Cinnacookies

I have a list. It's hidden, deeply entrenched in my mind, but always reappears the second I step into the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport, headed to New York or Chicago. You guessed it: it's my "things to eat in the few days I have before I go back to France" list. Often, I'm disappointed, because something just doesn't exist anymore, or I don't have time for everything.

Somehow, though, I always manage to have a sugar cookie. Preferably from Schnucks grocery store in Urbana, Illinois, and preferably covered in multicolor sprinkles (they better be purple and pink). Sugar cookies are my weakness. As long as they're soft and vanilla-infused – yes, artificial vanilla, but still – I go crazy.

So… take a sugar cookie. Put it in your pocket, bring it to an airport in the US, and head to a Cinnabon store. Are you there yet? Buy a Cinnabon, take your sugar cookie out of your pocket, and look for a magician. Get the magician to transform your sugar cookie and Cinnabon into a Cinnacookie. A two in one, unbelievable, why-didn't-I-think-of-this concoction.

 They call it bake-in-the-dark.

Or, stay at home and bake these. Pretty much the same result, except you can eat ten of them at once without anyone looking at you with a weird stare. Even that family over there with the jumbo boxes from Popeye's, pretending like fried chicken is better for you than cinnamon rolls.

If you make these in the comfort of your own home (or someone else's home, but you get the point), you get a great bonus as well: the smell of sugar cookies and the aroma of warm cinnamon that permeates the air for hours to come.

All you might be missing now is a private jet outside your door, but trust me, you'll be so entranced by your cinnacookies that you would miss your plane anyway.

Cinnacookies

makes approximately fifteen

for the cookies:
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. raw cane sugar
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 TS vanilla extract
1/3 c. sour cream or crème fraîche
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole-wheat flour (or use only all-purpose if desired)
1 TS baking soda
1 TS baking powder
1/4 TS salt

for filling:
2 TB butter, softened
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 TB cinnamon

for the frosting:
4 oz. (approx 120g) cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. confectioner's sugar
1 TB milk

Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Slowly stir in dry ingredients until you can make a ball with the cookie dough.

On a floured surface, pat dough down (or roll it out, in which case you may want to chill it a little beforehand) into a rectangle.

Spread softened butter on top and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough up into a log and slice into 1/2-inch slices with a sharp knife.

Place on a baking mat or parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will not look done when you remove them from the oven--this is good!

Let cookies cool for five minutes while you prepare the frosting. Beat all ingredients together, and spoon over cookies.

Serve immediately or chill before serving, no longer than one day.

Easy as 1-2-3

Lately, I've been reading Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio with a lot of interest.

See, I wish I could storm into a random apartment and shout "Hey! You would all be happier with a slice of cake!", and then start baking up a storm. Just like that. 

More often than not, I turn to recipes. New or tried-and-true, they serve as a guide to make sure I know where I'm going. For some things like cookies, or quiche, I don't use recipes any longer, but that isn't the majority of my baking. Now, if I were to learn all the Ruhlman ratios by heart, I could finally live out my Extreme Makeover: Baking Edition of spontaneous cake production...right?

Let's start out with the basics: the 1-2-3 cookie. Ruhlman explains that by using the ratio of 1 part sugar to 2 parts fat and 3 parts flour, you get a pretty nice cookie. A crisp, buttery cookie: sounds nice, right?

However, as a person who used to wear three watches at once when she was four years old, I couldn't leave it at that. I wanted chocolate peppermint cookies, coated in chocolate. The "keep it simple" thing never really worked for me.

I did follow the Ruhlman ratio, though, but substituted a quarter of the flour for cocoa powder and added a few drops of peppermint extract. As much as I tried with my bare hands, I couldn't get the dough to come together. It was dry and didn't stick...not really an ideal cookie dough. I added two tablespoons of milk, and finally had what I wanted. After a quick chill and slice, I baked the cookies and coated them in melted chocolate mixed with a tablespoon of butter. I would have sprinkled the cookies with multicolored non-pareils (what a funny word, right?), but I'd already gone far enough with the customization.

Given the choice between a chewy chocolate chip cookie with eggs in the dough and this easy-peasy 1-2-3 cookie, I'll admit I might choose the chewy ones sometime. But these cookies are satisfying in their simplicity and clean, buttery taste. They're nice on their own, but can also be a great base for sandwich cookies.

Now that opens up another world of possibilities. I think I'm on the right track to successfully barging into strangers' homes to whip up an array of baked goods. Thanks, Michael! Plus, with my three watches, you can be sure I'll be right on time. They might not let the crazy in, though.

Chocolate-Peppermint 1-2-3 Cookie

infinitely adaptable!

Note: The best way to proceed with the Ratio recipes is to weigh your ingredients--a kitchen scale is always a great tool to have!

1 part granulated sugar
2 parts butter, softened
3 parts dry ingredients: 3/4 all-purpose flour, 1/4 cocoa powder
pinch salt
a few drops of peppermint extract
for each part butter, 1 TB milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. If needed, stir in milk to obtain a ball of dough.

Chill dough in a log.

When ready to use, preheat oven to 350°F / 185°C. Cut dough into slices and bake approximately ten minutes.

Coat with melted chocolate (with a little bit of butter), if desired. Place on parchment paper to cool and set.

An Ode

You've heard it before; I know I'm not the first.

Everyone wants to take a bite out of you. You're coveted around the world, and seem to be in many places at the same time. In several countries, you appear rather brittle, dry, easily shattered. It's your fragile side, I believe, that makes you act this way. You hide your deep chocolate undertones, preferring to give them all a few fleeting tastes of long-lost chips.

