more water if the pot gets dry.

2. Ladle the soup into a food processor, and puree the mixture with the orange juice, sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Puree to the consistency you want - chunky, smooth - your call. You may want to do this in batches, but do make sure the feed tube is covered or hot soup will leap out like a geyser. Pour the soup back in the pan, bringing the temperature back up while stirring until just heated through; do not boil.  Taste it again. Pull the fennel fronds into pieces and drop them into the soup. Give it one last stir.

[Note from your blogger, or Alternate Ending #2: do you have a stick blender? Great. No? Get one or borrow one. Trust me. Next, skip number two and do this: remove the pot from the heat, and fully insert your stick blender (careful not to let it suction to the bottom of the pot). Pulse for a few minutes, to the consistency you want. Remove blender. NOW add the extra salt, pepper, and fennel fronds (although I only added a few for fear of overpowering it), give it a stir, and you're done (add a few more fronds on top if you want, they look pretty and add to the "impressive" factor). The soup didn't get a chance to cool off since you never took it out of the pot, and it's ready to eat.]

Makes roughly 4-6 servings, depending on how much soup you like as part of your meal.

I've been giving some vague thought to a merest pinch of cayenne next time I make this...what do you think?

Ready for stuffing again? Yes, you are.

It's been a while since Thanksgiving, and I bet you're wondering "I saw part 1, where the heck is part 2?" Where, indeed. I got a little distracted. The upside: it's been long enough now that you (theoretically) aren't sick of Thanksgiving food anymore...and maybe are even thinking about, say, stuffing for your Christmas dinner. Right? Well, if not - you should, if only to make this delicious concoction. The truth is it wasn't perfect, but even the less than perfect was delicious. Bonus: it's the best kind of holiday food. The leftovers get better with age!




As previously mentioned here, I got a little teeny bit carried away with the Thanksgiving menu planning. Like a new mother who disdains jarred baby food for homemade organic puree, I was all about farm-to-table, scratch-made. For the most part, mysteriously, it worked out. This stuffing was a prime example - while it was a bit more complicated and time-consuming than I expected, it was so good that the effort was quickly forgotten - especially since I would have needed to do something with these ingredients anyway, since Full Circle had delivered many of them (including the delicious and crucial creminis) in my weekly box.

Sourdough Bread Stuffing
Source: Food Network, Good Deal With Dave Lieberman
Prep Time: 10 min // Inactive Prep Time: 15 min // Cook Time: 1 hr 15 min
6-8 servings

Ingredients

1-pound loaf sourdough bread
8 tablespoons butter
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/2-inch thick in both directions [note from your blogger: do not skimp on the type or amount of mushroom. The rich flavor of the creminis makes this stuffing.]
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 to 4 stalks celery with leaves, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
About 10 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped from the stems
10 to 12 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley leaves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish and set aside.

Cut or tear the bread into 1-inch cubes and spread it evenly on 2 baking sheets. Toast the bread in the oven until completely dry and beginning to crisp and brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

[Note from your blogger: As is clearly a trend, I skipped this step and bought cubed bread, dried out, from a bakery at my farmer's market. It was delicious and I'll do it again, but if you do that make sure you add a little extra broth - maybe another half cup - to balance the moisture level. This is also something that ceases to be an issue in the leftovers, as the moisture redistributes itself nicely.]

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and a few pinches of salt and saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add celery, onion, 2 tablespoons butter, and thyme. Once the butter has melted, cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Add sage and remaining 4 tablespoons butter. Add chicken broth to skillet and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl. Pour the chicken broth mixture over the bread cubes and toss to combine until the bread cubes absorb the liquid. Pour the mixture into the greased baking dish, and sprinkle with parsley. Bake in the center of the oven until heated through and the top is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Remove the stuffing from the oven and allow to cool about 15 minutes before serving.



Now speaking of over planning, I'm in the middle of baking approximately 425 cookies right now...but before that, there was a carrot soup.