my 2022 holiday list:
because i live in a studio without a lot of storage space, i do my cookies in rolls i keep in the freezer and bakeoff as needed:
chocolate shortbread
salted chocolate chunk shortbread
cultured salted butter shortbread
black cocoa cookies (closest i’ve gotten to nabisco famous chocolate wafers)
chewy gingerbread cookies
gluten free:
almond flour cookies
chocolate espresso snowballs
also trying out panforte — probably in cupcake tins.
Is the cardamom biscotti recipe online by any chance?
The rugelach dough with cream cheese is the same as the dough used for classic pecan tassies, which I know @MidwesternerTT makes. It’s very easy to handle.
Yum… the chocolate espresso snowballs sounds great! Could you share the recipe?
Sharis Kitchen Swedish Cardamom Toast Biscotti
Delicious and easy
Baking time about 1 hour total - 35 min first bake, 26 min second bake 350 degrees
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 or jelly roll pan. Get out an additional pan to have ready for second baking, line with parchment paper or lightly grease.
Mix all ingredients in order listed. [MTT note - makes a sticky dough, but don’t add more flour, just use spoon and light touches of hand to spread] Spread on lightly greased 9x13" (or jelly roll) pan in 2 long strips.
Bake in 350-degree oven for 30 - 35 minutes, or until golden brown. [MTT note - loaves expand and may slightly bake together, just use knife to cut along seam.]
Use a large sharp knife (or tableknife works just fine) to cut each strip into half-inch to 1-inch wide pieces (about width of thumb).
Lay each piece on its side on a lightly greased/ parchment-paper lined baking sheet. [MTT note - cookie spatula helps turn and place pieces; you can reuse the original sheet for the 2nd baking.] (You’ll need 2 lightly greased or parchment-paper lined baking sheets to hold all the cut pieces.)
Place pans on top & bottom racks in oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate pans, top rack to bottom & bottom rack to top. Continue baking until slices are golden brown, about 6 - 7 minutes more. [MTT note - no need to flip each piece, bottom of each browns also.]
Remove toast from pans. Cool on racks. Makes about 30 pieces.
From recipe book “Always on Sunday”, by Eleanor Ostman, St Paul Pioneer Press food columnist. Recipe appeared in her column June 30, 1991. “Shari’s Kitchen was a small cafe in Two Harbors, MN., at Carousel Antiques on Hwy 61. Despite the “Swedish” name of these toasts, proprietor Sharon DeLeo said she got the recipe from a Finnish friend in Ely. (Paul Bergman purchased Shari’s Kitchen in 1998 and today it’s the Vanilla Bean Café.)”
Crushed vs ground cardamom - From an online site: You can make such recipes with ground cardamom, but you won’t get the same bite of flavor with the ground that you do with the crushed cardamom. You bite into the seeds and get a nice burst of flavor with the crushed cardamom.
I’d previously posted it on Chowhound so you may find you’d seen/stored it already. Posted here just now but it has some formatting issues … I’ve asked for moderator help to resolve.
here you go:
chocolate-espresso snowballs (adapted from bojon gourmet)
makes about 32 cookies
almond flour:
3.5 ounces / 100 grams
cocoa powder:
1.75 ounces/50 grams
tapioca flour
.5 ounces /15 grams or cornstarch, potato starch, arrowroot
espresso powder
3 tablespoon, divided
sugar:
2 ounces / 60 grams
dark brown, white, coconut all work
fine sea salt:
1/2 teaspoon
toasted, finely chopped pecans
4 ounces / 115 grams
unsalted, cold butter, in 1/2" pieces
4 ounces / 115 grams
vanilla extract:
2 teaspoons
2 tablespoons each:
powdered sugar
tablespoons cocoa
espresso powder
preheat to 350ºF. line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or grease lightly).
in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, tapioca flour, sugar, salt and 1 tablespoon espresso powder. add the pecans, scatter the butter pieces over the top, then sprinkle over the vanilla. mix on low until the butter is incorporated and the dough forms large clumps, 1-2 minutes. (a food processor works as well) transfer dough to a covered container and chill for 30 minutes (or up to several days).
sift the powdered sugar, cocoa, and remaining 2 tablespoons expresso powder into a shallow bowl. form 1-inch balls of dough and roll them in the sugar-espresso-cocoa mix, knocking off any large clumps, and place the balls on the baking sheet an inch or two apart.
bake until puffed and cracked, 18-22 minutes. the cookies will be soft at first but should crisp up when cool. (if they’re still soft when cool, return them to the oven to bake them a bit longer).
let the cookies cool, then dust with the remaining sugar-espresso-cocoa mixture.