I don't very much enjoy you in those places. If I were to meet you in one single place in the world, it would be in my kitchen. I'm more of the intimate, almost timid kind, you see. I'd rather we kept our dealings to ourselves--nobody else has to know about us. I know you probably have this type of arrangement with many others, but I don't mind: I can share at times.

Just promise me one thing: when we do meet, I want you to be all I've ever wanted you to be. I want to feel your warmth, your friendliness. I like to see the real you, multifaceted, always hiding something. From the outside, you're smooth or bumpy, I don't really have a preference this time around. You know best. I'm sure you remember I enjoy how diaphanous you are, letting your true self show through. Beneath the paleness lies a treasure trove of suave boldness, unassuming yet noble: your dark side.

Constantly conflicting deep inside yourself; bittersweet chocolate tries to take the stage, but must be resigned to sharing the spotlight with the brown sugar comfort of hardly-baked dough. That is what I like the most. You yield easily, putting up a false fight with a tiny crunch on your outside. Softness follows, a comforting texture with an array of tastes. In one bite, sweetness takes over, only to be debased by the power of a good chocolate chunk in the next bite. By chance, I come across the perfect mouthful: dough and chocolate come together in a perfect alliance, the marriage dreams are made of.

Why do you always leave so soon, though? Is it something I did, something I said? You know I'm faithful, but I can only wish there were several of you. As strong as your flavor explosion may be, it remains evanescent. I can't seem to recapture our moment once you've departed. 

Your gracefulness, your charm, your perfect balance of power and abandonment...chocolate chip cookie, if I were a French king, you would be my favorite.

(PS: I found a new way to make you which is really pretty awesome. Lips sealed, though. Until next time, at least.)

Workday Linzer Cookies

A bilingual post, specially in honor of my friend and colleague Aurélie's grandma:

I woke up this morning thinking I was going to cut back on the cookies for the week and a half up to Christmas...ha. Yeah right.

Enter Aurélie, the bearer of Christmas cookies, freshly baked by her grandma. Like the most meticulous of surgeons (and especially after scarfing down six of them), I dissected the cookie. Oh, I forgot to mention: this is a sandwich cookie. In other words, perfection.

Layer 1: Cookie. Is that hazelnut and almond powder I detect? A delightfully crisp texture: melt-in-your-mouth, yet it doesn't break apart. Ooh wee.

Layer 2: Jam! Visions of wrapping myself in my comforter and drinking hot chocolate start to burst forth.

Layer 3: Cookie again, with a hole (or two!) to see the jam. And, as the French say cerise sur le gâteau, a paper-thin layer of royal icing.

Three layers for the perfect workday snack. Although, all things told, I would gladly eat these weekday and weekend. The best part is, like all family-made cookies, I don't have the recipe. The mystery yummy.

                                                                          *********

Des gâteaux de Noël, rien de tel pour contrer un long lundi au travail. Au diable les envies de régime (comme tous les lundis, cette fois je m'y mets)...je me retrouve face à face avec un sachet rempli de gâteaux faits maison, qui plus est par la grand-mère de mon amie et collègue Aurélie.

Deux couches de sablé, délicieusement parfumé à ce qui semble être de la noisette et de l'amande...entourant une fine couche de confiture. Sans oublier un glaçage à peine visible à l'oeil nu, mais qui rajoute un petit quelque chose qui rend le biscuit parfait.

J'ai failli rentrer directement chez moi, sachet à la main, pour me cacher sous ma couette et les tremper dans une grande tasse de chocolat chaud... mais ça aurait été trop visible. Dommage. Je me suis donc contentée de garder la main dans le sac toute la journée. Une journée parfaite, quoi.

Merci mamie d'Aurélie!

Let It Snow Chocolate Crinkles

Every morning, on my way to work, I walk about thirty minutes.

When it was still summertime and the walk took me through a lush green park filled with tennis courts and children taking their lesson, it was actually quite nice. The sun was shining bright, the birds chirped, and I had a spring in my step on my way to work.

Fast-forward to December. By the time I'm on my way to work, the sun has barely risen, and chances are I'm trudging through rain, slush, or usually a mix of both. Everyone looks gloomy, hidden underneath scarves and coats and the morning fog. And the cute little park? Well, it's empty and filled with remnants of  fall leaves, making the ground slippery and forcing anyone to look at their feet rather than at the sky.

There is only one way I can get to work without becoming a grumpy employee these days, and I'm the first to admit it just might be a little ridiculous. I have a four-song playlist that I put on repeat, and every single one of those four songs is of the Christmas variety. Hey, I'm entitled to it: December 25th is less than three weeks away, after all.

Here's my problem, however: listening to Christmas songs triggers something in my organism. I get the Christmas bug. My mind functions like a flowchart: Christmas songs leads to Christmas decorations leads to Christmas baking leads to peppermint leads to peppermint cookies.

Yep, Christmas peppermint cookies. Add a little chocolate to that and you've got exactly what I made last weekend. Chewy, "snow-covered" (can I at least pretend?), with a chocolate-mint taste that's just right. In other words, perfect for the season.

Did I mention that that flowchart was just a branch in the "master flowchart" of Christmas? Christmas baking leads to almond paste, also leads to gingerbread, also leads to... you get the idea. Infinite possibilities for a cookie-covered Christmas. You'll be ready to take on that dirty weather.

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

adapted from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book

makes 3 dozen cookies

1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 TS vanilla extract
1 TS peppermint extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 TS baking powder
1/4 TS salt
1/2 c. confectioners' sugar

Mix oil, chocolate and granulated sugar in a bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Add vanilla and peppermint extracts.

