Hazelnut Biscotti Cookies

The secret to these biscotti is eliminating the “twice baked” process.  It’s cumbersome, you can’t cut them properly when they are still hot and it dries them out into that stale, brick like consistency many people dislike. The intensely artificial extracts added to most commercial products don’t help either.
This recipe is actually quite a bit less work than twice baking, and yields a slightly crunchy exterior and a chewy interior.  Not too sweet either, which makes them excellent accompaniments to a glass of wine. You can use almonds instead of the hazelnuts, which would eliminate having to remove the skins, and substitute orange zest for the lemon, but this version is my favorite.

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

2 heaping cups raw hazelnuts

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 extra large eggs

4 cups flour, plus another 1/4 cup for shaping

Zest of 2 lemons

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

• Place the nuts in a jelly roll pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-16 minutes, until the skins turn dark.  Let cool about 15 minutes.  
• Take the Jelly Roll Pan with the nuts in it, a clean dishtowel, and an empty bowl and go outside.  I don’t care how cold it is, you will thank me for it when you have finished this step.  
• Place a handful or two of nuts into the middle of a dishtowel and bring the ends and sides of the towel up until you can close your hand around it.  With the other hand, rub the nuts through the towel against themselves to remove as much of the skins as possible.  
• Carefully, open up the towel and scoop the nuts into the bowl.  Then holding the towel away from you and away from the wind, shake the towel out.  Keep doing this until your entire back yard is covered in skins.  Bring the nuts inside. 
• Nuts can be prepared ahead to this point, and frozen, however, I like the more intense flavor you get when you chop them in the food processor while they are still warm, then scrape directly into the batter.
• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
• Cream butter with a mixer until light and fluffy.  
• Add sugar and beat until fully incorporated. 
• Add eggs and vanilla, and beat again.  Add lemon zest and beat once more.
• Chop the hazelnuts coarsely in a food processor, and add to the mixture.
• In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Add the dry mixture to batter, and pulse the mixer until just incorporated, about 20 times. Don’t over mix or your cookies will start to get tough.
• Scrape the dough onto a cookie sheet in roughly the form of a log.

Sprinkle a little more flour on top of the log.  Flour hands, and shape the dough into a loaf about 10" long, 2-3" wide, and 1-1/2" high.

 YOU ARE HERE! 

• Bake in a 300 degree oven, for about 50-55 minutes, or until log is golden brown. (I've also tried them at 325 for 40-45 minutes, and the result in nearly the same.  Just a little moister on the inside and not as crunchy on the outside.)
• Remove from oven and let cool completely, ideally about 2 hours, but 15 minutes should work.  Just don't cut them when they are hot or you won't get a clean edge.  
• I serve these on a board, and let guests slice them into ½ inch diagonals as they enjoy them. They can be wrapped in waxed paper and foil if you are going to serve them within a couple of days.  
• If you want to store them longer, scrape the dough onto a sheet of waxed paper, form the log, then wrap tightly in the paper and foil, and place in the freezer.  They can go from freezer to oven the day you are going to bake them.

Heavenly Blondies (Cookie Bars)

These are actually toll-house cookies, spread in a sheet pan.  My mom taught me this years ago, and it is still my favorite.  The blondies bars are always just the perfect combination of a crusty top and chewy centers.  I have witnessed several cooking competitions for making Blondies, but I still say, "stick with what works" which is a classic toll house cookie batter.  I prefer them with nuts, but they are just as good without.  

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups light brown sugar, packed
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 extra large eggs
4 ½ cups unbleached, all purpose flour
1 ½ tps baking soda
1 ½ tps salt
10-12 ounces caramel candies, chopped (you can substitute chocolate chips)
2 ½ cups pecans, coarsely chopped. (any nut will work)

