Queen's Biscuit

I was excited to make these cookys because I like sesame seeds and I wanted to make a cooky that was new and different. The dough was very easy to make on Tuesday night and on Wednesday I mixed 2/3rd hulled seeds with 1/3 unhulled seeds and rolled the dough around in them and baked them off.



When they first came out of the oven they were delightful and fresh tasting. I liked them a lot but them by Thursday morning I thought they had gotten dry and dull.





Don't forget to brush.

Crispy Chocolate Wafers

On Monday I made the dough of these chocolate cookys, using two tablespoons of dark rum instead of rum extract. I attempted to roll them out Tuesday night. The recipe says to roll them out on a lightly floured board but the dough was so sticky, I gave up after cutting out eight rounds. They were thin and crispy. I didn't like them although David pointed out that they were a simple cooky, from earlier years and he seemed to like them. An hour or so later I craved more of them and planned out how I would make them easier without the impossible stickiness.



On Wednesday instead of rolling the dough out with a pin on flour, I patted it out on powder sugar as thinly as I could, then cut out smaller rounds. They turned out good, but more like chocolate crinkles, a different yet similar cooky than any sort of thin wafer. I liked them but I found that I did not like them as much as I had the crispy wafers. I guess I could roll the dough out between parchment. Thursday night, I did not love the cookies. They were unremarkable.

Don't forget to brush.

Enticed by the Gourmet Cooky Book

Recently, I came across this book and yearned for the walnut cookys and the espresso cookys. I thought that I should make new, different cookys and read through the book carefully to locate a different cooky to make, not just the same old type. There weren't many other recipes that enticed me but I noted the ones which I would find intriguing.

Things have changed since last I cracked open that book and added to this blog. Pickles has moved on to Doggy Heaven and I have a new companion in the kitchen. Her name is Patty, after my mother.

Deep Fried Wafers from 1969

I love a donut so I thought I would give this a try. James Beard + Gourmet's fried galette is much prettier than mine turned out to be.



I halved the recipe and then when I went to roll them out, I couldn't quite make them each to be 10 inches in diameter. Perhaps that is why mine weren't as light and bubbly as in the pic.



They weren't horrible tasting, just heavier than I would like. David liked them and said they would be good with tea.

For Karen's Party

from top: sour cream cooky, ginger cooky, thumbprint, walnut cooky, espresso chocolate cooky , chocolate not-chip cooky Don't forget to brush.

thursday and etc

today I made the bourbon balls.


One is supposed to let them keep for a week before eating. I am tempted to send them to friends in San Francisco where we will join them in about a week and enjoy them while vacationing. Nice plan, I think.


Then I made date bars. They are good.

I'm actually bordering on exhausted at the moment so I will not elaborate. Also, Pickles is whining nearby, anxious to cuddle up on couch with me.
I would like to cuddle too.


Don't forget to brush.

Rainy, Snowy, Icy Saturday

Last night Roma came over and acted interested as I spoke to her about my blog and cookies, etc. I asked her to pick the cooky I would make next and she picked two: the Brown Butter Cookies, featured from 1961 and the fabulous bourbon balls from 1980. The bourbon balls sound delicious but the only ingredient I have on hand for that is bourbon. Since I don't have raisins, chocolate wafer crumbs, pecans or ground ginger, I opted for the brown butter cookies since for those you merely need butter, sugar, vanilla, flour and baking powder and then it calls for a blanched almond stuck in the middle.

I've never browned butter before but with DbR's help, I did so successfully and then I was thwarted because the dough didn't beat to a "smooth dough" as described. I added more butter, not browned.



In recipe notes it does say "the dough is very crumbly, must be kneaded to make it come together in a smooth mass; do not be gentle" but I never got to reading that until after I was grumpily rolling out the crumbly dough, pressing them and putting the nut in. I used praline coated pecans cut in half instead of the almond.
It says bake in a slow oven for 20 minutes. When I took them out after 19 minutes, they were over done. They do taste nice, though.



Don't forget to brush.