Classic Shortbread Cookies

One of the most vivid childhood memories I have is looking through the colorful buttons, ribbons and pieces of lace my mother used to store in repurposed Danish cookies tins. She absolutely loves butter cookies! The closest I've been to recreate those is with this Classic Shortbread Cookies recipe. The simplest and purest of cookies, these have just 4 ingredients: flour, confectioners sugar, butter and vanilla. Instead of pressing them in a round pan, I prefer to roll the dough, cut them with cookie cutters and finish them with sanding sugar. These are great to put together as part of a care package because they keep well and do not break easily. Stored in an air tight container, they can keep for up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until well blended, for about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Do not over mix. 

Flatten the dough into a disk and cover it with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for about an hour or until firm.

While the dough is in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. I used a silicone pad this time.

After the dough is rested, lightly flour a flat surface and roll the dough into a 1/4 inch sheet. Cut the cookies using a lightly floured cookie or biscuit cutter.

At this point you can either poke holes to the shaped cookies or use sanding sugar to decorate them before baking.

Refrigerate shaped cookies in the baking pan for 15 minutes. Bake for 8 to 10 minuets or until lightly browned. (And when I say lightly, I mean very lightly)

Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Ginger Lemon Bars

Yesterday was April 20, but I do not live in Colorado or Amsterdam... I didn't bake that kind of goods but in exchange, I will bake Ginger Lemon Bars. Bold and sweet in flavor, their beautiful yellow color soothes my heart. Yellow always makes me think about Spring and friendship. I'm lucky to say that I don't have friends anymore, they are just family. After relocating to NYC my dear husband and I reconnected with another couple we met in college and together we have the best of times. Every Easter Sunday the four of us share laughs, good food and just plain old fun. If you like sweet, tart and spicy flavors, this Ginger Lemon Bar is for you. It's been a really terrible winter, let's get the sun in!

Ingredients:

Brown Sugar Ginger Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp chopped crystalized ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamon

Lemon Topping

• 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup + 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Make the crust!

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line with aluminum foil and grease an 8 inch square baking pan.

Stir together flour, salt and cardamon and crystalized ginger. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar at medium speed until combined, about 1 minute. At low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until crumbly.

Pat the dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Prick the dough well with a fork. Bake the crust for 16 to 20 minutes, until golden brown around the edges. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool while you prepare the topping.

Make the topping!

In a small bowl combine the flour and salt. Set side.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and whisk until blended. Whisk in the flour mixture until combined.

Pour the topping over the crust. Bake the bars for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set and lightly browned in spots. Let the bars cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Cut the bars, just before serving, dust the tops of the bars with confectioners' sugar. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will keep for up to 5 days.

New York Black and White Cookies

One of my favorite spots in the city is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I love sitting by the reflection pool near the Temple of Dendur, walking around the Peroid Rooms, the paintings, sculptures and watching the sunset on the rooftop. I does not get better than that!

The museum was founded in April 13, 1870, and in it's honor and in honor of the wonderful city that harbors it, I baked Black and White Cookies.

These particular cookies are a New York City deli and bakery staple. You see them everywhere! They are a cakey cookie with chocolate and vanilla icing on top. The first time I came to NYC I had to have one, and what a disappointment! They were flavorless and just awful. The following recipe is inspired by Tish Boyle and Martha Stewart's recipes. Black and White Cookies are a little labor intensive because you have to make two glazes and then frost the cookies, but despite that, they are super easy to make.

New York Black and White Cookies

Ingredients

Vanilla Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sour cream

White Glaze

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3 1/2 Tbs heavy cream
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Chocolate Glaze

• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup

Make the cookies!

Position a rack in the center of the oven, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line with parchment paper 2 cookie sheets.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter until fluffy and light in color. Gradually beat in the sugar, mixing well until combined. Add the egg, and vanilla extract. Mix until blended. Scrape the sides of the bowl if necessary. 

Alternate between additions of flour and sour cream. Try to add the flour in 3 additions and the sour cream in 2. Mix well after each addition. The resulting dough will look like this:

Using a 1/4 cup cookie scoop, ice cream scoop or cup measure, scoop the dough onto the baking sheets and space them about 3 inches apart.

With wet hands (to prevent sticking), pat the mounds into 2 1/4 inch disks. 

Bake the cookies 1 sheet at a time for 15 to 17 minutes or just until beginning to turn light golden brown.   

Make the glazes!

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and lemon juice until smooth. Cover and set aside.

Place the chocolate, heavy cream and corn syrup in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Heat and stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Using a small spatula, spread the white glaze on half of each turned cookie. Let it set for about 10 minutes.

Using the spatula, spread the chocolate glaze on the other half of each cookie. Let the cookies set at room temperature for 45 minutes before storing. 

Enjoy! :-)

Orange - White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've baked a lot of batches of cookies during the last 6 years. I moved to New York to pursue a career in music. Needless to say, it is a difficult career choice. There is a lot of joy and lot of wonderful things to learn but there is also a lot of tears and rejection. After each audition I would walk to the nearest Sephora and buy a lipstick, but, believe it or not, it is possible to have too many lipsticks. Besides, there's no creativity in shopping! But baking...Oh, the possibilities! Baking provides me an activity to channel energy in a positive way and tame the crazy lady living inside my head. I share this passion with one of my best friends, well, more like a sister. When I moved to New York, she gave me "The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook" and the first recipe we made was Orange Vanilla Chip Cookies. It was wonderful and it quickly became one of our favorites. So aromatic and sweet! We fell in love with the cookie.

The following is an adapted version of the original recipe by Jennifer Appel and Alyssa Torey.

Orange - White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 + 2 Tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp grated orange zest
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 tsp good vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and the salt. I used to skip this step, using a fork to fluff the flour instead of sifting it, but it makes a world of a difference taking the extra time to do so.  

Cream the butter until fluffy and light in color. Add the sugars and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Add the flour mixture in quarters and mix thoroughly. Stir in the orange zest and the white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Leave several inches between cookies as they will expand when they cook. I used a 1 1/2 teaspoon cookie scoop to form the cookies.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then move to a rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

So, why cookies?

Well, why not? There's a couple lessons I've learned in life: Silence is powerful, everything that can go wrong will go wrong, always wear mascara and... Cookies are the best dessert there is in the whole Universe. Ask Cookie Monster!

Cookies are beautiful, portable morsels of joy with endless possibilities.  I love sharing baked goods and cookies are just cute and convenient. Carrying a freshly home baked cake in New York City's subway system is not for the faint of heart. Don't get me wrong, where there's a will, there is a way, but cookies are so much easier to carry around! Baking cookies is relatively cheap, but when your taste level changes and that McCormick vanilla and Nestle chocolate won't suffice anymore, things get complicated. Ah! Perfectionism... I'll write more about that issue later.

I want to bake one cookie recipe per week and share it. Simple enough, right? I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I will!