Category Archives: Favorite Cookie Recipes

The Ultimate Holiday Cookie

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Just four ingredients combine to make these unforgettable cookies.

How good are they?

Ever since “Classic Home Desserts” (Houghton Mifflin Court) by the late-great Richard Sax was reissued in 2000, I have baked these super chewy, almond-intense macaroons for Christmas.

Yes, every Christmas. Friends, family, and co-workers clamor for them, and can’t wait for their appearance in cellophane-bagged stocking stuffers or on party dessert trays. Basically, they won’t let me make anything else.

But that’s OK, because I can’t get enough of them, either.

At the annual potluck at the San Jose Mercury News, my contribution was always a batch of these festive cookies. Colleagues would grab a cookie prior to lining up for the entrees, just to be sure they got one before they all disappeared. In fact, they talked me into baking TWO batches in subsequent years. And one year, a former copy editor who had moved to San Diego was visiting the area at this time, and showed up to the potluck only because she wanted to snag one of my macaroons.

If you’re not a fan of coconut, no worries. There is no coconut in these macaroons. Just egg whites, sugar, and almond paste. That’s it. The original recipe, Mary’s Pignoli, calls for rolling 1-inch balls of the mixture in pine nuts. But with their high oil content, the pine nuts made the cookies almost too rich, if you can believe that. The recipe states sliced or slivered almonds are other alternatives. I like using slivered almonds because they give these pale-golden cookies an almost snowflake-like look.

Make a batch and see for yourself just what perfect holiday cookies they are.

And for more cookie fun, be sure to tune in to “Dining Around with Gene Burns” (KGO Radio, AM810), 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 13, for the 13th annual Holiday Cookie Exchange at the InterContinental San Francisco.

Twenty-five finalists will present their best cookies for judging by yours truly, the Food Gal; Dominique Crenn, executive chef of Luce in the InterContinental San Francisco; Cindy Mushet, author of Sur La Table’s “The Art & Soul of Baking” cookbook; and Emily Lucchetti, cookbook author and pastry chef of Farallon, WaterBar, and Epic Roadhouse, all in San Francisco.

Top winners will receive get-away weekends to San Francisco, Monterey, and Yosemite, as well as restaurant gift certificates.

Italian Macaroons

(makes about 5 dozen)

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Pistachio Panache

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After stuffing yourself silly this Thanksgiving, your palate probably will be wanting something lighter the next day.

How about a cookie?

Don’t laugh. I know you’re thinking a cookie is not diet fare. OK, maybe technically it isn’t. But this cookie is not loaded down with chocolate, peanut butter or icing. So as cookies go, it is lighter. Sort of. What can I say? This is the way my mind works.

Sicilian Pistachio Bars are made with both ground and chopped pistachios. Sure, there’s butter and eggs, too. But just to strengthen my case, you should know that pistachios are now considered a super food. They are high in protein, fiber, Vitamin B6, and healthy monosaturated fat. Some research has shown that pistachios also may reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

The recipe is from “Dolce Italiano” (W.W. Norton & Company) by Gina DePalma. Like most bar cookies, they are a cinch to make. They bake in a thin layer for a long time — 35 to 45 minutes. The result is a very crispy cookie akin to shortbread with intense pistachio flavor.

It’s the perfect little indulgence that won’t weigh you down. After tonight, that’s the last thing you want. So go ahead, enjoy a cookie tomorrow. I know I will.

Sicilian Pistachio Bars

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Ghoulishly Delicious Green Cookies

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Enjoy something with a scary color this Halloween.

Boo!

Put yourself in a spook-tacular mood for Halloween with treats that are a little otherworldly looking. With their haunting fern-green hue, these sandy-textured shortbread look like they could have been handed out by friendly Martians.

It’s matcha, finely ground Japanese green tea, that gives them their striking color. The recipe for Green Tea Shortbread with Poppy Seeds comes from “Beyond the Great Wall” (Artisan) by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

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Now You See Them, Now You Don’t

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Ginger Babies play hide & seek in chewy molasses cookies. Recipe follows.

I call these my “Invisible Man” cookies.

OK, really they’re “Chewy Molasses Crinkles” from my newest fave baking book, “Martha Stewart’s Cookies” (Clarkson Potter). But you know how I can’t resist ginger? Well, I couldn’t resist tinkering with the recipe a smidge when I got a sample of the new “Ginger Babies,” made by the Ginger People and sold on the King Arthur Flour Web site for $10.95 for a 6.7-ounce jar ($7 on the Ginger People site). They’re crystallized ginger in the shape of tiny gingerbread men. How cute is that?

Since they’re packed tightly in a glass jar, some of them emerge less than whole. The ones with missing limbs? I just eat those strGinger Babiesaight out of the jar. Sorry, I can’t help myself.

The label says they go well with cheese, chocolate, muffins, creme brulee, and gingerbread. I, of course, had cookies on my mind.  But then again, when do I not have cookies on my mind? In particular, I thought one of these cute little guys would look just adorable in the center of a chewy, spicy cookie.

The resulting cookies made me chuckle when they emerged from the oven. They reminded me of that famous scene in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, “Predator,”  where before becoming Governor of California, Arnie outwits an extraterrestrial beast by coating himself with mud to blend in completely with his jungle surroundings. You can’t even see him until he opens his peepers to reveal the whites of his eyes.

My “Invisible Man” cookies are kinda like that. The little guy blends in pretty well with the molasses brown cookie after baking. But if you look closely, you’ll spot him — that little extra treat in a cookie that is soft, chewy, and filled with warm spices such as cinnamon and allspice. Eating one makes you feel as if you just got a great big hug.

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Perfect Cookies From The Woman Who’s Nearly Perfect

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Brown-butter toffee blondies. Photo by Joanne Hoyoung-Lee.

Perfection – we strive for it, and envy those who come close to it.

Well, at least a little.

Take Martha Stewart. Can the woman do no wrong? She can paint Keds sneakers with intricate paint hues to make them rival glam Christian Louboutin heels. She can arrange flowers like nobody’s business. She can even do time behind bars with class.

Moreover, she can bake. Boy, can she.

Regular readers of Food Gal know that I simply cannot resist a great, chewy cookie. It’s one of the true pleasures in life.

In Martha’s “Brown Butter Toffee Blondies,” I have found nirvana – chewiness of the perfect texture. How good are these cookies? Let’s just say that I made these not once, but twice in one month. I probably would have made them a third time had I not run out of butter.

Speaking of butter, don’t let the added step of browning the butter scare you off. It does add a little more time to cookie-making, but it is so worth it for the superlative nutty, rich, intense flavor it adds. Just be sure to watch the butter closely on the stovetop, because once it starts to color, it happens fast. The last thing you want is burnt melted butter to ruin these fab blondies.

Perfection in life may be impossible. But perfection in baking is only a Martha Stewart blondie recipe away.

Brown-Butter Toffee Blondies

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