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 IMed Brian at work today to nag him about going to the gym tonight. Why, you may be asking, would I go ahead and redeem one of the precious few nagging vouchers that are so sparingly distributed to recently-engaged women during these happy pre-wedding plan days? I nag, because I care. I nag because he had eaten at least two of these in the span of 24 hours.

Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see what I mean. The recipe needs no review, there is simply no way that something that calls for this much butter, sugar, and pecans could ever in a million years be bad, no matter the skill level of the baker.

These are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. The crust, i.e., the most rich and buttery shortbread you have ever tasted, is covered in a layer of pecan pie-esque topping that is slightly more chewy with honey-caramel complexity than any pecan pie I’ve ever tasted.

But be warned. These are not for the faint of heart, and I mean that in the most literal sense.

Share one with someone you love, and then go for a very long run together.

Pecan Bars
Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

I cut the recipe in half for this attempt and used an 12 by 7 by 2 inch pan.. Be sure to note the proper pan size for the full recipe below (18 by 12 by 1-inch baking sheet), as it yields a whole lot of love.

For the crust:
1 1/4 pounds unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 extra-large eggs
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping:
1 pound unsalted butter
1 cup good honey
3 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 pounds pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

For the crust: Beat the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, until light, approximately 3 minutes. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the batter with the mixer on low speed until just combined. Press the dough evenly into an ungreased 18 by 12 by 1-inch baking sheet, making an edge around the outside. It will be very sticky; sprinkle the dough and your hands lightly with flour. Bake for 15 minutes, until the crust is set but not browned. Allow to cool.

For the topping: Combine the butter, honey, brown sugar, and zests in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat until the butter is melted, using a wooden spoon to stir. Raise the heat and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the heavy cream and pecans. Pour over the crust, trying not to get the filling between the crust and the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. Cut into bars and serve.

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.

I took some really beautiful pictures of this recipe that you will never see because my camera has EATEN them. To compensate (a little) I did take a few shots of the finished product, so let’s get right to that, because Jamie Oliver was not exaggerating when he named these the best in the World.  This is ridiculously good, buttery, crumbly, addictive, flaky, tender, easy-to-make shortbread. 

I don’t mean to be bossy or anything, but you really must try these. When you make them, use the highest quality butter that you can get your hands on, since it is the key ingredient. I also recommend using semolina instead of cornstarch (JO give you the option of using one or the other). The semolina lends a bit of a grainy texture to the shortbread and makes it more crumbly. 

Oh man, I wish you could have seen the pictures I took of this shortbread before my camera destroyed them forever. I also wish you could taste it. Let’s just say, I didn’t send as many pieces off with Brian this morning as I could have. I’ll be making this again soon!

The Best Shortbread In the World
Perfect as intended by Jamie Oliver in Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar (powdered sugar)

2 scant cups all-purpose flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting

2/3 cup semolina or 1 scant cup cornstarch

(blogger note: for the “scant cups”, use just a bit less than the full amount, such as a leveled cup minus a few tablespoons)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter a 9 inch square pan. Cream butter and sugar together with a whisk or wooden spoon until pale, light, and fluffy. Add the flour and semolina or cornstarch. Mix very lightly with a wooden spoon and then with your hands until you have a smooth dough.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and roll it out until it’s and even 1 inch thick all over. Pressed the rolled-out dough into your pan, poking it into the corners with your fingers – don’t worry about it having to look perfect. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake in the preheated oven until slightly golden – about 50 minutes.

While it’s still warm, sprinkle with a generous dusting of sugar. Allow the shortbread to cool slightly, then cut into chunky fingers.