Citrus Wafer Cookies

These cookies pack quite a bit of citrus punch in each bite. They look like they would be extremely delicate but they had this sort of caramel-y chewiness to them. Not that they tasted like caramel, they just felt a bit like it.

So citrus-y. The bit of orange peel on the tops was perfect. Me thinks, I do, that if you like orange and lemon flavors, you will love these cookies.

A note: I realized upon typing out the recipe that I used baking powder instead of soda. That could be why mine don’t look quite like the picture in the magazine. Or perhaps it’s because I used cane sugar, which has a bit of color to it. It’s not snowy white like regular sugar. At any rate, I’ll still make these cookies again, hence the posting of this recipe.

Citrus Wafer Cookies

Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup cane sugar

1 egg

1 t orange extract

1 t vanilla extract

1 t orange zest

1 t lemon zest

1 cup unbleached flour

5 t cornstarch

1/4 t  baking soda

pinch salt

very thin strips of orange zest

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg, extracts, and zests and beat well. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix into creamed mixture. Drop by teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets. Top with a strip or two of orange zest. Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes or until barely golden.

Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper.

Yield: about 4 or 5 dozen

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Alright, we’ll take a break from freezing green beans (did 22 pounds yesterday…there’s none for today…woohoo!) and have ourselves a cookie. Actually, these cookies are long gone. Made them a month ago. And the dozen I had stashed in the freezer for later got eaten up by some workin’ men. Those hungry boys. I could so go for one of these right now!

So the cookies themselves aren’t too bad…all whole grain and mostly unprocessed sugar. But then you sandwich that filling in between them and it all goes down hill from there. Mmmm yummy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

1/2 cup plus 1 T (2 1/2 oz) salted butter

1/2 cup (1 1/2 oz) Aristocrat baking cocoa

1/4 cup (3 oz) chocolate syrup

2 T natural peanut butter

1 1/2 eggs (I used 1 large and 1 tiny)

1 cup (6 oz) Sucanat

1 t vanilla

1 1/4 cups (5 3/8 oz) sprouted whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 t baking soda

pinch salt

Melt the butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa, chocolate syrup and peanut butter until smooth. Cool.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and Sucanat until Sucanat is almost dissolved. Beat in the chocolate mixture and the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture. Chill the dough over night.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough by level tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes or until no longer raw in the middle. Cool on pan 2 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.

Smear the peanut butter filling on one cookie and top with a second to make delicious little sandwiches.

Peanut Butter Filling

2 T butter

1/4 cup (2 1/4 oz) natural peanut butter

1/4 cup (2 oz) milk

1/2 t vanilla

2 3/4 cup (12 oz) powdered sugar

Beat butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until it’s smooth and a bit fluffy.

Yield: Oh no! I failed to write this down immediately and now I have no idea. Sorry!

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Tiramisu

Girls ruled the house Friday evening. I had a bunch of them over to celebrate Nicole getting married in a couple of weeks. Desserts and costumes abounded. What a fun evening!

I contributed the tiramisu. In wine glasses. I’d much rather receive a delicious dessert in a goblet than wine! I know we shouldn’t equate earthly things with heaven but boy oh boy, in my earthly mind, tiramisu is heavenly. Soft, creamy, cool. Who doesn’t love something like that sliding across their tongue?

And with homemade lady fingers? Mmm. I dare you not to snitch any when they are fresh from the oven.

Tiramisu

Adapted from here

6 large egg yolks

1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 oz) white sugar

1 1/4 cups (10 oz) mascarpone cheese

1 t vanilla

1 3/4 cups (14 oz) heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup (4 oz) double strength coffee

1 recipe lady fingers (below) (or two 12-ounce packages of purchased lady fingers)

Cocoa powder, for dusting

Set up a double boiler. I use a two quart pot with an inch of water in it and set a big glass bowl on top of it. Bring the water to a simmer. Put the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl and stir/whisk for about 12 minutes or until nice and thick and warm. Remove from the double boiler and place in the fridge to cool.

When the eggs are cool, whisk in the mascarpone cheese and vanilla. In a chilled bowl, beat the whipping cream until stiff. Fold into the egg mixture.

For assembly, I used 14 wine goblets but you could use a big glass bowl instead. The layers will be coffee-dipped lady fingers, cream, coffee-dipped lady fingers, cream, cocoa powder dusting. I only dip the bottom of the lady fingers in the coffee. I don’t submerge them or they get too soggy and fall apart.

Refrigerate the tiramisu (covered) overnight or at least 6 hours to allow the flavors to meld and cream layer to set.

Serves: 14

Lady Fingers

Recipe adapted from here

4 eggs, separated

5/8 cup (4 3/8 oz) white sugar, divided

7/8 cup (4 3/8 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 t baking powder

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until they form stiff, glossy peaks.

Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar. Fold half of the egg whites into the yolks. Fold in the flour mixture and then the remaining egg white. Pipe onto parchment lined baking sheets using a half-inch tip in a pastry bag or a plastic bag with the corner cut off. Pipe them into 3/4 inch by 2 1/2 inch logs. Bake at 400 for about 8 minutes or until just starting to turn golden. Don’t let them get too brown. Remove from the cookie sheets, still on the parchment, to cooling racks. Remove from the parchment once cooled.

Storage: I would not suggest storing these. When closed into a bag or container, they get very sticky and difficult to remove from anything. If you have to store them, do so in single layers and don’t stack them, even with parchment or wax paper. They will just stick to that, too. You can make them several hours in advance and just let them sit on the counter. It doesn’t matter if they get a little stale. They are still good.

Yield: about 60 lady fingers (1 1/4 inches by 3 inches)

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Whoopie Pie Cake

I met my first internet friend yesterday. She’s Jackie, of Crest Cottage Creations. Yesterday was she and her husband’s first anniversary and they decided to travel to the area for a little getaway. I’m glad they did because they stopped in here and relieved my fridge of 4 dozen eggs. And she even brought presents of water colors and coloring books for the kids and an African violet for me! I like Jackie (and not just because she brought presents). She and her husband were fun to chat with. I hope they come again. (Jackie, maybe if you get your chicken coop built soon, you can come up and I’ll send you home with some chickens…even better than eggs and then I wouldn’t have such an overload of the things myself!)

I have no good way to get from that subject to my next one. I’m not talented at creating smooth transitions.

My sis-in-law requested something chocolate for her birthday dessert. This is what I made her. I was disappointed I couldn’t eat any (though I did eat some regular whoopie pies the day before since that was a Sunday!). Everyone said it was wonderful. So here you have it…whoopie pies in all their unhealthy but delicious glory!

Whoopie Pies

Recipe from my mom

4 cups (18 oz) sifted all-purpose flour (I have used some whole wheat pastry before but not too much)

1 cup (3 oz) baking cocoa

2 t salt

2 cups (14 oz) sugar

1 cup (7.5 oz) shortening

2 eggs, room temp

1 cup (8 oz) sour milk or buttermilk

1 cup (8 oz) hot water

2 t baking soda

Mix together the flour, cocoa, and salt. Set aside.

Cream the shortening and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and beat well. Mix the hot water and the baking soda together. Add the liquid ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the dry ingredients. Don’t over beat. The batter will be sort of runny but not as runny as cake batter.

For the whoopie pie cake, I poured the batter onto parchment lined cookie sheets, 12 ounces for each half. I tried to spread it out in a nice circle but next time I will trace a perfect circle on my parchment paper so they are exactly even. I had enough batter left over to make several dozen mini whoopie pies (used a half-inch dollop of batter for each of them), and also about 20 regular whoopie pies. (Typically one batch yields 35  2.5 to 3-inch pies.)

So, bake the whoopie pies in a 375 (for the whopper ones) or 400 (mini and regular) oven. Regular ones took about 10 minutes and the whoppers probably 20, I forgot to really time them. The mini ones only take a few minutes. Remove from the baking sheets and cool on a wire rack. When completely cool, you can ice them and make the sandwiches. It’s tedious work if you go the route of mini ones.

Whoopie Pie Icing

2 egg whites

1/4 cup (2 oz) milk

1/4 cup (1 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour

2 t vanilla

4 cups (17 5/8 oz) powdered sugar

1 cup (8 oz) butter or shortening (7.5 oz)

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add milk, flour, vanilla, and half of sugar. Beat well. Add the butter and remaining sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add a bit more sugar if it seems too loose.

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Butter Cookies

Brad gave me a little LifeCam for Christmas. I thought it was about time I put it to use. Occasionally a class of preschoolers takes a tour of the dairy and I always make them some little cow cookies for their goody bags. So here you have it: Zoe cutting out cow cookies (I’m a little nervous for you to watch…maybe you shouldn’t hit the play button!).

I think I need to work on my camera presence. And my stuttering and awkward pauses. It took 3 tries to get this little snippet. I’ve got a looong way to go.

Anyway, these cookies. They are delicious. Crisp, buttery little gems. I hope the children enjoy them!

Butter Cookies

Adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe

1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup (7 oz) sugar

1 egg, room temp

1 t vanilla

2 T milk

2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour

1 cup (4 1/4 oz) sprouted whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk. Stir together the dry ingredients and then add them to the creamed mixture. Mix well and then form the dough into two disks. Refrigerate the disks, covered, for a few hours or until firm.

Remove one ball of dough at a time and roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1/8th inch thick (or a little less). Cut into desired shapes and bake at 375 on parchment lined cookie sheets for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from sheets and cool on a wire rack. Ice once cooled.

Yield: 4 to 5 dozen cow cookies

Apple Cream Cheese Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 oz cream cheese, room temp

1 T butter, room temp

2 T apple jelly

Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Ice cookies. Leftovers freeze well.

Yield: 3/4 cup icing

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