Black and White Cookies

This weekend my boyfriend and I hosted a New York City trivia contest at our apartment.  He wrote all the questions and I made Big Apple themed desserts.  The first dessert that came to mind was black and white cookies.  Pat loves these cookies, and they just look so New York.  Until I moved to the city I’d never seen them, but here they are in every deli, bodega, and grocery store.  While easy to find, store-bought black and whites are frequently terrible (stale and dense).  This delicious recipe from America’s Test Kitchen couldn’t be better.  I first made them last year and the result was a delicious tender cookie with a perfect, shiny, not-too-sweet frosting.

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Cornmeal Cake with Caramel Cream

On Saturday my friend Yan came over to bake.  We decided it would be fun to make a layer cake.  Naturally I turned to my favorite cake cookbook Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes.  Every recipe I’ve made from this cookbook has been awesome.  I sent Yan the list of recipes that appealed to me, and he chose the Santa Fe Cornmeal Cake with Cajeta Cream.  I was really excited since I’ve been wanting to make the cake since I bought the cookbook.

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Hazelnut Crescent Cookies

Every Easter and Christmas our old landlord used to bring us up an assortment of delicious homemade old school bakery cookies. Some of them were dry and not particular good but we appreciated the thought tremendously. These cookies remind me of those powdered greek butter cookies, Kourabiethes, but prepared with ground toasted hazelnuts instead of almond. I still had a large bag of toasted hazelnuts unused from my butternut squash lasagna a few weeks ago and after a late night at work last week I was looking for a stress reliever,  and thought baking of course. I came across this Bon Appetit recipe and was thrilled to see I already had all the ingredients already in my pantry.

Because I have a food processor, making the dough was really a cinch. I prepared it the night before and woke up early to form them into tiny horn shaped crescents. This recipe makes about 40 cookies but make sure you don’t bake two racks at a time. The first time I made these I tried to save time and use the top and bottom rack but sadly ended up burning the bottom batch. After the enthusiasm I received when I brought these into work last week, I knew Monday would mean another batch was needed, preferably 40 cookies this time. So I took my time and baked separately. These will definitely be one of my go-to gift cookies in the future, not too difficult and they impress like no other. A very classy cookie delicious with a tea and a good book. Just make sure you’re not wearing black when you eat them. They cookies  ‘snow’ all over you, like it’s doing outside now!

Refridgerate the Dough at Least 2 hours

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Vegan Cowboy Cookies

I’m not vegan, but I occasionally like to make vegan desserts for friends who are.  In general people are very excited and thankful when you bake for them, but when you bake something for a vegan friend the thanks is tenfold.  People with dietary restrictions are so often left out of food sharing that they seem especially appreciative when they are included.

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Thumbprint Cookies

My friend Anna gets a shipment of these cookies from her Mom in Ohio every Christmas.  I first tried the cookies back in college and each year she saves me a few because I love them so much.   I finally got around to making my own this year and am so happy that I did.  They were a huge hit with my family on Christmas Eve.   They are very buttery and nutty, but the cookie itself is only slightly sweet.  Almost all of the sweetness comes from the jam.  I used strawberry and mint, but you can customize it based on your flavor preferences and what color would be seasonal appropriate. Read the rest of this entry »

Curry Chicken Salad

A few days ago my boyfriend made an important declaration, “chicken salad is my favorite food, I love chicken salad sandwiches with lettuce tomato and onion, and if I’m feeling naughty.. a slice of provelone.” I’ve never made chicken salad, not being a big fan of mayo I myself am not a huge chicken salad fan. The one caveat to that statement would be curried or curry chicken salad.   I had a taste of curry chicken salad over the summer while planning my father’s surprise party and found it delicious. Chicken salad has been a staple lunch go-to for my mother as long as I can remember, but always the same plain jane chicken salad. I wanted to bring some color to this otherwise mundane luncheon food and this past week’s snow storm finally gave me the opportunity.

I was staying in Stamford, CT and woke up Monday morning to this (see pic below) around 20 inches of snow. Metro-North had canceled train service. I decided to walk to the gym and try to secure myself a three day pass to get some cardio in but alas, they were snowed in as well. I went to my backup plan of spending the day cooking delicious food.

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Homemade Oreos

Almost a year ago I was reading cooking blogs and spotted these homemade oreos.  I casually mentioned to Pat that I should make him these cookies sometime since he’s such a huge fan of regular Oreos.  He agreed that it was a great idea and has been pestering me to make them ever since.  We celebrated Christmas on December 21st and when he got home from school that day I had a huge tray of the cookies waiting for him.

It was silly of me to wait so long to make these cookies.  They’re actually quite simple and they were a huge hit.  I made a double batch so I could give some as gifts.  The consensus was that they’re, “Even better than regular Oreos.”  Considering I don’t like regular Oreos I didn’t think this was such a compliment, but then I realized that coming from Oreo-lovers this is high praise indeed.

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Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

Every year my office has a “secret snowflake” gift exchange and holiday sweets potluck.  Since I frequently bring sweets to work throughout the year I try to make something special for the potluck.  To make it more difficult for myself, I also make enough  so that every person in the department could try one if they wanted to.  In the past the most popular dessert I’ve brought is pumpkin whoopie pies.  They were a huge hit, and I considered making them again, but I always prefer to try something new.  I thought gingerbread would be appropriately seasonal and have similar flavors, but also would allow me to try a new recipe.

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