Showing posts with label cookie recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookie recipes. Show all posts

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Pecan Praline Cookies

Nothing says Mardi Gras party quite like the sweet chewy bite of pecan praline cookies! These bake up quick and easy, lighter than air, but with the rich taste of brown sugar and toasted pecans.

Food Lust People Love: Nothing says Mardi Gras party quite like the sweet chewy bite of pecan praline cookies! These bake up quick and easy, lighter than air, but with the rich taste of brown sugar and toasted pecans.

When I talk about home, I have a few places that fit that description. Several countries where I've lived overseas; Houston, which I call my hometown because it’s the place I’ve lived the longest at one stretch – the years from fourth to 12th grade, and now two years of pandemic; and New Iberia, Louisiana, where I was born and where my mom made sure we went every time she could find three days off in a row when I was growing up. 

New Iberia was not just where I was born. It is also where both of my parents grew up, where almost all of my extended family still lives. Cajun country. Home of good and spicy home cooked food, heavily laden pecan and fig trees, fields of sugar cane and elderly relatives who spoke French before they learned English in school and loved to pinch my cheeks.

We stayed with my maternal grandparents but my father’s mother lived just a block or so away so every morning, before anyone else was up, I’d pull on shorts and a t-shirt, slip out of the front door and walk to my grandmother’s house. She didn’t seem to sleep much, was always up before the birds, so I knew I’d find hot coffee milk and something good for breakfast in her warm kitchen.

Occasionally we’d make the longer drive all the way to New Orleans to visit my Aunt Karen, my mom’s closest sister. New Orleans meant fun with my cousins, beignets in the French Quarter and, if the timing was right, Mardi Gras parades. 

What a thrill it was to stake out a spot on the parade route and see that first festive float glide graciously into view! “Throw me something, mister!” we’d shout, jumping wildly, wrapping the beads around our wrists like bracelets and draping them around our necks. I was richer than Midas, more brilliantly festooned than the most famous queens of history, never mind the short shorts and skinned knees of a tomboy childhood.

Some of my fondest memories over these last 50 plus years are steeped in Louisiana history where native pecans feature prominently in many baked goods. When my grandparents were still around, I could count on them for a steady supply of freshly shelled Louisiana pecans, which they’d crack and pick, putting aside bags for the whole family. Now when I’m home, I buy them from a farmer’s market and store them – carefully sealed – in the freezer for great recipes such as this one.

Pecan Praline Cookies

Recipe credit goes to Eva Schexnayder who shared these pecan praline cookies in a charity cookbook sold to benefit Shadows-on-the-Teche, an antebellum mansion and National Trust for Historic Preservation property on the banks of the Bayou Teche in New Iberia. If you ever get down that way, I highly recommend a visit.

Ingredients – for 3 dozen cookies
1 large egg white
1 cup, packed, or 200g brown sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups, chopped, or 225g pecans

Method
Preheat your oven to 275°F or 135°C and line your cookie sheets with baking parchment or silicone liners.

Beat your egg white in a clean mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.

Whipping the egg white to stiff peaks

Mix in the brown sugar.

Mixing in the brown sugar

Fold in the chopped pecans and the vanilla.

Folding in the pecans and vanilla

Drop by heaped teaspoons on to the prepared cookie sheets.

Dropping by heaped teaspoons on the prepared baking pan

Bake for 23-­28 minutes or until puffy and cooked through.

The baked pecan praline cookies!

Leave to cool for a few minutes and then transfer with a spatula to a wire rack to cool completely. I have to tell you that as delicate as these would seem to be, I have stacked them in a plastic container where they traveled from Dubai to Bali in my luggage and arrived in perfect condition! Don't be afraid to ship some to a friend who might need cheering up.

Food Lust People Love: Nothing says Mardi Gras party quite like the sweet chewy bite of pecan praline cookies! These bake up quick and easy, lighter than air, but with the rich taste of brown sugar and toasted pecans.

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and have I got a treat for you, seven special Mardi Gras recipes for your celebration. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime

 
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

If "praline" is one of your OMG, I love that! trigger words, you might also like my coconut pralines with pecans, my black bottom pecan praline bars or my chocolate praline pretzels. Check 'em out.

