Tag Archives: baking

Mailanderli (Swiss Butter Cookies)

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Growing up, my favorite Christmas cookie was Mailanderli. This Swiss recipe yields buttery, crunchy golden cookies with a citrus essence. As a kid, I loved making the dough and cutting shapes with shiny metal cutters. After the cookies were baked, we kept them in a brightly colored Christmas tin. I remember eating them by the dozen. Christmas is here again and this year I was inspired to bring this tradition back into my own home.

Mailanderli

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups white sugar
  • 1 1/8 cups butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange (or lemon) zest
  • 2 egg yolks, beaten

Directions

  1. Beat the two egg yolks and set aside. These will be used to brush to the tops of the cookies later.
  2. Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Blend in sugar and beat until mixture is thick and pale, about 10 minutes. Mix in the melted butter and salt. Gradually fold in the flour and orange zest. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or, preferably, overnight.
  3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheet.
  4. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet and brush with beaten egg yolks.
  5. Bake in preheated oven until golden at the edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool cookies on racks.
Yields about 50 cookies

This recipe was slightly modified from Cindy’s. See original recipe at: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mailaenderli/detail.aspx

An Anniversary Gift

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Today’s the day we are celebrating our anniversary. Jack made us an amazing breakfast of savory grits topped with buttered pecans, sour cream and maple syrup. He’s planning a feast for us tonight – I saw filet mignon, scallops, halibut cheeks, and shrimp defrosting on the counter. Mmmmm…

Hundreds of miles from everywhere, our gifts to each other are in kindnesses. It’s not that we are not kind on other days. Today is about extra kindness and extra effort. I really appreciate Jack. He is an amazing person. He is kind and generous and funny, of course. But what I appreciate most about him is how he always tries to leave a place better than he found it. The word “place” is literal and figurative. If we rent a cabin, it will be a little cleaner than we found it. If it is a relationship, it’s always better after Jack has been involved.

My gift to him is biscotti. I thought of biscotti today because it takes extra time and effort. I wanted a complex blend of flavors and thought of cranberry, orange and almond. A carefully zested orange was juiced. The zest was cut into tiny pieces. The almonds were toasted in a pan with butter.

Biscotti is labor intensive. It has to be baked in a loaf. Then cooled. Then baked again after it is cut into slices. Then baked once more to crisp the opposite side. My last touch is to drizzle it with a hint of white chocolate – just for looks. Every time the biscotti is baked or turned or drizzled, I think of the kindness I am doing for my best friend. Happy Anniversary, Jack!

Cranberry Orange Almond Biscotti

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 stick unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 tsp. almond syrup

1 tbsp. orange zest

juice of a small orange

1 cup dried cranberries

3/4 cup chopped almonds

optional white chocolate drizzle

Process:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir. Mix together sugar, butter, eggs and almond syrup until well blended in another bowl. Stir in orange zest and orange juice. Mix in flour mixture. Then mix in almonds and cranberries. Divide dough in half. With floured hands, shape dough into two long logs on the parchment papered baking sheet. They should be about 2 1/2 inches wide, 9 1/2 inches long and 1 inch tall.

Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Cool until you can easily handle. Transfer to cutting board and cut logs into 1/2 inch wide slices. Discard parchment. Move slices back onto baking sheet, sliced side down. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip biscotti and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Biscotti should just start to color. Cool completely on cooling rack.

After biscotti is cool, drizzle with chocolate or dip for a finished look.

Buon Appetito!

Stuffed Cookies or What Do I Do With My Leftover Halloween Candy?

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What to do with leftover Halloween candy? We could eat it. We could bring it to work and subject our co-workers to it. Both choices are possible, but not very original.

After searching around for recipes, I came across a blog where the author stuffed cookies with candy pieces. Hmmm… She provided no recipe, so I was on my own. One of the most classic and tested cookies is Nestle’s Tollhouse cookie recipe on the back of the morsel bag. As a matter of fact, I was just talking to a friend who told me her mother was putting together a family recipe book and was going to include the Nestle recipe because it was just the best. So I followed the Tollhouse recipe sans chocolate chips. I flattened one scoop of dough on a cookie sheet, inverted a miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, flattened another scoop on top and baked as directed.

These cookies came out fabulous! And now I’ve got a more original way of sharing left-over Halloween candy.

