Favorite Holiday recipe

Brown Eyed Baker, whose blog I follow diligently (definitely check it out, if you haven't already) is having a fantastic giveaway for the holidays. The prize is a Kitchen Aid mixer which would be a great gift for my Mom. She asks that we blog about our favorite holiday recipe- now that's not too hard is it? Well, actually, the only thing hard about it is deciding which recipe to choose. One favorite? Now that's a tough one for me, but I do believe that my favorite thing to do at the holidays is decorate cookies, so that's the recipe I'll go with. I've posted this recipe before, but I will post it here again with pictures of the cookies I just finished last night. It's simple, straight-forward and is a great activity to do with  kids. I make these cookies for little gifts for Hanukah and they are always a big hit.

I've tried umpteen roll out cookie recipes, and finally decided on the one that works best for me. This one is from the book Cookie Craft by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer.

I have added the measures in weight as well since I bake by weight , instead of volume.
Rolled Sugar Cookies
Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour (420 g)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (200 g)
1 cup sugar (200 g)
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla or 1 tsp. vanilla plus zest of 1 lemon ( I have also tried orange zest and other extracts for a variety of flavors)

1. Whisk the flour and salt in a bowl and put aside.
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla ( or any extract you are using) and the zest , if you are using and mix until well blended.
3. On low speed, add the flour mixture until the two are blended, but do not overwork the dough.
4. Divide the dough into 2-3 sections . At this point I like to roll each piece out between two sheets of parchment paper and then chill. It saves a step and makes life easier.
5. Preheat oven to 350 F ( 180C).
6. Use cookie cutters to make the desired shapes and bake in middle rack 12-16 minutes or just until the edges start becoming a golden color.
7. Cool the cookies on a rack before icing or decorating.
I use both royal icing and fondant for my decorations- it just depends on my mood and what effect I want on the cookies. On these cookies I used a combination of both.

Antonia74 Royal Icing ( the best recipe for royal icing I have found)


Ingredients
•6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

Instructions

1. In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.
2.Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.
3.Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.
4.Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.
5.Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.
6.Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.


Happy Holidays to all!!

Weekend get away

I want to wish everyone who celebrated-a Happy Belated Thanksgiving. Being out of the U.S. and in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I tend to let the date slip. Really sort of ridiculous , since all my friends and family live in the States and I need to wish them a happy holiday as well. But, the 27th is our anniversary and we have made a tradition of going away for the weekend each year at this time, so I was really out of touch with Thanksgiving this year.

We took a trip up to the northern part of Israel for a beautiful weekend at a lodge in a forest setting. Unbelieveable weather, walking and bike riding, great food ( too much- but what am I going to do- diet on a vacation weekend?!) all made for a really perfect get away.

me at breakfast- after a meal like this one, there was no need to eat for the rest of the day!

hubby in front of the fireplace in the lobby- that was nice!

a view of the entrance to a nearby town

On another note, we just got notice that we have to move out of our apartment by the end of December so we are in a rush looking for another place to live. Bummer!  Probably won't be much baking or cooking in the next few weeks, but I will try to get a few things in whenever possible.

Lovely week to all!

Choco-Co-Chunks

A few years ago I bought a cookbook called  Mrs. Field's Best Ever Cookie Book! It was one of those books I bought on a whim as I was browsing through Barnes and Noble. (Whenever I come to visit the U.S. I let my family know that on one day, they can drop me off in the morning at B &N and  pick me up at the end of the day!)

The book proceeded to make it's way to the shelf and sort of got forgotten. I pulled it off the shelf a few days ago, looking for something to make with macadamia nuts. Yes, those treasured, expensive, delicious tasting little nuts.  When I think of macadamia nuts, I think of Brazil or Hawaii. Lo and behold, I discovered that a friend of ours here in Israel who lives around the corner from us, has a macadamia tree in his yard! I never knew that and I go there to visit all the time. Where have I been?

Of course, I offered to make cookies or something or anything with macadamias if he would let me take some. Hey, no problem! Take as many as you want. Whoopee! Now the only problem with macadamias is that the shell is unbelieveably hard and they are very difficult to crack open. This friend of ours actually has a device that is used specially for macadamias. I've seen  everything now. I actually tried it with a regular everyday nutcracker ( all the  while with Hubby in the background yelling - "you're going to break the nutcracker!") and lo and behold, I did break the nutcracker- just snapped in half!

Can you believe this thing? Looks like some kind of torture device!

In any case, we got the macadamias cracked ( after they had been roasted in the shell). So back to this cookbook. I found a yummy looking recipe for cookies using white chocolate, coconut and macadamia nuts. How bad could that be?

Definitely an easy, yet elegant tasting little cookie. Great to freeze and pull out when you need them. I'm crazy enough to eat them frozen- is that weird?

 Great  holiday cookie! Here's the recipe- enjoy!

Choc-Co-Chunk Cookies ( from Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book)

2 1/4 cups all purpoe flour ( 315 g)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 sticks ( 3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened (180 g.)

1 cup (packed) brown sugar ( 240 g.)

2 large eggs

2 tsps. vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

12 ounces white chocolate, cut in to chunks

1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

Yield : about 3 dozen

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 300 F (150 C)
  
  
  
• 
  
  In a small bowl, combine flour and baking soda
  
  
  
• 
  
  In a medium bowl , cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time and the vanilla. Beat in flour mixture but do not overmix.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Stir in white chocolate chunks, coconut and nuts.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Drop dough by rounded tablespoons ( I used a small ice cream scooper)2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet ( I used a silicone mat).
  
  
  
• 
  
  Bake for 18-20 minutes. transfer to rack to cool.
  
  
  

Cake Slice

It's Cake Slice time again. This month we made a Burnt Sugar cake from the book Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. I really didn't know what to expect since I have never heard of a cake like this before and couldn't imagine how burnt sugar might be in a cake and frosting.

As it turns out, the burnt sugar was no problem to make and the cake itself turned out fine. My problems came with the frosting. It called for a cream cheese frosting with the burnt sugar added.  I followed the recipe exactly, but the frosting came out so runny, I had to keep adding powdered sugar. I finally decided to put it in the fridge to try and solidify it a bit. Worked to some extent but not how I would have like it.

I brought it to school for a colleague's birthday, and though moany commented that it was super sweet, they seemed to enjoy it. Personally, I wouldn't repeat this one. Too many other great cakes out there!

Bon Appetit Blog Envy Bake-Off

I write this blog to keep a record of the things I bake and sometimes to just express myself to open space. I don't  think more than , maybe 8 or 10 people have ever even read my blog but I'm ok with that. In any case , I decided to enter the Bon Appetit holiday baking contest just for the fun of it. I entered this great  and easy recipe for the most delicious brownies ever. They were one of the many wonderful recipes I learned during the pastry chef course I took at the begining of the year.

So, if you happen to stumble onto this blog and like what you see, I'd love it if you leave a comment here and there and give me a vote over here.

Happy weekend!