Cookies

Strawberries and Cream Cookies

A plethora of strawberries found its way into my fridge, and they needed to be used quickly.  I thought about making jam, but strawberry jam didn’t seem too exciting.  I could make more strawberry frosting and freeze it, but I wanted to try something new.  These cookies are from this month’s Martha Stewart Living.  I found this recipe on a blog I hadn’t read before, SliceofSueShe.

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The method used to make these cookies creates a light fluffy cookie that is not too sweet.  The resulting texture reminded me of a soft scone.  The strawberry pieces are tart and sweet.  I did not sprinkle them with sugar, but I imagine that adds a nice crunch on top of these soft cookies.  A simple drizzle of a vanilla glaze would also be nice.

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Black and White Cookies

 

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Seinfeld Episode 77: The Dinner Party

[The Royal Bakery]

ELAINE: Ummm, I love the smell of bakeries.

JERRY: Oh look Elaine, the black and white cookie. I love the black and white. Two races of flavor living side by side [mumble?] It’s a wonderful thing isn’t it?

ELAINE: You know I often wonder what you’ll be like when you’re senile.

JERRY: I’m looking forward to it.

ELAINE: Yeah. I think it will be a very smooth transition for you.

 

JERRY: Uhm, The thing about eating the Black and White cookie, Elaine, is you want to get some black and some white in each bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate And yet somehow racial harmony eludes us. If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved.

ELAINE: Your views on race relations are fascinating. You really should do an op-ed piece for the Times.

JERRY: Um, um, Look to the cookie Elaine. Look to the cookie.

Look to the cookie…the Black and White cookie.

I watched some Seinfeld when it was in prime time, but I really started to become a fan in college when I started watching it in syndication.  My husband has all 9 seasons on DVD, and we still watch it almost every weeknight from 6-7 on TBS.  I think I’ve seen almost every episode.  A waste of time?  Possibly.  But what a fun and entertaining way to waste it!

I have decided to start a little series of recipes inspired by Seinfeld.  The illustrious black and white cookie begins the series.  My sister and her husband live in New York City.  I have eaten quite a few Black and Whites thanks to her.  Lisa brings a bunch of packaged ones home for Christmas and puts them in our stockings.  When I’ve visited I’ve bought them fresh from bakeries.  These soft, cake-like cookies frosted half with chocolate and half with vanilla icing are truly a lovely combination.  I am more a fan of the vanilla half of the cookies, but both are delicious.  My favorite packaged brand is Angel’s Bakery.

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This recipe comes from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.  I love owning this cookbook.  There is a beautiful photo of every item, tips on baking, equipment, techniques, ingredients, etc.  

These cookies turned out to be so delicious.  The cookie is soft, cakey, not too sweet and the perfect base for the sweet icings.

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The icings are rich and wonderful.  They are made with heavy cream, but I think whole or 2% milk would work.  You may need to play with powdered sugar if you choose to change the liquid.  Next time I will add a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract to the icing.  

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Let the chocolate icing set completely before icing the other half of the cookie.

cookie5 This will keep the chocolate icing from infiltrating the white and also keep it smooth.  Give the icings some time to set and dry before packaging or serving them.  

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These black and whites do not stack well since the white icing never really gets completely hardened.  That is the only downside to these cookies.  While they are more time consuming then a common drop, bake, cool and eat cookie, they are well worth the time and effort.  

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  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) butter at room temp
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 large eggs + 1 yolk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  1. Preheat oven to 350°  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Beat butter, shortening and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add whole eggs and yolk, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.
  5. With mixer on low speed add half of the flour mixture, then the cream, then the remaining flour.  Beat until just combined.
  6. Scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets.  Give them at least 2 inches to spread.  *The recipe makes large cookies using a 1/4 cup the drop the cookies.  I used a large cookie scoop resulting in a baked cookie about 4 inches in diameter.
  7. For large cookies, bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are very light golden brown.  I baked them for 9 minutes using a large cookie scoop.
  8. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Black and White Icing

  • 1 cup heavy cream (whole or 2% milk)
  • 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 5 tablespoons boiling water
  1. Whisk cream and sugar (add in vanilla) in large bowl until smooth.
  2. Set aside about 1 1/4 cups of the white icing in a separate bowl.
  3. Combine cocoa and boiling water and stir until dissolved.
  4. Add cocoa mixture to remaining icing and stir until smooth to make the black icing.