Pin these Pecan Praline Cookies!

Food Lust People Love: Nothing says Mardi Gras party quite like the sweet chewy bite of pecan praline cookies! These bake up quick and easy, lighter than air, but with the rich taste of brown sugar and toasted pecans.

 .


Sunday, June 20, 2021

Chocolate Pixies

Chocolate Pixies are a magical combination of chewy, crunchy, chocolatey and nutty, baked with a light coating of powdered pixie dust aka icing sugar.

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pixies are a magical combination of chewy, crunchy, chocolatey and nutty, baked with a light coating of powdered pixie dust aka icing sugar.

Years ago I came across a recipe in Gourmet magazine for baked treats they called “chocolate crackle cookies.” The actual magazine belonged to a friend so I photocopied it and stuck it in my recipe binder. 


As you can see from the photo, that recipe has been well used over the years. It’s a fun one to make with children because they love rolling the dough into the requisite balls. Never mind that they also tend to get powdered sugar everywhere, that’s part of the sweet fun. 

Which brings me to the recipe I’m sharing today. Our Sunday FunDay host today is Sue of Palatable Pastime. She chose the theme of Midsummer Night’s Dream and encouraged us to celebrate by sharing recipes that would delight the faerie folk. 

I immediate started researching recipes online and found MANY for chocolate pixies. About 110,000,000 Google results, if you can imagine. That’s a lot of pixie cookie recipes! Turns out that I’ve been making a sort of chocolate pixie cookie for 26 years, just by another name. Who knew? 

Chocolate Pixies

This recipe makes four dozen cookies and was adapted from one on Big Oven. The dough freezes beautifully, if you don’t want to bake them all in the same day. 

Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
1/4 cup or 57g butter
4 oz or 113g unsweetened chocolate
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups or 400g sugar
1/2 cup, finely chopped, or 53g pecans
3 eggs, lightly beaten

To coat dough before baking:
1 cup or 125g icing sugar

Method
Use a sharp knife to finely chop the pecans. 


In a microwavable bowl, melt butter and chocolate in the microwave in 15-20 seconds zaps, stirring in between, until both are completely melted and the mixture is smooth.


Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to combine.  


Add in the sugar, chopped pecans and eggs. 


Stir till well combined. It will be quite a stiff dough and a good workout for your stirring arm. 


Cover the dough with cling film and press it down to make sure no air is touching the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour for easier handling.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 300°F or 149°C and prepare two cookie sheets by lining them with baking parchment or silicone liners. 

Use a spoon or scoop to divide the dough into small pieces, a little smaller than a ping pong ball. 


Shape each piece into a ball and roll it in the icing sugar. 


Put them on a clean plate to catch the icing sugar that inevitably falls off as you transfer them. You don’t want that much on your cookie sheet. 

Place the balls 2 inches apart on your prepared cookie sheets. Still a little sugar on the pan, just not as much.


Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until edges are set, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through so they cook evenly.


Remove the chocolate pixies from the cookie sheets and place on wire racks to cool completely. 

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pixies are a magical combination of chewy, crunchy, chocolatey and nutty, baked with a light coating of powdered pixie dust aka icing sugar.

Repeat the process until all the dough is rolled, sugared and baked into cookies.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pixies are a magical combination of chewy, crunchy, chocolatey and nutty, baked with a light coating of powdered pixie dust aka icing sugar.

It’s Sunday FunDay and, as previously mentioned, we are celebrating A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Check out all the recipes below. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime


We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Chocolate Pixies!

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pixies are a magical combination of chewy, crunchy, chocolatey and nutty, baked with a light coating of powdered pixie dust aka icing sugar.

.

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies

The flecks of golden brown throughout these melt-in-your-mouth brown butter shortbread cookies are a testament to their rich buttery flavor. 

Food Lust People Love: The flecks of golden brown throughout these melt-in-your-mouth brown butter shortbread cookies are a testament to their rich buttery flavor.

It’s confession time again. I first attempted this shortbread recipe a couple of years back as part of a challenge to make stamped cookies. The dough tasted fabulous and I was very excited about the new cookie stamp I had bought for the occasion. 


Unfortunately, despite chilling the dough for more than the requisite amount of time, my cookies turned out looking unstamped, plain, unacceptable. 