• Butter and flour for a 13x18” sheet pan.  
• Preheat oven to 325.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle, cream the butter until it’s fluffy.  
• Add all the sugar, and cream for another 2-3 minutes.  
• Add the eggs, one at a time, creaming until each is incorporated.  
• Add the vanilla and incorporate.  
• Add the candy, chips and/or nuts and mix until they are spread evenly throughout the batter. (This allows you to mix them in before adding the dry ingredients, which will ensure a tender texture.)
• While the mixer is working, mix all of the dry ingredients together in another bowl.  Then add the dry ingredients to the wet batter. 
• Keeping one hand on the top of the mixer, turn the paddle on for just one-half a revolution, stopping and starting the mixer just a half turn, until the flour is fully incorporated.  If you turn it on even at the first speed and let it run, you’ll have flour all over yourself, and likely the kitchen floor.  Don’t overmix.
• Empty the cookie dough onto the sheet pan.   Using a butter knife, spread the mixture evenly in the entire sheet pan, all the way to the edges, and the same thickness all over. 
• Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the dough puffs up, deflates, and is golden brown all over.
• Allow to cool in the pan until just warm.  Then invert onto a board until completely cool, and cut into squares. 

Devishly Chewy Brownies

For nearly a year, my cousin Leslie and I were in a brownie bake-off to try and find the best brownie recipe.  We agreed that brownies had to have four great characteristics: 

1.  They had to be chewy.  Not fudgy, not cakey.  Chewy.
2.  They had to have great taste.  Very chocolatey, but not too sweet.
3.  They had to have a shiny, crackley crust on the top.
4.  They had to have walnuts.

We experimented with several brownie recipes, and while we got great flavor and nuts, we couldn’t replicate the crusty, chewy texture of the boxed brownie mixes.  Eventually we gave up.  I moved on to my next perfect recipe, and she went back to the Ghiradelli Brownie box mix.

Until now.  I found it.  And, I found out the secret.

Turns out, it is the ratio of fats that gives brownies their texture, and America’s Test Kitchen solved the equation.  You can access the recipe and article on their web site (The Secret to Chewy Brownies), but here I give you my version, adapted by replacing the boiling water with brewed coffee, thereby eliminating the espresso powder, and the addition of walnuts.

Further, I use two, very high quality, non-stick baking pans which are 9 inches square.  I butter and flower the bottom and sides of the pans.  That also eliminates the necessity of the foil sling.  These brownies will turn right out of the pan onto a cutting board in one single piece.

I’ve also perfected the “one bowl” mixing method, making these brownies a snap to make as well.

Makes 32 2-inch brownies

Ingredients

1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
½ cup plus 2 Tbs brewed coffee, heated to just boiling
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 Tbs (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch slices
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tps vanilla extract
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ¾ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
¾ tsp table salt
1 ½ cups roughly chopped walnuts

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Convection if you have it.  Butter and flour the bottom and sides of one 9” inch non-stick baking pan.
• Place the chopped chocolate and the butter in a metal bowl.  Sift in the cocoa powder.  Add the hot coffee and stir until completely melted.
• Add the vanilla, oil, and whisk until smooth.
• Add the eggs and egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
• Add the sugar and whisk until smooth.
• Sift the flour into the batter, and whisk again until just smooth.
• Adds the nuts, and stir with a spatula to spread through the batter.
• Divide the batter between the two pans, and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out just barely clean.
• Allow to cool in the pans completely.  Turn the brownies out onto a cutting board, and leave until they are completely cool.  Then cut into squares.
• They freeze well if wrapped in waxed paper and foil.  Unfortunately, they taste just as good frozen, so if you think hiding them in the freezer will keep them from being gobbled up all at once, you are kidding yourself.

Ginger Chocolate Spice Cookies

This is the classic, chewy, crackly cookie recipe everyone knows and loves, though my version has both clove and nutmeg in it as well.  One year, I experimented by adding just a little bit of cocoa and I was very pleased with the results. 

If you want the classic, just eliminate the cocoa and use the full two cups of flour. 

I usually make this dough in advance and chill it.  Once chilled, I roll it out into balls and then bake.  I have also kept the raw cookie balls in a bag in the freezer and rolled out a few at a time when needed. 

I struggled with this recipe for years.  They kept coming out like little cakes.  Until I found Alice Medrich's book and realized I had mistakenly written down baking powder instead of baking soda. 

