Sugar Drop Cookies with Cornmeal and Olive Oil

I had high hopes for this holiday season. When I posted about my holiday cocktails, I was just swinging into it. Then I got this miserable cold that clutched my bronchi for two weeks. The whole family got it, of course, and that means no sleep when you most need it. So, boo-hoo, right? I'm better now, but the season seems to have soured for me. I've never been one much for Christmas, to be very honest, and the only reason I am now starting to be swayed by it's glitter and sweets and mystery is that my son is just starting to be enthralled by it. How can I not enjoy that sparkle in his eyes when he sees trees lit up?

What I really do enjoy celebrating now though, is the solstice. It's a quiet celebration, one spent walking one of the nearby preserves. More and more, as I get older and especially now that I get up so early, I look forward to the darkest day with much anticipation. I feel as if there is something to said in that. Welcoming the darkest day, as it slowly creeps towards us, feels like something powerful. To really accept the winter fully and respect it for what it is, the only way we can reach renewal, to return to the green.

It's not that I wasn't deeply affected by Christmas myself as a child. Buying a tree, standing it in the foyer with the old red towel, decorating it. Begging my parents for tinsel which was considered vulgar. Wrapping up sticks I found in the yard for my dog, Moro. We got clementines in our stocking, and pieces of coal, as well, my parents making sure to not let us think we were that good. I think I remember taping a few Christmases, with a tape recorder, then a new-fangled technology for us. We always ate fish on New Year's Eve, smelts and octopus in keeping with the Italian tradition of the feast of seven fishes. Breakfast was usually homemade croissants that I helped form with my mother the day before. We always made gingerbread men, which I never truly loved to eat, but I always enjoyed dressing them with raisin buttons. Anise cookies, Pfeffernüsse and the requisite rolled sugar cookies were also in our cookie rotation.

In keeping with the age old cookie-making tradition, we've been making cookies nearly every day. My son is at the age now that he really loves to measure out the flour and spoonfuls of various leavening and spices. The funny thing is that he rarely eats the cookies we make! I've been bringing them around to friends because otherwise I'll eat them all. These cookies are a riff on the jam-filled thumbkins that folks like me (who have a cupboard full of jams, that is) like to make. They are lightly sweet with a toothsome chew from the cornmeal. Best of all, they are incredibly easy to make!

Sugar Drop Cookies with Cornmeal and Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, not a finely ground one
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients, below, in a separate bowl.

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 eggs

1 tablespoon of cherry pit liqueur or almond extract

Add the wet to dry ingredients, as you mix it will change from a smooth thick batter to a somewhat dry dough. Using a measuring tablespoon, scoop out balls of dough, roll them between your palms, roll them in extra sugar, and place them on your parchment paper covered tray. I like to use my measuring teaspoon to indent a bowl shaped pit in the middle of the cookie dough ball. Then I use that spoon to fill with jam. I used a fig fennel vanilla jam, which went amazingly well with the dough, and a raspberry jam, which was pretty but seeped a little. Use a jam that's firm, and not syrupy or it will seep into the cookie and not look as pretty. I covered them with sliced almonds. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes.

While you are at the cookie thing, check out Tigress' virtual cookie party (tonight!) and cook book giveaway. She is giving away a bunch of amazing books, and there will be cookie camaraderie to boot. You can bet I will be there, with a plate packed with cookies!

Branches from the yard dressed up until we get a tree.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade Shortbread

Sunny day via Meyer lemon marmalade shortbread.

You know, I really meant to start the new year off by not posting so many sweet baked goods, but it's winter and there's just no way around it. Add to that the meat curing that will be going on here this year, and this will make a very unbalanced blog indeed. I assure you that I do eat some brown rice and vegetables from time to time.

I got bit by the citrus bug a little later than last year's obsession. I think it just clamped down on me last week. Last week I made candied citrus peels, blood orange-clementine-quince marmalade, and I haven't even used up last year's Meyer lemon marmalade. These Meyer lemons were sent to me from Shae from Hitchhiking to Heaven. She makes the best Meyer lemon marmalade I've ever had, and her recipe is in her eBook. I made a big batch and still had a huge pint left that I never canned in the fridge. So, I have been experimenting. And this has been the best experiment so far. And the easiest.