I’m sure the fault was mine because I browned my butter instead of using normal butter. But if brown butter is wrong, who wants to be right? Can I get an amen? 

The cookies did, however, taste wonderful! (I ask again, is there anything so lovely as brown butter? I maintain there is not.) So I had another go and made a more traditional shortbread shape instead. Success! 

These would be perfect to put out for Santa on Christmas Eve. To see more Cookies for Santa, make sure to scroll down passed my recipe for a great list from my Sunday FunDay friends. 

Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies

My recipe is adapted from one on the blog, An Italian in my Kitchen. As you will see if you follow the link, it is for stamped cookies. Note that the original is with normal butter, not brown butter.  

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups or 218.75g all purpose flour
1/4 cup or 32g cornstarch
1 cup or 227g butter
1/2 cup or 63g powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 8x8 in or 20x20cm pan by lining the bottom with a square of baking parchment. 

To make the brown butter: Melt, then cook the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling occasionally, until golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the remainder into a heatproof container. Cool the butter slightly, then refrigerate until almost solid. For photos with instructions, I highly recommend this post by my friend Kayle, The Cooking Actress. 

Now that your butter is almost set, it’s time to make the cookie dough. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt. 

Check out the brown butter:


In a large mixing bowl, beat the chilled browned butter with the sugar until they are soft and creamy. Admire the lovely flecks of golden brown and congratulate yourself into working brown butter into another recipe. 


Add the flour mixture to the creamy butter a few tablespoons at a time, beating briefly to combine in between. 


When the mixture begins to come together, move to a clean flat surface and knead until you have a smooth dough.

Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap them in cling film.  


Chill for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Two thinner pieces chill more quickly than one thick piece. 

When the chilling time is up, press both of the dough pieces into the bottom of your prepared pan. Score the top with a sharp knife. 

Food Lust People Love: The flecks of golden brown throughout these melt-in-your-mouth brown butter shortbread cookies are a testament to their rich buttery flavor.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Use a sharp knife to cut the shortbread into pieces where you scored. Leave to cool completely before removing from the pan.

Food Lust People Love: The flecks of golden brown throughout these melt-in-your-mouth brown butter shortbread cookies are a testament to their rich buttery flavor.

Enjoy!

Years ago, we left out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve and he always seemed to enjoy them both, nothing but crumbs on the plate. This year has been a doozie and I’m sure Santa has earned those cookies more than ever. Check out the delicious list of cookies my SundayFunDay friends have been baking for him. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm
We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.


Pin these Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies!

Food Lust People Love: The flecks of golden brown throughout these melt-in-your-mouth brown butter shortbread cookies are a testament to their rich buttery flavor.

 .

Monday, July 13, 2020

Shortbread Peach Jam Squares

Make Shortbread Peach Jam Squares by surrounding bright sweet peach jam with crumbly buttery shortbread and baking it all to golden perfection!

Food Lust People Love: Make Shortbread Peach Jam Squares by surrounding bright sweet peach jam with crumbly buttery shortbread and baking it all to golden perfection!


When sweet peaches are in season, I can’t help myself; I have to make peach jam. While we also eat plenty and I freeze some, jam seems like the best way to make sure we can enjoy the flavorful juicy peaches for months to come.

Is it just me or does anyone else get an inordinate amount of satisfaction from seeing rows of homemade jams, chutneys and preserves in the pantry?

I get a little giddy as my stock grows although I also like to give some away. I have one rule though, if possible, wash my jars and give them back once they are empty! You’ll be much more likely to be a future recipient if you do.

Shortbread Peach Jam Squares

This recipe is adapted from one on Tasty for blackberry jam squares. As long as it’s nice and thick, you can use your favorite jam. I popped one cup of my homemade peach jam on the scale and it weighed 290g. I’ve added the correct measure below, for those of you who weigh ingredients.

Ingredients
2/3 cup or 158g butter, plus extra for greasing pan
1/8 cup or 25g sugar
1/8 cup or 25g dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups or 312g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups or 363g peach jam

Method
Preheat the oven to 350˚F or 180˚C and prepare an 9x9 in or 23x23cm pan by greasing it lightly and lining it with baking parchment.