Ingredients

2 cups flour, less 2 tbs
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 eggs
¼ cup molasses
¾ cup coarse sugar (for coating)

• In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  This is especially important for the cocoa, which tends to form hard little nuggets that need to be broken down.
•  Melt the butter.  In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, the granulated and brown sugar, eggs, and molasses.  
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Incorporate with a wooden spoon or spatula until you can no longer see any of the dry ingredients.
• Refrigerate the dough for an hour, or overnight.   If the dough is too hard to scoop, you will need to bring it to a chilly room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 350.  If you want to bake both cookie sheets at the same time, position the racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and rotate them halfway through the baking cycle.  Alternately, a convection oven will eliminate this step, or if you have a conventional oven, bake one sheet at a time.  With this short a baking cycle, it won’t take much longer.
• Scoop the dough into balls with either a No. 50 ice cream scoop for smaller cookies (1 ½ inches), or a No. 24 for larger cookies (2 ½ inches).  Alternately, use a tablespoon of dough for the smaller cookies, and slightly less than 2 tbs of dough for the larger cookies.
• Roll the balls in the coarse sugar and place on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart.  Bake 8-10 minutes for the smaller cookies, 10-12 minutes for the larger cookies, or until they puff up, crack and then deflate.  (Alice Medrich says, “For chewier cookies, remove them from the oven when at least half of the cookies have begun to deflate; for crunchier edges with chewy centers, bake a minute or two longer.
• Remove the sheets to a rack, and allow to cool only a minute or two.  With a metal spatula, remove the cookies directly on to the rack and allow to cool completely.   These cookies hold a long time stacked in an airtight container, but they usually don’t last very long at our house.

Walnut Shortbread Christmas Cookies

When I was growing up, this cookie was a mainstay in my family.  In fact, I thought they invented it. 

Turns out, this is one of the oldest and most popular cookie recipes, turning up in nearly every culture.  Just under a different name.  Russian Tea Cakes.  Mexican Wedding Cakes.  All that varies is the flavorings and the type of nut.  

I do think my family thought to decorate them for Christmas with the red and the green sugar. 

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons ice water (depending on the season)
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup walnuts
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure rum extract (or dark rum)
½ cup confectioners sugar
Red & Green sugar crystals

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Place the nuts in the bowl of your food processor, and chop until you have a very fine crumb, but just short of nut butter.
• In a stand mixer with the paddle, cream the butter.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy
• Add rum and vanilla and beat. 
• Add the nuts to the butter and sugar mixture and combine thoroughly.
• Sift the flour and salt together into a separate bowl.
• Add the flour to butter mixture, and gently incorporate. 
• If the dough it very stiff, add ice water, and the paddle another couple of turns.
• With your hands, or a very small ice-cream scoop, roll into balls about 1 inch in diameter, and place on a cookie sheet, about one inch apart.
• Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes.
• As soon as they come out of the oven, slide them onto a rack and sift confectioner’s sugar over the cookies until you have a fairly heavy coating (yes, it makes a mess, but its faster than rolling each cookie by hand into a bowl of confectioner's suger)
• Sprinkle with red or green sugar crystals.

Butter Pecan Shortbread Cookies (adult speak for pecan sandies)

Loved those pecan shortbread cookies in the green bag with the elves on it, and wanted to re-create something more sophisticated.  I have a wonderful book by Alice Medrich called "Cookies and Brownies."  When she called for melting the butter for shortbreads, I knew I was on the right path.  I use my tried and true shortbread recipe from "The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook."

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter
5/8 cup sugar
2-1/2 cups sifted flour
Pinch Salt
1 cup whole Pecan halves
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)

• In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, and allow it to simmer until it becomes a light brown color.  Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, vanilla and salt.
• In the meantime, toast the pecans in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until you can start to smell the nuts.  Let cool, then chop into 1/4 inch pieces.
• Add the nuts to the flour and mix.  Then add the butter and sugar to the flour and nuts and mix until just combined. 
• There are two basic methods to make the cookies:  press them into a 9” square brownie pan, or roll the dough into a 2” diameter log in waxed paper.  Either way, chill the dough at least 2 hours, until it is very firm. 
• If you rolled the dough, cut into ½ inch slices and bake on a cookie sheet. 
• Bake 20-25 minutes.  The tops of the cookies do not brown much, nor change shape during baking, so you can space them tightly. 
• If you used the pan, the cookies will need to bake abaout 60 minutes 
• Cool 10 minutes in the pan or on the cookie sheet until firm, then release from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.   Cut into squares.