In case you missed the 24 hour news coverage, New York got a little bit of snow for the first time this year. At some point during yesterday’s shift at my pastry internship, the pastry chef, sous chef, and I poked out heads out of the bulkhead from the basement kitchen and watched with delight as the first flakes fell down onto the sidewalk above. I spent the rest of the shift fantasizing about an evening holed up at home in my PJs, drinking red wine and watching the storm from the comfort of my couch.

After a long week, it feels really nice to be forced to hit the pause button and seal yourself away inside to hibernate and wait out the storm. I used this time to try out this pretty recipe, since neither rain nor snow is going to keep Christmas from coming, and I’ve got sweet (chewy, coco-nutty, fruity) promises to keep.

These cookies may look a little complex, but I promise that after you shape the first one or two you’ll get the hang of the folding coordination, and the rest will be a cinch. The addition of cream cheese in the dough makes them a little fussy to work with, so be sure that you keep the dough squares cold whenever you are not working with them. The pinwheels will hold their fun, ninja star look best if you allow them to chill right up to baking.

I chose to sacrifice a little of the beauty for flavor by applying the coconut layer on top of the pinwheel, rather than tucked under the points in the center, as the original directions say to do. Indeed, they look a bit more sloppy on top with the coconut and jam piled high, but doing it this way allows the outer coconut to toast in the oven, a flavor that I find irresistible.

You can make a very colorful plate with just these cookies alone when you use several kinds of jam, but they also are a welcome addition to a collection of cookies, delighting those who love the combination of coconut and fruit on your cookie tray.

Coconut Cream Cheese Pinwheels
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies

For dough:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter
3 ounces cream cheese
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

For filling:

3 ounces cream cheese
3 Tblsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

For finishing:

Egg wash (one egg + one yolk + pinch of salt)
Raw or sanding ugar for sprinkling
1/3 cup fruit jam

Whisk together flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cream butter and cream cheese on medium-high until fluffy and very light in color. Add egg and vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low, then add flour mixture. Mix until just combined, taking care not to over-mix.

Divide the dough into half, then pat into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Mix cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Fold in coconut and white chocolate.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll out about 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. This dough is very fragile and fussy. I found it most effective to make only a few at a time, returning the unused dough to the fridge each time to firm up. Cut dough into squares using square cookie cutter (preferably fluted cutter) or a knife. Place the squares on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Cut four diagonal slits, one at each corner of the square, leaving a circle of dough in the center of the square with no cuts. Fold alternating points of these cuts into the middle of the square, forming a pinwheel. Place the shaped pinwheels on parchment -lined baking sheets. Spoon a small amount of the coconut filling on top of the center of the cookies and flatten it out with a spoon.

Lightly brush tops of pinwheels with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 6 minutes.Remove the trays from the oven and use the back of a spoon to create small wells in the coconut filling. Spoon a small amount of the jam into each well. Return to oven and bake for another 6 minutes until edges are golden and cookies are slightly puffed.

Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Whenever I put a variety of cookies together, I try really hard to include something for every kind of cookie taste. For example, I always include some kind of buttery and crumbly sable, something uber-chocolate, something gooey, something jammy and fruity, and something nutty and spiced. I’m never short on ideas for these categories, but I always freeze when it comes to bars. I love including a bar cookie, no question, but with the dizzying variety, from cheesecakes to lemon bars to brownies, it’s almost another food category entirely and I just can’t decide.

This year was no exception, and an exhaustive research session with my stacks of cookbooks only left me feeling more bewildered. That’s when I decided to combine two of my favorite recipes of all time, this one, and this one (which resulted in EVK recently being featured on Saveur.com). The cookie love-child that resulted was absolutely worth my angst.

There’s just something so right about using a fresh ingredient, in this case, the cranberries in the topping, in holiday baking.  They make for a topping that’s both sweet and tart, and the addition of pecans lends a lovely toasted flavor and some crunch. The shortbread, which is the most crumbly (thanks to the semolina) and rich (ahm, butter!) that I’ve ever had. Together, get gooey, sweet-tartness layered over a cookie that crumbles as it melts in your mouth. With or without white chocolate drizzles, they’re a gorgeous addition to your holiday game plan.