Stir flour, baking powder and salt into oil mixture. Chill several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C when ready to bake.

Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into confectioners' sugar and shape into balls. Place on a baking sheet and bake approximately 10 minutes.

Cookies will keep for several days in an airtight container.

Des Cookies Bien Etranges

A post in French to celebrate Momofuku's Compost Cookies! 

Etes-vous très sucré-salé? 

Voici une question qui peut être à l'origine de bien des débats. Jetez un rapide coup d'oeil aux émissions culinaires à la télé: Virginie n'a pas voulu de l'agneau rôti au miel; Laure, elle, n'aime pas vraiment l'association du sucré salé dans les brochettes satay. Non, pas leur truc. Vraiment pas.

Un petit tour du côté des Américains et là, tout change. Le sucré salé, ils en ont fait une spécialité. Un petit creux? Des pretzels enrobés de chocolat sont là pour vous faire oublier votre faim...à moins que vous soyez plus patate douce-marshmallow. Par contre, dans ce cas, il faudra repasser: c'est un plat uniquement servi à Thanksgiving.

En attendant la fin Novembre, on peut facilement céder à ses envies de sucré salé en faisant une chose: n'importe quoi. 

Le Momofuku Milk Bar à New York, célèbre pour les créations étranges de Cristina Tosi, a compris l'importance du "grand n'importe quoi" dans la gourmandise de sa clientèle. Auparavant accros à la Crack Pie, une tarte sucrée et syrupeuse comme seuls les américains savent en faire, voilà qu'ils ne jurent plus que par le Compost Cookie. Compost, pour faire court, c'est le déchet. Dans le Compost Cookie, donc, on met tout ce qu'on trouve au fond du placard. 

Le résultat? Un cookie moelleux riche en chocolat, noix, pretzels...et même en chips, si ça vous chante. De quoi rendre accro la plus réticente des Virginie ou Laure.

Parfois, le grand n'importe quoi, ça a du bon. Du très bon, même.

Compost Cookies

adaptés du Momofuku Milk Bar

pour environ 12 cookies

100 g sucre en poudre

75g cassonade ou vergeoise

110 g beurre à température ambiante

90 g farine

1 cc sel

1 cc levure chimique

1/2 cc bicarbonate de soude

1/2 cs corn syrup ou golden syrup

1 oeuf

1/2 cc extrait de vanille liquide

75 g de vos ingrédients de pâtisserie préferés

75 g de vos biscuits apéritifs préferés (Tuc, pretzels, 3D...on évite le goût bacon ou fromage!)

Dans un mixer ou à l'aide d'un batteur éléctrique, battre le beurre, corn syrup et sucres jusqu'à ce que le mélange soit clair et crémeux.

Ajouter l'oeuf et la vanille. Battre à grande vitesse pendant 5 à 10 minutes: le élange devrait palir et quasiment doubler de volume.

Ajouter délicatement la farine, le bicarbonate de soude, la levure chimique et le sel. Mélanger délicatement en incorporant les ingrédients restants (chocolat, chips, etc.).

Placer des boules de pâte sur un papier sulfurisé et refrigerer au moins une heure.

Cuire 9 à 11 minutes dans un four préchauffé à 200°C.

Compost Cookies

Have you ever had a baked good, only to spend hours on end wondering what, exactly, was in it? What was that indescribable, absolutely addictive taste?

If that's your thing, meet the Compost Cookie.

For all the salty-sweet lovers out there, listen up. For those not so convinced by the power of a chocolate-covered pretzel, well, listen up too. You just might be pleasantly surprised.

The compost cookie is officially the creation of pastry chef Christina Tosi from Momofuku Milk Bar in New York--but I'm pretty sure home bakers all around the world have been experimenting with add-ins in their cookies for quite a while. A quick survey around me found tasters (i.e. my fellow colleagues) to think of the obvious when I asked them to guess what exactly was in these compost cookies. Chocolate? Check. Some kind of nut? Check (almonds and hazelnuts, finely chopped). Salted butter? Nope. They ran out of ideas, and ended up pretty surprised when they heard the remaining ingredients...scroll down for the answer!

The subtelty of the compost cookie is that while you may add strange ingredients, that seemingly don't pair well at all, the result is completely cohesive from a flavor standpoint. Brown sugar imparts a butterscotch aroma to the baked cookies, which in turn pairs quite well with chocolate, pretzels, or... corn chips. "Don't knock it till you've tried it" is what they say. 

The preparation of the batter is an oddity as well--ten minutes of beating and a good hour (at least) in the refrigerator make for some cookies that ended up a little too much on the crunchy side for me. Good thing I kept part of the cookie dough and baked it in individual pans, making two huge cookie "bars"--chewy and utterly addictive.

It's hard to summarize a cookie with so many ingredients in just one sentence. But here goes: have you ever dreamt of going to the concession stand at the movies and getting one of everything? 

Let your dream come true with a compost cookie.

Compost Cookies

adapted from the Momofuku Milk Bar

yields 12 large cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. granulated sugar
3/8 c. light brown sugar
1/2 TB corn syrup (I didn't have any and left it out with no noticeable effects)
1/2 TS vanilla extract
1 large egg
3/4 c. + 2 TB all purpose flour
1 TS baking powder
1/2 TS baking soda
1 TS salt
3/4 c. of your favorite baking ingredients (options: chocolate chips, nuts, etc.)
3/4 c. of your favorite snack foods (chips, pretzels, etc.)

In the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor, cream butter, corn syrup and sugars until fluffy and light in color.

