2012 - Spill the Beans (or the Dragées)

I've been really busy putting Our Cookie Journal online for the past month or so but I managed to get going (in real time!) again today with Vanilla-Bean Butter Cookies. I've made them once before and they were delicious and they're so complementary to the many chocolate varieties that I usually wind up baking.

Vanilla beans can be costly — but worth it!

The recipe calls for three vanilla beans (which can cost a lotta beans!). Charlie helped by taking photos of me scraping the seeds from the beans. I drive him crazy because I always want several photos from which to choose.

Use the back edge of a knife to scrape out the seeds.

The dough had to chill, so I waited until the next day to bake them (after I made a blog entry!). The last time I made these, I used a snowflake cookie cutter, which was too intricate for this delicate dough. It's so precious, you have to keep re-freezing it — after you roll it out, and again after you cut it out.

But since I used a simple star cutter this time, I skipped the second freezing and popped them straight into the oven. They were fiiiiiine! In fact, I've just eaten two!! It also knocked the baking time down to 10 minutes. So, keep an eye on these until you figure out how long they should bake (when the edges are golden). The recipe yielded 4 1/2 dozen sumptuous stars.

I also spilled about a million dragées and the sound of them cascading all over the kitchen floor was absolutely sublime!

Don't worry about putting these back in the freezer.

Vanilla-Bean Butter Cookies

1 c butter, softened

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

3 vanilla beans, split lengthwise

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2  1/2 c flour, sifted

1/4 tsp salt

colored dragées

sanding sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar. Scrape in vanilla seeds. Beat on high until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla; beat to combine.

Add flour and salt, beat on low till incorporated.

Divide dough into half; flatten into disks. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. On lightly floured surface, roll out disks to 1/4-inch thickness. Place dough on separate baking sheets and chill in freezer for 20 minutes.

Line baking sheets with parchment. Using 2-inch star-shaped cutter, cut out stars. Place a dragée in center of each star; sprinkle generously with sanding sugar. Freeze until firm, 10 to 20 minutes.

Bake until golden, rotating sheets halfway through, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

2010 - Butter Up the Baker

Mom had her knee replacement surgery yesterday, Dec. 6. Ouch! It's a necessary evil and I'm glad she's had it done but the recovery won't be easy or quick. I wish I could be there with her. She will be in the hospital for a spell but Michael will take care of her when she gets to go home.

Baking is a good way to take your mind off things so I made the dough for Sugar Cookies. I always use Martha Stewart's recipe now; it's reliable. I was going to make something else but we didn't have any butter. No butter? How can this be? Once again I'm trying to kick off the baking season without taking inventory first. How many times have I said it here even? Read your recipes; take stock. I just assume we'll always have the basics though. And you'd think if my family wanted cookies all the time they would butter up the baker and make sure my pantry is always full.

Charlie and I walked to town today and bought, among other things, eight packages of butter. I didn't get to make anything else today though because I wanted to get the Sugar Cookies baked. I made 1 dozen bells; 2 1/2 dozen trees; 4 dozen mini trees; 3 dozen stars; 2 dozen candy canes; and a baker's dozen of green-sprinkled (unfrosted) trees for Charlie's lunchbox this week.

Now I'm going to call Mom at the hospital again and see how she's doing. There's still flour on the counter!

2008 - That Darned Dough

Darn that dough! The Vanilla-Bean Butter Cookies dough, to be specific. 

I loved it yesterday (Dec. 15), when I made it. It was light and creamy and flecked with ebony vanilla seeds. A sight to behold! After I added the flour, it was a bit crumbly, like shortbread. I had to pull it together and shape it into disks, which went into the fridge overnight. 

When I rolled it out today, though, it kept cracking or sticking. Cracking because it was too cold; and sticking as I put pressure on it. Once rolled out into a rectangle, it needs to be put in the freezer for 20 minutes before cutting. Then the cutouts would stick to the cutter, or break when I tried to poke them out. 

What's worse — I used a snowflake cutter. Even after religiously dipping it in flour, I still wound up prying loose each little delicate snowflake arm with the blunt end of a wooden skewer. I don't know why I didn't just use a star, as the recipe suggests. Or a round biscuit cutter! Mom suggested rolling the dough into logs and slicing the cookies (since they lose their shape anyway). I might give that a try.  

Vanilla-Bean cookies take forever too because they have to go back into the freezer again for 10 to 20 minutes after being cut out. It took practically all day to make four dozen. 

After all that, the dough spread in the oven (despite going in the freezer again before baking) and the snowflakes wound up looking like swollen, puffy flowers.

But ... they were absolutely delicious! So tender and buttery and perfect tasting. They practically melt in your mouth, so I was ready for another one immediately. I will be making them again, despite my complaints. I'm sure they will go faster and look better with practice and a few tweaks. But their taste needs no improvement whatsoever.

Vanilla-Bean Butter Cookies

1 c butter, softened

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

3 vanilla beans, split lengthwise

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2  1/2 c flour, sifted

1/4 tsp salt

colored dragées

sanding sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar. Scrape in vanilla seeds. Beat on high until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla; beat to combine.

Add flour and salt, beat on low till incorporated.

Divide dough into half; flatten into disks. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. On lightly floured surface, roll out disks to 1/4-inch thickness. Place dough on separate baking sheets and chill in freezer for 20 minutes.

Line baking sheets with parchment. Using 2-inch star-shaped cutter, cut out stars. Place a dragée in center of each star; sprinkle generously with sanding sugar. Freeze until firm, 10 to 20 minutes.

Bake until golden, rotating sheets halfway through, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

2001 - Skyco Saves the (Holi)day!