I can eat way too many of these.

 Meyer Lemon Marmalade Shortbread

1 1/2 sticks of butter
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/4 cup of Meyer lemon marmalade (or any other marmalade would work)

Process first four ingredients until creamed in food. Add  flour and pulse so dough comes together a bit; it will still be grainy. Dump it out into a square un-greased pan (8x8), pat it into the pan and smooth it out, then prick with a fork. Bake for about thirty minutes at 300 degrees. At this point the edges should be just starting to get golden, and the top should be firm. Gently smooth the marmalade on the surface. Return the pan to the oven and bake for ten more minutes. Let cool in pan. You could dust it with powdered sugar, but I liked the sunny yellow color. We have enough snow here!

What the reality is. Still tasty, but a little colder.

Jelly Glazed Roll Cookies

I will admit right off the bat that I'm not a great cookie maker. I am, however, a great cookie admirer and eater. When I was growing up, my mother and I would make cookies: gingerbread men with currants for eyes, roll cookies with colored icing, and Pfeffernüsse. Nothing too overboard. I think maybe a few years we even attempted gingerbread houses. The biggest baking tradition was something I wasn't overly involved in, except for the eating of it, and that was croissants for Christmas morning breakfast. It was probably the only thing that could pull us away from our gifts. Flaky and warm, pull them apart and add more butter, and black cherry Hero jam, which we would always have, our special jam.

For the past fifteen years I have carried my cookie cutters around with me in a slowly deteriorating ziploc bag. I haven't used them much. But now that I have a two-year old who shows interest in baking with me, I've pulled them out from the back of the least used cabinet, high above the fridge, realizing that I had an opportunity to get back into the fun of cookie making for the holidays. I'm not sure if I'll ever be good enough to put together snazzy boxes that some people do, but you've got to start somewhere, right?

I decided to just do some plain roll cookies using those sweet old shapes that I used as a child. I glazed them with quince and apple jelly that had a soft set, and when they dried I sprinkled them with confectioner's sugar. I used a basic roll cookie recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

The only problem? It was hard to get my son to help with making the cookies because all he wanted to do was to eat the dough. I totally understood! I scooted him away until the cookies were done and cooled, and we had a cookie feast at 10 a.m. on this drizzly, cold Sunday morning.

Do you make cookies for the holidays? I'll bet you at least eat them. I'd love to hear what people are making or posting about on cookies. And don't forget to leave a comment on my post for Christmas Jam, for a chance to win a jar of it!

Kate from Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking is also hosting a jam giveaway. You have to come up with a clever name for her marmalade though. This ain't no random generator thang. I'm still trying to think of my entry.

Some inspiring cookie posts I've seen lately:

Mrs. Wheelbarrow's cookie check list. Wow!

The Project Girl's cute little boxes for cookies. I don't think I can make anything that cute.

Shae from Hitchhiking to Heaven's great jam cookie round up. Comprehensive!

Rumballs and Soft Caramels from Rebecca at RCakewalk.

Advanced cookie exchange reading from Ashley at Small Measure, who wrote this last year for Design*Sponge.

And just for fun, here's a recipe for Croissants from Three Clever Sisters, who always seem to have something awesome in the oven. Maybe one day I'll try this!

Almond Butter Cookies

My new favorite cookie. How can you not love a cookie that you can make when camping? How can you not love a cookie with three ingredients, one of them (the sugar) optional? For those who follow a gluten free diet, you are in luck! I found the recipe for these almond butter cookies at ShowFood Chef and put it on the top of the list immediately. I had a bunch of almonds that I needed to attend to and here was my opportunity. Ever since I saw a bit on making almond butter on The Wynk (which I can't find now), I've been thinking about it. It was one of those moments when you smack your forehead and think, of course! I have nuts, et voila, I can make nut butter. Sometimes I'm a little thick.

So, making nut butter was a breeze, just whiz up the nuts and add a little olive oil to make it smooth. There's a bunch of things to read on it if you need more information, but basically I roasted the nuts at 350 degrees for about eight minutes, until toasty. Then I whizzed it in the food processor for a while, scraping down the sides every so often--you want to wait until it balls up, then it will break down again and turn creamy. It's then that you can add a little stream of olive oil to further the creaminess. I didn't add much, perhaps a tablespoon?