Icing the Cookies

Frost the BOTTOM of the cookie so that the icing will be flat and not domed.

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  1. Spread half of the bottom, flat side of the cookie with the chocolate icing.  Repeat with all cookies.  Let set completely.
  2. Spread the other half of the cookie with the white icing, overlapping the chocolate a bit to avoid gaps in the icing.  

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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I made 2 batches of these cookies.  One with butter, and the other with vegetable oil.

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I found this recipe on The Whole Grain Gourmet.  I didn’t change much in the recipe.  I didn’t have any molasses, so I mixed 3/4 cup dark brown sugar with 1/4 cup water.  I used a tablespoon of this mixture in place of the tablespoon of molasses.  I also used pecans instead of walnuts.  And of course I used 1/2 cup butter is the butter recipe instead of the 1/2 cup oil.

Appearance

I was surprised at how similar the two cookies looked after baking.  Going in to the oven I would not have predicted this outcome since the dough in the bowl looked quite different.  There are slight differences in the baked cookie.  The butter cookies were a little thinner and spread a bit more than the oil cookies.  The latter had a bit more height to them in the center.  

Texture

You can tell by looking closely and holding each cookie that the oil cookie is more dense.  At first bite there is more initial crunch to the butter cookie, but that doesn’t last too long.  A few chews into the cookie and they both have the same wheaty, substantial texture.  If I were to be incredibly critical, then I would say that they was more chew to the oil cookie…but not a great deal more.  

Taste

The moment of truth…the taste of the cookies are not very different.  The butter cookie seemed to be sweeter, or so my taste testers say.  Maybe the butter brings out the sweetness?  I don’t know.  The honey is a nice sweetener.  It isn’t too sweet so the raisins really stand out.  I liked the presence of pecans, but the pieces I used were too small.  Next time I wouldn’t chop them quite so small, maybe just cut the pecan halves into fourths.  

These cookies taste healthy.  I like the oats and texture of the wheat flour.  I also like not feeling so guilty about eating these!  If I have a choice, I will opt for an oatmeal cookie with butter, sugar and all-purpose flour.  I guess I just like my cookies sweet and unhealthy.  As a healthy option, these are very good.  I gave some to a 5th grade girl I know, and she liked them.  So, if your kids want cookies, these are a good healthy alternative.  I may try adding dark chocolate chips next time and using half all-purpose and half wheat flour.

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies

Courtesy of The Whole Grain Gourmet

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour (a pinch more depending on the moisture of the mix)
  • 1 1/2 cups of Large Flake Rolled Oats (smaller flake is ok too)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp Cinnamon (I actually use about 3 Tbsp–got to love cinnamon)
  • 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

Wet ingredients

  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup oil or 1/2 cup unsalted room temperature butter 
  • 1 Tablespoon Molasses
  • 1 egg (beat with 1 Tbsp Water)
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1/2 cup raisins (1 cup for my Dad’s batch)
  • 1/2 cup walnuts (more for my Dad’s)!!

Preparation:

  1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. Hint: when measuring out the honey, spray the measuring cup with oil or baking spray–your honey won’t stick.
  3. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. If the mixture seems too wet, add a bit of flour. If it isn’t binding together very well, you may wish to add an egg white.
  4. COOL the mix for 20 minutes in the fridge.
  5. Preheat the oven to 335 degrees (lower temperature due to the honey in the recipe which will burn more easily).
  6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto your baking sheet 
  7. Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes or until golden on the bottom of the cookie. The cookies freeze very well and make a great snack! Enjoy.

The Butter Cookie

Upon mixing the butter with the honey, molasses and egg I was worried by the little nasty chunks of butter.  After adding the dry ingredients the dough came together fine. 

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The Oil Cookie

The dough was very sticky and looked runny.  I thought it would run all over the cookie sheet creating one big cookie after baking, but they held up great in the oven.

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