Last night, around 10, I mixed up the dough for the Grammy's Chocolate Cookies. Then this morning, I rolled the dough into balls, rolled them in sanding sugar and baked 6 1/2 dozen aromatic cookies. They are sinfully sweet and chocolate-y. Most are now packed up in the freezer for Christmas and our visit home on Dec. 10.

Then, I decided to make Checkerboard Cookies from Martha Stewart's "Cookies" magazine. They were a lot of work, especially for a measly 4 dozen. However, I really enjoyed making them and the results are spectacular, I think.

They took hours. I had to split the dry dough and knead cocoa into one half (just as Charlie was waking from his nap!). I had to use a ruler to make sure the chocolate and vanilla strips were perfect. Then, I needed a pastry brush - which I didn't have - so Charlie and I went into town to find one. Fat chance! There are a few grocery stores and some specialty shops but nowhere to find kitchen supplies (unless you count Woolworth's). I wound up buying a paintbrush at the chemist's (drug store).

They really were fun to make and I can't wait for Mom and Lisa to see them. They're very delicate too. I might have to make another batch but I don't know when. I'm still working on putting together this issue of The Backstretch Magazine and I have to finish it before I leave for home. So, I might not get to make another entry until I get back here.

Butter comes in 250-gram packages, which is 9 ounces. Most recipes call for 8 ounces! Cookies that are baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, bake on Gas Mark 4 (which is 180 degrees Celsius). Vanilla bottles here say: for each teaspoon that is called for, add an extra 1/4 teaspoon. That's not right! It must be because it's not pure. I can't find pure vanilla here, so I will have to bring a big bottle back.

Shortening (required for my Moravian Cookies) does not exist here. But I found a great online place that sells American groceries. Skyco is owned and operated by Tony and Jean Phillips (and their daughter Justine) in Surrey, and they are so nice and helpful. They started out as a deli, but now import a wide range of American and Canadian products to ex-pats like myself, who are craving a taste of home. In my case - Nestle's Chocolate Chips and Jiff Peanut Butter. And oodles of other things (like Brown-Sugar Pop-Tarts and Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn and Heinz Hamburger Dill slices!). I'm ecstatic to be able to source ingredients (and goodies) here. Hallelujah!

2001- Separated by a Common Language

Charlie and I are going home to America for a visit soon, so I need to get my baking done before we leave. It's not always easy converting my recipe ingredients, supplies and measurements to "English". The first time I went grocery shopping in Waitrose, I cried. I didn't know where anything was, all the packaging was different, the labels weren't the same and some of the generic names weren't the same.

Let's start with Reynold's Wrap. Both Americans and Brits have a habit of calling things by their brand name, instead of their common name. Companies don't like that, of course, because their brand can become generic. That's what happened to Hoover in England and Aspirin in many countries. There is no Reynold's Wrap in Britain and I even struggled with the generic name of "aluminum foil". Store clerks (one says "clarks" here) gave me a bewildered look when I didn't say "alumin-EE-um". They would laugh at me, I would laugh at them. "There's no extra I in aluminum," I would insist. It seems there is in the UK, though.

And the list goes on. Seran Wrap (or plastic wrap), is cling film. Baking soda is bicarbonate of soda (reminds me of Bette Davis mixing up a remedy for Max in "All About Eve"). Finding molasses can be tricky (or treacly). Golden syrup and treacle are common in grocery stores, but I have to go to a health food store to find molasses. Vegetable shortening does not exist. Someone suggested "ghee", which is akin to clarified butter, but I don't think they are interchangeable. 

I brought my own measuring cups and spoons, so I'm OK there but I have to do conversions every time I bake because my oven temperature is measured in degrees Centigrade (or is it Celsius?) and Marks (as in Gas Mark 4=350 degrees Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius). I also have to do conversions whenever I use butter, which does not come in sticks here! And so, many recipes call for butter in stick-quantities that I had to write the conversion (1 stick=1/2 cup) in the front of "Our Cookie Journal" for easy reference. Fortunately, I found a cheat-sheet in a notepad at a lighting shop, of all places, that I keep in my kitchen utensil drawer. 

There is no canned (or tinned) pumpkin either. Or chocolate chips. Or unsweetened cooking chocolate. My baking sheets are way too massive for the tiny ovens here. Peanut butter is not common. Christmas sprinkles and other decorations are scarce. Decorations seem to be of the Christmas-cake variety. Marzipan is plentiful; but not tubs of frosting. Coconut is referred to as "desiccated", and is unsweetened. Sigh!

Still, none of these hardships stayed me from my baking course. My "official" start this year was Nov. 25, when I made 7 1/2 dozen Nestle's Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. The chips, of course, aren't available in Blighty, but Lisa sent me two packs and I brought two back from my Halloween visit home. I had made one batch last week, to test the oven, but they're already gone! I also brought back some Libby's pumpkin, so I made Mom & Dad's Pumpkin Bread, which produced six lovely mini-loaves - but they were for Thanksgiving.

I've decided to make, in addition to the CCCs, Lime Meltaways, Moravian Spice Cookies, Grammy's Chocolate Cookies (new) and Checkerboard Cookies (new). I'm also going to bake Sugar Cookies but this year I'm going to use Martha's recipe with Royal Icing.

The trick will be finding everything I need over here. It's also been tougher with Charlie around! I'll be able to manage only a batch a day. The hardest part, though, has been being so far away from Lisa and Mom. True, we weren't able to bake together the past two years, but this is worse. So I'm separated from everyone here by a common language and I'm separated from my loved ones by an ocean.

12 Days of Minnesota Christmas: Craving Christmas cookies? Thank Betty Crocker - Financial and Business News - MENAFN

12 Days of Minnesota Christmas: Craving Christmas cookies? Thank Betty Crocker - Financial and Business News - MENAFN