Cranberry Shortbread
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan and Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver

Cranberry topping

6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons sugar
2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped pecans

Shortbread

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar (or powdered sugar)
2 scant cups (a cup, minus a tablespoon) all-purpose flour, sifted
2/3 cup semolina
big pinch of kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8 inch x 8 inch pan with two inch sides.

Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan. Sprinkle in 6 tablespoons of the sugar and cook, stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil. Pour this into the bottom of the pan, then scatter over the nuts and top with the cranberries. Set the pan aside.

Cream butter and sugar together with a whisk or wooden spoon or paddle attachment of a stand mixer until very pale, light, and fluffy. Add the flour and semolina. Mix very lightly with a wooden spoon and then with your hands until you have a smooth dough.

Pressed the doughevenly into your pan, on top of the cranberry mixture, poking it into the corners with your fingers – don’t worry about it having to look perfect. Bake in the preheated oven until slightly golden, 40-50 minutes. Don’t be alarmed if some of the cranberry caramel seeps up along the edges.

Allow the pan to cool completely. When you are ready to serve, dip the bottom of the pan in hot water for 10 seconds to help loosen the caramel and cut into squares. Use an offset spatula to remove the squares from the pan. Scrape additional cranberry mixture from the bottom of the pan and return to the tops of the squares.

Stores in airtight container in the fridge for 2 days.

I’m trying hard to keep my holiday baking interesting this year, and my strategy is to integrate unexpected, fun pieces into my cookie presentations. Gingerbread men, rum balls, and peppermint sandwich cookies all have their place, indeed it wouldn’t feel like the holidays without them. But, as your second, or third, or tenth holiday party rolls around, you might start to get a little tired of sampling them.

That’s why I’ve decided to offer up some different ideas for hand-held holiday treats. They may not be the first ideas that come to mind when you think about seasonal indulgence, but you’ll also notice that they tend to disappear first from the dessert table.

Having grown up with whoopie pies as a New England kid, I had no idea that they were a regional delicacy until Oprah caused a stir about them, as she is wont to do, by featuring ones from this Maine-based company on her list of favorite things two years in a row. Even with this much-deserved publicity, I’ve still encountered many New Yorkers who have never heard of them.

This recipe puts a fun spin on the classic whoopie pie. The two cakes are sort of how I remember them from my childhood, only better; moist, with an unbelievably light and tender crumb and intense cocoa flavor. The real surprise here is that the classic fluffy marshmallow frosting is replaced by a whipped, peanut butter filling, raising this whoopie pie to new heights. Peanut butter cup fans, eat your hearts out.

I made these in a minature, three-bite size (or two, if the bites are ambitious), perfect for grazing party-goers. The inclusion of chunky peanut better in the filling was the result of the simple fact that its the kind that I enjoy, and I discovered that it lent a pleasing contrast of crunchy texture inside all of that creamy smoothness, and I’d never consider doing it any other way.  4 out of 5 holiday revelers agreed.

Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the Filling:
1 1/3 cups natural, chunky peanut butter (or creamy, if you prefer, just be sure you are buying natural peanut butter, the kind that you need to mix before using)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Coarse salt

Make cookies:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl; set aside.

Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy.. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat until well combined. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Pipe (or you can drop using a tablespoon) rounded 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes, rotating halfway through. (when the top of the cookie is gently touched, it should feel soft, but not wet.) Let cool on sheets on wire racks 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely.
Make filling:

Put peanut butter and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add confectioners’ sugar; mix until combined. Raise speed to high, and mix until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Season with salt, if desired.
Assemble cookies:

Spread 1 scant tablespoon filling on the bottom of 1 cookie. Sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling. Cookies can be refrigerated in single layers in airtight containers up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

There are cookie recipes everywhere I turn, a sure hallmark of the holiday season. They’re on the blogs, they’re in my email, and they’re are all over my food mags. They’re at my internship too. It’s the holidays and everyone loves the excuse to bake, including yours truly. I love setting aside whole days devoted to baking, then turning up the music in my apartment, plotting my recipes, and then stocking the fridge with a dozen different doughs that I turn out, one after another.