Add egg and vanilla. Beat on high for ten minutes (or a little less if, like me, you're afraid of killing your mixer): mixture should become pale and almost double in size.

Delicately mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until just combined. Stir in baking ingredients and snack foods.

Drop cookies onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate for at least one hour and up to one day.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400°F / 200°C.

Bake 9 to 11 minutes, until golden. Cool cookies completely on pan and store in an airtight container.

Double Chocolate Cookies

...doesn't this sound like something you would find in a grocery store? 

I've mentioned how people can go a little overboard with the names they give their dishes, adding "luscious", "insanely decadent", or both at once. Although I'm usually able to brush those off and take a look at what's really being served, I always fall into the double-triple trap.

Not a real trap, obviously--I don't spend my weekends running around in the woods hunting for some wild game and getting my leg stuck in metal claws. And no, I don't wear camouflage trucker hats either, for that matter. Rifles, on the other hand... I'm kidding. I would probably end up shooting my foot, and we all know I've had enough limb invalidity for the next few years.

What I mean by the double-triple trap is all those boxes of cookies or bake-sale brownies that go by "Triple Chocolate Mocha Chunk Caramel Drizzle S'More Topping". No ridiculous adjectives here. No way. These names are 100% descriptive, and usually manage to get me running around in circles on my bed, jumping up and down until I realize I'm missing about twenty ingredients. In which case I resort to simpler fare, of the "Double" variety: "double chocolate blondies with a butterscotch swirl". Still missing some ingredients and just want to use what you have on hand? Don't skip the "double" effect and go for these: Double Chocolate Cookies.

They're not as simple as classic chocolate chip cookies, but not a strange overload of ingredients either. Did I just say strange? I'm just saying that for you, because I know a lot of people prefer the deceptively simple desserts. I love them too, but ingredient-packed makes me go into a frenzy. 

I made these with Dutch-processed cocoa powder and baking white chocolate--and they were enjoyed.  Did the "Double Effect" work its magic? Only one way to find out: bring it up a notch to something triple. Not like the baker here is complaining: double-triple dough is even better.

Double Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart Living

makes about 3 dozen

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 TS baking soda

1/2 TS coarse salt

4 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate

1/2 c. butter

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 TS vanilla extract

1 c. white chocolate, chopped into chunks

Preheat oven to 350 F / 185 C. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. 

In a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Let cool about 5 minutes away from heat. 

Add sugar, eggs and vanilla to the chocolate mixture. Mix until combined, and gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in white chocolate chunks. 

Refrigerate dough for 10 to 20 minutes. Drop balls of dough on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet spaced 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are still soft but edges have firmed up, 10 to 15 minutes. 

Cool on a wire rack. Cookies can be stored up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies : A Classic

Oh, poor oatmeal cookie. You never were my favorite...until now.

Whenever I had the choice, I always picked the chocolate chip cookie. Silky and smooth, with just enough semisweet chocolate to make you swoon...none of that thick "oatiness" (yes, I just made that ridiculous word up). And raisins? Who needs raisins when you can have chocolate? Seriously. My sister always went for oatmeal raisin, and I never really understood why. I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal, and oats in general weren't really my thing.

That is, until I discovered, oatmeal scotchies a while ago. And as they say, "Once you go oat, you can't leave the boat". Or something along those lines. 

I also have to factor in the fact that I had the hugest, most amazing cookie ever when I lived in New York at a café called Grey Dog--eating one cookie would probably make you full for at least a good half of the day. But it's one of those treats where you can't stop even though you know you've gone way past what your stomach can tolerate. I started to see where my sister was coming from, choosing to have the oatmeal raisin cookie. However, I'd never taken it a step further and made them myself. If you can have butterscotch chips instead of raisins, why bother?

I had a suitcase full of such excuses, but a weekend trip out to Normandy made me change my mind. Wanting to bake a batch of cookies to bring along for the car ride, I settled on oatmeal cookies, thinking they would be sturdier than chewy chocolate chip cookies. The next question that came up was which extra something I should add. Chocolate chips? Butterscotch chips? The tradition seeker in me came right out and voted for raisins. Raisins it was, and with my trusty ATK cookbook in hand (or under my arm, seeing how big it is), I was off to the land of raisins in cookies.

Will I ever look back? No way. I'm a chocolate chip cookie kind of girl, but oatmeal raisin is right up there alongside it. I guess every girl wants to end up like her older sister.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

adapted from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

makes about 24 large cookies

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 TS baking powder
1/2 TS salt
1/4 TS ground nutmeg
1 TS cinnamon (not in the original recipe)
16 TB (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 c. packed light brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 c. raisins (I plumped them a little first by steeping them in hot water)

Preheat oven to 325°F / 160°C. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes (I did this by hand). Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds.

Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the oats and raisins until just incorporated.

Working with about 3 TB of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay them on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Flatten to a 3/4-inch thickness using your palm.

Bake cookies until edges are set and beginning to brown but centers are still soft and puffy, 22 to 25 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Sour-Cream Sugar Cookies

I'm always in awe whenever I page through Betty Crocker's old-school "cooky" book. Sure, the pictures are pretty retro, but that's not what amazes me. What I love is how quaint everything looks: you feel like hosting some kind of a cookie tea party just to arrange huge plates of thumbprint and spritz cookies everywhere in the house. Someone's walking through the hall? Let him choose between five different kinds! Someone else has decided to step out onto the patio? Have a chocolate crinkle!

To be a bit more realistic, I don't think I would be able to find more than ten kinds of cookies in my apartment, and I don't really have a hallway...or a patio for that matter. But a girl can dream, right?

