Boxcar Kitchen - Cookies are cool

Lemongrass black sesame cookies

esther — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:11:00 +0200

My first idea for this month's Waiter, There's something in my...Easter Basket being hosted by the Passionate Cook, was to do some sort of rabbit dish. I had quite a good chuckle over it all by myself while I was doing the dishes. Unfortunately, since the demise of my dear Dodo lapin, I'm still in a lavender state of mourning and couldn't bring myself to do it. I love rabbit but felt morally compromised eating it when I had one as a pet. It's just not right eating your family member's cousins and even though he is no longer with us, I haven't found the courage...yet. But, I really really really do hope someone else will make a rabbit based dish because I think it's hilarious. Yum, yum.

Anyway, these lovely little things have been on my list to make for awhile and they fit perfectly with the theme. They are my verision of Easter grass! Every basket needs it and why not make it edible. These cookies are perfect in their original form and represent what an Italian cookie should be. They are mild and light with just the right crumb. My addition of lemongrass was a godsend (I think I'll double the quantity next time) and instead of regular sesame seeds I thought black ones would take the Asian touch a step further. Unfortunately, I discovered at the very last minute that I had eaten the entire bag of black sesame seeds that were in my pantry. Who goes through that many anyways?? So instead, I toasted regular sesame seeds as called for in the recipe and used some poppy seeds that were pretty happy to get in on the action.

Lemongrass black sesame cookies

adapted from Louisa Cappucci's Sesame cookies

2 cups black sesame seeds
4 cups flour
1 Tblsp + 1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
3 stalks finely grated fresh lemongrass

Begin by toasting the sesame seeds in a heavy weight skillet. Once they are done set aside until the end.

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Finely grate the lemongrass with a Microplane. Add to the creamed mixture.

Once the butter mixture is light and fluffy beat in one egg at a time.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Chill the dough for about an hour or more.

Roll out the dough in ropes and cut into 1 inch logs. Dip the cookie in milk and then in the sesame seeds.

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 160°C (325°F)

Beware!!! Makes 9 dozen cookies

Over the moon

esther — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:15:00 +0100

Snowbound. What do you do when you are literally snowed in? Well, you really only have two choices. The first is to approach the wide white world with shovel in hand followed by hours of shoveling and snowblowing; the second is to snuggle down even further under wooly blankets and really enjoy the coziness of a good roaring fire. Luckily for me, I wasn't the one out there shoveling.

No, I was safe inside with my mom. Huddled around the kitchen window, we watched as the men battled the elements. And so, as a gesture of our solidarity, we decided to do the only thing we could do. We lit up the oven, turned on the KitchenAid and began to bake.

The beginnings of half moon cookies tumbled golden brown out of the oven faster than the snow fell and soon they were lined up in prim rows dressed in shiny frosting. Our task was done and it was time for the real challenge to begin: the Scrabble challenge. After snow and cookies, Scrabble is the third mandatory element to the perfect snow day.

After consecutive days of multiple games and increasingly impressive scores, I've still only managed to win one game. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find a word to land the perfect triple word score.

Mother's Half Moons

1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder

Add baking soda to sour cream and let set. Meanwhile, cream together eggs, butter and sugar. Add in vanilla.

Add in sour cream and then sift in dry ingredients. Mix together being sure not to over mix.

Drop batter onto greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 15 minutes at 375 F.

Once cookies have cooled, frost them with chocolate and vanilla icing. You can make half, full or waning moons and for the real chocolate lovers - the eclipse.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Spicy Gingerbread

esther — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 13:24:00 +0100

Spicy gingerbread

1/2 cup brown sugar
5/8 cup molasses
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter (120gr)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
4 cups flour
cookie cutters

Cream butter and sugar then mix in remaining ingredients.

Refrigerate the dough overnight.

Divide in half and roll out on a floured surface to about a 1/4" thickness. Don't roll the cookies too thin or they will dry out when baking.

Cut out into desired shapes. (I used stars, rabbits and St. Nicks)

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 160°C or (350°F) for about 10 minutes. It is better to under bake than over bake because gingerbread tends to dry out quickly.

Decorate! You can use either plain sugar that you sprinkle on before baking or icing once the cookies are cool.

Makes about 3.5 dozen if you count the ones you eat while waiting for the rest to bake.

Note: These are great tree ornaments too

Still waiting for winter: Christmas biscotti

esther — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:11:00 +0100

The beginning of December marks the start of the Christmas baking season and with it are each family's cookie traditions. Some of my best memories were made in the kitchen with my mom and my sister reading over recipes, fine tuning our 'to make' list and then happily cranking out batch after delicious batch while the snow pounded down outside. Perfection was the obligatory testing following the baking marathon. Everyone had their favorite and for the most part the core sampling remained the same season to season. However, every year a new recipe would make the cut and join the ranks of our cookie elite.

The idea for this recipe was the fruit of yet another phone call and cookie pow-wow between my mom and me. Although it wasn't snowing when I baked them, these biscotti have made the grade and are officially my first Christmas batch of the season.

So what qualifies a good Christmas cookie? In my book, the cookie has to be sturdy because more often than not, batches are made ahead of time and frozen so that there is always a platter to pull out for drop-in guests. Sweetness is also an important factor. I tend to lean towards recipes that aren't too sweet (so that you can eat more of them). Nuts, citrus, warm spices and jam are some of the best ingredients and I tend to stay far far away from anything remotely linked to candied fruit and gooey icing.

These biscotti are flavorful but soft. The pine nut lemon combination is complex but definitely not overwhelming and are they form the perfect pairing with a strong Italian espresso served with a wedge of zest. Plus, with the pine nuts, it's like eating little bits of Christmas trees.

Pine and citrus biscotti

1/2 cup salted butter - room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup pine nuts

In a bowl cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Mix in lemon juice and zest.

In a cast iron skillet roast pine nuts until light brown.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingrediants to butter. Fold in pine nuts.

Grease and flour baking sheet. Divide dough in half and form two logs about 12" long.

Bake the logs once for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 5-7 minutes.

Cut the logs into 1" wide slices. Be sure to support the sides of the biscotti log with your hand for a clean cut.

Return the slices to the oven for 15-20 minutes for a second baking.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen biscotti

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me

esther — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:37:00 +0200

Last week I decided that it was high time to make some cookies. Cookies, like for most people, were my initiation into the world of baking. The last time I was back in the States I pulled out this recipe, which was and always will be, my all-time favorite. This is the Clint Eastwood of all cookies. The secret to these chocolate chips is the coconut and wheat germ. Actually, there is very little white flour in them. I wonder, does that make them healthy? The hidden value of these gems is that the dough is as good as, if not better than, the real cooked deal. I know that everyone thinks this about cookie dough but it’s REALLY true for these beauties. I forced my husband to put it to the test. One of my greatest regrets is that he doesn't share my love of eating raw dough. However, I did manage to pretty please a nice little spoonful of it into his mouth. His dubious scowl quickly evaporated into a 'dang that’s good' kind of grin.

So by the time I managed to pull the first batch out of the oven, I had already eaten at least a dozen cookies worth of dough. It had been so long since I had made them, and I was not at all disappointed. Not one batch was offered up burnt as an offering to the oven-god and not one single cookie ran into another one. Perfectly round, particularly moist with perky little mini chips...yum. Being the smart baker that I am, I let them cool and then packed 3/4 of them into the freezer so that a) I wouldn't eat them all and b) I could have something spur of the moment when friends dropped by. Unfortunately for everyone else, I remembered just how much better they are frozen.