I’ve been in pastry school for three months now and I’ve been a pastry intern for two. When I come calling with my cookie plates this year, people rightly have high expectations for the treats that I bring and I don’t want to let them down. So I’m pulling out the stops. I’m assembling all of my favorites together on one festive silver platter, and that platter could never, ever be complete without meringue mushrooms.

Meringue mushrooms are the signature item on every dessert tray that Brian’s Aunt Karen has ever presented. She is the original culinary talent in the family, having owned and operated a very successful catering business on Long Island for many years. When I first saw these mushrooms, I was impressed and I couldn’t wait to add them to my own party rotation. They’re delicious for sure, with their light,melt-in-your-mouth exterior coupled with just a taste of solid dark chocolate, but their real appeal to me is that they look so real that they still cause me to do a double take.

Best of all, they are actually quite simple to make. A little more time consuming than the rest of my cookies maybe, but now that I’m becoming a pastry chef I’m all about aesthetics and making things memorable, and this cookie pays off in spades on both counts.

Meringue Mushrooms
Adapted from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts

1/2 cup egg whites (this is from 3-4 large eggs) at room temperature
Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
cocoa
High-quality (Callebeut is my brand of choice) dark chocolate (61-70% is best)

Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil.

In the bowl of a mixer at med-low speed, beat the whites for about half an minute, until they start to get foamy. Add the salt and the cream of tartar. Increase the speed to moderate and beat for another minute until the whites hold a soft shape. Continue to beat on medium and start adding the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating 1/2 minute between additions. When half the sugar has been added, add the vanilla, continue beating, and resume adding the sugar as you were before. When all the sugar has been added, increase the speed to high and beat for 7 to 8 minutes or until the meringue is very stiff and the sugar is dissolved (rub some between two fingers to feel for grittiness). Depending on the power of your mixer, the total beating time will be between 15 and 18 minutes.

To hold the foil in place, pipe a little of the meringue onto each of the corners of the baking sheets and press the foil flat on to to adhere.

Do not allow the meringue to stand. Fit a large pastry bag (or gallon ziploc bag with the corner clipped) with a plain round tip (1/2 to 3/4 inch works best) and fill the bag with meringue. Pipe the stems onto one of the foil-lined baking sheets, by holding the bag at a right angle close to the foil and pressing the meringue out gently while slowly raising the bag straight up.  The base of the stem should be a bit wider for support. Hold the bag with one hand and use a knife to cut away the stream of meringue with the other. If you get little points on top do not worry, you can shape them away after baking using a microplane. The stems should be 1 – 1 1/2 inches tall. Be sure to make a few extras, just in case (of hunger, while assembing, which tends to happen).

Strain the cocoa through a fine strainer lightly over the stems to imitate soil and natural mushroom coloring.  Place in the oven on the high rack.

On the other piece of foil, shape the mushroom caps. Holding the bag straight up and close to the foil, press out flat, even rounds of meringue. The caps should average 1 1/2 – 2 inches in diameter. Sharply twist the bag away when finishing to avoid leaving a bump on the top (smooth over with a knife if you do).

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or even longer, until the meringues may be lifted easily from the foil and the bottoms are firm to the touch. The longer they bake, the drier they are (and the better they are too) but they should not be allowed to brown at all as it will affect the taste. Turn the heat off, prop the oven door open slightly, and allow the meringues to dry out even more as the oven comes down to completely cool, approximately one hour.

Remove the meringues from the foil. They may be placed on a clean piece of foil, or parchment. Immediately, while the meringues are very crisp, use a microplane to shave away any points on the tops of the stems, making small, flat surfaces on top for easy gluing to the tops.

