Cookies Archives - Page 10 of 11 - Tim & Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes

Amaretti

From Baking with Julia. This may be one of the easiest – and most tasty – cookies ever made! Use canned almond paste, if possible – it’s less sweet than the tube variety!

8 oz Almond Paste
3/4 cup sugar
2 large egg whites
Pine nuts (optional, but I always use them…)

Preheat oven to 325°. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix almond paste with 1/2 the sugar and mix until almond paste is broken up and crumbly. Add the rest of the sugar and continue mixing until it’s a very fine crumb. Add the egg whites in 3 or 4 additions, mixing well. Don’t mix too fast, ‘cuz you don’t want a lot of air mixed into the batter.

Fill a pastry bag with a 3/4″ plain tip and pipe a cookie about 1 1/2″ in diameter and about 1/2″ high.

Just before baking, take a damp cotton kitchen towel and blot the tops of the cookies to smooth the tops. press pine nuts gently into top, if using.

Bake 15-20 minutes until they are well risen, lightly colored, and covered with fine cracks. Transfer cookies on paper to racks and cool completely.

Gently peel cookie off the parchment. If they stick, lift the paper and brush the bottom of the paper with hot water. Wait a minute then peel off.

Appetizers

Pfeffernusse

We started making these a few years ago and oh boy! Are they a far cry from the store-boughts!

4 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup finely chopped candied orange peel
2 tbsp lemon zest
3/4 cup dark molasses
3/4 cup brandy

Powdered sugar for dusting

Mix the flour, baking powder and soda, and spices and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the sugars into the butter. Add the egg yolks and mix. Add the almonds, orange peel, lemon zest and mix some more. Stir one third of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Add the molasses and brandy. Then add the the rest of the flour mixture. When fully blended, cover and refrigerate overnight.

The following day… heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll spoonfuls of dough nto small balls and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet about 2″ apart. (I use parchment paper – it’s worth it!!!)

Bake for about 12 – 14 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar while still warm. Roll once again when fully cooled, before serving.

Chocolate Overload Cookies

I said I was in the mood for cookies. I'm really, really in the mood for cookies after that first bite!

The original recipe called for chocolate chips. I added semi-sweet chips, white chocolate chips, and mini peanut butter cups. The recipe also specifically states NOT Dutch process cocoa - and that was all I had, tonight. (I usually have Guittard cocoa - the last of the family-owned San Francisco chocolatiers which is Dutched - and Hershey's natural cocoa powder in the cabinet. Not tonight.)

A little science lesson... Dutch processing adds alkali to cocoa and neutralizes the acid. It makes for a smoother and deeper cocoa flavor and works well in cakes and pastries where you're not masking the chocolate flavor or competing with the slightly acidic chocolate tones. I usually make brownies with regular cocoa powder for a more pronounced chocolate flavor. Both kinds have their uses and one is not better than the other, so all you chocolate snobs can go lie down.

Back to science... cookies relying on baking soda will not work as well with Dutch process cocoa, because baking soda wants acid to work. While a lot of your basic ingredients will have a bit of acid to them, a simple workaround (and what I did tonight) is to add a quarter-teaspoon of white vinegar to the mix. It adds the necessary acid and punches up the chocolate flavor. It worked quite well!

Chocolate Overload Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder (add 1/4 tsp white vinegar with Vanilla if using Dutch process)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup mini peanut butter cups

Preheat oven to 350°.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy and beat in egg and vanilla until combined well. Mix in flour mixture until just combined and stir in chips.

Drop dough by tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets and bake about 12 minutes.

Cool as long as you can, and then eat!

These really are pretty awesome. And it's unusual for me to make 'normal' sized cookies. I usually make humongaloid cookies. Tonight I thought I'd try actually doing small scoops. I'm glad I did. It made about 65 cookies!

by Tim Dineen

Covered in Chocolate

The weather outside is frightful. Okay. Just cold - which to this thin-blooded San Franciscan - is not as enjoyable as a warm ocean breeze. Oh well. It gives me an excuse to stay indoors and finish the cookies.

Today is adding the finishing touches... the chocolate-dipping. It's the most tedious and the most fun at the same time. I love making everything look fun and festive - and dipping peppermint patties one-by-one is fun for the first tray. By tray three I'm always swearing I'm not making them next year. Of course, I do, because I really like to eat them...

Today's cookies started with dark chocolate dipped macadamia nut orange biscotti, milk chocolate dipped walnut butter cookies, dark chocolate covered peppermint patties, and white chocolate dipped lemon coconut cookies.

