A Few of My Favourite Things !

I bought the December issue of Bon Appetit before leaving for my Europe trip, with the idea of baking some Christmas cookies for family & friends. I read through the magazine and only ended up ear-marking a single page. This recipe drew my eye each time I flicked through the magazine, the full-page picture showing off the bright green pistachios and ruby red dried raspberries against a pale biscuit, but I just didn’t get the chance to bake before jetting off.

When I finally managed to turn my oven on last weekend, this was the first batch of cookies that went in. Although you need to bake it twice, these are some of the easiest cookies that I’ve ever made. The dough takes all of 5 min to combine before being shaped into 2 logs. The logs are cooled after baking, then sliced and baked again. I used some Pariya semi-dried sour cherries that were a little too alcoholic-tasting to just snack on in place of dried raspberries. These tasted wonderful in the biscotti but they lacked that brightness of colour that would have contrasted so well against the base. Oh yes, I also substituted the coconut extract for the almond extract because I really dislike the flavour of almod extract.

I cannot commend these biscotti highly enough! Definitely my favourite out of the 3 types of cookies that I made this weekend - although the vanilla salted peanut cookies come pretty close. What made them even more incredible was the chocolate that I used to coat them - Callebaut 54% Dark and Valrhona Ivory White. Expensive? Yes, but I think it’s well worth it!

1. Beat sugar, eggs, oil and coconut extract until well blended.
2. Add flour/baking powder/salt mixture and beat until smooth.
3. Stir in pistachios, dried fruit and white chocolate
4. Drpo dough by heaping teaspoonfuls into 2 12-inch long strips on baking sheet and shape with wet fingers into 3-inch wiode log.
5. Bake at 175C for 30 min until lightly browned and firm to touch.
6. Cool logs for 30 min then cut each into 1/2-inch thick slices. Stand upright onto baking sheet, spacking about 1/4-inch apart, and bake for 20 min at 170C.
7. When cool, dip into melted chocolate and chill 30 min until chocolate is set.

After a long work week, I was finaly able to indulge in some baking: vanilla salted-peanut cookies from the special ‘Christmas Cookies’ edition of Better Homes & Gardens and melting moments fromThe Best of Singapore’s Recipes, Tea Time Delights.

I used my cookie press to shape the melting moments instead of just forming little hazelnut-sized balls of dough as suggested and I have to say that it’s easier to press dough out of some of the stencils than others. My wrist and forearm is still sore two days later from forcing the dough out of the stencil with the many small holes! After presing about a dozen cookies, I swapped over to make the ones you can see above.

I sandwiched some of the melting moments with Christine Ferber’s Confiture au Petales de Roses, one of three jars of her jams that we picked up in France. I heated the jam, add some gelatine powder and then cool before smearing it onto the flat of one cookie and gently pressing the flat side of another against it.The exquisite rose flavour in this confiture not only complemented the butteriness of the melting moments, but lifted them to another level altogether. I may be tempted to sandwich more of the melting moments together…

1. Beat shortening with eloectric mixer until soft before adding brown sugar, baking soda and salt and beating until combined.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then flour.
3. Stir in oats, followed by peanuts, raisins and coconut.
4. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls ontocookie sheet and bake at 190C for 7-9 min until lightly browned. Makes ~60.

Melting Moments
455 g SR flour, 225g sugar, 225g butter, 2 eggs

1. Mix flour, sugar, butter and eggs in large bowl to form soft dough
2. Place into cookie press and push dough out onto cookie sheet
3. Bake at 150C for 20-30 min until golden.