Note: If you don’t mind cutting the squares in your pan, you can skip the baking parchment step but I find that I end up damaging my pan if I can’t remove the baked goods before cutting. The parchment makes lifting out easy.

Melt two tablespoons of the butter and set aside to cool.

In a bowl, beat together the rest of the butter and the two sugars until fluffy.

Add in the egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract and beat again.

Sift 2 cups or 250g of the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Bring the mixture together using your clean hands to make a dough and divide it into two equal pieces.

Use your clean hands to spread out half of the dough in the baking pan. Prick the dough with a fork to prevent bubbles from forming while baking.

Spread the peach jam on top.


Mix in the remaining flour into the dough and use a fork to make a knobbly crumble.

Sprinkle the crumble on top of the jam.


Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Leave to cool completely then lift it out with the parchment paper. Cut into squares.

Food Lust People Love: Make Shortbread Peach Jam Squares by surrounding bright sweet peach jam with crumbly buttery shortbread and baking it all to golden perfection!




















Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Make Shortbread Peach Jam Squares by surrounding bright sweet peach jam with crumbly buttery shortbread and baking it all to golden perfection!


This month my fellow Baking Bloggers are featuring peaches in all of our recipes, some savory, some sweet! Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime for all her behind-the-scenes work. Check out all the peachy deliciousness below:
Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin these Shortbread Peach Jam Squares!

Food Lust People Love: Make Shortbread Peach Jam Squares by surrounding bright sweet peach jam with crumbly buttery shortbread and baking it all to golden perfection!
 .


Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Pecan Snowball Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

These little bite-sized pecan snowball cookies are buttery, tender and just the right amount of sweet. They practically melt in your mouth.

Food Lust People Love: These little bite-sized pecan snowball cookies are buttery, tender and just the right amount of sweet. They practically melt in your mouth.


I’m calling these pecan snowball cookies because they are chock full of pecans and do look like little snowballs, but all across the interwebs, similar recipes are known as Mexican wedding cookies, biscochitos, polvorones, Russian tea cakes, Italian wedding cookies, Kourabiedes or Greek wedding cookies or butterballs.

Whatever you decide to call them, I hope you do give them a try. This recipe is a fun one to make with children. They love forming the little balls and then rolling the cookies in the icing sugar (twice!) after they’re baked.

Pecan Snowball Cookies

As you can tell from the recipe, the cookie dough isn’t very sweet because sugar is added outside with the double rolling, making these perfect, just as they are. If you are feeling adventurous, you might also want to try my Mexican chocolate (with cinnamon) wedding cookies too.

Ingredients – makes 6 dozen cookies
For the cookie dough:
2 cups, finely chopped, or 210g pecans
2/3 cup or 83g icing sugar
1 cup or 226g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour

For coating cookies:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Place the pecans and powdered sugar in a food processor. Pulse the pecans and icing sugar, until the nuts are fairly finely ground with just a few bigger bits.



In the bowl of your mixer, add the pecan mixture, the butter, vanilla and salt. Beat until everything is well combined.



Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula then add half of the flour mixture to the mixer bowl.

Mix on low speed until everything is well incorporated. Repeat with the second half of the flour, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula before and after the addition.



Scoop up spoonfuls of the dough and roll the dough between the palms of your hands into balls about 1 in or 2.5cm big. Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet spaced about 2 inches or 5cm apart.



Keep any balls that don’t fit in the first batch on parchment paper in the refrigerator if your kitchen is warm.

Bake the cookies for about 18 to 20 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack and let them cool for five minutes.


While they bake, sift a cup of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. When the cookies have cooled for about five minutes, roll them one or two at a time in the icing sugar to coat completely.

Leave to cool completely then roll them in the sugar again.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: These little bite-sized pecan snowball cookies are buttery, tender and just the right amount of sweet. They practically melt in your mouth.


After a hiatus of several months, I am delighted that my Cookie Exchange friends are baking together again. Many thanks to our leader, Laura of The Spiced Life, for organizing us this month. Check out all the other great seasonal cookies we are sharing today!


Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board!

Pin these Pecan Snowball Cookies! 

Food Lust People Love: These little bite-sized pecan snowball cookies are buttery, tender and just the right amount of sweet. They practically melt in your mouth.
 .