Italian Cream Cookies

This post is a little short this week. Company, hurt back, etc. These really are yummy!







Italian Cream Cookie
I saw a recipe for Italian Carnival  Cookies and I thought they looked wonderful. Pale little cookies, covered in sprinkles. What is not to like. Well, they did not exactly turn out from the recipe given. So I tweeked it. This is the a good recipe. My special taster just kept eating them!

Makes: 6 dozen using a 2 inch cutter

6 1/2 cups "00" flour (available here at King Arthur)
12 tablespoon potato starch 
1 pound, minus 2 tablespoons, butter 
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream (more or less)
water
sprinkles. (LOTS)

Let butter soften at room temp for about a half hour. Hard butter is not good for this
In a mixer, mix all dry flour, starch, and powdered sugar. Add egg yolks (one at a time)
Add butter in pieces. it will look crumbly. 
With mixer running, add cream, about 1/2 cup at a time until the dough looks like a nice dough. 
Divide dough in quarters, wrap dough in plastic wrap, chill for an hour in the fridge
Remove only the dough you are going to roll out, leave the rest in the fridge
Roll dough on a floured board till it is about 1/2 inch thick. 
Cut out dough with a pretty little cutter (about 1 inch) 
Brush tops of cut out dough circles with water, dip damp tops in sprinkles to cover completely. 
Freeze cookies for about 15 minutes (can be really really close in the freezer) Transfer cookies to a parchment lined cookie sheet when ready to bake
Heat oven to 350
Bake for 19 minutes. Till bottoms are just brown.  Let cool on pan for about 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool. 

A Different Kind of Molasses Cookie

Pomegranate Molasses Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

14 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 cup butter

1/2 cup pomegranate molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pistachios

Preheat oven to 375

In a mixing bowl, combine four, baking soda and salt. Set aside

In the mixing bowl of your mixer, cream butter, sugar, pomegranate molasses and vanilla. 

In three batches, add flour (I just dumped it in)  Mix till just combined.

Fold in pistachios. 

Use the medium scoop, the one that was on the smallish side, drop onto parchment lined baking sheets. 

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. 

Cool for a few minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes 4 dozen cookies. 

Pomegranate molasses is a mid east item and can be found at places that stock that type of food. I found my molasses at Borracchini's bakery in Seattle.  Not only are the cannoli incredible, they stock specialty Italian foods, home made pastas and gelato! They have now started to stock mid east specialties too.

http://www.nowcake.com 

Minty Greens!

 

Minty Greens

1/3 cup butter

1 cup shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon mint extract

1 teaspoon green food coloring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 12 ounce package dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375

Mix butter and shortening.  Add sugars, eggs, mint extract, green food coloring, and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl,  blend flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture.   Beat until well blended

Add dark chocolate chips and stir to combine.  I added a secret ingredient, 1/2 a cup of the chocolate mint hot chocolate from William Sonoma. It is just bittersweet chocolate flakes, flavored with mint. I had some I needed to use and it added freckles to the cookies. 

Using the medium scoop, scoop out onto parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.

Makes 4 dozen cookies. 

Coconut Thumbprints

Coconut Thumbprints

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks), softened

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

pinch salt

3 tablespoons coconut milk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons coconut milk

1 tablespoon water

14 ounce package of shredded coconut

Jam of your choice

Cream the butter, add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat until well combined.  Add flour and a pinch of salt. Blend well, as it is coming together add 3 tablespoons coconut milk.

Place dough onto plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes

In a small bowl, blend egg, 2 tablespoons coconut milk and water. Put the coconut in another bowl.  Make sure it is not lumpy.







Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment
Using a medium scoop, make dough balls. Dip into coconut mixture. Roll in flaked coconut. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
With your thumb, make an indent in the cookie. Fill with jam. It does not take much. I use Lon's old baby spoon to fill them.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until coconut starts to look toasted!
Make 3 1/2 dozen.

Overloaded Oatmeal Cookies

Overloaded Oatmeal!

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups oatmeal (quick or old fashioned)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup coconut

1 cup craisins (or raisins, or both)

1 cup snipped dried apricots

1 cup nuts (I used pecans)

1 cup mini chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350

Line baking sheets with parchment

Cream butter, add sugars, egg and vanilla. Beat till well blended. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Mix into butter mixture till well combined

Add the coconut, fruits, nuts and chocolate. You can also add more stuff if you want! Mixed fruit bits would be good too. 

I used the bigger medium scoop to drop them onto the prepared sheets

Bake 12 to 15 minutes until edges are browned.

Cool on wire racks

Makes 5 dozen

Brown Sugar Pecan Bites

Brown Sugar Pecan Bites

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped pecans

Powdered sugar for dusting, this is optional and I did not do it this time.

Cream butter, add brown sugar and vanilla. Mix well.  In a separate bowl, sift flour and salt together. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in pecans.

Chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350

Take out the dough while the oven is heating up, so it is slightly easier to work  with. Using the medium scoop, scoop out balls of dough and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.

Cool on a wire rack. To make them fancier, dust with powdered sugar.



Sort of Swedish Ginger Cookies

Sort of Swedish Ginger Cookies

3/4 cup of butter

1 cup of sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 1/4 cups flour (you can make it 3 cups if you want a softer, less chewy cookie)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 cup crystallized ginger bits

1/2 cup candied orange peel

In the bowl of the mixer, cream butter and sugar, until smooth. Add the egg and molasses, blend till creamy.

In another bowl, mix 2 cups of the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  

In small bowl, mix the candied peel and the  1/4 cup of flour. Add in the ginger bits to the peel mix, blend together.

Add the flour to the creamed mixture, when well blended add the peel and ginger bits.

Chill for at least one hour

Preheat oven to 350

Line baking sheets with parchment.  Use the medium scoop and drop dough onto prepared sheets.

I put a little bit of sprinkles on top of the dough balls to make them sparkly.

Bake fro 8 to 10 minutes.

The cookies will be very puffy when they come out of the oven

Let them cool on the sheet for several minutes. Mine took about 6 minutes to get cool enough to remove from the pan to the rack.  They will also flatten out and not be so puffy.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

When I was searching for ideas for these cookies -- I needed to use up the ginger bits-- there was a ginger cookie with orange extract in it and they called them Swedish Ginger cookies, since I used candied peel, I called them sort of Swedish ginger cookies.