Goldy's Kitchen Cookbook Read online

  6. Holding each cookie by one end, gently dip the tops into the chocolate mixture. Turn immediately and lift from the chocolate mixture. Allow to dry, uncoated side down, on wax paper. Continue until all the biscotti are topped with chocolate.

  Makes about 4 dozen biscotti

  Red ’n’ Whites

  —THE CEREAL MURDERS—

  We absolutely adore the combination of cream cheese with . . . anything, but especially—as you will see with other dessert recipes here—fresh or cooked strawberries. When Goldy is tasked with making cookies in Stanford colors (Cardinal red and white), this is what she comes up with. (Yes, caterers are often asked to make food in school or team colors.)

  There is good news and bad with these cookies. The bad: They do not hold up to humidity, so if you live in a humid climate, wrap them tightly in plastic as soon as they finish cooling and place that package in a zippered plastic bag. Once unwrapped, serve them as soon as possible. The good news: If by any chance you ever have to be on TV—say you’ve been given two minutes to promote the school book fair—make these cookies in advance and serve them up to the person interviewing you. The camera will zoom in on you offering the cookies to the interviewer (who probably has not had lunch), and while she’s munching on one, you can say to the camera, “And I’m sending a tray of these back to the station, too!” The people back at the station, who probably have had neither breakfast nor lunch, will not be able to stop talking about your cookies and your fund-raising event for the rest of the hour, with veiled threats of what they will do to the interviewer and the cameraman if they return empty-handed.

  Maybe this is dirty pool, but publicity for charity events is hard to get.

  2 sticks (½ pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

  ½ cup sugar

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  36 small ripe strawberries, hulled and halved

  1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter with the cream cheese until well blended. Beat in the sugar and vanilla, then stir in the flour until well mixed. (If you have time, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When you are ready to make the cookies, let the dough come to room temperature.)

  2. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

  3. Using a ½-tablespoon measure, shape the mixture into small balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Make a small indentation in the top of each cookie with your thumb. Carefully place a strawberry half, cut side down, in each indentation. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 12 to 18 minutes, or until very lightly browned. Cool on racks.

  Makes 5 dozen cookies

  Cereal Killer Cookies

  —THE CEREAL MURDERS—

  While visiting family in Charlottesville in the 1990s, I used to walk several miles into town in the morning to have a cappuccino at the one place that served it. (This was before Starbucks swept across America.) Sometimes I would try a cookie, too (walks can be so exhausting), and one with bits of toffee in it got me to thinking. I came home and started experimenting, but nothing quite duplicated the cookie from that coffeehouse. Jim had never developed a recipe—and never has since—but he seemed to know what I was aiming for, and took over the development of the recipe. And am I glad he did! The cookie he came up with was buttery and crunchy, with just enough toffee made from Heath Bits ’O Brickle toffee bits.

  And then, horrors! Bits ’O Brickle stopped being made. They were literally nowhere to be found.

  I had been in this predicament before, when I was developing the recipe for Scout’s Brownies. I’d had my epiphany about combining cocoa with melted bittersweet chocolate, then experimented with different cocoa powders. The cocoa that baked up into the best brownies was made by Hershey, and it was called “Hershey’s Premium European-Style Cocoa.” Just as the book was coming out, there was no more of that cocoa on the shelves. I mean, it was nowhere. I called the Hershey company in a panic, and was told that Evergreen, Colorado, had been a test market! Clearly, I had not bought enough of the stuff. Now there is Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa, and it is very good. I also use Droste, Ghirardelli, and Guittard cocoa.

  So: Back to the Bits ’O Brickle. Eventually, I found bags of toffee bits in my grocery store. Thank goodness.

  Of all the cookies Goldy has ever served, Cereal Killer Cookies seem to be the favorite. It was even published—and I remain very thankful for this—in Ladies’ Home Journal. Despite that lovely publicity, people never seem to remember the name of the cookie. They just say, “We love that one with the toffee chips in it.”

  2¼ cups old-fashioned rolled oats

  Two 6-ounce packages toffee chips (aka almond brickle chips)

  1⅔ cups all-purpose flour

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1 cup packed dark brown sugar

  ¾ cup granulated sugar

  2 sticks (½ pound) unsalted butter

  2 large eggs

  1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  1. In a large bowl, mix the oats with the toffee bits.

  2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.

  3. In a food processor, mix the sugars until blended, then gradually add the butter. Continue to process until creamy and smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and process until blended. Add the flour mixture and process just until combined. Pour this mixture over the oats and toffee bits and stir until well combined. (If you have time, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When you are ready to make the cookies, let the dough come to room temperature.)