I have one more cookie to bake, and then we can start making the trays to give away.....

Ho Ho Ho! :)

by Tim Dineen

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Cookies and candy everywhere! We were up bright and early this morning and started right off making Aunt Emma's cookies.

Gino started rolling out the dough and then Uncle Tim took over. Uncle Victor and Gino filled and formed. They actually may be the best batch we have made, yet. Gino has the forming down to a science and we had virtually no leakers or splits. (Uncle Tim always has several...) The pastry is perfectly light and flaky, the filling really rich apricot... We did good.

After a nice bacon and egg breakfast, we started in on the biscotti. We made the traditional anise, and will make some others later in the week.

We made a variation of the Christmas Turtles last night, and chocolate-dipped them today. Yum.

And then it was non-stop Rum Ball Rolling-And-Dipping.

It's time for a bit of a breather and then round three (or is it four?!? I love this time of the year!

by Tim Dineen

Christmas Cookies - Part One

'Tis the Season to bake cookies! What started out two years ago as the Boys Cookie-Baking Weekend has morphed into Elizabeth coming over for a while on Saturday to learn some cookie-making, as well.

While I was working, Uncle Victor and Elizabeth made Nonna's biscotti, macaroons, and candy cane cookies.

She did a pretty good job, for a rookie.

Tasty, too!

The girls all left, and we got down to business - the dough for Aunt Emma's cookies. It needs to refrigerate overnight, so Gino got right on it. Well - right after we had Pizza, that is. We do have our priorities.

The secret to the dough is working it with a light hand. You need to learn the feel of the dough. This is Gino's third time making them, now... he's starting to get it.

We also made Aunt Dolores' Rum Ball filling. Alas, when we were halfway done, I found out we didn't have any rum, so while Victor ran to the liquor store, Gino and I finished up the caramel turtles. We'll chocolate-cover them tomorrow.

It is such a blast having them down here.

by Tim Dineen

Christmas Stollen

It's not often that I totally and completely screw something up - but when I do, I really do it big-time! Welcome to one of those times!

A friend of ours gave us her Oma's Christmas Stollen recipe last year and I've thought of making it ever since. Thought of it. I hadn't made it. On Thursday, in the midst of baking Christmas Cookies, making candy, and being my festive little self, I decided it was time to make it. (I also want to make a traditional Christmas Pudding and about a bazillion other things, but we can only haul so much stuff up to North Jersey.) But I digress...

I had all the ingredients (no big surprise here) and decided to make a half-recipe. Even I couldn't eat 8 loaves of Stollen.

I am not sure exactly what went wrong, but the dough just never came together right. I'll use the excuse that I was interupted a couple of times, but I just wasn't paying attention when I started out the mixing. The recipe calls for lots of butter and it just never incorporated with the flour right. It was heavy. It was greasy. It wasn't right. I had never made this recipe before, but I've made enough different doughs to know when one is "smooth and elastic" and when it's tough and greasy. This one was not smooth and elastic. But Mr. Determination had to follow it through. I did the first pitiful rise, and then formed into loaves and did the second. Pitiful. Recipe says 350F for 35 minutes. At 55 minutes it wasn't baked inside.

The loaves spread forever but didn't rise as I imagined they should have. It smelled fabulous. It wasn't baked inside. I tried to convince myself it tasted great. The following morning, Victor toasted two slices for breakfast. It was okay, but it wasn't Stollen. We tossed them. I conceded defeat - for the moment.

Saturday dawned, and I decided I was going to make them, again. I was not about to let a supposedly fabulous recipe get the better of me. Am I ever glad I did!

I followed the recipe once again. This time I paid attention. I worked the dough. I made sure the flour incorporated correctly. It was night and day different. Smooth and elastic. Silken perfection. Rise. Form. Rise, again. Into the oven.

Exactly 35 minutes later, they were ready. Rich, light, buttery heaven! We pretty much devoured one on the spot. And two of them are hading up with us to North Jersey.

Merry Christmas, indeed!

And speaking of Merry Christmas, the cookies are done, as well! I made up a huge tray for work, today, and have started on trays for the neighbors...

And I am going to have to work twice as hard at the Gym... I've been eating an awful lot of them...

by Tim Dineen

Gino Delivers

We had to cut the cookie baking a bit short because of weather, but what we lacked in quantity, we definitely made up for in quality. Damn, these are some mighty fine cookies!

