Holiday baking made easy
By Dan Wagner
One of my favorite parts of the Christmas holiday is spending time visiting friends and family. With every visit comes the opportunity to enjoy a fresh pastry or a variety of homemade cookies, a chance to savor the wide selection, from the very simple to the more complex. With each cookie comes a story of a mother, aunt or grandmother who passed on the recipe to be shared for the next generation. This edition, instead of taking time and writing about the methods and categories of cookies, I would like to pass on some of the simpler recipes that you and the family can enjoy this season. Have a blessed holiday season.
Procedure for mixing cookie doughs
1. Cream the fat and sugar together to make a lump-free mixture and to blend the ingredients completely.
2. Add the eggs gradually, scraping down the bowl as needed.
3. Stir in the liquid ingredients.
4. Stir in the flour, salt, spices and leaveners.
5. Fold in any nuts, chocolate chips or chunky ingredients by hand or in a mixer at slow speed, do not over mix.
Nut Tarts
Ingredients
½ pound butter
2 ½ cups flour
½ pound cream cheese
Filling
2 ½ cups chopped nuts
3 eggs
2 ½ cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix the first three ingredients together and roll into 1 inch balls. Stick in mini muffin pan and press to make a cup shape.
Mix all filling ingredients together, then fill the little cup shapes.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
Cinnamon Butter Cookies
Yields: 40 cookies
Ingredients
14 ounces pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
6 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces brown sugar
2 eggs
½ ounce vanilla extract
2 teaspoons salt
Topping:
2 ounces granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
To prepare the cookie dough, sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating just until well combined.
Drop the dough in 1-ounce mounds onto paper-lined sheet pans. Flatten the dough using the bottom of a cup. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the cookies generously with the mixture.
Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown, but still moist, approximately 9 to 11 minutes.
Coconut Raspberry Macaroons
Yield: 4 dozen
Ingredients
Unsalted butter, melted as needed
8 eggs
1 pound granulated sugar
½ ounce vanilla extract
1 pound coconut, macaroon type
2 ounces pastry flour
Raspberry jam, as needed
Semisweet chocolate, melted as needed
Total dough weight: 3 pounds
Brush parchment paper with melted butter. Let the butter solidify.
Beat the egg and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle. Stir in the vanilla and coconut, followed by the flour.
Pipe the mixture into 2-inch mounds, using a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip. With gloved hands, indent the center of each cookie, then fill it with raspberry jam.
Bate at 425 degrees until golden. Cool on the baking sheet.
To decorate, fill a parchment paper cone with melted chocolate and drizzle over the cooled cookies.
Dan Wagner of Rices Landing has been the director of culinary arts at Greene County Career and Technology Center for 24 years. He is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I.