Goldy's Kitchen Cookbook (24 page)

Many people have tried to duplicate the fantastic combination of chocolate and frosting that is the esteemed Oreo cookie. This is Goldy's (and my) crack at it.

For the cookies:

1.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until light. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Sift the cocoa, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together. Stir the dry ingredients thoroughly into the butter mixture. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

2.
Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Butter 2 baking sheets or line them with silicone baking mats.

3.
Using a teaspoon measure, roll level teaspoons of the chilled dough into balls and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and the surfaces are slightly dry and cracked. Cool
completely
on racks.

For the filling:

1.
In a bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter until light. Beat in the vanilla and powdered sugar. If the filling is not creamy, beat in heavy cream a bit at a time and continue to beat until the consistency is like creamy frosting.

2.
To assemble the cookies, carefully spread about ½ tablespoon filling all over the flat side of one cookie, then top with the flat side of another cookie. Serve immediately.

Makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies

Variation:
For half a batch of vanilla-filled and half a batch of peppermint-filled cookies, divide the filling in half. Add ⅛ teaspoon peppermint extract to half the filling. Tint the peppermint filling pink or green before filling half the sandwiches.

Ever been to a cookie exchange? I haven't heard of any being held lately, so maybe they are a relic of the middle part of the twentieth century. Back then, you and a hypothetical nineteen others—all equally daft—would make twenty dozen (you read that right) of the same cookie, bag each dozen up separately, then come in and take one dozen from each of nineteen others. If it worked right, you would each walk away with nineteen dozen different types of cookie, plus your own dozen, all of which you could take home and freeze. This would give you twenty dozen
different
Christmas cookies stashed in your freezer. This really only works well if four conditions are met:

Canterbury Jumbles began as a date-and-fruit cookie that I received at a cookie exchange. I changed the recipe somewhat to make it work for us (I used butter and omitted the nuts). Jim and the kids loved them, so now I make them every year at Christmas. (The recipe I came up with is in the
Mystery Writers of America Cookbook,
available from your local bookstore or library.)

But for Canterbury Jumbles, I wanted to play around with the ingredients. My goal was to come up with a cookie that tasted like a candy people of my generation adored. It was called the “Chunky.” Chunkies were small, square hunks of chocolate dense with raisins and nuts. Just using chocolate chips, raisins, and nuts didn't seem like enough in my tests, so I added coconut and switched over to macadamia nuts for added richness. Now I usually substitute chopped dried tart cherries for the raisins, as one of our children does not like raisins. (Heresy! But that's family for you.)

1.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the shortening, butter, and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the buttermilk and vanilla.

2.
In a small bowl, blend together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until incorporated. Stir in the coconut, nuts, raisins or cherries, and chocolate chips. (If you have time, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When you are ready to make the cookies, let the dough come to room temperature.)

3.
Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Butter baking sheets or line them with silicone baking mats.

4.
Using a ½-tablespoon measure, measure out leveled spoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and lightly browned. Cool on a rack.

Makes 11 dozen cookies

The flavors of finely grated lemon zest mixed with ground almonds is delightful in a cookie. The combination is even more delectable if some raspberry flavor is thrown in. I sometimes make these as lemon/raspberry sandwiches, but have to wait until just before serving to spread the jam. Otherwise, they wilt, even in a dry climate.

1.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and add the sugar, beating until creamy. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour, beating just until combined. Add the lemon zest and almonds, stirring until well incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until well chilled, at least 3 hours and preferably overnight.

2.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Butter a baking sheet or line with a silicone baking mat.

3.
Using a ½-tablespoon measure, measure out leveled spoonfuls of chilled cookie dough onto the baking sheet, placing them 3 inches apart. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies have just flattened and are lightly browned around the edges. Cool the cookies on racks. Store in a covered tin.

Makes a generous 5 dozen cookies

Note:
  
It is best to grind the almonds and mince the lemon zest in a small electric grinder such as a coffee grinder that you do not use for coffee. The result is superior to that obtained with an ordinary food processor.

Variation:
Just before serving, spread 1 tablespoon best-quality seedless raspberry jam on the flat bottom of one cookie, then place the flat bottom of another cookie on top. This makes a divine lemon-raspberry cookie sandwich.
Makes about 32 sandwich cookies.

The blondie, once a staple dessert of school lunch programs, seems to have fallen out of favor, which is a pity. There is a TED talk on the decline of public school lunches, and the theory is that it began with the retirement of the venerable lunch ladies. These women, wearing their hairnets and white uniforms, cooked us and our children lunch fresh, every day. They also baked the desserts. The women were professionals, and the lunches were delicious and nutritious. But then Big Ag got involved, ketchup was listed as a vegetable, and school lunches went to hell. There's a movement on now to make school lunches delicious and nutritious again, and I hope that happens.

Goldy's newfangled blondie contains chopped apple and spices. But the butterscotch flavor of the old-fashioned blondie shines through, and the citrus frosting provides a bright contrast.

1.
Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan (be sure to use metal, not glass).

2.
In a large bowl, mix the chopped apples with the brown sugar.

3.
In a small bowl, beat the egg slightly. Whisk the melted and cooled butter into the egg. Stir this mixture into the apple mixture.

4.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, allspice, and nutmeg. Stir the flour mixture into the apple mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Stir in the nuts and raisins. (The batter will be thick.) Spread the batter in the baking pan.

5,
Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a crumb or two attached. Cool the blondies in the pan, then frost with creamy Citrus Frosting. Cut into 32 pieces.

Makes 32 blondies

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 to 1½ cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a small bowl, beat together the butter and orange juice until the butter is very soft (they will not mix completely). Beat in the powdered sugar until you reach a creamy consistency.

Prime Cut
is dedicated to Ann Blakeslee, who was our wonderful, loving Director of Religious Education at our former parish. She made a cookie very similar to this for our family one Christmas.

For the cookies:

1.
Grind the almonds in a food processor until they resemble large bread crumbs. Transfer to a small bowl.

2.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter until it is very smooth and creamy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the orange zest and liqueur.

3.
Stir the flour and salt into the ground almonds. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until very well combined.

4.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

5.
Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Butter 2 baking sheets or line them with silicone baking mats.

6.
Using a ½-tablespoon measure, scoop out the chilled cookie dough and roll into balls. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Butter the flat bottom of a glass, then dip the glass bottom in granulated sugar. Flatten each cookie
with the buttered and sugared glass bottom to a diameter of 2¼ inches. (Do not make the cookies too thin.) Dip the glass into the sugar each time before flattening a cookie.

7.
Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just cooked through but
not at all browned.
Allow the cookies to cool for 1 minute on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

For the filling:

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, cream, and liqueur and beat until very smooth and creamy. Spread about 1 teaspoon of filling on the flat underside of half the cookies. Make a sandwich with the flat underside of the other half of the cookies. Serve immediately or store tightly covered.

Makes about 5 dozen sandwich cookies