Happy Saturday. Every year at Christmas I send out about two dozen boxes of cookies to friends here in the UK. Today I’m mixing up all the doughs; tomorrow I’ll bake off the first five boxes, and then bake-and-send in shifts all week. One of the last things I ever bought off Amazon was an off-brand stand mixer, and boy does it help during this time of year. Here’s the chocolate chip cookies in progress:
Today, as it happens, is a perfect day to spend at the kitchen counter for two reasons: one, I’m just coming out of a bout of bronchitis; two, Britain is currently being battered by Storm Darragh. I’m about as far inland as you can get in the UK, but every now and then a 60-MPH gust slams past the house, and the rain gets hurled against the windows with a sound like a bucketful of gravel. I feel as if I’m in a ship at sea.
So what’s in this year’s cookie box? Links to recipes after the jump.
First, the chocolate chip cookies. I’m using the NYT Quintessential Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. Letting the dough rest for 24 hours before baking off makes them almost as good as the much-lauded Jacques Torres recipe without the faffing about with different types of flour that recipe calls for.
Next, I have two recipes from Sally’s Baking Addiction: Big Fat Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, but with raisins instead of chocolate chips, because a few friends said they like oatmeal-raisin cookies. Last year a friend who was expecting a baby requested snickerdoodles in the box, and the SBA Soft and Thick Snickerdoodles recipe worked out best of the three I tried.
I also make rugelach, using Ina Garten’s recipe. I adapt slightly by making the filling with raspberry jam and dried cranberries.
Each year my closest friends also get to taste-test an experimental cookie – something I’m testing out to see if it’s worth including in the box. 2024’s experiment is these orange-cranberry shortbread cookies from Bakes by Brown Sugar.
Anyone else baking, or planning to? What cookie recipes do you swear by?
Bonus Monty, living his best life. Open thread.
ETA: By request of Jude in the comments below, here’s the first chocolate chip cookie recipe I mentioned without having to visit the NYT:
- 185 grams all-purpose flour (1½ cups)
- 2 grams baking soda (½ teaspoon)
- 115 grams butter (4 ounces/1 stick)
- 100 grams sugar (½ cup)
- 80 grams light brown sugar (½ cup packed)
- 2 grams salt (¼ teaspoon)
- 1 egg
- 5 grams vanilla (1 teaspoon)
- 225 grams bittersweet chocolate (8 ounces), cut in 1-inch pieces (or use coins or chips)
Step 1: Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.
Step 2: In a large bowl, cream your butter until lemony-yellow; add sugars and salt, cream further until uniform.
Step 3: Add egg and vanilla, mix until just combined.
Step 4: Mix in flour/ baking soda.
Step 5: Stir in chocolate.
Chill for at least 1 hour before baking by plopping rounded tablespoons of dough on a parchment-lined sheet at 350°F for 12-15 minutes.
If you’re curious about the fancy Jacques Torres recipe, the recipe blog Bake or Break has it here.
sab
Cookies for Brits. I love that you are doing that.
WereBear
Wouldn’t that be Bikkies for Brits?
Gin & Tonic
Yesterday I made cranberry, white chocolate and macadamia cookies from the America’s Test Kitchen The Perfect Cookie book. I’ve found white chocolate macadamia cookies to be kind of one-dimensional in the past, but the tartness of the dried cranberries really helps.
Rose Judson
@Gin & Tonic: ooooh, white chocolate. I have some in the cupboard; I’ll try that in the shortbread.
Elizabelle
What a fabulous day. All the warmth and spice scents in the house; Storm Darragh without. Good luck.
Something I just learned about last night: German cookie as gift traditions, and the special (vintage) paper plates for them.
What is a bunter teller?
sab
Cookies for Brits. I love that you are doing that.
ETA We have a family recipe going back a hundred years for a not very sweet very eggy cookie called Eier Kringle.
We knew eier was German for egg. We assumed Kringle had something to do with Christmas ( Kris Kringle.)
My sister, working in US for Swiss pharma company, was sent to Switzerland and discovered that kringle meant circle or ring, and had absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.
So eier kringle needn’t be tiny reindeer or snowmen or santas. In Switzerland they are big rings carved up, not tiny cookies.
Now I make them knotty pretzel shaped.
