lime cornmeal glazed cookies

I made these lime cornmeal glazed cookies (a recipe from Martha Stewart) for our valentine themed coffee hour at work yesterday. I made them years ago (back before I knew I was allergic to corn!) and so I thought I'd give them a shot again. I think people liked them (errr, at least I hope so!) so here's the recipe in case anyone out there would like to try them out.

Ingredients (for cookies; makes about 2 dozen):

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
4 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (about 6 limes total)
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (2 medium oranges)
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, plus more for coating glass

Directions (for cookies):

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add egg; beat until just blended. Add citrus zests, lime juice, and almond extract.

2. With the mixer on low speed, add flour and cornmeal. Continue beating until well blended. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper. Using a 1 1/4-inch ice-cream scoop, form balls from chilled dough. Place balls on prepared sheets, spaced about 3 inches apart. Dip bottom of a medium drinking glass into cornmeal. Flatten balls with the bottom of glass until dough is about 1/4 inch thick.

4. Bake cookies until crisp and light-golden brown around the edges, 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to a wire rack, and let the cookies cool completely.

5. Place a wire rack on top of a piece of parchment paper. Pour the lime glaze over the cooled cookies, allowing the excess to drip off the edges. Let glaze set. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Ingredients (for the lime glaze; makes about 1 1/3 cup):

3 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
8 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus 2 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest (about 6 limes total)

Directions (for the lime glaze):

Sift confectioners' sugar into a medium bowl. Add lime juice; stir until smooth. Stir in lime zest. Use glaze immediately.

holiday cookie swap

I know you all know how I have some pretty nice coworkers. I managed to get a small group of them to do a holiday cookie swap at the office, thanks to the help of one of my coworkers, Chris, who shared the idea. It was my very first cookie swap and it was so much fun to see what people came up with.

There were eight of us total and I think everyone came up with really neat treats. Funny how none of us did something easy like chocolate chip cookies.

Chris's fudge

Karoline's ginger cookies

Jeff's coconut macaroons

Tom's molasses cookies

Nathan's rum balls

Antoinette's snickerdoodle cookies

Anne's walnut ball cookies

Everything was delicious! And I love the creative packaging that people came up with. I ended up making those pretzel Rolo pecan treats which, I know wasn't technically a "cookie" per se.

I think the neatest thing that came out of the cookie swap was getting to know some of my coworkers a little better and that we share a passion for baking. One of them commented about how he doesn't like to bake/make things unless he has a purpose so it got me to thinking about doing some sort of monthly cookie swap. Like maybe every third Wednesday a month, if you wanted to participate, you'd bring in 2 dozen cookies/treats to the swap. Then depending on how many people showed up, we'd divi up the goodies for everyone to share and enjoy. After I presented the idea to this coworker, he added the idea where participants could not repeat any cookie/treat that was brought before therefore adding a challenge to be creative and try new [different] recipes. I'll have to see if I can make this happen. :)

orange + anise = goodness

It's funny because until recently I was never a big fan of anise. I can't even really eat a pizzelle although my father-in-law makes them by hand from scratch, how sad is that? But a little while ago, my friend and coworker, Laura, made these amazingly delicious orange and anise biscotti and gave me some. I swear, it has convinced me that anise really isn't that bad. I mean, I still don't love it but when she makes these biscottis then I seem to forget that I disliked it to begin with.

So you can only imagine the big smile on my face when I walked into work yesterday morning to find a pretty little package on my desk. I could just tell by the ribbon that it was tied with that it was from Laura, so I knew it contained some sort of deliciously baked treat (did I mention that she used to be a pastry chef?!).

Yummmmm ... these are sooooo gooooood. I was out of yogurt so I was hungry enough to make myself a cup of coffee and dunked a biscotti in it. Delightful!

I saved an extra one for myself to devour tomorrow morning and brought two home for the husband.

I must say, I do have some really sweet coworkers. So nice to find {delicious} surprises like this! Thank you, Laura! :)

anne's nibbly cookies recipe

I was craving bread from the Danish Pastry House yesterday (see what too many trips to the farmers market will do to ya?!), and luckily my parking angel was with me and I got a metered spot nearby. So after I bought a loaf of their Epine baguette (so yummy!) I walked by the Taza Chocolate booth to see their new chococycle. It's really cool! I decided to pick up a large bag (6 ounces) of their organic chocolate covered nibs to make something.

(I will refrain from saying what the husband said these look like.)

I didn't have any plan in mind so I was happy to find this recipe on the back of the package when I got home. They turned out great! Well, I should say that my husband didn't really love them like he loves regular chocolate chip cookies that I make but everyone at work who tried them loved them! They were super easy to make and they came out so soft. The only thing I didn't do in the recipe was add the nutmeg and that was simply because I didn't have any on hand.

I love using ice cream scoopers for cookie dough. These only took 10 minutes in the oven because they were small and bite-sized.

It was definitely a good idea to use the parchment paper on top of the pan because it made clean up a breeze!

So my friends, if you'd like the recipe you should go out and get a bag of these lovely little nibs!

Oh and by the way, speaking of yummy baked goods. Check out this cardamom cake that my coworker, Stephanie, made (yes, the same one with the amazing basil garden). Our departments hosted today's coffee hour this morning which is why I brought the cookies in to work. I really like the green plate that she brought it on, and the cake was as delicious as it was beautiful!

Happy baking everyone! :)

stack o' goodness

I made these tonight after finding the recipe in the December 2007 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. They're called "Brownie Thins" and the recipe is from a book called "Homemade in a Hurry" by Andrew Schloss. I tried to get a copy of it at Borders today but they said you have to order it. Oh well. Christmas is coming. :)

A couple of things to note: the original recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract and - well kiddos, we all know that this chica is allergic to nuts - so I just doubled up on the vanilla extract and used 1/2 teaspoon total. It also suggested putting chopped pistachios on top (which sounds really yummy) but we know where that suggestion went. [insert sound of toilet flushing here]

Before I go on with the recipe, I think I should also explain that -- if, let's say, you end up getting the book and later read the "real" directions, you notice that I skipped a couple of [rather complicated seeming] steps -- I used an ice cream scoop to put the batter onto the baking pans. Seriously, his method sounded way too difficult and I love using these different sized ice cream scoops (a very handy gift from our stepmom) for all sorts of recipes because it just takes the guess work out of exact proportions, etc. I think they sell them at places like Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel.

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (see my notes above)
• pinch of salt (I used sea salt - is that bad?)

Directions:

1. Position rack in the lowest third of your oven; preheat it to 350 degrees.
2. Butter 2 baking sheets. (You might want to read my comments/see the photo below.)
3. Place the butter pieces and chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on medium-high power until almost completely melted, about 1 minute. (You may have to do it again for like 15 second intervals until it's melted.) Whisk until smooth.
4. Add sugar and egg; whisk until smooth, about a minute.
5. Add flour, vanilla, and salt; stir just to blend.
6. Let batter stand 10 minutes. (At this point, the batter seemed really runny, so it's important to let it sit in the bowl for the 10 minutes. It thickened up like pudding. Cool.)
7. Okay, so here's where I skipped around his fancy dance of getting the batter onto the baking pans -- basically, I used the ice cream scoop and just skimmed batter off the top of the surface, then plopped it onto the pans. Very simple.
8. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until slightly darker at edges and firm in the center, about 7 minutes.
9. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. (Note: they come out rather cakey and so it helps to clean the spatula off after transferring three cookies so that you don't mess up the edges.)
10. Have designated taste tester grade your performance. :)

Oh so good!