I was invited for dinner at JB's for Easter. Now, before I get into the details, you have to know that his parents are sort of...intimidating. Let's just say I've seen his dad twice in over five years--the second time being this particular Easter. I wanted to bring some kind of gift, something nice and oh-hello-would-you-like-a-quaint-cookie-sounding. JB suggested I bake "something we can have with some tea after dinner", and I took that as my cue to envision my Betty Crocker fantasy. I paged through the book, settling on some sour-cream sugar cookies that I wanted to top with some cute Easter-colored sanding sugar. The recipe was for a rolled cookie, but I figured making drop cookies would be nice and quick without sacrificing the yummy taste.

I could hardly keep my hands off them when they came out of the oven: they were soft, tasty, and really adorable-looking. But I didn't want to start Easter dinner off on a wrong note, so I didn't eat all thirty of them. Twenty went straight into a plastic favor bag, and off to dinner we went. Everyone was basically very very full by the time dinner was over, so JB assured they would taste the cookies tomorrow. He sure did. I got a call on Monday morning, along the lines of "Did you actually taste your cookies??? I couldn't even eat one." So apparently, they got a "plastic-y" taste from the bag, but he made such a deal about it: imagine hearing "I actually had to hide these from my parents". Yeah. Nice, right? 

I couldn't really understand why the ones I had tasted were so good and his were "awful", so I asked him to bring some to class on Tuesday. He handed one over to me, waiting for some kind of dramatic Heimlich-maneuver-inducing reaction on my part. Well, he sure was disappointed. They tasted just fine, maybe a little too moist from being in that plastic bag for so long, but nothing to kick and scream about. Turns out the slight taste from the nutmeg threw him and family off, or something. Weird. 

Then came the revelation: "I don't understand why you made these tiny cookies and not some huge chewy cookies with chopped Snickers or something." I guess he won't be invited to my Betty Crocker Cooky Blowout. I'll save the Plantation Fruit Bars for the real cookie lovers on the patio.

Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Cookies

adapted from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

makes 4 to 5 dozen 2-inch cookies

Note: I halved the recipe and they turned out fine! (Well, as long as you like sugar cookies, I guess, which some people apparently do not!)

1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 TS vanilla
2 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 TS baking powder
1/2 TS baking soda
1/2 TS salt
1/4 TS nutmeg
1/2 c. sour cream
sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 425°F.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, and mix thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, blend dry ingredients together. Add to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream.

Refrigerate dough at least 20 minutes.

Drop tablespoon-sized dollops of dough onto a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten with palm and top with sanding sugar.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned on the edges.

Cool on wire rack. Can be stored for a few days in an airtight container, but these are best eaten fresh.

Sugar Cookies: One-Way Ticket to the Past

Believe it or not, until Saturday I had never made cookie-cutter cookies on my own. No, really. This is the part where you look at me and frown, and say something like "Tsk, tsk. And you say you're infatuated with baking? Yeah right."

Well, I could add that I have made sugar cookies before, but never the cut-out kind. You have to understand that I don't actually have a full-sized kitchen, meaning that I have zero--yes, zero--counter space. And that means I can't bust out a rolling pin and get cookie-cutting very often. Also, I don't have little kids running around to whom I can show how to draw a straight line when you're icing a cookie. Not that I can really do that either, but you get the point.

Basically, I hadn't had nicely-shaped homemade sugar cookies since I was little. Until Saturday, as I said. And Saturday, my life just got a little better, if that's possible. As they say over here, I started to "voir la vie en rose". Partly because my cookies were pink, and so were my hands and face since they were covered in food coloring. But mostly because making and icing these cookies was like a blast from the past, when my maman and I would cut cookies into shapes on the dining room table.

I'll let you in on a little secret: something else made me fall over in a frenzy of "how is this possible I can't believe it this is the best day of my life". The cookies were pink, and the icing had almond extract. And I know at least one person reading this blog who knows exactly what a pink, almond-tasting baked good makes me think of: my birthday cake. I won't say much about it for now except that my birthday cake is a recipe created by my maman, so nobody else can say they have the same in the whole wide world. (Notice how the title of this post is really true since I'm starting to act like when I was six years old again.) It has raspberries, toasted almonds, and a tiny layer of bright pink icing. Oh, man. Whew.

Back to the cookies.

These cookies are the real deal--if you don't believe me, ask the twenty others who thought they were soft, sweet, and (this is me speaking) the most delicious heart-shaped sugar cookies ever. I'm not a crunchy cookie kind of girl, and these were soft without breaking apart. Yum. I regret eating the last six yesterday, because I don't have any left for today. I mean, I really think the dark chocolate Crunch hearts and mini Valentine's Day Snickers would have enjoyed being accompanied by pink sugar cookies in my stomach. It's alright. Now I just have an excuse to make some again soon.

One more thing: is anything seriously cuter than cookies you can put your own personalized message on? I think not. Well, puppies maybe.

Rolled Sugar Cookies

makes 30 cookies

adapted from allrecipes

3/4 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 TS vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 TS baking powder
1/2 TS salt
Pink gel food coloring

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until combined, and knead in food coloring.

Cover and chill dough for at least one hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C. Place dough in between two sheets of plastic wrap or on a floured surface and roll out until dough is 1/4-inch thick. Cut into shapes and place on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes, and cool completely before icing.

Almond Cookie Icing

makes enough to ice 30 cookies

1 c. confectioner's sugar
1 - 1 1/2 TB milk
2 TS honey
1/4 TS almond extract
food coloring

Mix confectioner's sugar, honey, and almond extract in a medium bowl. Thin to desired consistency with milk, and add food coloring.