They are very rich so the servings have to be small.
mali muso
I do love to bake, particularly during the holidays. I usually make some kind of fancy sweet bread product each year to give as gifts to my friends. All my recipes are swiped from King Arthur Baking. This year, I have some Christmas tree shaped paper pans, and I think I’m going to make Cinnamon-Swirl Pumpkin Rolls in them. Last year, I made a lot of Chocolate Babka, and since those are both tasty and pretty, I’ll probably do some of them too. For a quicker recipe that still looks complicated and has a “wow” factor, I like bringing these star-shaped breads, one sweet, one savory, to a party.
On the cookie front, we always make a batch of my great-grandmother’s “Fruitcake cookies” which sound questionable but are actually amazing (no citrus peel, the additions to the soft brown-sugar and butter based dough are candied cherries, pineapple, dried dates and pecans). Kiddo will want us to make at least one batch of Butter Cookies to decorate.
sab
We have a contracter restoring our main bathroom after the backup. Working on a Saturday. Ukrainian immigrant. I have the pitbull locked with me in a bedroom so she won’t interfere with work. She loves new people in the house, and tends to get underfoot.
Pittie is sulking about the closed door, so she is at the other end of the bed sucking on the quilt.
Ruviana
I am glad to know that you are surviving the storm.
Betty Cracker
Perfectly timed post because I’ve been mulling over the 2024 cookie menu! (My sister and I bake Christmas cookies every year.)
We have staples we always make, including Ina Garten’s coconut macaroons, buckeyes (because the children are fond of them) and sugar cookie cutouts with royal icing. We also always make a mocha espresso cookie recipe favored by my SIL and spritz cookies.
But otherwise, we change the cast of characters up, and the chocolate chip cookie recipe you mention sounds like a great candidate for addition. Who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies?
I was watching a Martha Stewart holidays rerun on the Roku channel yesterday, and she had a couple of guys on who made rugelach. Walnuts and brown sugar. Looked really good!
Jude
Is there any way to get that NYT choco chip recipe for those of us who cancelled their subscription to that Nazi fluffing rag?
For my contribution, I’ll remind the world that pecan crescent cookies are awesome and the higher protein content helps keep insulin spikes at bay. I’m long past my keto era, but I use this recipe because we avoid gluten at our house. I replace the fake sugar for real. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/pecan-crescents-and-a-pampered-chef-giveaway/#more-3652
sab
@mali muso: I have a “Connecticut Cookbook” by some ladies club that my mother got as a wedding present in 1950. One of my favorite reicpes has mincemeat sandwiched as filling into a regular cookie.
Nukular Biskits
Somewhat OT but someone I follow on Bluesky last night was asking for drink recipe ideas using “Cookie Dough Whiskey”, which is a real thing.
And I wasn’t sure whether I was intrigued by the idea of Cookie Dough Whiskey … or absolutely repelled by the idea of such a thing.
sab
@Betty Cracker: Drunk aunties again? I would love to get my nieces and stepsons’ SOs doing something like that.
mali muso
@sab:
Sounds interesting. I’d try it!
Rose Judson
@Jude: Hi! Give me a few minutes and I’ll copy it into the post for you. And thank you for that pecan cookie recipe, I LOVE pecans.
dr. luba
I don’t bake, but I do make an amazing version of Bailey’s Irish Cream; it is a slightly modified version of a recipe from a Yooper Cookbook (a Catholic one; the Apostolics do not have a “Drinks” section in theirs). I replaced the whiskey with vodka and this improves the flavor a lot I am told.
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half-and-half
4 eggs
2 T chocolate syrup
2 t instant coffee
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract
~1 cup vodka (cheapest variety)
Place all the ingredients except the vodka in a blender. Blend. Allow to settle (the mixture gets quite foamy). Add vodka to taste; I use 1 cup vodka per 3 cups mixture (but not less that one cup per batch for preservation purposes).
Amazingly, this does not need to re refrigerated (the vodka preserves it), although it tastes best cold. If you freeze it, you will have the best ice cream ever……but beware you do not consume too much.
I make 30+ batches every winter and give them out as gifts. I even have a special blender I use–it has an extra large jar which allows me to make double batches.
Another Scott
My go-to cookie is Cowboy Cookies which are very similar to these at your Sally link.
My mother had a Cowboy Cookie recipe from an old newspaper clipping (1950s?), but that got lost over the years. There are many, many variations. Here’s one that’s very similar to what I use – I usually end up tweaking the amount of oats a bit depending on how sticky the dough is. No, Laura Bush didn’t invent them!! No cinnamon!! No raisins!! No nuts!! Have some respect, people!!1
🤪
The peanut butter version might be worth trying, maybe with peanut butter chips, but it strikes me as overkill.