Cathy has great directions on this recipe, so I'm not going to foul things up and omit a detail, which I tend to do in my haste to get things done. Just go and check out the recipe and make these little cookies. Of course, peanut butter will do just fine, too!

British Flapjacks

Disclaimer: This was a big fat fail. To be fair, the original recipe said they would be soft. Code for falling apart? My flapjacks were delicious, though very sweet, but fell apart like so much oatmeal covered in sugar. Was it my substitution of old-fashioned oats? The clementine syrup? (I can't imagine.) Or should I have baked it longer? Let it cool longer? Ah, the mysteries of life. All is not lost, however, I will gladly bake them into another incarnation and eat them eventually. I think they will make a lovely topping for a plum crisp I've got rolling around in my head...But still, I feel so obviously off-kilter. I'll have to slog through a bit of this, I think. So: my apologies.

While I was sick, I received a wonderful package in the mail from Shae. She sent me clementine confits (!) that she had made and as an extra bonus a jar of clementine syrup, a byproduct of the confits. She asked me to think up ways to use it. Well, first off a goodly amount went into my many cups of tea a day. That was a no-brainer. I had a few ideas for her, we'll see if they come to fruition on her blog. In the meantime, I happened across this recipe in Bon Appetit from Molly Wizenberg for British Flapjacks. The recipe is not for pancakes but a sweet oat bar that goes by the name of flapjacks in the UK. It is an incredibly easy recipe, and Wizenberg likens the recipe to rice krispie treats. It also calls for golden syrup, a British product. I thought, well, that clementine syrup looks just like golden syrup. Don't you agree? Who doesn't want a crispy little oat bar with loads of butter and gorgeous clementine syrup in it, and takes all of ten minutes to make (minus baking time)?

1 stick of butter, sliced into eight pieces

1/2 cup golden brown sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup or clementine syrup

2 1/3 cups of oats (recipe calls for quick oats, not instant and not old-fashioned. I used old-fashioned but pulsed them in the processor a few times)

pinch o'salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a square 8x8 pan. Melt butter with sugar and syrup until all is dissolved and looks gorgeously buttery and saucy. Pour the oats in with a pinch of salt. Mix it all up and toss in the pan, patting down neatly. In the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. The edges will be a little darker, as these things tend to go. Let cool in pan for a bit. Don't be hasty! Cut it up into cute little triangles. (Which I forgot to do and made boring little squares.) Let cool completely. (They'll fall apart if you don't let them fully cool. Take it from an impatient baker.) Pour a cuppa tea and enjoy.

Being Nothingness

I've been feeling rather lackluster lately, and I'm sure it has a lot to do with it being February and all. I gather I'm not the only one who isn't feeling so sparkly. I'm trying to do things that make it better, like baking bread. I think baking bread doesn't just create the illusion of fulfillment, it actually fulfills. And with a loaf of bread this easy and this good, come on, you can't say you don't know how to bake. Do you know how to measure a few ingredients and toss them in a bowl and then wait and hour and a half to bake it for thirty minutes? Of course you do.

Don't you love that old CorningWare? I used to think it was dismal, back when it was ubiquitous. But now I see it and feel its weight, and I think, that's a nice piece of cookware.

Another good thing to do is to bake a nice stack of cookies with some weird chocolate chips.

You could start thinking about spring and the things that grow when all the snow is gone. You could get caught up looking at an onion thinking about the very same thing as you.

You could start thinking: if only I had some soil for you, I would put you right in a little pot. And you could stay with me and grow.

And you could read about Ann's adventures with winter sowing on A Chicken In Every Granny Cart and wonder when you could get that started. Maybe tomorrow? I'm going to use all the seeds I didn't get to last summer...

Some other things I did to cheer me on through the snowy day: made baked beans in the slow cooker and ate them with bread and butter, made a fire and tended it all day, called a friend, stared out the window at the snow with my little boy snuggled against me, and finished a great short story by T.C. Boyle, who I've always liked, and who made me think: that guy isn't afraid of getting better. My new mantra: don't be afraid to get better. It was sort of a sad, quiet story, which most of my favorite stories are, and there was a great line at the end: "She knows it will all be lost, everything we make, everything we love, everything we are." It's out of context, of course, but it felt particularly painful and fitting in the dead of winter when we're quick to forget how easily things grow again. Like a little onion sitting on a cold window sill.