  4. Preheat the oven to 375˚F.

  5. Using a 2-tablespoon scoop, place scoops of dough at least 2 inches apart on 2 ungreased baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

  6. Let the cookies set up on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then carefully remove the cookies to racks to cool completely.

  Makes 4 to 5 dozen cookies

  Sweetheart Sandwiches

  —THE CEREAL MURDERS—

  Many people have tried to duplicate the fantastic combination of chocolate and frosting that is the esteemed Oreo cookie. This is Goldy’s (and my) crack at it.

  Cookies:

  8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

  1¼ cups sugar

  2 large eggs

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  ½ cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder

  2 cups all-purpose flour

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  ½ teaspoon baking soda

  Filling:

  4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  4 cups powdered sugar

  Heavy (whipping) cream

  For the cookies:

  1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until light. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Sift the cocoa, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together. Stir the dry ingredients thoroughly into the butter mixture. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

  2. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Butter 2 baking sheets or line them with silicone baking mats.

  3. Using a teaspoon measure, roll level teaspoons of the chilled dough into balls and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and the surfaces are slightly dry and cracked. Cool completely on racks.

  For the filling:

  1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter until light. Beat in the vanilla and powdered sugar. If the filling is not creamy, beat in heavy cream a bit at a time and continue to beat until the consistency is like creamy frosting.

  2. To assemble the cookies, carefully spread about ½ tablespoon filling all over the flat side of one cookie, then t
op with the flat side of another cookie. Serve immediately.

  Makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies

  Variation: For half a batch of vanilla-filled and half a batch of peppermint-filled cookies, divide the filling in half. Add ⅛ teaspoon peppermint extract to half the filling. Tint the peppermint filling pink or green before filling half the sandwiches.

  Canterbury Jumbles

  —THE LAST SUPPERS—

  Ever been to a cookie exchange? I haven’t heard of any being held lately, so maybe they are a relic of the middle part of the twentieth century. Back then, you and a hypothetical nineteen others—all equally daft—would make twenty dozen (you read that right) of the same cookie, bag each dozen up separately, then come in and take one dozen from each of nineteen others. If it worked right, you would each walk away with nineteen dozen different types of cookie, plus your own dozen, all of which you could take home and freeze. This would give you twenty dozen different Christmas cookies stashed in your freezer. This really only works well if four conditions are met:

  1. Everyone uses at least some butter in her/his cookies

  2. There are no interlopers

  3. Nobody screws up the math, and

  4. You wrap your stash in opaque butcher paper and on the outside scrawl, Lake Trout, August 1999

  Canterbury Jumbles began as a date-and-fruit cookie that I received at a cookie exchange. I changed the recipe somewhat to make it work for us (I used butter and omitted the nuts). Jim and the kids loved them, so now I make them every year at Christmas. (The recipe I came up with is in the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, available from your local bookstore or library.)

  But for Canterbury Jumbles, I wanted to play around with the ingredients. My goal was to come up with a cookie that tasted like a candy people of my generation adored. It was called the “Chunky.” Chunkies were small, square hunks of chocolate dense with raisins and nuts. Just using chocolate chips, raisins, and nuts didn’t seem like enough in my tests, so I added coconut and switched over to macadamia nuts for added richness. Now I usually substitute chopped dried tart cherries for the raisins, as one of our children does not like raisins. (Heresy! But that’s family for you.)

  ½ cup solid vegetable shortening

  8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  2 cups packed dark brown sugar

  2 large eggs

  ½ cup buttermilk

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  3½ cups all-purpose flour

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 teaspoon salt

  1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

  1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

  1½ cups raisins or dried tart cherries

  3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

  1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the shortening, butter, and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the buttermilk and vanilla.

  2. In a small bowl, blend together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until incorporated. Stir in the coconut, nuts, raisins or cherries, and chocolate chips. (If you have time, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When you are ready to make the cookies, let the dough come to room temperature.)

  3. Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Butter baking sheets or line them with silicone baking mats.

  4. Using a ½-tablespoon measure, measure out leveled spoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and lightly browned. Cool on a rack.

  Makes 11 dozen cookies

  Lemon Butter Wafers

  —THE LAST SUPPERS—

  The flavors of finely grated lemon zest mixed with ground almonds is delightful in a cookie. The combination is even more delectable if some raspberry flavor is thrown in. I sometimes make these as lemon/raspberry sandwiches, but have to wait until just before serving to spread the jam. Otherwise, they wilt, even in a dry climate.