Weigh out one oz. of chocolate for every five mushroom caps that you have. Chop the chocolate coarsely and warm it over a double boiler until it is completely melted and smooth(not over 115 degrees). Turn off the heat to avoid burning. Allow the chocolate to come down to 91 degrees before using. (you can do this by adding additional room temp chocolate)

Hold a mushroom cap upside down and use a spoon to spread a thin layer of chocolate around the flat side of the cap. Adhere the stem to the center of the cap in the chocolate. Place the mushroom, stem side up in an empty egg carton to stabilize it. Freeze in the carton, only until the chocolate is completely set (it will go from shiny to matte) but no longer (the moisture will kill the meringues). Remove and store at room temperature.

Do NOT store the mushrooms in an airtight container. They should be stored under layers of parchment, in a very cool, dry place.

The other day, my friend Marissa emailed me to tell me that she had conquered the World Peace Cookies recipe over the weekend, with delicious results. She also mentioned that the recipe was something of a departure for her, with her preference being for vanilla, and that’s when I noticed that there wasn’t one vanilla-centered cookie recipe posted on the East Village Kitchen blog. After I finished hanging my head in shame, I set out to right that wrong.

I didn’t have to do any digging into my recipe files to come up with just the one. Back in my first month of pastry school at the French Culinary Institute, my class was all absorbed in the business of learning tarts and cookies. In this unit, the tarts were so labor intensive, what with their finicky brisee crusts and complicated baked custard fillings and delicate meringues, that the cookies felt like an afterthought,  just another exercise in creaming butter and sugar with twelve stand mixers all whirring at the same time.

And while we baked ever so many types of cookies during that unit, these are the only ones that tickled my fancy enough for me to compulsively eat more than just one (or two, or three…)

These unassuming little cookies have a lot going for them. There’s something that reminds me of shortbread, but less heavy, with more varied texture and crumbly crunch. The toasted, ground hazelnuts lend an amazing, nutty flavor that compliments the vanilla without overwhelming it. The adorable cartoon-moon shapes look beautiful on an after-dinner plate, and they are just the right shape for an afternoon coffee snack.

The very best part of these cookies, however, is that they are rolled in vanilla sugar, one of my favorite baking discoveries thus far. Vanilla sugar is made by pulsing dried out vanilla bean pods (you know, the part so often discarded after you scrape out the seeds?) with granulated sugar in the food processor, until you’ve got a version of vanilla-infused, superfine sugar. When you bite into this cookie, the vanilla sugar clings oh so gently to your lips as the cookie goes crunch between your teeth. Licking that pure vanilla sweetness from your lips as you finish the last bite will send you straight to the moon.

Vanilla Hazelnut Moon Cookies
Adapted from The French Culinary Institute’s formula for Viennese Vanilla Crescents

makes approximately 50 cookies

Two sticks, plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter  (21 tablespoons)
2 scant cups powdered sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 cup ground, toasted hazelnuts
1 tablespoon vanilla extract, or 1/2 tablespoon vanilla paste
1 egg (optional, makes the dough easier to handle)

vanilla sugar for coating (directions below)

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together in either the large bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, scraping down the sides as you go, until the sugar has been completely incorporated into the butter, and the butter is light and fluffy.

If you choose to use the egg, add it to the butter and sugar mixture, and continue beating until the egg is completely incorporated.

Add the ground hazelnuts and flour and mix slowly, until they are just incorporated. Do not over mix.

Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface (or use a scraper and no flour at all – ideally) and form it into a uniform rectangle. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and cut it into uniform squares of approximately 1 inch, adjusting the size accordingly for dough parts the are thicker or thin). Roll the pieces between your palms with the points horizontal with your fingers. The cup of your hand will help create the thicker part of the moons. You want to end up with a short rope of dough that is thicker in the middle and tapers out to the edges. Place the rope on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, and shape into a moon with your fingers.