Dip cookies in icing or paint it on. Cookies will dry completely in about 3 hours.

Note: light corn syrup is hard to find here, so I used honey. However, use light corn syrup if you can--it'll make your icing shiny.

Love Cookies

It's almost Valentine's Day, and specially-themed cakes, cupcakes, and cookies have been popping up everywhere. Although these cookies would be a perfect treat for that special someone, they became Love Cookies for various specific reasons that actually have nothing to do with February 14th.

First of all, they were the first thing I baked, less than 24 hours after getting my casts taken off on Thursday. For now, my left hand looks a little deformed, but the fact that I was so excited about getting back into the kitchen could only mean one thing. I am officially in love with baking. And while some may have a love child--although that's a completely different issue--these are my love cookies. All week long, all I could think about was them. I thought the recipe out in my mind over and over again, hoping the toasted sesame and chestnut combo would turn out to be what I wanted. Infatuated might be a better word than in love, actually, just like I was infatuated with Johnny Depp when I was little. (Please don't tell anyone I recently bought a Pirates of the Caribbean t-shirt.)

Most importantly, I wanted these cookies to be exactly what they turned out to be: sweet and simple. That's what all true love stories are about, aren't they? 

True love, in my mind, is embodied by the story of how my French grandfather and grandmother met. It all started with letters sent by my grandmother to bring up the spirits of French troops fighting the colonial wars in Vietnam in the late 1940s, and somehow her letters got in the hands of my grandfather. After writing back and forth, they ended up meeting when he came back on leave and as the French saying goes, "ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants". 

The thought of a lifetime of love starting with a simple letter, in my mind, is as sweet as it gets. I wish I could hear dozens more, but I never got to meet my grandmother, who passed away much too young.

I just like to think that wherever my grandparents both are right now, they would approve of such a cookie as a tribute to them. And wherever you are, go ahead and try these. I can promise they'll bring a nice touch of sweetness to your day!

Sesame-Chestnut Love Cookies

makes approx. 15 small cookies

1/4 c. butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 TS vanilla extract
2 TB brown sugar
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
2 TB toasted sesame seeds
Chestnut cream (crème de marrons)

Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. In a medium bowl, cream butter, sugar vanilla and egg yolk. Add flour and salt, and mix until combined. Add toasted sesame seeds and mix.

Refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes so it firms up. On a baking sheet, shape dough into small tablespoon-sized balls. Flatten a little with your palm, and press thumb into the center to make an indentation. Fill with chestnut cream.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Let cookies cool 5 minutes on baking sheet, and carefully slide onto a rack to cool.

Cookies will keep a few days stored in an airtight container.

The Back of the Bag

...or how I developed an addiction to butterscotch.

I don't think I had ever baked with butterscotch up until a few days ago. In fact, I can't even say for a fact that I had tasted anything with butterscotch in it for years. For some reason, a little voice in my mind thought it would be a good idea to bake a butterscotch something...anything, really.

So there they were, two nice yellow bags of butterscotch chips, sitting in my kitchen cupboard. I didn't forget about them, no way, but it was around my birthday and I had a lot of other things on my baking list. So they sat in the cupboard, patiently waiting to unleash their fury. It all started on a Tuesday night, when I ran out of chocolate. I was helplessly pondering the alternatives--apples?, apricot jam?, carrots??--when they came as a memory flash. "Ha!," I clamored, "I know there's something in the cupboard." And that was the start of my downward spiral into the world of butterscotch chips.

They look so small, so harmless: what could a few chips do besides make you happy? Well, it started out with 5 chips. Then I came back for another 5. And another--you get the idea. But thankfully, I was reminded that butterscotch chips have the word butter in them, and that maybe I should slow down a bit. So I put the bag down, only to start this little game for the next couple of days. That was when I remembered that I actually wanted to bake with these things--the only surefire way to get me to stop eating them on their own. My logic was kind of twisted, I'll admit it: I decided I would eat less butterscotch chips if they were spread out in a baked good. Because I would eat less of the baked goods, right? No. Wrong. At least I had faith in myself, if only for the few seconds it took to decide I was going to bake something.

Next came the decision of what exactly to bake. Butterscotch blondies? Sounds delicious, but I wanted a change from the usual, albeit amazing, blondie. My eyes wandered to the bag I was holding in my hand. "Oatmeal Scotchies"? Sounded good. Strangely, I never really look at the recipes on the "back of the box", and the only ones I've made were Nestlé Dessert chocolate mousse and Libby's pumpkin pie.

I can proudly say that after baking oatmeal scotchies--or simple oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips, call them what you will--I will be making these again. And again. And...I don't think have to keep going with this.



Friends of mine, of the non-American variety, had their first taste of butterscotch with my cookies. The overall consensus was "Mmmm" followed by "What kind of nuts are in this?". For anyone who doesn't know butterscotch, it's basically butter and brown sugar cooked together, not unlike toffee but it doesn't have that burnt quality toffee has. I guess that the butterscotch, paired with oatmeal, gave the cookie a little toastiness which is reminiscent of nuts.

From now on, count on me to look at the back of all boxes. For now, I still have a few butterscotch chips left--and trust me, they won't be there for long.

Oatmeal Scotchies
adapted from the Nestle Recipe

Note: I halved the recipe and got approximately 30 cookies.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (When I halved the recipe, I used only 90g of butter, which is substantially less than 1/2 cup)
  
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1 2/3 cups (11-oz. pkg.) butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Pumpkin Cookies

The name is pretty simple: pumpkin cookies. I could turn that into moist pumpkin spice cookies, or iced autumn pumpkin cookies, or even iced moist autumn pumpkin spice cake-cookies, if I really wanted to. I'd rather not: the pumpkin cookies I made for last Sunday dinner will remain as simple as can be.