My father’s favorite cookie was Pecan Sandies. I never could figure out why – they’re so dry and crumbly in the mouth. Probably a Depression Baby thing?
Your cookie dough looks great, and I’m sure they’re a highlight of the season for many.
Stay warm and dry!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jude
@Rose Judson Yay! TY. There are other versions out there. Look up Mexican Wedding Cookie like this one. I have no idea how she found out about a Mexican recipe in 99% white, rural WI countryside, but my husband’s dear old grandma first introduced me to them. The pecans are run through a food processor and make the cookie so invitingly delicate.
Jeffg166
I made pralines two days ago for the first time. They are nearly gone. Oink.
narya
For years, I supplied the cookies for a cookies-and-holiday-beer tasting at a good bar where I knew the owners. (They had a Beer School every month for years and did holiday beers for December; one year I volunteered to bake cookies for pairings and then did it for 5-6 more years after that.) here’s 2019’s list of beers with the main ingredients of the cookies:
Sweater Party: Ginger molasses cookies, w/ rye flour
Sierra Nevada: Orange wheat crisps
Sam Smith Winter: Malted barley & dates, w/ date cream cheese frosting
St. Bernardus: Spent grain, malted barley syrup, barley flour; chocolate ganache filling
Great Lakes Christmas: barley syrup, ginger syrup, mixed fruits
Victory Winter Cheers: Lemon, ginger, oats
Cherry stout: chocolate cookies w/ cherries
Cider: apple cookies (made w/ boiled cider)
Brown Shugga: Maple cranberry
The St. Bernardus with malted barley/spent grain cookies, made as a sandwich cookie with chocolate ganache, were (IMHO) the star in terms of pairings. I usually made Anzac biscuits, too, but my batch that year didn’t come out.
Rose Judson
@dr. luba: Oh wow. A friend is coming down to stay next weekend and we may have to try this.
RevRick
Pfeffernusse. Don’t make ‘em, just savor ‘em.
sab
@mali muso: I was wrong Eier Kringle was a recipe from my Irish Scottish American grandmother’s childhood in a German town in Wisconsin.
My dad loved it because he did not have a sweet tooth.
1 cup butter, softened. 3 cups flour. 3/4 cup powdered sugar. Seven yolks of hardoiled eggs, seived. 2 uncooked egg yolks (save the whites.) 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Blend with a pastry cutter like pie dough.
(This is where I now shape them like pretzel rings.) Or instead:
Roll out thick (1/2 inch.) Use small cookie cutters. Brush with whisked egg whites, and mix of ground nuts and regular sugar.
Bake at 350° until lightly browned
ETA Oops. You meant the mincemeat cookies. Those are amazingly good.
Elizabelle
@dr. luba: Thank you! Have everything but the half and half and vodka. Will give that a try.
MazeDancer
How lovely you do this. Like an episode of GBBO where everybody wins,
A million years ago, when I lived in NYC, and did some kind of holiday observance, I used to give bourbon balls. Made with Black Jack.
They were quite popular, at the time.
Betty Cracker
@sab: Yep, Drunken Aunties Cookie Night. :) There are theme cocktails served. (It’s a sleepover.) The children are now all driving, which is convenient because they can be dispatched to pick up supplies and takeout.
Jeffro
Many thanks for the recipes, Rose!
I don’t bake very often (too sloppy with the measuring, timing, or something else) but I’m going to make the chocolate chip cookies once my kids are home for the holidays!
Chat Noir
I bake my own whole wheat bread using King Arthur Baking’s recipe for bread machines. My machine crapped out last year so now I make the bread using my stand mixer. Going to a brunch tomorrow morning so I’m going to make KAB’s applesauce oatmeal bread.
I like weighing my ingredients since the measurements are more accurate and there is less stuff to wash.
Chat Noir
@Betty Cracker: This sounds like so much fun!
citizen dave
My next cookie plan is to bake the Claire Saffitz chocolate chip cookie recipe from her Dessert Person book. A mix of milk and dark chips, and the biggest change might be using brown butter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPauR6tP_cg Come to think of it, our Whole Foods sells a brown butter chocolate chip/chuck cookie that is very tasty. (Anyone else watch her videos and wonder/grossed out by her cats walking around her countertops?)