Bake the cookies at 400 degrees for approximately 10 – 12 minutes, or until the outsides begin to brown. For best results, rotate the cookie trays halfway through baking.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to sit on the baking sheet for a 5 minutes. When they are still warm but cool enough to touch without burning yourself, carefully roll them in vanilla sugar and transfer them to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. They will keep for up to 4 days, or up to a month, double wrapped in plastic in the freezer.

Vanilla Sugar

The next time you use a vanilla bean, save the pod and allow it to air dry for a week or more, then you will have all you need to make vanilla sugar.

1 vanilla bean pod, dried completely

2 cups granulated sugar

Place dried vanilla bean pods in the bowl of a food processor with the sugar and run the processor for about a minute, stopping to pulse a couple of times. When the pod is pulverized (you will see a few larger pieces, but for the most part there should only be small fragments of the pod in the bowl).

Sift the contents of the bowl through a medium strainer. You will end up with a few bits of pod that can be discarded. If you prefer, you can return it to the bowl, process again, and sift.

Vanilla sugar should be stored in an airtight container.

Sometimes the oddest things inspire me to innovate in the kitchen. These madelines were inspired by a moldy, water-logged ceiling, a beloved but long-forgotten item from my kitchen, some fruit on the verge of rotting, and a genius pastry chef.

A few weeks back, during the week between the end of bread class and our trip out West, our household of two (plus the cat) went into crisis mode because, we learned, we were to be displaced from our apartment so that our bedroom could be gut-renovated due to water damage from leaks we’ve suffered since we moved in.

Since we’d been wanting to redo the floors in the entire place as well, we figured that while the workers were in there swinging axes at the walls, we may as well have them take up all of the floors while they’re at it. This idea was practical in the sense that we might as well kill two birds with one stone while we were already being displaced, but was a huge inconvenience in that it essentially meant we’d be moving out anything that couldn’t be crammed into the bathroom or onto the porch.

I started the chore in the kitchen, carrying everything that could survive outdoors onto the porch. During this process, I discovered a ton of kitchen items that I’d forgotten all about, including my gorgeous madeline pan. Madelines…or packing? Hmmm… tough choice.

My favorite recipe for making madelines comes from Dorie Greenspan, and in her book, she provides several variations on the classic cookie, including a chocolate madeline filled with marshmallow fluff. I loved the idea of filling a madeline, a delicate, refined French cookie, with something utterly unrefined and American: marshmallow fluff, of fluffernutter fame.

But I didn’t have any fluff, which, frankly, is one of those non-food foods that have a viscosity and endless shelf life that confounds and frightens me. I did have a forgotten half pint of fresh raspberries sitting in the fridge, just on the verge of going bad. Inspired by Dorie’s filling idea, I added superfine sugar, and this jelly donut version of a french classic was born. Just think of it as Proust meets Homer Simpson.

And indeed, the finished product has virtues of both sweets; the delicate, spongy crumb of a madeline, with a surprise hit of fresh  fruit inside, and a sugary outside that will leave you licking the grit from your fingers and wishing you had another.

Jelly Donut Madelines
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Be very careful when you bore out the hole for the filling, and be very gentle piping it into the cookie. I made the filling from scratch, but you may use jam from a jar, just be sure to buy a kind that does not have chunks or seeds so it can fit through the decorating tip when you are piping. If you don’t have a madeline pan, you should be able to use a muffin tin with the cups filled with the same amount,  just watch the baking carefully so as not to burn them.

Makes 12 cookies

For the madelines:

2/3 cup all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 large eggs. at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 stick (6 tbsp)unsalted butter, melted and cooled

superfine sugar, for dusting

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

3 tablespoons granulated sugar (or more to taste)

1/4 cup water

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

working in a mixer bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, beat the sugar and eggs together on medium high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. (You can also spoon the batter into the greased and floured madeleine molds, cover and refrigerate, then bake the madeleines directly from the fridge.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400F. Butter and flour the madeleine mold and place the pan on a baking sheet.

Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don’t worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven’s heat will take care of that. Bake the madeleines for 11-13 mins, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan from the oven and release the madeleines from the mold by rapping the edge of the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the madeleines to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Place the raspberries in the saucepan with the water and the sugar. Heat at a medium heat, and mash the raspberries with a fork until they are all crushed. Bring the mixture to a low boil, and cook off some of the water, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from heat and push the raspberries through a strainer, catching the seeds (I elected to mix a few seeds into the mixture, but it is completely up to you). Allow the raspberries to cool and then cover them and place in the fridge for at least one hour. You should have a jam-like consistency.

Using a skewer, carefully make a small hole in the foot of the madeline and carefully bore deeper into the cookie. Gently tap out the crumbs. Fill a ziplock or piping bag fitted with a small tip with the raspberry filling, and carefully pipe the filling into the madelines. Finish by tossing them gently in the superfine sugar, coating them completely.

note: although the batter can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, the madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. You can keep them overnight in a sealed container, but they are better on day 1. If you must store them, wrap them airtight and freeze them; they will keep for 2 months.

I’ve never considered myself to be gifted in the gift-giving department. Whenever it’s time for someone’s birthday or baby shower, I get stressed out about what to get, make futile shopping trips, and either come home with something lame and generic, or worse, completely empty-handed. This feeling of gifting inadequacy is only exacerbated by the fact that I happen to be friends with some talented gifters and I’ve never come close to reciprocating their generosity.





Recently, I’ve discovered that I can make up for my shortcomings by giving away treats that I’ve made myself from carefully chosen recipes, executed to the best of my ability. On Friday I enjoyed a day off from bread class at the FCI by creating the perfect gift for Matthew, a dear friend who is packing up his smarty pants and moving to Pittsburgh to work towards his PhD.





What could be better than personalized fortune cookies? When I sat down to write the notes to go inside, I had planned on creating a set of more personal cookies of the “we’ll miss you” “we love you” variety to be given as a gift and then another set to be put out for the guests at his going away party. After some careful consideration, I settled on filling the public cookies with real old political campaign slogans (Matthew for President!), subbing in Matthew’s name for Ike, LBJ, etc. It seemed appropriate and fun, since Matthew is going to school for some ilk of Political Science.





Unfortunately, these are a bit challenging to make. For ever four that I took out of the oven, I averaged a 50% success rate, after I had gotten the hang of it. They harden fast, right out of the oven, and even though I got progressively faster (see notes below for tips), it was hard to beat the clock before the cookies got too hard to be malleable. I managed to form enough to make Matt’s gift, and I reserved all the broken bits from my failed attempts and they were devoured at the party, because they were amazingly light, crispy, and delicious, like tuiles with fun notes on the side.

Fortune Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

It was impossible to photograph the folding of these – I had to move too quickly. I recommend cutting some paper towels into rounds (the same size as the round cookies, approx 4 1/2 inches in diameter), practicing the folding on these, and then using them to fold up the cookies as well. You can pull them out after the cookies have cooled, it helps the cookies stay formed, and you don’t have to suffer with burnt fingertips. Try to get the circles spread evenly on the sheet pans – I had to be patient, but it paid off. When baking, cook until the entire cookie is a golden brown (you may worry that they are burning, it’s that brown), with as few white spots as possible, since the white spots never get crispy, they just get rubbery and tough when cooled.

Makes approximately 30

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp.

4 large egg whites

1 cup superfine sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon almond extract

Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray. Cut 4 paper towel circles, approximately 5 inches in diameter to use for shaping. Create all of your fortunes, using five inch strips of paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar, and beat on medium speed, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract, and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.

Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 5-inch circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet (I tried to do 4 cookies at once but found that I could only shape two at a time). Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, rotate pans halfway through, about 8 minutes.

Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and place it on a clean paper towel, cut in a circle the same size as the cookie. Center a fortune paper along the diameter of the cookie. Using your fingers, fold the cookie in half, keeping the paper towel on the outer side of the cookie, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle. Hold the cookie with your index fingers inserted at each open end, and slide your thumbs together along the bottom line. Press into the center of the cookie while bending the two open ends together and down to form the shape of a fortune cookie. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it.

Place the fortune cookie on the kitchen towel to cool, and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To speed up the process, bake two to four cookies at a time, staggering two cookie sheets by 4 minutes to give you time to shape. To avoid wasting batter, practice folding with a circle of paper first.

Write your message on a long strip (I used 5 inch strips of a heavy weight computer paper). Thread the fortune through the cookie when it has cooled.

I’ve become very fond of ogling the gorgeous photos in Martha Stewart’s new cookie book, and I handed it over to Brian to make a selection to enjoy rooftop during the fireworks. He immediately gravitated towards the page with these sandwich cookies, which at first glance may seem like Oreo imitators, but are actually so much more than that in every way.





First, they are way more intensely chocolately and well-balanced with a nice little hit of salt. They are neither crisp like an Oreo or other wafter cookie, nor are they cakeish, like a whoopie pie and they are best described as falling somewhere in between.





The filling is delightful and dense and very sweet with vanilla. It truly brings back childhood memories. I instantly regretted forgetting to buy ice cold milk for dunking. It was the perfect cookie for fireworks watching and attracted kids of all ages.

Cream-filled chocolate sandwiches
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

For the cookies:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for flattening cookies

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg, room temperature

vanilla cream frosting (See below)

For the frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup soft vegetable shortening (I used Jungle brand, which is trans-fat free and available at Whole Foods)

3 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Cookies:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream sugar and butter together until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixure and continue beating until dough is well-combined.

Using a 1 1/4 inch ice cream scoop, drop the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets about two inches apart. Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar; press to flatten the cookies to about 1/8 inch thick. You may want to use a knife or flat spatula to loosen stuck cookies from the bottom of the glass.

Transfer to oven and bake until the cookies are firm, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and cool completely.

Place cream filling in a pastry bag fitted with a coupler (I opted to use a small bag without a coupler, but you can also use a baggie with the corner snipped off) and pipe abut 1 tablespoon of filling onto the flat side of half the cookies. Place the remaining cookies on top and squeeze the filling to the edges gently. Filled cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

For frosting:

With an electric mixer, cream butter and shortening until well combined. On low speed, gradually add confectioner’s sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and beat to combine (make sure to scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl). Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

I woke up on Thursday morning having the annual fuzzy, out of body-ish experience of coming to and realizing that, if asked, I would have to say that I was a year older than I would have said the morning before. As in, on Wednesday, I would have said “29″, but on Thursday, the only honest answer would have to be “30″.

Luckily, I haven’t really had to spend a whole lot of time taking stock of the year gone by. My decision to go to cooking school threw the need for that out the window, and with all the love and support from everyone around me, I’m exactly where I want to be.

Then, Thursday night, under the guise of surprise birthday plans, Brian led me to a champagne and cheese cocktail hour for two at our spot in Central Park, where he asked me to marry him.

Just when I thought things couldn’t be more exactly right on the first day of my 30th year, they got exponentially more amazing from that one blurry, whirling moment on.

What do other people talk about during the first hours of getting engaged? We chattered on incessantly, like excited children. Our dinner reservations were late, so we occupied ourselves with getting drinks, taking in the view of the park from up above, sitting next to fountains, and contorting ourselves into awkward poses for our camera phones.

With the people all around us going about their usual, Thursday night, after-work routines, we felt like the only people in the whole world. We had this huge secret and were all aglow, subconsciously daring people to ask us. Can you tell we are different? Should we tell you why? Are we making you nauseous? Common, ask us. ASK US!

We rounded out the night doing the unbelievably delicious tasting menu at Babbo, with each plate more amazing than the first… squid ink fettuccine with a fresh pea pesto, braised short rib pasta pyramids, goat cheese and beet ravioli, and so on. And entirely too much wine, perfectly paired with each course.

