This year’s cookie swap involved creative friends with varied family traditions. Actually, it was a first-time swap, as the participants would normally be scattered far and wide for holiday gatherings. The setting was a cozy outdoor arrangement (no real stretch for the Swiss host who would usually be hiking and skiing in the Alps this…
Category: Cookies/ Brownies
Little Jewels
We were dubbed The Macaroon Gang by one of the husbands of our little group, incredulous as he was that his wife and her food-obsessed buddies would devote an entire day to tracking down macaroons on the Lower East Side. But by then we had our route plotted out, starting at the little shop that…
Chocolate Kissed by a Rose
The signboard outside a neighborhood sweets shop offered the enticing promise of rose-flavored hot chocolate. A promise that, as is so often is the case with rose-flavored/scented foods, did not quite stand up in the bargain. The Valrhona hot chocolate was indeed luscious and lovingly prepared, but a bit heavy-handed in the addition of rose flavoring….
Nuts to You
Walnut cookies are as versatile as they are delicious. They can be rolled in balls or flattened like a traditional cookie. Or they can be cooked in molds, made fancy when the two halves are cemented together with icing or melted jam… or, when in my hands, with chocolate ganache.
Sugar and Spice
I do not believe for a second that cookies are a chore. On the contrary, they are a zen joy to me, all process-based chemistry with magic fulfillment at the end.
Second Life
What’s a girl to do with a bowl of leftover buttercream, namely of the brown sugar variety?
Three Cubed: Summer Blonde
Underbake them slighty and you will end up with blondies that tend toward a caramel center. Delicious with beer, they’d probably be better with milk.
Three Cubed: Rum Diary
I write this one off not as a total loss but inspiration for future baking.
Three Cubed: Orange You Glad
I opted out of smearing butter all over the counter and skipped one of the egg washes. And the cookies were just fine. Orangey, but fine.
Any Left?
Sorry, nothing but crumbs. Biggest hit of the Fourth celebration,and an easy summer treat: Butterscotch Cashew Bars. Crunchy, sweet, salty and gooey all at the same time. Thanks to Amy Scherber of the indispensable Amy’s Bread for sharing a childhood favorite.
Three Points Kitchen 