I don’t use the mixer often, but I did get a paddle with silicone/rubber on it that masterfully keeps the sides of the mixing bowl clean as you mix.
My association with “kringle” is that wonderful oblong pastry from Racine Wisconsin that appears at Trader Joes and sometimes Target.
KatKapCC
Always nice to know I’m not the only one.
Kristine
Ina Garten has been my cookie sensei since I watched her shows on Food Network years ago. I love her “Ultimate Ginger Cookie” recipe. I also picked up the hint to add a little strong or instant coffee to anything with chocolate to intensify the chocolate flavor.
The Whole Foods Cowboy Cookie recipe is also a favorite.
Kristine
@KatKapCC: You’re definitely not.
Gloria DryGarden
Pizelle
Phylllis
I’ve recently discovered Dewey’s. Their Meyer Lemon are great; been trying to track down the Cranberry Orange around here with no luck. Guess I’ll just have to order them.
Kristine
@Jude: Huh—I actually have almond flour in the cupboard—I bought it to make a specific cake and then never did. I’m more a cookie person than a cake person, anyway.
Kristine
@Nukular Biskits: Whisky is often so sweet that it may not be much of a stretch.
Kristine
@Another Scott:
They’re good dunked in bourbon.
(learned this from my undergrad research advisor—a Brit who preferred American bourbon.)
BellyCat
Celiac of 22 years here. Not cookie related, but for those hankering for the best GF frozen pizza I’ve found, look for Freschetta in the frozen foods aisle. (They make a wheat pizza also, so be sure it says GF)
NotMax
Traditional holiday baking items are Pepparkakor — spicy gingers snaps, although I lean to making ’em more bite size (and with additional pepper to that in the recipe linked). Have found the end product comes out soft and chewy in the smaller size (with bake time slightly reduced to account for the size difference). Trick to maintain that pliability is to remove them ASAP from the hot pan to a cooling rack or even to a sheet of parchment paper.
Te other is a rich loaf cake original;y from a recipe found (in a newspaper maybe?) some 50 years ago called Hootenholller Whiskey Cake. Wrapped in plastic and then tightly in foil, keeps in the fridge nearly indefinitely. A slice cut in December is just as toothsome as one cut from the same loaf the next September.
geg6
@sab:
We just had a very similar project finished in our basement. I am paying handymen to clean up all the mess the contractors didn’t. If they do a good job, I’m hiring them to help me haul upstairs some furniture I bought and maybe put them together (Wayfair at great prices but have to be put together) and install some heavy duty plastic storage shelves in the basement. They are willing to help me sort and organize the stuff I will be storing. A couple hundred bucks for the cleaning and maybe a couple more for the rest. I think it’s a bargain.
As for baking, I don’t do it much. But my mom always made a gingerbread cake I loved, so I got the ingredients for that and plan to make it later today. It says Christmas to me.
KatKapCC
@Kristine: It’s one of those unfairly-maligned foods, IMO. Like, I get it — I love chocolate, and I would never turn down a cookie with chocolate chips. But I also like raisins! I eat them alone as a snack sometimes. And they go well with oatmeal.
But then, I also love black licorice, and used to love candy corn when I was younger, before I cut out most animal products.
BellyCat
Seconded. My French descended grandmother, married to my German descended grandfather, made something magical between the two cultures that we kiddos hoovered up by the handful during the holidays.
narya
For the gluten-free folks in the crowd: these Almond Cloud Cookies are extremely good. I bake them a little longer to get them a little brown, which makes them crunchy AND chewy. You could also add, e.g., dried cranberries or candied orange peel (or both!) to make them more festive.
Kristine
@KatKapCC: I like most any dried fruit, but I’ve become a raisin fan over the years, especially the golden and red grape varieties. My latest batch of baked oatmeal contains golden raisins and roasted pecans (along with pumpkin and chopped apple) This is a very flexible recipe—I found the banana version way too dense but things like a cup of applesauce or pumpkin lighten it.
Also, oatmeal in a pie dish. Pie for breakfast!
Spanky
I cannot stress enough how damn good these cookies are. From the 12/1/1999 article in the Baltimore Sun:
ORANGE COOKIES
Gina Buckley O’Toole, Ellicott City “These butter-colored cookies’ citrus flavor evokes Florida sunshine on gray-blanket winter days. After a heavy holiday meal, these airy cookies are the only thing over-stuffed celebrants at family meals would agree to.”