Honestly, there's not much of a crazy story to go along with these. Nothing about intense nostalgia or throwbacks to when I was young enough to look at toy catalogs with awe--on second thought, I still do that. Did you know they now make about twenty different kinds of "play kitchens"? With stovetops that make actual sizzling sounds when you place a "pan" on them? I'm not sure they would have gotten first place in front of all my Barbies and My Little Poneys, but still, I was impressed.

Anyway, when I found the recipe for Pumpkin Cookies on Allrecipes, the 1,200-odd reviews were all pretty laudatory. I was looking for something simple, somewhat light, that packed all the flavor fall has to offer--and according to the reviewers, this was it.

Pumpkin cookies are, in a few words, exactly what they promise to be. The simplicity of their name echoes the simplicity of the cookie itself: it takes no more than 20 minutes to make, it has a simple cake-like texture, and the flavor can be summarized in one word: fall. One bite and all the tastes of the season come together, giving you exactly what you expect from a pumpkin cookie.

Easy does it, right?

Pumpkin Cookies
adapted from allrecipes makes about 20 cookies

1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 TS baking powder
1/2 TS baking soda
1 TS cinnamon
1/2 TS pumpkin pie spice
pinch salt
1/4 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1 egg
1/2 TS vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, egg, vanilla and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients.

Drop onto a cookie sheet by tablespoonfulls (you can try making bigger ones, they'll be softer and just as good).

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, and cool before glazing.

To make glaze: Combine confectioner's sugar, 1 TS cinnamon, a few drops of vanilla extract and enough milk to acheive spreading consistency. (The cinnamon gives the glaze not only a great taste but also a light sparkle)

Lebkuchen, or the Cookies I'll never make on my own

I know it's only October and even Halloween hasn't come and gone, but once I get into the fall state of mind, all I can think about is the holiday season.

"Holiday" has a specific meaning for me--sure, I like Thanksgiving and all--but I'm mostly thinking about Christmas and that little day a month beforehand... my birthday. No, I'm no longer six years old or celebrating my sweet sixteen, but my birthday is admittedly my favorite day of the year. After October 20th rolls around, November 20th isn't far behind and I start getting into my own version of the holiday spirit.

When I'm in Saint Dié, not so far from the German border, this means indulging in feasts of gingerbread cookies dipped in hot chocolate milk. I'd love to tell you a story of how the recipe for these was passed down for generations and generations, but that's not how it goes. You know those German discount supermarkets like Lidl, Aldi, and Norma? That's where it all takes place. The earlier you go--end of October is perfect--the fresher these cookies are.

Covered in chocolate or thin sugary icing, they're called Lebkuchen and look somewhat like bells or Christmas trees. Some of them also have tiny colored sprinkles, and sprinkles have always had a strange appeal for me. All I remember from a long flight delay that got us stuck at the Chicago O'Hare Hilton when I was 5 is the donut with sprinkles I had at the hotel. I don't think I even liked donuts, but I sure liked sprinkles.

Anyway, these Lebkuchen signal the beginning of my favorite part of the year. And the ones we bought today were absolutely perfect and possibly the best I've ever had: moist, tasty, and colorful. They were as fresh as can be, and though I couldn't even wait to get home for the hot chocolate that usually goes along with it--the parking lot is a fine place for Lebkuchen--they were all I needed.

All I can say now is that Holiday Season, Lucie Version, looks like it's off to a good start.

P.S. : If you want to go ahead and make Lebkuchen, here's a recipe that looks nice.

Peanut Butter Cookies and a Glass of Milk

I'm slowly developing an addiction to cookbooks, which I think pretty much everyone in my family has realized. Lucky for me, they hit the spot every time they pick out a new book.

For Christmas, I got the reprint of Betty Crocker's original Cooky Book from 1963, retro images and all. Paging through it makes me feel like I'm in the sixties, trying to find a cooky (not a cookie, no no) to go along with a Jell-O ring or some other weird sixties specialty. You can find the cookbook here, and it's full of fun and easy cookie recipes. While you're on the Wiley website looking at the book, buy Water in Buildings by William B. Rose!

For my first recipe from the book, I decided to try my hand at a classic that I hadn't had in years--the peanut butter cookie. Ahhh, the peanut butter cookie. The American classic, made to be scarfed down with a cold glass of milk. The thing is, I don't really like milk unless it's chocolate milk. I take that back--I like a cold glass of milk (the cliché that never dies), but only if it's American, bad-for-you milk. Oh I know, I should be happy I have delicious hormone-free French milk to indulge in. Which I do, with a good dose of Van Houten chocolate powder and sugar. But the cold glass of milk is never going to happen in France. I'll admit it: I do not like the taste of real milk.

Now that I've gotten that taboo out of the way, I will add that a true PB cookie has not only a glass of milk by its side, but the signature crosshatch pattern everyone had fun doing when they were children. Alright, I might have spent more time eating the cookies than crosshatching them when I was little, but I'm just adding to the story here.

All this to say that the Peanut Butter Cooky--or Cookie, as you wish--is quite probably the madeleine de Proust of many Americans. It may remind you of coming home from school to a warm batch of cookies, grabbing one and feeling it melt in your mouth, or licking the spoon from the peanut butter jar.

Yes, I added chocolate to the milk after the picture.

