The rambling recipes & travels of a home baker

The following is excerpted from an email newsletter (The Baker’s Chronicle) from Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table on NPR

World Peace Cookies
Excerpted from Baking: From My Home to Yours. Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. All rights reserved.

Makes about 36 cookies

I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I’ve never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there’s cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they’re salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It’s the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

When I included these in Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies and they instantly won fans, among them my neighbor Richard Gold, who gave them their new name. Richard is convinced that a daily dose of Pierre’s cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Lora Brody’s Rugelach
Excerpted from Rose’s Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Copyright 1990 by Cordon Rose Incorporated. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Makes 4 dozen 2 1/2-inch cookies

These are, without a doubt, the best rugelach I’ve ever tasted, and, to my mind, there is no point whatsoever in improving on perfection. From my friend Lora’s wonderful book Cooking with Memories, this recipe was passed down to her from her mother.

One of the reasons these rugelach are so special is that the dough itself contains a little sugar, making it softer and more cozy and buttery than the usual. Then there is the extra zing of tartness from the apricot preserves and the sweet, sharp sting of lots of plump golden raisins. As I mentioned, perfection! As Lora warns: “Beware, you can’t eat just one!”

Dough:

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups (sift into the cup and level off) bleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

Filling:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (firmly packed) light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves, well stirred

Topping:

• 1/4 liquid cup milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Food Processor Method:

1. Into a food processor with the metal blade, place the cream cheese. Cut the butter into a few pieces and add it with the motor running. Process until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and process until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the flour and the optional salt and pulse in just until the dough starts to clump together.

Electric Mixer Method:

1. Soften the cream cheese and butter. In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter until blended. Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in the flour and the optional salt until incorporated.

For Both Methods:

1. Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a ball. Divide the dough into 4 portions and cover each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Filling:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts and stir with a spatula or fork until well mixed.

2. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow it to sit on the counter for about 15 minutes or until it is malleable enough to roll.

3. Place 2 oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

4. Using a floured rolling pin, on a lightly floured board, roll out each dough portion, one at a time, into a 9-inch circle to a 1/8-inch thickness, rotating the dough often to be sure that it isn’t sticking. Using the back of a tablespoon, spread the dough evenly with 2 tablespoons of the apricot preserves. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the raisin-walnut filling over the preserves. Press the filling firmly and evenly over the dough. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough circle into 12 triangles or pieces of “pie.”

5. Use a thin knife, if necessary, to loosen the triangles from the board. Starting at the wide end, roll up the triangle and bend the ends around to form a slight crescent shape. Place the rugelach, point underneath, about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 30 minutes or until firm.

6. Clean the work surface of excess filling before rolling out each batch.

7. For the topping, brush the rugelach with milk. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle the rugelach with it.

8. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned. For even baking, rotate the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking period.

9. Use a small, angled metal spatula or pancake turner to transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

10. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer. Keeps 5 days at room temperature, 3 months frozen.

Christmas Vanilla Sugar Cookies
Excerpted from At Home with Magnolia. Copyright 2006 by Allysa Torey. Used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

I love this Christmas cookie recipe because the dough is very easy to handle and roll out, and the cookies look really pretty and festive with the cream-colored icing and white sugar without having to do any fancy decorating. I like to use a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter, but a regular round cutter is fine too.

Cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing:

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

White decorating sugar, for garnish

To Make the Cookies:

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients, in three parts, and mix until just combined. Shape the dough into three flat disks, wrap each disk tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch fluted cutter, cut out the cookies and place on baking sheets lined with waxed paper. Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator and chill for an additional 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degree F and grease two baking sheets.

Remove the cookies from the refrigerator and arrange on the greased baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To Make the Icing:

In the top of a double boiler, over simmering water, combine all of the ingredients. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes until smooth. Remove from the heat, transfer to a glass measuring cup, and allow to cool to lukewarm before using.

To Ice the Cookies:

Using a pastry brush, spread a light coating of icing on each cookie and then sprinkle the decorating sugar over the icing. (Let the icing set for a few hours before stacking the cookies.)