Makes about 4 dozen
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon orange zest
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Icing (see recipe)
Bake 8-10 minutes in preheated 400-degree oven until barely browned at edges and just firm enough to handle. Cool on racks, then transfer to wax paper to be iced.
ICING
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons (heaping) orange zest
Melt butter over medium heat until golden. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, juice and zest.
Smooth 1/2 teaspoonful icing onto each cookie with the back of a teaspoon. Icing will set in about 15 minutes. (You may wish to sprinkle with decorative candies while the icing is still “wet,” if desired.)
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker: Such a wonderful tradition.
Have to say, I look forward to the post & pics almost as much as the annual Butter Lamb.
I do not bake. Cook, yes. Bake, no. You have to follow directions, which doesn’t work for me.
But I learned, by providing the butter to friends who bake, that quality of ingredients count.
This stuff produced noticibly better results. Can’t eat gluten, so cannot personally vouch. But willing eaters said it was true.
Spanky
@Spanky: I don’t know why the preheat instructions are in bold. Might be because I was a bit lax for my first go-round? Pre-heat directions should be at the top of every recipe.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Ah ha. The Whiskey Cake recipe, from 1960. Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook cookbook.
From a site called Lost American Recipes, which looks way fun.
OT. Always on the lookout for recipes from The Magic Pan. Loved that creperie chain.
Another Scott
@Kristine: Coconut??!!
Ack!!
🤪
Best wishes,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
That storm sounds great, and it sounds like you’re safe and sound.
Kristine
@Another Scott: Love coconut 🥥. Love. It.
Snarki, child of Loki
Hang on, I call shenangigans!
In the UK they’re supposed to be biscuits, not cookies.
But a cookie by any other name would taste as sweet, so carry on.
Rose Judson
@Snarki, child of Loki: My friends respect my culture. :-)
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Heh. Excellent.
One tip: lightly flouring the raisins before folding them into the batter helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the pan. Because true to form, i up the whiskey a mite which makes the batter looser.
Sure Lurkalot
I lost my sweet tooth but back when I was a holiday cookie baker, I preferred milk chocolate chips because they stayed gooey-er after cooling and the semi-sweets got dense and chunky. I imagine I’m still in the minority on that score.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I saw a butter Turkey pre made at a fancy grocery store in NY around Thanksgiving and thought of you. I didn’t buy it but I was tempted.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Thank you for flour tip. I am so making that cake for a friend.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Perhaps some recipes are better off remaining lost.
From that site, Old-Time Tomato Cookies.
;)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Our Registered Neighborhood Organization here in Denver is hosting our annual “Hot Chocolate Express” where we have a golf cart festooned with holiday ornaments and drive around the neighborhood handing out hot chocolate. It’s been a big hit the first two years when we had crappy weather. Today? Sunny and in the 50s!
Combined with that is our first “Cookie Exchange”, held at the lone coffee shop in the neighborhood (run by an Ethiopian refugee) where the Hot Chocolate Express bases from.
I’m making Betty Crocker fudge brownies because I like the crusty bits, figuring if nobody takes em, I get em for myself.
WaterGirl
Rose, how do I sign up to be your friend? :-)
Sure Lurkalot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Your RNO does it right! Hot chocolate golf cart for the win!
My HOA does a sock drive, good cause yes, delicious, no.
geg6
@Sure Lurkalot:
I won’t eat chocolate chip cookies unless it’s milk chocolate chips. Semi-sweet chips are an abomination in cookies, IMHO. Nasty texture and not a good taste.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Pistols at dawn! Milk chocolate is the devil. :-)
Miki
@Betty Cracker: First thing I made in my new stand mixer was a batch of Ina’s Macaroons
I love easy, few ingredient cookie recipes. That one is perfect!
TBone
Sadly, my favorite bakery, which happened to be Ukrainian, closed in August. The quality, variety, and volume of Christmas cookies each year were a wonder to behold, and I’d just point at various lookers and they’d fill a big, white box and tie it with a string. Sold by weight. That string never lasted for the car ride home, and I frequently had to stop for a single serve milk.
Dang.
https://delco.today/2024/08/kyjs-bakery-closing-after-70-years/
Searcher
Chocolate chip cookies fascinate me because the Nestle Tollhouse Cookie recipe exists.
It may not be your favorite, it may not be the best, but it is clearly the archetype of the chocolate chip cookies, with other recipes variations of it.