I know a lot of you keep track of your favorite recipes computer wise, but I’m old school and have a large handwritten recipe book. Almost 50 years old. What can I say, I started early.
Russian tea cakes - which called for walnuts and then turned into Pecan Puffs before I left New England. My husband’s favorite btw.
But onto Creme Wafers: Are you talking about this recipe by any chance:
1 c. soft butter
1/3 c. whipping cream
2 c. flour
sugar - for some reason that’s all I show in my book.
Filling:
1/4 c. soft butter
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla
Make two rolls of dough and chill. Slice and bake for 9 minutes. Fill.
Just curious. I made these several times in my high school years. They were a huge hit. The recipe is still in my cookbook.
My cream wafers recipe from a friend shows dough is the same as yours, filling has 1 tsp. vanilla and no egg yolk, and a drop of food coloring to make a pastel pink or pastel green colorful filling.
An online copy of the Betty Crocker recipe is here
The granulated sugar for the dough is to coat both sides of each cookie wafer. Her notes say this cookie doesn’t work as a slice & bake - dough is too soft and slicing 1/8 inch thin didn’t work- so calls for rolling out a 1/3 portion of the chilled dough to thin 1/8 inch on a flour-covered surface with a flour coated rolling pin, then cutting out small 1.5 inch rounds. Transfer each round to sheet of wax-paper that’s covered in granulated sugar, and coat both sides. Place on an ungreased rimmed baking sheet, pierce each with a fork 4 times, and bake 375 degrees 7-9 minutes until just set but not browned. Cool. Sandwich 2 wafers with the filling.
Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts.
I haven’t made these in several years, and had forgotten how good they are. Salty, spicy, sweet - with rosemary.
That explains it then. Mine weren’t sliced thin and I’m fairly certain I didn’t coat with sugar so that must have been optional. I did tint the filling half and half pale pink and green for contrast. How about chilling the dough logs and then in the freezer to firm up a bit more for easier slicing instead of rolling out. Just a thought. One thing is for sure. If I ever do make them again, I will definitely omit the raw egg yolk.
Thanks for you reply.
David Lebovitz’s Pumpkin Ice Cream.
Thanks to a reference from @ maccrogenoff.
This came out exactly as I hoped - rich with plenty of pumpkin flavor. I used 2 teaspoons cognac, and strained it twice, the second time after the final blend.
I’m not sure it’s anything I would make outside of the holidays, but it’s fun and very seasonal. Thus far (before an overnight cure) it gets a solid thumbs up from all tasters.
my panforte test run report:
used david leibowitz’s recipe, which included chile powder, black pepper, and ground ginger. the combination made it so spicy it drowned out the taste of the dried fruit (cherries, cranberries, apricots). next time i’ll leave out the chile and black pepper. i added a bit of espresso powder and grated some orange zest into the honey/sugar syrup.
couldn’t find blanched almonds at trader joe’s and didn’t have time to run around; skin-on worked fine.
the dough is quite stiff, so mixing is strenuous: use a bigger bowl than you think — i used the one from my stand mixer — with a large silicone spatula . and understand that you will never get every scrap of dough out of the bowl.
used a 14x4.5 nonstick rectangular tart tin, so i cut smallish pieces i’ll include on my cookie trays. great not to have to prep the pan — it came right out. but since it’s shallower than a springform, so the edges burned a bit— just trimmed them and mixed with my morning yogurt.
I never knew what they were called except fruit compote! My parents made a version of your number one every summer and it was their favorite dessert spooned over ice cream.
I cracked into it last night. It was really good. 
Next year I’ll skip the currants, however - too many seeds.
I bet it’s awesome over ice cream!
Curious to see if a poll works here. Which would you prefer?
0 voters
IT HAS BEGUN!!!
Making a batch of my favorite ginger spice cookies tonight as a component of tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dessert.
It’s been a very intense quarter at my new job and I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to unplugging my work computer for a long weekend and just standing at the stove.
I love those cookies. I’ve always just made them with all butter, rather than part shortening, though.
yeah not a fan of shortening.
I might be the odd one out who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth and no problem resisting cookies, cakes and doesn’t like pie. I also do not bake. When I read these lists of all of your holiday plans I just cringe at the thought of all of that work. I hate dragging out flour and sugar. Such unruly ingredients that end up on my counter and on my floor!!