White Chocolate Chip Pear Butter Bread

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I impressed myself when this came out of the oven. It had that perfect rich baked brown crust on the top with a beautiful crack that revealed the white chocolate chips. The whole pan of bread disappeared in two days!

I had made pear butter the weekend before with a dozen bruised and ailing pears. I found a recipe that called for pears, orange juice, orange zest and nutmeg. I cooked it in a crock pot over night and finished it with some pectin in the freezer. It turned out wonderfully. It was dark and thick, sweet and spicy with a lovely citrus note.

I thought the pear butter would work really well in a sweet bread. I found a recipe for apple butter bread and altered it to suit my needs. I added chopped pecans and white chocolate chips for a surprise.

Caramel Apple Cookies

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The inspiration? A granny smith apple and a bag of individually wrapped caramels.

The two items sitting in our kitchen made me think “wouldn’t an apple cookie with a caramel tucked inside taste like fall?”

Let me tell you, it does! Hot cinnamon flavor dancing around toasty cooked grated apple pieces.  Make sure you take two bites so you can savor the caramel twice!

Here it is: Caramel Apple Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 shredded granny smith apple

15 wrapped caramels

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with parchment, or lightly grease sheet.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add vanilla and egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in apple pieces.

Take caramels out of cellophane and cut in half.

Drop tablespoon sized drops of dough onto baking sheet with some space in between (they will spread). Push half caramels into center of cookie drop. Make sure to leave some dough under the cookie so the caramel doesn’t burn.

Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are set. Allow to cool slightly on baking sheet and finish cooling on a wire rack.

(I tinkered with the original recipe found on http://www.chewywaffles.blogspot.com/.)

News From the North

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(Orange cookies with chocolate chips)

Time is flying by and the daylight is increasing at a phenomenal rate. After the dark lull around winter solstice, we picked up noticeable amounts of daylight every day. Now, the morning twilight is at about 8:15 a.m. and the evening twilight ends about 10:00 p.m. We’ve put foil up in our bedroom window so our cave is nice and dark and welcomes sleep.

Well, a big decision has been made. We will only stay one school year in Shishmaref and are now packing up. The best advice we read was as soon as you know you are going to move, start packing! It looks like we are heading to Anchorage. There are so many interesting places to live in Alaska. For our goals, Anchorage seems like the best fit for the next several years.

We’ve loved living in the village of Shishmaref. The natives are kind and friendly. The environment up here is amazing. I am glad that this experience has been part of my story.

Honestly, the school has been difficult to work in. The values of those who we work with and for don’t synch up with ours. There are so many things that could be easily done to improve the education of the children up here. Maybe someday I will be able to tackle that problem from the chair of the state’s education commissioner.

For now, it’s time to get ready to move from 22 miles from the Artic Circle to 350 miles from the Artic Circle.

Kiwi Oatmeal Bars

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A few months ago, our school received kiwi as the fruit of the week. A surprising number of students enjoyed the kiwi. The ones who did not like their kiwi gave the fruit to their teachers. So, Jack and I took about a dozen fruit home. The kiwi were aging faster than Jack and I could eat them. I decided to try out the jam feature on our bread machine with the remaining kiwi. The jam has been sitting in our freezer waiting to be eaten. Honestly, kiwi jam didn’t really sound that appealing. It looks kind of interesting — bright green with tiny black seeds. Jack thought a blueberry tart with a kiwi jam layer would be good.

After doing a bit of research about what could be done with jams, I settled on a raspberry oatmeal bar recipe. I followed the recipe except for the type of jam…homemade kiwi! It came out terrific. The tasty bars are mostly sweetened by the jam and have the healthy properties of oats. Mostly, they taste delicious. After eating two, Jack suggested my next endeavor should be my own little bake shop. He says my baking is now that good. Thanks, Jack!

Clearing the Pantry

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The last day of school will be May 20. The food goal is to eat everything in our pantry by the end of school. Who knows what culinary creations may occur during this process. The pumpkin craisin bread came out delicious. Just out of the oven and barely cooled, half of one loaf is already gone!

Most of what we have left seems reasonable to eat and create with. I’m not sure about the 50 pounds of dried beans and bags of pecans and almonds. Stay tuned…

What to do with half of a bag of marshmallows and a Saturday afternoon…

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Chewy chocolate cookies fresh from the oven stuffed with chocolate chips, pecans, and marshmallows. A few more marshmallows topped the cookie bites during the last two minutes of baking to give them that just toasted taste and look. Yum!