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Old favorites from childhood are returning on trays for the holidays. They're yummy and delicious
By Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal food writer
POSTED: 03:00 p.m. EST, Dec 02, 2008
You've been hearing it over and over from family and friends: Let's keep Christmas simple this year.
With the uncertain economy, jobs in jeopardy and retirement accounts in peril, we've been hunkering down, guarding our wallets and looking for simple ways to celebrate.
When it comes to holiday baking, keeping it simple isn't a bad thing. Taking our Christmas cookie plate back to the basics means baking is easier, less expensive and less complicated. But it doesn't mean skimping on taste or the wow factor that comes from a plate brimming with holiday cookies.
Chocolate chip, shortbread, oatmeal raisin, gingersnaps, peanut butter and simple sugar cookies are basics in any cookie recipe box. They're the cookies we grew up on, and the ones our parents' parents grew up eating, too.
There's a reason these simple cookies have stood the test of time. Their main ingredients — flour, butter, sugar and eggs — are the mainstays of any high-quality confection.
Sarah Carey, food editor for Martha Stewart Living, said simple is often the most delicious. Shortbread dough made from butter, confectioners' sugar and flour is as basic as cookie dough can get, yet dresses up easily with a dip in chocolate or the addition of nuts or candied ginger if you are in the mood to splurge.
Shortbread cookies can be made ahead and hold well in an airtight container for two weeks. The cookies or the dough also can be frozen, she said.
''This is a cookie that will give you a lot of bang for your buck,'' she said.
In addition to Stewart's magazines and television program, Carey worked on the cookbook Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share, released in March ($24.95 softcover, Clarkson Potter). The book contains 175 recipes, including basics, like Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Getting back to the basics is the theme of Ina Garten's new cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor From Simple Ingredients ($35 hardcover, Clarkson Potter).
That's where we found the recipe for Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. Garten boasts that the recipe produces cookies that are ''crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.'' After trying them out, our testers agreed that they were one of the best we'd ever had, and they got some of us talking about our grandmothers' recipes.
Carey said one of the added benefits of making basic cookie recipes for the holiday is the nostalgia they will generate. Peanut butter cookies remind us of our school cafeterias; chocolate chip cookies remind us of our moms.
''I do think that people have this nostalgia for those sorts of things. . . . It makes them feel comfortable. It reminds them of their childhood,'' Carey said.
That's also why a box or tin of basic homemade cookies makes for a great inexpensive holiday gift as well. ''People want to bake them and people want to eat them, too. It makes us feel more warm and cozy, and receiving them makes you feel exactly the same way,'' she said.
SOFT AND CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
21/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. coarse salt
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips, or a combination (about 12 oz.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl.
Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla and eggs; mix until well blended, about 1 minute.
Mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.
Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes.
Let cool on sheets on wire racks 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment paper in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.
Makes about 3 dozen.
— Martha Stewart's Cookies, from the editors of Martha Stewart Living
CLASSIC SHORTBREAD
2 cups all-purpose flour
11/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
Sift together flour and salt into a bowl. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl. Gradually add confectioners' sugar; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture all at once; mix until just combined.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with rack in upper third.
Using plastic wrap, press dough into a buttered 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. With plastic on dough, refrigerate 20 minutes. Remove plastic wrap. Cut out a round from center using a 21/4-inch cookie cutter; discard. Put cutter back in center. Cut dough into eight wedges with a paring knife. Using a wooden skewer, prick all over at 1/4-inch intervals.
Bake until golden brown and firm in center, about 1 hour. Transfer pan to a wire rack. Re-cut shortbread into wedges; let cool completely in pan. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks.
Makes 8 wedges.
Martha Stewart's Cookies
SUGAR COOKIES
2 cups sugar
21/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
14 tbsp. (13/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread 1/2 cup of the sugar in a shallow dish for rolling. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and remaining 11/2 cups sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Give the dough a few final stirs with a rubber spatula to make sure it is well combined.
Roll 2 tablespoons dough into balls with wet hands (because the dough is sticky) then roll in the sugar to coat. Lay the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Flatten the cookies to a 3/4-inch thickness with the buttered and sugared bottom of a drinking glass. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the flattened tops.
Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown, but the centers are still soft and puffy, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating each baking sheet halfway through baking.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
— The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
CLASSIC PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Using a mixer on medium speed, beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed until the eggs are completely incorporated, scraping down the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated.
Place heaping tablespoons of the dough 3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of the chopped peanuts over each cookie, pressing lightly with your fingertips to help them adhere. Bake, 1 sheet at at time, until the cookie tops are evenly golden, 10 to 12 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer to wire racks to cool completely, about 30 minutes. Repeat to bake and cool the remaining cookies. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Makes 26 cookies.
— Cookies, Brownies & Bars, Elinor Klivans
GINGERSNAPS
21/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 cup sugar
Place about half of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar, shortening, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.
Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed till thoroughly combined, scraping sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the remaining flour.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in sugar to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake in a 375-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till edges are set and tops are crackled. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Remove cookies and cool on wire racks.
Makes about 48 cookies.
— Better Homes and Gardens: Cookies Cookies Cookies
RAISIN PECAN OATMEAL COOKIES
11/2 cups pecans
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 extra large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. kosher salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
11/2 cups raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool. Chop very coarsely.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add the oats, raisins and pecans and mix just until combined.
Using a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.
Makes 30 to 35 cookies.
— Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, Ina Garten
Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
You've been hearing it over and over from family and friends: Let's keep Christmas simple this year.
With the uncertain economy, jobs in jeopardy and retirement accounts in peril, we've been hunkering down, guarding our wallets and looking for simple ways to celebrate.
When it comes to holiday baking, keeping it simple isn't a bad thing. Taking our Christmas cookie plate back to the basics means baking is easier, less expensive and less complicated. But it doesn't mean skimping on taste or the wow factor that comes from a plate brimming with holiday cookies.
Chocolate chip, shortbread, oatmeal raisin, gingersnaps, peanut butter and simple sugar cookies are basics in any cookie recipe box. They're the cookies we grew up on, and the ones our parents' parents grew up eating, too.
There's a reason these simple cookies have stood the test of time. Their main ingredients — flour, butter, sugar and eggs — are the mainstays of any high-quality confection.
Sarah Carey, food editor for Martha Stewart Living, said simple is often the most delicious. Shortbread dough made from butter, confectioners' sugar and flour is as basic as cookie dough can get, yet dresses up easily with a dip in chocolate or the addition of nuts or candied ginger if you are in the mood to splurge.
Shortbread cookies can be made ahead and hold well in an airtight container for two weeks. The cookies or the dough also can be frozen, she said.
''This is a cookie that will give you a lot of bang for your buck,'' she said.
In addition to Stewart's magazines and television program, Carey worked on the cookbook Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share, released in March ($24.95 softcover, Clarkson Potter). The book contains 175 recipes, including basics, like Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Getting back to the basics is the theme of Ina Garten's new cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor From Simple Ingredients ($35 hardcover, Clarkson Potter).
That's where we found the recipe for Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. Garten boasts that the recipe produces cookies that are ''crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.'' After trying them out, our testers agreed that they were one of the best we'd ever had, and they got some of us talking about our grandmothers' recipes.
Carey said one of the added benefits of making basic cookie recipes for the holiday is the nostalgia they will generate. Peanut butter cookies remind us of our school cafeterias; chocolate chip cookies remind us of our moms.
''I do think that people have this nostalgia for those sorts of things. . . . It makes them feel comfortable. It reminds them of their childhood,'' Carey said.
That's also why a box or tin of basic homemade cookies makes for a great inexpensive holiday gift as well. ''People want to bake them and people want to eat them, too. It makes us feel more warm and cozy, and receiving them makes you feel exactly the same way,'' she said.
SOFT AND CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
21/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. coarse salt
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips, or a combination (about 12 oz.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl.
Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla and eggs; mix until well blended, about 1 minute.
Mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.
Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes.
Let cool on sheets on wire racks 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment paper in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.
Makes about 3 dozen.
— Martha Stewart's Cookies, from the editors of Martha Stewart Living
CLASSIC SHORTBREAD
2 cups all-purpose flour
11/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
Sift together flour and salt into a bowl. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl. Gradually add confectioners' sugar; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture all at once; mix until just combined.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with rack in upper third.
Using plastic wrap, press dough into a buttered 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. With plastic on dough, refrigerate 20 minutes. Remove plastic wrap. Cut out a round from center using a 21/4-inch cookie cutter; discard. Put cutter back in center. Cut dough into eight wedges with a paring knife. Using a wooden skewer, prick all over at 1/4-inch intervals.
Bake until golden brown and firm in center, about 1 hour. Transfer pan to a wire rack. Re-cut shortbread into wedges; let cool completely in pan. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks.
Makes 8 wedges.
Martha Stewart's Cookies
SUGAR COOKIES
2 cups sugar
21/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
14 tbsp. (13/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Spread 1/2 cup of the sugar in a shallow dish for rolling. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and remaining 11/2 cups sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Give the dough a few final stirs with a rubber spatula to make sure it is well combined.
Roll 2 tablespoons dough into balls with wet hands (because the dough is sticky) then roll in the sugar to coat. Lay the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Flatten the cookies to a 3/4-inch thickness with the buttered and sugared bottom of a drinking glass. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the flattened tops.
Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown, but the centers are still soft and puffy, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating each baking sheet halfway through baking.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
— The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
CLASSIC PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Using a mixer on medium speed, beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on low speed until the eggs are completely incorporated, scraping down the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated.
Place heaping tablespoons of the dough 3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of the chopped peanuts over each cookie, pressing lightly with your fingertips to help them adhere. Bake, 1 sheet at at time, until the cookie tops are evenly golden, 10 to 12 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer to wire racks to cool completely, about 30 minutes. Repeat to bake and cool the remaining cookies. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Makes 26 cookies.
— Cookies, Brownies & Bars, Elinor Klivans
GINGERSNAPS
21/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 cup sugar
Place about half of the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar, shortening, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.
Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed till thoroughly combined, scraping sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the remaining flour.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in sugar to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake in a 375-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till edges are set and tops are crackled. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Remove cookies and cool on wire racks.
Makes about 48 cookies.
— Better Homes and Gardens: Cookies Cookies Cookies
RAISIN PECAN OATMEAL COOKIES
11/2 cups pecans
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 extra large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. kosher salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
11/2 cups raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool. Chop very coarsely.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add the oats, raisins and pecans and mix just until combined.
Using a small ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.
Makes 30 to 35 cookies.
— Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, Ina Garten
Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
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Posted 03:49 PM, 12/03/2008
Use a small ice cream scoop (yes the come in the "heaping teaspoon" size referred to in the recipes above) to get uniformly sized cookies.