Victor made Aunt Emma's filling, but Gino made the dough and rolled them out and put 'em together. They may flat-out be the best ever. light, flaky... perfect in every way! Victor and Gino did the bulk of the work - I was at work. But it's pretty obvious they didn't need me around. The stuff they made was just stupendous.

Methinks that next year we'll get Gino down here for a few days and just let him do 'em all. I think he's ready!

by Tim Dineen

Pfeffernusse and Nutmeg Logs

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the kitchen smells so delightful!

Really delightful! We've been selling tons and tons of pfeffernusse at work, so I decided to try my hand at some homemade! I have a vague recollection of my mother making them once when I was a little kid, but they were never a family tradition in our Irish household.

I also made them once when we had a "Christmas Around the World" party back in the early 1970's. (I had Germany. I made a stollen, too - it was terrible, from my very hazy recollections...) But I digress.....

Pfeffernusse - which translates to pepper nut - is an easy cookie to make. The only caveat is the dough needs to be made a day ahead of baking.

Pfeffernusse

4 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 egg yolks

1 cup finely chopped almonds

1 cup finely chopped candied orange peel

2 tbsp lemon zest

3/4 cup dark molasses

3/4 cup brandy

Powdered sugar for dusting

Mix the flour, baking powder and soda, and spices and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the sugars into the butter. Add the egg yolks and mix. Add the almonds, orange peel, lemon zest and mix some more. Stir one third of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Add the molasses and brandy. Then add the the rest of the flour mixture. When fully blended, cover and refrigerate overnight.

The following day... heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll spoonfuls of dough nto small balls and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet about 2" apart. (I use parchment paper - it's worth it!!!)

Bake for about 12 - 14 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar while still warm. Roll once again when fully cooled, before serving.

Okay. Easy. And really, really good!

My cousin Mary Kate (she'd kill me for referring to her as "Mary Kate" - she's been "Kate" for the past 40 years...) sent off this recipe for our family Reunion Cookbook back in 1986. I've had it for 22 years, looked at it for 22 years, and finally decided to make them yesterday. Damn, am I sorry I waited 22 years to make them! They are really, really good!

Frosted Nutmeg Logs

A Christmas tradition at the Hodsdon house!

Cookies:

1 C butter

3/4 C sugar

3 C flour

1 egg

2-1/2 tsp nutmeg

4 tsp rum extract (I used Tortuga Rum)

4 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, nutmeg, and extracts. Stir flour into creamed mixture. Shape into 1/2" x 3" rolls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool. Frost with Vanilla-Rum Icing.

Icing:

1/4 C butter or margarine

3 C powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp rum extract

2 tbsp cream

Nutmeg

Cream butter. Add part of sugar and extracts. Mix. Add remaining sugar and enough cream to obtain desired spreading consistency. Frost cookies and run the tines of a fork down the frosting. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Makes 3-4 dozen. Another really simple, but extremely tasty cookie! They're also excellent unfrosted!

So there are now several doughs in the refrigerator ready to be baked - and more tomorrow and Saturday!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

by Tim Dineen

Christmas Cookies Part Deux

Cookie baking has never been more fun than it was this weekend. Our 10 year old nephew Gino came down from North Jersey to spend the night with us and learn how to bake some of the traditional family cookies. There is absolutely no better way to get into the holiday spirit than to spend it baking with an enthusiastic kid!

From the onset, Gino approached this seriously. He definitely wanted to learn how to make them. But he also approached it in fun. Cookie baking is never supposed to be a chore. If you can't have fun doing it, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

We had quite a list of cookies we wanted to get made, and started in as soon as he arrived. The first thing we made was the dough for Aunt Emma's Apricot Cookie. It really should refrigerate overnight, so we wanted it in the 'fridge fast.

Next up was Nonna's sugar-free batch of biscotti. We guided him along, but this was Gino's baby from start to finish. He did all the measuring, mixing, forming, baking, slicing, second baking... The whole shebang. they came out great. Nonna said they were the best ever - and when it comes to her cookies, she never lies!

Next were Uncle Rudy's Biscotti. These are the traditional anise cookies. We take the same basic recipe and make several variations. This year it was Orange and Apricot Macadamia. Both dipped in chocolate.

Then we started on the thumbprints. We made the Vanilla Almond dough and a variation of hazelnut and chocolate. (Changed the nut to hazelnuts and added cocoa powder). We filled them with Aunt Emma's apricot filling, and some with blueberry and some with cherry. These are melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies, and the chocolate version this year is really rich and fudgy. We took a bit of the dough and made logs - which were then dipped in chocolate. One of the great things about the nut cookies is their versatility. One dough can make several different cookies - all unique.

