Cookie Factory!

Have been holed up now for almost 48 hours, baking, baking and more baking! I love it. It is raining, which makes it even better (although sometimes harder for baking, in terms of rising in the oven and moisture content, this year it seems ok)

I have made:

Italian Tri Color cookies (recipe here)

Biscotti: Chocolate-Almond, Chocolate-Chocolate Chip, Lemon Sugar. Lemon-Ginger (a new variety this year, as I had some candied ginger--it is soooo good!), White-Chocolate-Pecan, and Vanilla Bean

My biscotti recipe is very simple, you can vary the flavor any way you like. Use pistachios instead of almonds...leave out the chocolate...use butterscotch chips, dried fruit, whatever. They all come out great. I use margarine because it yields a longer-lasting product which tastes fresher longer. You can use butter, but the flavor is only good for a day or two after baking.

Biscotti

1/3 cup margarine, softened

2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsps vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

1 1 /2 cups almonds

1 cup chocolate chips

Beat first 7 ingredients. Mix in then nuts and chips after the dough forms. It will be sticky. Wrap in wax paper sprayed lightly with Pam and chill for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375. Form dough into logs (this recipe should yield 2 logs). Make them long and skinny..no bigger than 3 inches across, and 1 inch thick. Bake for 20 mins on lightly greased pans. Dough should look browned around the edges. take out and cool slightly in the pan. Now slice each loaf on the diagonal, about 1 inch thick. Now lay them back down on the pan, and bake another 10 minutes, until dry-looking and slightly browned around the edges. Cook on racks and top with your choice of powdered sugar icing, melted chocolate, whatever. These keep about 1 week in an airtight container in a dry place. Great for gifting. Great for dunking in morning coffee too! Save the end pieces for yourself (I do!)

Make it a Great Day!

Ann

Italian Christmas Cookies

 

Growing up in New York, and on top of that Italian, there's no way it was Christmas without a huge platter of cookies from the Italian Bakery. These TriColors were always the favorite and went the fastest.

When we moved away from Brooklyn, sure we could find ones that looked like these, but never tasted as good as the Brooklyn ones.

When the family moved to out west, fuhgetabbowtit...no more cookies. Until my mom found this recipe. It's unbelievably close, and now I make them every year. People who never heard of them, try them, and then clamor for them.

Trust me, they are that good.

The recipe is not for the faint of heart; its not hard but its a lot of little steps.

Before starting, make sure you have room in your refrigerator; these need to be chilled and weighted overnight.

Italian TriColor Cookies

1 cup almond PASTE (NOT marzipan, there is a difference--check the label)

1 1/2 cups butter(3 sticks), softened not melted

1 cup sugar

4 eggs, seperated

4 teaspoons almond extract

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 drops green food coloring

8 drops red food coloring

1 8 oz jar apricot preserves

1 8 ox jar raspberry preserves (no seeds)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 13x9x2 pans with parchment;lightly spray the parchment with Pam

2.Break up almond paste, add butter, egg yolks, almond extract. Beat with electric mixer till fluffy and smooth.

3.Beat in the flour and salt.

4. Seperately, beat the egg whites till stiff. Fold into the batter mixture.

5. Divide batter into 3 bowls: leave one plain, add red coloring to one , and green to the third.

6.Pour each color into their own pan...it will be a VERY thin layer. VERY thin. Tap to level. Its OK.

6. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until just the edges look golden. Do not over bake.

7. Lift cakes off the hot pan by the edges of the paper; let cool slightly while:

8. Heat up the preserves in the microwave until warm and spreadable.

9. Layer the preserves between the cakes as follows, leaving the parchment under the bottom layer on one pan. Bottom to top:Green, then raspberry, White, then apricot, Red on top. Top with more parchment, then wrap the whole thing tightly in foil, and place in fridge with another pan on top flt side down on the cake with a couple of heavy cans to weight it down.

10. Refrigerate overnight.

11. Take out, remove top layers of foil and parchment.

12. Melt chips in the microwave and stir till smooth and melted.

13. Pour chocolate on top of cold cake and spread evenly over top.

14. When chocolate is set, measure your cakes and mark into 1 x 2 inch rectangles, cut carefully, wiping and dipping knife in warm water before each cut.

These can be frozen in tupperware and keep for about 3 months.

Italian Bakery Cookies...yours will taste even better!

Make it a Great Day!

Ann

Love Affair with French Macarons

Last Easter, I attempted to make French Macarons, after becoming obsessed with their images.....These are definitely not your grandma's heavy, gooey, coco-nutty macaroons, French Macarons (ma-ca- RONS) are light, airy, and oh so subtley favored with almond and whatever second note you'd like to add.

Here's a recipe I adapted from dozens I perused over the internet:

Ann’s French Macaron Recipe
3 egg whites at room temp (¼ cup plus 2 tbls if using carton egg whites)
almond flour(granulated almonds, find in health food or natural foods store) (1 cup)
powdered sugar (1 ¼ cup)
granulated sugar ¼ cup
a few drops of food coloring
Almond extract (or raspberry, vanilla, orange, etc. for a different flavor)

In a food processor, grind the almonds and powdered sugar together to make sure they are really fine. Break any lumps with fingers. It will feel mealy. Set aside.

Start whipping the whites on low speed to break them up, and slowly increase as to obtain a soft foam. Slowly add the granulated sugar, one Tbls at a time until the meringue is tight and glossy. Add extract.

Stop the machine and fold in the coloring and the almond/powdered sugar, carefully, so as not to callapse the puffyness too much. The batter should flow smoothly but not be runny. Try a spoonful on a plate. The little peak created by the meringue should flatten when tapped on the counter top.

Line 2 baking sheets with non-stick aluminum foil (imperitive--no subs here!) and preheat the oven to 320 F.

Fill a gallon freezer ziplock bag with the batter, cut a small hole in one corner, and pipe rounds (very small circles, no more than 1” diameter ) on the baking sheet lined with non-stick foil.

When they seem puffed and a “foot”* forms, lower heat by 10 degrees.

*Feet/Foot refers to the frilly bottoms of the cookies formed as they rise in the oven.

Bake total 8-11 mins.

Remove each macaron carefully from foil with a thin metal spatula (this should be easy with the non-stick foil) onto a cooling rack. They will deflate slightly as they cool.


Once they are cooled: fill each with about 1 Tb. of the frosting, jam or nutella, forming a sandwich-cookie.

Store in a covered container in the fridge, letting set, uncovered at room temp for 20-30 minutes before serving. They can also be frozen up to 3 months, in a covered container between sheets of waxed paper.

TIPS:Make on a sunny dry day.
Oven door was slightly ajar. Do not sieve almond flour, leave it slightly grainy; I am convinced that’s how I got the best results. Do not over-mix, but also do not under-mix(over mixed will not form “feet*“, under-mixed will crack and puff too much!) It was the mixing that was the crucial thing. Bake until tops are light-colored and puffy-- a couple batches I pulled out too early and the tops looked darker and sunk and cracked a bit after cooling. But they still tasted good.
Non-stick foil allows you to pull them off after about 5 minutes out of the oven.

This is Tartlette's version by way of Bakerella:

http://www.bakerella.com/tartelette-these-are-for-you/