  1½ sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  1 cup sugar

  2 large eggs

  1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour

  2 tablespoons very finely minced lemon zest (see Note)

  ⅓ cup ground almonds (see Note)

  1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and add the sugar, beating until creamy. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour, beating just until combined. Add the lemon zest and almonds, stirring until well incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until well chilled, at least 3 hours and preferably overnight.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Butter a baking sheet or line with a silicone baking mat.

  3. Using a ½-tablespoon measure, measure out leveled spoonfuls of chilled cookie dough onto the baking sheet, placing them 3 inches apart. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies have just flattened and are lightly browned around the edges. Cool the cookies on racks. Store in a covered tin.

  Makes a generous 5 dozen cookies

  Note: It is best to grind the almonds and mince the lemon zest in a small electric grinder such as a coffee grinder that you do not use for coffee. The result is superior to that obtained with an ordinary food processor.

  Variation: Just before serving, spread 1 tablespoon best-quality seedless raspberry jam on the flat bottom of one cookie, then place the flat bottom of another cookie on top. This makes a divine lemon-raspberry cookie sandwich. Makes about 32 sandwich cookies.

  Blondes’ Blondies

  —PRIME CUT—

  The blondie, once a staple dessert of school lunch programs, seems to have fallen out of favor, which is a pity. There is a TED talk on the decline of public school lunches, and the theory is that it began with the retirement of the venerable lunch ladies. These women, wearing their hairnets and white uniforms, cooked us and our children lunch fresh, every day. They also baked the desserts. The women were professionals, and the lunches were delicious and nutritious. But then Big Ag got involved, ketchup was listed as a vegetable, and school lunches went to hell. There’s a movement on now to make school lunches delicious and nutritious again, and I hope that happens.

  Goldy’s newfangled blondie contains chopped apple and spices. But the butterscotch flavor of the old-fashioned blondie shines through, and the citrus frosting provides a bright contrast.

  2 cups peeled and diced Granny Smith apples

  1 cup packed dark brown sugar

  1 large egg

  8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

  1½ cups cake flour (high altitude: add 1 tablespoon)

  1 teaspoon baking soda

  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  ½ teaspoon salt

  ½ teaspoon ground allspice

  ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

  ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

  ½ cup raisins

  Creamy Citrus Frosting (recipe follows)

  1. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan (be sure to use metal, not glass).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the chopped apples with the brown sugar.

  3. In a small bowl, beat the egg slightly. Whisk the melted and cooled butter into the egg. Stir this mixture into the apple mixture.

  4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, allspice, and nutmeg. Stir the flour mixture into the apple mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Stir in the nuts and raisins. (The batter will be thick.) Spread the batter in the baking pan.

  5, Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a crumb or two attached. Cool the blondies in the pan, then frost with creamy Citrus Frosting. Cut into 32 pieces.

  Makes 32 blondies

  Creamy Citrus Frosting

  2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

  2 tablespoons orange juice

  1 to 1½ cups powdered sugar, sifted


  In a small bowl, beat together the butter and orange juice until the butter is very soft (they will not mix completely). Beat in the powdered sugar until you reach a creamy consistency.

  Keepsake Cookies

  —PRIME CUT—

  Prime Cut is dedicated to Ann Blakeslee, who was our wonderful, loving Director of Religious Education at our former parish. She made a cookie very similar to this for our family one Christmas.

  Cookies:

  ⅔ cup slivered almonds

  1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

  1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

  2 teaspoons very finely minced orange zest

  ¼ cup Grand Marnier liqueur

  3⅓ cups all-purpose flour

  ½ teaspoon salt

  Granulated sugar, for preparing the cookies

  Filling:

  8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

  3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

  3 tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream

  1 tablespoon Grand Marnier liqueur

  For the cookies:

  1. Grind the almonds in a food processor until they resemble large bread crumbs. Transfer to a small bowl.

  2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter until it is very smooth and creamy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the orange zest and liqueur.

  3. Stir the flour and salt into the ground almonds. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until very well combined.

  4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

  5. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Butter 2 baking sheets or line them with silicone baking mats.

  6. Using a ½-tablespoon measure, scoop out the chilled cookie dough and roll into balls. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Butter the flat bottom of a glass, then dip the glass bottom in granulated sugar. Flatten each cookie with the buttered and sugared glass bottom to a diameter of 2¼ inches. (Do not make the cookies too thin.) Dip the glass into the sugar each time before flattening a cookie.