Windowpane Cookies

Again, with the apologies. I'm sorry! I've been traveling and applying to graduate school, and thus not blogging. I also didn't have my camera on my travels, so the crafty things I did went unrecorded. Today, I offer up the last of my December cookie project. In coming days, I'll show you a bit of New Orleans, since the Henz will be in town.

But on to the cookies. These are a combination of recipes and concepts. I started with this recipe, but found that I was defeated by the sticky impossible dough. So I tried this one, but kept the candy concept. The dough itself is a dream. Not too sticky, and it results in a nice tender cookie.


Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for an hour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 ounces cream cheese (1/4 of a standard cream cheese package)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Jolly Ranchers, unwrapped and crushed

Directions:

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the egg and mix until everything is pretty smooth. Add in the cream cheese and vanilla, mixing thoroughly. Then mix in the next three ingredients. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour, until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 350, and roll out the dough to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness and cut out cookies. To make the windowpane cookies, use two cutters of the same shape but different sizes. Cut out with the larger one first, then cut out the center of the resulting cookie with the smaller one. Place resulting cookie on lined cookie sheet, then carefully fill the center with the crushed jolly rancher. You don't want the rancher dust to get on the cookie, since it will stain.

Bake cookies for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on thickness, and let cool completely on the cookie sheet. The jolly rancher may look bubbly and weird out of the oven, but don't worry, as it cools it will solidify and smooth out.

Red Velvet Moon Pies

 Last night was a total Lunar eclipse. It was also the Winter Solstice, a day I look forward to mainly because from now on the days will get longer. My plan for the evening was to go to the Tulane parking deck to watch it. Even though it's brightly lit, the sky was still decently visible. Plus, I love the view up there. You can see clear to downtown, with the lights on the Crescent City Connection and the soft glow of the Superdome. My companions decided to stay in, but it was nice anyway. Very peaceful, at least. Just me, New Orleans, and the red Moon. It was even kind of warm.

But you see, I'd make these cookies in honor of the occasion, and now I had no one to share them with. There are few things better than sharing cookies, so I hightailed it out of there and headed to karaoke at Le Bon Temps (every Monday, if you live in New Orleans, you should go). My friend brought his telescope and set it up outside the bar. So I stood outside with him, his delightful girlfriend, and a bunch of drunks and watched the moon turn a watery red. The cookies were perfect. So was New Orleans, at least for a little bit.

These are easy to make. The batter is pretty liquidy; it resembles cake batter rather than cookie dough. Don't doubt, just roll with it. (Edited to add that I got the recipe here, and only really tweaked the frosting.)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk (Or you can cheat and use plain milk and a splash of vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs. Once it's all creamed nicely, add in the buttermilk, extract, and food coloring. Mix in the dry ingredients in batches, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls onto your cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the centers look set. Let cool on the sheets for a minute or two, then move to a rack. They might stick a bit; mine did.

While your cookies are cooling, you should make the filling. It's cream cheese frosting. My approach is rather free-form. I'll adjust amounts until I get the right consistency, which in this case is slightly runny. Once you've made the frosting, smear 1 tablespoon (or enough to get a nice layer without it squelching out when you bite into it) of it on a cookie and then slap on another cookie. Sandwich made!

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2ish teaspoons of milk
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Beat together cream cheese and butter, then mix in vanilla. Start adding the powdered sugar bit by bit. Add in milk as needed to keep the frosting smooth. You can add more or less sugar as needed to get the right texture. I don't like really sweet frosting, so I play with the milk content instead. You're going to have a ton extra.

Makes 13ish sandwiches.

Linzer Cookies

I bake to relieve stress. This is almost certainly why I gained weight in grad school, but everyone else enjoyed the fruits of my labor, so it was worth it. I bring this up because today was not a good day. My Christmas/New Year's plans were dealt a setback by the Gentleman in Question's company. We've had to change a significant part of our trip to DC, and it was unclear for a bit how this would affect my flights. Several phone calls to the travel website later, and at least one crying fit (sometimes I regress to being a whiny teenager, deal with it), we got it worked out, hopefully for real.

So to deal with the frustration of dealing with online travel companies, I made Linzer Cookies. They are delicious and pretty! The darker ones got a bit overcooked because I was arguing with a travel man on the phone. You should make them. And hopefully while not arguing with customer service representatives.


Ingredients:
2  cups  all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
3/4  cup  granulated sugar
1/2  cup  butter, softened
1/4  cup  egg substitute
1/4  cup  seedless raspberry jam

Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg substitute. Blend in the dry ingredients, adding them slowly. Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap, flattening it into a disk. Chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 and roll the dough out to 1/8-1/4" thickness. Using a jar or a pint glass, cut out round shapes. Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out center shapes in half the disks. Re-roll scraps and cut more shapes, until there's none left. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool completely. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of jam on the whole cookies, and place the holey cookies on top, smushing together. Chill in the fridge and eat!

I got 12, but you could get more if you used smaller cutters.

Peanut and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here I present cookie #2 in my December cookie project. I realize they look a lot like cookie #1, but I assure you, they taste completely different. I gave half to Diana, and her response was to offer me anything I wanted in exchange for making her several batches...

They're easy to make. I used this recipe, with no alterations. The only thing I'd do differently is add more chocolate. Also, toasting the peanuts is completely essential. Mine were lightly salted; I'm not sure there are unsalted peanuts in stores anymore.


Ingredients:

1/4  cup  unsalted butter, softened
1/2  cup  granulated sugar
1/2  cup  packed brown sugar
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
1  large egg
1  cup  all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
1/3  cup  semisweet chocolate chips
1/3  cup  coarsely chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts
1/2  teaspoon  coarse sea salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350, and toast the peanuts on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Cream together the butter and sugars, then add the vanilla and egg. Mix thoroughly, then add in the dry ingredients. Once it's all together, stir in the peanuts, chocolate, and extra salt. Drop by spoonfuls on the cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and try not to eat them all. Makes 24 cookies.

Cranberry Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another long pause, I know. I've been traveling a lot. However, I don't want this to turn into a blog about how I don't blog, so instead I'd like to tell you about my project for December: Christmas Cookies. I announced it on Facebook and got some excellent suggestions. A frenzy of googling followed. I found this recipe from Cooking Light and decided to make it, with some changes. These were made December 1st, and turned out pretty well. My friend ate the four I gave her in under a minute. 

A few notes: you should consider upping the cranberry content. They're delightful. The chocolate amount given is somewhat negligible. I'll leave it out next time, since we hardly noticed it.


Ingredients:
5 tablespoons  butter, softened
3/4 cup  packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons  honey
3/4 teaspoon  vanilla extract
2 eggs 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup  regular oats
1/2 teaspoon  baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  baking soda
1/4 teaspoon  salt
1/4 cup  dried cranberries
2 1/2 tablespoons  finely chopped walnuts
2 1/2 tablespoons  semisweet chocolate minichips

Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugar. Once it's mixed, add honey, vanilla, and eggs. Mix thoroughly. Add in the rest of the ingredients, mixing well after each addition. (Yes, I know you're supposed to mix the dry stuff together first, and then beat into the butter stuff, but I don't have a dishwasher, and I had enough to wash as it was.) Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop the dough onto the cookie sheet by tablespoon (you should get 36 smallish cookies), and bake for 10 minutes. Let them cool, and try not to eat them all at once.