After spending Friday out of the rain and on the phone, the word was out and Saturday our friends turned out for a casual afternoon celebration at the Bohemian Beer Garden in Queens. If you’re not a city-dweller, this place probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for those of us confined to apartment living, traveling to other boroughs to enjoy food, drink, and live music at picnic tables in the sunshine is actually a luxury. I brought along Dorie Greenspan’s iconic cookies (click here to read the back story in her own words) not just because they are some of the most amazing cookies on Earth, but also because with all the dreams that have come true for me this month, perhaps World peace is not outside the realm of possibility.

It’s something I wish for now, more than ever, as I contemplate spending the rest of my life with this amazing man.

Sables Korova (World Peace Cookies)
Taken from Paris Sweets: Great Desserts From the City’s Best Pastry Shops with one variation from Baking: From My Home to Yours both by Dorie Greenspan

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

During a week full of small, annoying setbacks, it feels extra-nice when something comes together in a completely perfect, hassle-free way. 

After a long week away from home and an abbreviated weekend, last Monday arrived too soon and I just wasn’t prepared. As the week wore on, I was still a step behind, writing bills and forgetting to send them, spending ten extra minutes getting ready (not sure why), resulting in perpetual lateness, and buying groceries for meals that I had run out of time to prepare.

All the while, my suitcase sat out next to the couch, ransacked and half-packed. I was running around like a mad woman at work, preparing for yet another conference and by Wednesday I no longer considered unpacking, because, I rationalized, it would only need to be repacked for this week’s trip.

Quitting this type of slovenly behavior is something I’ve forever assigned to the “when I grow up” category.
And as my 30^th birthday approaches, one would think that I’d be getting it together. Instead my day-to-day life suffers from my own world-class disorganization, causing last minute scrambling that makes me late, forgetful, and stressed as I fumble with the small potatoes.

But when I’m in the kitchen, things are different. I’m clean and efficient, I multi-task with ease and grace. I happily hit pause to make these delectable cookies for a big weekend to-do (plenty more on that to come) and enjoyed a moment of brilliant and perfect control, resulting in crumbly, delicious, buttery shortbread accented with tart, and chewy stripes of cherry.  

These are just a bit more complicated than your average slice and bake – there are two turns in the freezer, one to freeze each of the cookie layers (otherwise, they will be sticky and too hard to work with), and then another to firm up the layers before slicing.  When I rolled out my dough I got wider parts toward the center, so I cut these slices in half before placing them on the sheet. I also trimmed the ends of some of them to make them more neat and even.  They were exactly the right sort of project for indulging my kitchen OCD and restoring order to my world in chaos, if only for a little while.

Striped Icebox Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share

For the filling:

¾ cup dried cherries

1/3 cup cherry jam

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

(Note: I omitted 1 tablespoon of sugar as I wanted tart stripes)

For the dough:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup yellow cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Parchment paper

Make filling: Process cherries and jam in a food processor until coarsely pureed. Transfer to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Let cool completely.

Make dough: Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Transfer dough to a work surface (it helped to put a piece of parchment down on the surface first). Divide into four equal pieces. Roll one piece of dough between two sheets of parchment paper  to a 3 ½ by 9 inch rectangle about ¼ inch thick. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces. Transfer with parchment to a baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes.

Assemble cookies: Remove top piece of parchment. Spread one-third of the filling evenly over one rectangle. Top with another rectangle and remove parchment. Repeat with remaining filling and rectangles, leaving the top layer uncoated. Wrap in plastic and freeze for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim the dough to a 3 ¼  by 8 ¼ inch brick (or, if you are less concerned with perfectly uniform sizes, leave as is and trim edges or cut larger pieces in half as you go) and cut into ¼ inch slices. Space 2 ½ inches apart on baking sheets lined with silicone liners or parchment. Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until the edges are pale golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.