To put it in the words of Betty Crocker:

"Think back...how many happy family memories are bound up with the tradition of the cooky jar? (...) the traveling businessman discovering a packet of favorite cookies tucked in his luggage..."

Does anyone else just felt like they were just thrown into a pistachio green Formica kitchen with ladies in pastel colors? Oh, Betty Crocker...


The cookies were, pretty unsurprisingly considering the lengthy success of this book, really good. I baked them a little less longer than the recipe indicated for my second batch, and they were perfect. With or without milk.

Peanut Butter Cookies
"a favorite with men and children"
makes about 36 cookies

1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 TS baking powder
3/4 TS soda
1/4 TS salt

- Mix shortening (butter), peanut butter, sugars, and egg thoroughly. Measure flour by dipping method or sifting. Blend all dry ingredients; stir into shortening (butter) mixture. Chill dough.

- Heat oven to 375°F. Roll dough in 1 1/4" balls. Place 3" apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Flatten crisscross style with fork dipped in flour.

- Bake 10 to 12 minutes (might be because of the butter, but I'd recommend 8 to 9 minutes for them to be chewy).

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Again

I seem to be quite the pro when it comes to inverting things.

Take this, for example: I made a promise to myself that during the school year, I would bake once a week and go to the pool twice. You know, to balance out the raw-dough eating, the right-out-of-the-oven tasting, and the once-it-has-cooled tasting...among others.

However, a goodbye dinner for a friend off to Dublin and an impromptu dinner at my apartment left me with only one option, baking twice in the week. Of course, that doesn't explain why I only went to the pool once, but it's only Sunday afternoon right? Ha. Right.

Anyway, I developed some sort of obsession with my chocolate chip cookie recipe and wanted to improve it. The batter was clearly too runny when I baked the cookies right away, and I wanted to get something more out of the butter. At the risk of ending up with rock-hard, sadly disappointing cookies, I went ahead and decided these were the perfect occasions to try new things.
How right I was! Cringing in fear of seeing bleak looks on everyone's face when they tried my new and improved cookies, I can't say I was disappointed at all. Actually, let me rephrase. I wasn't really cringing, considering the above dough/out of the oven tasting I "forced" myself to go through--I was pretty sure my recipe was improving.

So, what did I change? Something every other cookie baker out there has probably done ages before me.

- I incorporated 1/3 of the butter at room temperature with the sugars, and melted the rest.

- I froze the dough for about 45 minutes to an hour before baking,

And my cookies were one step closer to being the way I love them.

Now the only problem is, I keep telling myself I'm going to mix things up and add nuts, but that time never comes. Sure, I'll add M&Ms for the fun of it, but next time friends come over they'll be warned. If you don't like chocolate, stay away from my cookies.

(But hide them somewhere so nobody else can eat them but me)




To come: lemon macarons, opera cake, peanut butter cookies, and yummy Asian recipes!

Hosting a Halloween Party is Fun...

... and admittedly quite tiring.

This year, I hosted my first ever Halloween party. A Halloween party where everyone comes dressed up and ready to party away isn't French by essence, so the American half of me was really the one hosting it.

Long before I started getting everything ready for the evening, I was already dreaming about intricately-decorated cupcakes, sugar cookies shaped like tombstones lying on a bed of Mont Blanc-ish "worms", and all the other great snack-type desserts that appear in Halloween cooking articles. However, I guess that people do that as a job, or have a few full days ahead of them to make it all perfect. I, on the other hand, couldn't really use my Halloween party as a way to get out of work for two days, so all my work was done starting 7pm on the 30th.

I settled on pretty simple things to start with: salty olive pound cake (green olives look like eyes...right?) and a pesto pasta salad. The sweet part was more exciting, though. Cupcakes and sugar cookies were on the list, with special Halloween sprinkles as toppings. 

Spot the missing cupcake!

Power-cooking is fun, but when you start at 7pm, it gets pretty old fast. In about 5 hours total, I ended up making two olive pound cakes, one pasta salad, 30 sugar cookies, and 36 cupcakes. It probably doesn't sound like much to those who bake for parties pretty often, but for first-timers such as myself it can get confusing. The 36 cupcakes were meant to cater to all of my friends' tastes, and I think they did: 12 vanilla / vanilla, 12 vanilla / chocolate, and 12 chocolate / chocolate.

Once everything was baked and set up, I must say I was happy about it all. My pre-Halloween baking marathon may have been a challenge, but it was just preparation...for next year's Halloween!

Recipes:

"Cake aux Olives"

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup dry white wine

250g flour

125g grated swiss cheese

250g green olives, pitted

10g baking powder

salt & pepper

(sorry about the Metric)

Beat together eggs, oil, wine, salt, and pepper until foamy.

Add flour, baking powder, cheese, and olives.

Bake at 350° for an hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Sour cream chocolate cupcakes and Sour cream chocolate frosting

Sour cream vanilla cupcakes: I substituted the cocoa in the above recipe for sugar, and they turned out great.

Vanilla Frosting

NB: I'm really lost. This is my 10th try at vanilla frosting, or something. And it may be French butter, or French confectioner's sugar, or both, but I NEVER get it right. I follow all the directions, have tried making it with a handheld mixer and by hand, but it gets too runny every single time...

(makes 1 cup)

4 tbsp butter

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 pinch salt

Sugar Cookies

(makes 10 seriously huge cookies)

1.5 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup brown sugar & 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

1 egg

Mix sugar and butter, then add egg and flour mixture. Bake 15 minutes at 350°.

These sugar cookies are really addictive and very very chewy. I'm just warning you.