Leah and Ross, Nonna and Elizabeth came over with Pizza and we took about a 30 minute break from the baking to get something other than sugar into our systems. The upside (and the downside) of cookie baking is eating cookies non-stop all day long!

Pizza cleared up, visitors gone, it was back to cookies. It was time to roll out and fill Aunt Emma's. Gino and I took turns rolling the dough paper thin, and then it was cutting, filling, folding, crimping and froming. It's quite an ordeal for such a small cookie, but tradition is tradition - and they are worth every minute spent making them!

By 8:30pm we had the last of the cookies in the bins and were ready to put our feet up. We had been at it for hours and the cookie bins are looking great. We aren't making as many as we have in the past, but this year what we lack in quantity, we've definitely made up for in quality.

Thanks, Gino!

by Tim Dineen

Christmas Cookies

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well, actually, it's beginning to look a lot like I've been in the kitchen making a mess, but the two concepts do go hand-in-hand with one another.

It's the holiday season, and that means breaking out the Kitchenaid and going to town making a bazillion cookies. Every year we swear we're going to make less - and every year we seem to make more. It's a holiday tradition in excess, for sure.

This year, though, we have Gino, Victor's 10 year old nephew coming down to help and to learn a few of the traditional family cookies! This shall be fun! Gino has definitely shown an interest as well as an aptitude for learning. (His dad's a really good cook, too!)

The most important cookie to learn is Aunt Emma's Apricot Cookie. This particular cookie elicits arguments all Christmas season from various cousins - and one particular uncle. "It's made like this" It's rolled like this" It's... It's... It's..." It's delicious no matter HOW you put them together - and everyone seems to think THEY have the "right" way. Sadly, Aunt Emma hasn't been around for about 15 years to let everyone know that WE do them the right way!

We'll also be making several different biscotti's and pizzele's... And my mom's spice cookies, Aunt Dolores' Rum Balls... and... and...

I've already made a half dozen different doughs... Vanilla Almond, Chocolate Almond, A Peppermint Pinwheel I've never made before, as well as a Spiced Apricot and Walnut that I sort of made up... All sitting in the refrigerator awaiting that magic moment when the double ovens get fired up and the score of sheetpans get covered in parchment, the butcherblock island cleared off of all but rolling pin and flour and the Christmas music blares from the speakers all over the house.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, indeed!

by Tim Dineen

Cookies and Lost Christmas Presents

Once upon a time - before I worked in retail - the cookie baking was very organized. That was then, this is now... It's December 21st, and we're ALMOST finished. This is the latest we've ever been still baking cookies! Oh well... It keeps me off the streets...

A few misshaps, like the whole tray of walnut cookies that broke, but since we always eat the mistakes, anyway, it has a happy ending!

We have been rolling and cutting, filling and dipping whenever a spare moment arrived - and there haven't been enough of them!

Today I make the Amaretti and Aunt Dolores' Rum Balls, and then start dipping and decorating in earnest.

And while all of this was going on, we had another panic going on in the house. We lost a present!! Now, we have a bit of a reputation for opening presents early. We go to Victor's sister's for Christmas, and we don't want to lug everything up there, so... we open early. Okay... there is a REASON to open presents early... One can LOSE them if one doesn't!

Bowing to peer pressure, we decided NOT to open Victor's Secret Santa present early. What a mistake. Three days of panic have ensued. Simply put... we put the presents under the tree with our gifts and things we had to mail out. We were being good little boys. We packed up all the stuff to mail out - and then noticed the small present from Victor's fabulous and wonderful Secret Santa was missing! Can we say "Panic" boys and girls?!?

What to do... What to do?!? We thought for sure it had gotten into a box headed west! Oh my gawd! What if it was like a sex toy sent to my father?!? (Well - he could probably use one, but I digress...) A lost present is like one of the worst things in the world. We felt like shit.

Early this morning we took one more look for it - AND WE FOUND IT!!! It was UNDER the tree skirt!!!

We were so excited we opened them!

It's an "A Christmas Story" lamp and a really cool ashtray from "All Things Sicilian." Life is good!

by Tim Dineen

Tim & Victor'sTotally Joyous Recipes

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Chocolate Overload Cookies

Pfeffernusse

Frosted Nutmeg Logs

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