I haven’t found many other bits of American cuisine with such a clear archetype. Does the archetypical apple pie have a top crust? How many oz is the core hamburger? Does the hamburger or cheeseburger have primacy? Is cheese or pepperoni the more archetypical choice?
But for cookies, we have the Tollhouse recipe.
Miki
@Kristine: I forgot I’ve also made her ginger cookie!
So good!
Miki
@KatKapCC: I eat 9 gin-soaked raisins a day, for “health reasons,” per Jacques Pepin. ;-)
AM in NC
Well those all sound delightful! I do an assortment for my friends as well:
Cookies:
Chocolate chips (the thin, crispy kind, not the cake-y type).
Cream cheese cookies – like cheesecake in cookie form (recipe from my mom’s college roommate)
Cocoons – pecan sandy-type cookie formed into small cocoon-shapes and then rolled in powdered cookies (grandmother’s recipe)
Candy:
Chocolate raisin nut clusters
Chocolate-covered lemon creams
It’s about time to get baking!!!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I just learned a new Irish name: Darrah!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@NotMax: Hootenholler Whiskey Cake sounds like a recipe from Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book. Along with cookbooks, she wrote a newspaper column of kitchen hints for several years. I loved her books as a teen, for the humor and clever writing. E.g. We all have our mental blocks to play with. Of all my husband’s relatives, I like myself the best.
dr. luba
@TBone: That’s interesting because we Ukrainians are not really known for our cookies. Tortes, pliatsoks and other baked goods, yes, but we’ve always been weak in the cookie department.
However, our diaspora has picked up a lot of cookie recipes during their emigration. My mother’s generation spent the post war years in Germany (DPs) and got cookie recipes there. More were picked up in North America.
I run a Ukrainian cooking group on FB, and we have a trove of cookie recipes. You can have a look at them here.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Elizabelle: I see you got there first! I loved Peg Bracken’s books. She wrote a couple more cookbooks and an etiquette book too, called I Try to Behave Myself.
Kristine
@Miki: Sharp and chewy. A winner 🏆
Glidwrith
I made six pounds of Fantasy Fudge last week for distribution amongst the relatives. My son already snatched the chocolate chocolate chip recipe for himself. I will make a variation of a seven spice cookie recipe and possibly Emerile Lagasses fruitcake and call it a year.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
It is nice that humans come in a wide variety and are not all the same – different likes/dislikes, tastes/little taste, size/shapes, makes life more interesting!
TBone
@dr. luba: thank you SO much!!! I think the cookies became a bigger thing after the original mom & pop Ukrainians who owned the bakery passed it down to the next generation. They did not make any sugary or iced Christmas cookies though, the cookies were mostly of a shortbread consistency with all different shapes and fillings/flavors (raisins, ground nuts, fruit, etc.) and it seemed ethnic rather than commercial – they also sold trays & baskets they’d made up at the store, wrapped in holiday colored cellophane with bows and ribbons.
Im gonna make my own, thank you so much!
ETA YAY Walnut cookies just like from the bakery!!!
TBone
@dr. luba: the Welland cookies are just like what I remember (flaky texture, crunchiness and not overly sweet) – so good I can’t wait to make them. I really appreciate your share!
(and everyone’s here too)
TBone
Another look at Dr. Luba’s share reveals more cookies I remember – Medivnychky
bluefoot
@Miki:
My mom used to do that! I wonder if she got it from Jacques Pepin. She lived a long and healthy life until she died from a very aggressive form of cancer in her 80s. Maybe I should start – I have a bottle of gin in the cupboard that I haven’t touched in years.
bluefoot
@narya: Malted barley and date cookie sounds wonderful.
I was just at the grocery store to replenish ingredients for cookies. I already spent WAY too much money at Penzeys right before Thanksgiving.
I am tempted to try panettone again this year. Last year was my first time, and I want to tweak it a little.
Elizabelle
@Miki: Jacques Pepin is still alive! About to turn 89 on December 18th!
Josie (also)
@dr. luba: I have copied 2 recipes for cream cheese cookies. They look interesting. Thank you.
WTFGhost
One thing that might be a factor in anyone’s favorite food is hunger. A depression baby who remembers pecan sandies, but had too few proper bologna and cheese sandies, might love the heck out of them, because they’re rich, and hence, calorie dense. They might be remembering the filling feeling of a hungry belly.
“Hunger is the best sauce” is not just an old saying.
It could also just be the cookie mom and dad loved, so it was the cookie they got, and, hence, the cookie they loved.