Catch Up: Keema Alu, Pork Chops, Cookies

We don't eat a lot of ground beef and to be honest, unless it's a fabulous burger, to me ground beef is a little dull on it's own. But it was all I had, and Shepherd's Pie wasn't doing it for me, so I dug into always trusty Joy of Cooking and found this recipe. It worked, but I really expected it to sing out a little more. I mean the recipe has loads of garlic, cumin, ginger, coriander. But when I tasted it, yeah, it was good, but it needed something. What it needed, folks, was some pickles. Dill lemon cucumbers from last summer, and the turnip-radish pickles I made last week. The pickles elevated a simple meal into a special one wherein there were precious few leftovers. The high notes were reached. It reminded me of Uzbekistan food; not that I've been there. We used to go to this place in Brighton Beach called Chio Pio. It was incredibly good--bottles of vodka on tables, and hearty food piled high, rich meat filled pies and plates of salty pickles. I loved that place.

Saute two diced onions in oil til golden. Add spices:

2t minced garlic

2t grated ginger

2t cumin

2t coriander, ground (I used whole)

1t turmeric

red pepper flakes to taste

Then add a pound or so of ground beef, 1/2 cup of drained chopped tomatoes, some salt. Cook and reduce liquid, about ten minutes. Add three or four potatoes, peeled and cut in small chunks and a cup of water. Cover and simmer on low for twenty minutes or until potatoes are tender. Uncover and cook on high to reduce liquid. Adjust seasoning. Top with chopped parsley or cilantro, or both, and scarf down with pickles.

Then tonight we had some pork chops, nothing special, just sauteed with apples and onions, all local. But the side dish was special. Sweet and sour red cabbage. I love that stuff. Reminds me of the special New Year's Day meal my mother used to make, which was German, roast pork with kartoffelklosse (potato dumplings) and red cabbage. For this I sauteed shallots in bacon fat (yes, that bacon fat) and then added the sliced cabbage with some brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and you know what? I didn't have stock, but I did have some orange herbal tea sitting on the back burner, so I used that instead. It was just fine. I love it when that kind of thing happens.

And then I made my desperation cookies. I made this recipe sans the chips to leave in the fridge for when the sugar itch scratches. Which it does often. They were in the fridge and I just baked some off. Studded with marzipan and almonds, they hit the spot.

Granola Bars

I've been wanting granola bars for a long time. Every time I make granola bars the traditional way they turn into granola bark, then granola crumble. What I wanted was something that kept its shape even when I bit into it. Something to take in the car that wouldn't explode into sticky crumbs all over me when I took a bite. I realized I had to make a cookie-style bar. I was inspired by some leftover granola from the holidays. I had made a batch that was a little too done, and less than happy with, and therefore never gave it out. With an excess of granola, which almost never happens, I ventured forth and discovered The Granola Bar. (Where's my little "TM" symbol?)

These were, as per my style, easy to make and intensely satisfying. Not too sweet, not crumbly at all, good crunch level, and filled with nuts (because that was the kind of granola it was). With a cold glass of whole milk, local and from grass fed cows, it made a perfect snack. On the road or not.

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch o' salt

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1 egg

Whisk sugar and oil together, and then add beaten egg. Add mixed dry ingredients to beaten wet ingredients. Add 1 1/2 cups of granola. Bake in a greased pan (mine was 10.5 x 7 inch) at 350 for 30 minutes.

Vanilla Extract and Super Quick Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vanilla is incredible. Isn't it just totally amazing that we use this pod from an orchid, what once was the equivalent to the vanilla flower's ovary, to flavor and scent so much? It's just such an incredible super star. When I have vanilla bean pods in my hands I feel so rich (for good reason--they are expensive!) that I don't even want to use them sometimes. That's why when I saw Felicia from Muffins are Ugly Cupcakes write about making vanilla extract I knew what I had to do. Make it! I knew it was simple, having read about it before. Why hadn't I done this earlier?? Especially since getting a tip from Marisa of Food in Jars on where to find less expensive vanilla bean pods, plus a great vanilla syrup recipe. Now I can drink vanilla extract for breakfast if I want! One cup of vodka plus three vanilla beans sitting around for two months--that's all it takes.

