Just Cook It: Christmas cookies
It’s hard to believe that it has already been seven days since Thanksgiving. All of the excitement that lead up to that day of family, food, fun and football is now officially passed until next year.
Normally this would be very upsetting, but we have one thing that we can look forward to that will be here much sooner than next year. The day I’m talking about – Christmas!
The holiday season has been in full swing for sometime now, but those weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are really what the holidays are made of.
Christmas makes my food writing life a bit tougher. When it comes to Christmas, there really are no across the board traditional foods that nearly everyone enjoys. The main protein of the Christmas dinner can vary from ham to turkey to beef to even goose.
There are a lot of choices. However, there is one food that I believe everyone enjoys this time of year — cookies!
You just can’t have Christmas without cookies. If you follow my work, then you know that I am not much for baking. Cookies, on the other hand, are something that I don’t really mind baking. Cookies generally aren’t made from a lot of ingredients, which means less measuring is required, and they are also usually pretty forgiving. They also bake pretty quickly since they are usually smaller than cakes, pies, and breads.
The recipe I am sharing with you in my first column celebrating the Christmas season is my absolute favorite cookie recipe. I created this recipe a few years ago and even shared it in one of my “For Starters” columns last year. I love this recipe so much that I felt it was worth sharing again.
I’d like to share a couple tips when making these cookies. As I mentioned above cookies are a bit more forgiving than other baked goods, but it is still a good idea to set yourself up for success when making them.
First, when baking always make sure you are using the correct ingredients and measure everything meticulously. Measure liquids in liquid measuring cups and dry ingredients in dry measuring cups – they make different measuring vessels for a reason.
Another secret I like to use when making cookies is to use some cake flour in the recipe. You will notice in my recipe that I use one cup of cake flour and one cup of all-purpose flour.
The reason I use some cake flour is because it helps to shrink the margin for error when mixing the dough. If you mix your cookie dough too much they will become dense and even chewy. Cake flour has less gluten than all-purpose flour and therefore helps avoid that issue.
One final tip – after mixing cookie dough you should always chill it before portioning and baking. Friction from mixing causes your dough to get warm. Chilling your dough after you mix it will give your cookies more body and more rise when they bake.
Your dough will even last in the refrigerator for two or three days if you can’t bake your cookies right away. You can freeze your cookie dough for up to three months and can even bake frozen cookie dough without thawing it first if need be.
Get in the kitchen and whip up a batch of my Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. I recommend making them at least a few times leading up to Christmas Day just to get yourself and your loved ones in the holiday spirit.
Mario Porreca of Belle Vernon is an entrepreneur, author, lifestyle strategist, and the host of Just Cook It Radio. He can be reached via his website at: www.MarioPorreca.com. Twitter: @MarioPorreca
Butter, toffee chocolate chip cookies
Yield: 20 large cookies
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ½ cup dark or bittersweet chocolate chips
¾ cup crushed English toffee (Heath Bits), finely chopped in a food processor
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and baking soda. Sift the dry ingredients into a medium sized mixing bowl and reserve for later use.
2. Place the butter in a medium size saucepan over medium-low heat and cook until it has a golden brown color and nutty aroma. Strain the butter through a fine mesh strainer into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the sugar, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to the brown butter and whisk, using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, on medium speed for three minutes.
4. After three minutes, add the large egg and egg yolk to the bowl and whisk an additional two minutes until the batter is thickened and increases in volume.
5. Add the sifted flour and baking soda to the whisked batter (all at once) and gently fold together with a rubber spatula to form the cookie dough. Just before all of the flour is incorporated, add the chocolate chips and finely chopped toffee and continue gently folding just until they are thoroughly incorporated into the cookie dough.
6. Place the cookie dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap and roll the dough in the plastic wrap to form a cylinder shape. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap to form a tight uniform cylinder of cookie dough. Place the wrapped cylinder of cookie dough into the freezer for 30 minutes before proceeding.
7. After 30 minutes, remove the cookie dough from the freezer and slice the cylinder of dough into 20 uniform discs.
8. Carefully remove the plastic wrap from the discs of cookie dough and gently shape the discs with your hands into uniform round cookie shapes.
9. Place four cookies onto a cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. When the cookies are finished baking, allow them to rest for two to three minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling before serving.