Add a homemade brunch, a festive adult beverage (please?), coffee, great conversation and good laughs, the ogling Mrs. Oodles' vintage holiday decor and, of course, a cookie sampling par excellence and you've got one of the best holiday traditions of them all: the cookie exchange.
Last year's cookies include lemon poppyseed cookies, white chocolate chip cranberry cookies, minty chocolate cookies made with Andes candies, chocolate mint brownies and more.
I don't know who cooked up this delicious and merry activity, but she (he? doesn't seem likely) deserves an entry in Webster's dictionary -- or an extended blurb in "The Food Lover's Companion.''
A group of "girls" from the newspaper (now most of us formerly associated with the newspaper) have been doing a cookie exchange each December for 15 years or more. So many holiday seasons now, I've lost count.
Maybe Lillian knows exactly how many. I'll ask her tomorrow.
We take turns hosting, usually for lunch or brunch. And cookies.
Frosted cookies, rolled cookies, refrigerator cookies, pinwheel cookies, Italian cookies, Swedish cookies and good old-fashioned favorites, like gingersnaps. We don't confer on what we'll be making. We just show up with 36 cookies and come home with 36 cookies. Six kinds of cookies, each as unique as the person who made them.
A treasured resource for cookie inspiration, "Betty Crocker's Cooky Book.''
After a cookie disaster last year that turned into a waste of flour, sugar, eggs, a half pound of butter and a cup of toasted hazelnuts, I've opted this year to stick with a basic, slice-and-bake butter cookie, gussied up with decorative sugars, pecan halves and slivered almonds.
The recipe calls for Kerrygold Irish butter, which I am now completely in love with. It is light gold in color, as its name suggests, and wickedly rich and creamy. European butters are higher in fat, wouldn't you know, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.
Fiddle-dee-dee. I'm just happy with the way the cookies turned out -- and how they taste.
I love slice-and-bake cookies because they can be made in stages, stashed in the fridge (or freezer, if you like) and baked when you're ready. I made two batches of the recipe below, one using the vanilla extract called, for the other using almond and anise extracts.
The almond version of the Kerrygold cookie recipe.
Before baking, the cookie rolls are brushed with egg white, rolled in coarse sugar and returned to the fridge briefly before slicing and baking. The almond version of the cookies are garnished with slivered almonds. The original version are garnished with pecan halves.
I used a blend of coarse colored sugars (red, white and green) but any large-grained sugar, sometimes called sanding sugar, will do.
Three dozen cookies, six for each cookie-rama attendee, bagged and ready to go.
Enjoy this recipe, and come back for more. I'll be posting more about cookies in the weeks and days leading up to Christmas, and will follow up next week with photos, memories and recipes from the exchange.
Happy baking!
Elinor Klivans’ Slice and Bake Butter Cookies
(Pastry chef and cookbook author Elinor Klivans developed this recipe using Kerrygold Irish Butter for Kerrygold and the Irish Dairy Board. I clipped the recipe from an advertising supplement in Gourmet magazine several years ago.)
You will need:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 package (8 ounces or 1 cup) salted Kerrygold Irish butter, at room temperature)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond extract)
1 large egg white
1/3 cup coarse (sanding) sugar crystals for rolling the cookie log (colored or not)
Pecan halves, walnut halves or slivered almonds
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl and set aside. In large bowl beat butter and sugar until lightened in color and fluffy, using an electric mixer on medium speed, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg yolks and vanilla. Add flour mixture, mixing on low speed just until flour is incorporated and soft, smooth dough forms.
Divide dough into 2 pieces; form each into a log about 7½ inches long and 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate about 1 hour until cold and firm, or overnight. Or freeze, wrapped securely, for up to 1 month. (Defrost in the refrigerator before slicing and baking.)
Position rack in middle of oven. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In small bowl, use fork to beat egg white until foamy, about 30 seconds. Use pastry brush to brush each log with egg white. Sprinkle the 1/3 cup sugar on strip of wax paper then roll each log back and forth in sugar to coat lightly. Return the logs to the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes.
Use a large sharp knife to cut each log into ¼-inch-thick rounds. Place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Press nut half into each cookie before baking, if desired.
Bake one sheet at a time until cookie edges and bottoms are light brown, about 18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature up to 3 days. Makes 60 cookies.
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