While I was mixing this concoction I was struck by a need for chocolate chip cookies. But it's the new year, I whined, we said we'd stop so much sugar! I have been reading so many wonderful, heartfelt resolutions on various blogs and all I have to say is I want chocolate chip cookies? And easy ones? That you can mix in a processor? It's really very disgusting and I apologize for this. Everyone is sick of cookies, I know. But, I've been sick this whole year (it's true!) and all sorts of unfortunate things have been happening that I felt I deserved some coddling.

My addicted self triumphed over it's very weak conscientious self, and thus cookies were born. I made these in a food processor (I do not own a stand mixer, yet another reason for self pity) while holding a teething and irritable toddler. When the desire is there you can do just about anything. I thought these were great, but it might be the cold talking. These are desperation cookies, not perfection cookies. You know the saying: starve a fever, feed a cold cookies! This makes a little batch so you can make six now and stash the rest in the fridge for the next jones you get.

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of butter (one stick) in your food processor. Cream them. Add 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (one day it will be your own brew) and one egg. Pulse. Add 1 1/4 cups of flour and 1/4 tsp. baking powder, and 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. Mix until gathered into ball. Roll it and wrap in saran wrap to chill for a few hours. Slice some cookies and bake at 375 for about ten minutes. Eat them all while your toddler isn't looking.

Lime in the Coconut Bars

Awhile back, I made some Lime Marmalade (even though I called it jelly, it really wasn't), and at the time I wasn't completely fond of it. It was a bit bitter, which is not surprising. Upon opening it the other day, in hopes of being inspired and getting it out of the fridge, I took a deep whiff and was transported to Mexico, because every time I smell a great lime scent I am there. It made me think of Old Mazatlan and Bebidas de Julietta (rum and fresh squeezed tangerine juice), Oaxaca's cozy zocalo, Puerto Escondido's tanned surfers, Merida's pumpkin seed sauce, Vallodolid's chopped bbq'd pork with red onion relish, Tulum's endless beers and haunting cenotes...And now I'm getting completely off track daydreaming about Mexico. So. Ahem. Back to the bars.

My pal Dane suggested something with coconut, and so here I oblige. I am thrilled with the outcome and now I'm glad I have another jar of this marmalade. I was going to give it away! Perish the thought. It's mine, mine, all mine!

This recipe is sort of a riff on a streusel bar and a lemon curd bar recipe. I'm sure you could use any jam or marmalade. I know I will. Instead of streusel (which called for another (!) stick and a half of butter) I put some coconut cashew granola (which I made recently, and had a little bit left of) on for the topping, after chopping it up a little in the processor. The buttery bar offsets the bitter lime, and the citrus notes marry well with the coconut. I'll have to give these away because I could eat them all.

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 1/2 sticks of butter

Whiz up the butter in the dry stuff (or if you are cool, do it by hand, I applaud you!) until small pea sized crumbs form. Pat mixture into 13x9 inch pan. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Slather lime marmalade all over the hot bar. Sprinkle with chopped up granola. Bake another twenty minutes. Let cool completely! Then you can remove it from the pan and chop into little squares with a big knife.

Cheerio Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were called "Moon Baubles" on the box of cereal. That would be the ShopRite brand of Cheerios. I sort of feel like that's a stupid name, and also, that Cheerios is one of those brand names that have passed over into the lexicon, like, say, BandAids, have. I guess you could call them O's like many folks do, but you know, whatever, they're Cheerios.

Cream together a softened stick of butter with 1 cup of vanilla sugar. (Or use regular sugar and add vanilla, I don't care.)

Then add an egg. Then add a mixture of 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp. of baking powder.

Then add your favorite brand of O's--2 1/2 cups full and a half cup of chocolate chips. I found it a bit stiff so I added some milk, about a 1/4 cup.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto a "prepared" baking tray. (Figure it out, I guess it means greased.) Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes. Let cool a minute then transfer to baking rack.

Not rocket science. Just chocolate chip cookies with cereal in them!