Sweet Moments

This cookie comes from my first husband's mother. Most women hate their mothers-in-law but I was lucky - both of mine were awfully nice. The first, Elna, was an amazing woman in lots of ways but what really won me over were her Melting Moments.

These dainty little cookies are as simple as it's possible to be, but they are also extraordinary in their texture and flavor. Two buttery, pinkie-sized cookies glued together with a little colored, vanilla-scented icing shouldn't pack the rich wallop that they do but, baby, do they ever!

The best part is the texture, which quite literally melts. You may have had cookies before that were called Melting Moments, but they are frauds - these are the only ones I have found that live up to their billing. Both cookie and icing soften and dissolve in the first instant, flowing across the tongue with sweet surprise. When I had a tea party for a couple of charming children in my neighborhood, the girls helped me to make Melting Moments. When I packed a tin of cookies for them to take home, the older girl asked very politely for more Melting Moments than any other kind. The kid has good taste.

Next time you are having a tea party, or just want a sweet bite of your own, Melting Moments are the ticket. All by themselves, they are a reason to adore one's mother-in-law. If you happen to be a mother-in-law, now you know what to do.

Melting Moments from Mom T

Use a cold oven. If you are making several kinds of cookies, start with these as they go into a cold oven.

1 cup butter

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in flour with a spoon. Drop by 1/2 teaspoon onto cookie sheets, close together. Put into a cold oven. Turn on the oven to 300 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes, or until very, very lightly browned on the bottom - don't let them darken. Stick two cooled cookies together with colored icing between.

Icing

2 Tablespoons soft butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat with a beater until smooth. Divide into two portions and, stirring in a tiny drop of food coloring, make green and pink icing (I've tried blue and yellow - not pretty!)

Brownie Bites

I found the recipe for these dark little beauties many moons ago in Sunset magazine. I can always tell when I've cut out a recipe from Sunset, as the type face (this was 'way before "font" entered the general lexicon) is distinctive. As soon as I tried them, I added them to my Christmas cookie repertoire for the brownie lovers in the crowd.

These are very small, easy to finish in two bites. They are made not in cupcake papers but in candy cups, perhaps 1" across. That's fun, as candy cups come in bright colors, or even silver or gold foil, which sets off the deep brown of the cookies very prettily.

Those of you who prefer no-nut brownies (are you nuts?) will be glad to know that the nuts are just placed on top, not mixed in, so they are easy to delete.

Brownie Bites, from Sunset magazine, who got it from Jan Macauley of Spring Valley, CA

1/2 cup (1/4 lb.) butter (the recipe is so old that it actually allowed margarine as an alternative to butter but I know you would never commit so egregious a sin)

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

About 40 walnut halves (they do look prettier with the nut halves, but I couldn't find any this year so I made do with chopped nuts. I have also used pecan halves and they are cool, too)

In a 2 or 3 quart pan, stir butter and chocolate over lowest heat until melted (don't get impatient and burn the chocolate by raising the heat). Remove pan from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in flour.

On a baking sheet, place about 40 of the candy cups. Spoon batter into paper-lined tiny (1.5 inch diameter) cups, filling cups almost to the top. Place a walnut half on top of batter in each cup.

Bake in a 325 degree oven until the tops look dry and feel firm when lightly touched, about 20 minutes.

Let brownies cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool. To store, let cool completely, then package air tight and hold at room temperature up to four days. (They freeze well, too). Makes about 40.

Crisp Clouds

The colors in this photo remind me of the kind of weather we've been having for the past week or so - leaden gray with touches of white. Our mud is a darker brown than this, but you get the idea. Ugh.

Walking the dog in the rain is a pain in the gazocks. Wiping her paws, toweling her off (hopefully before she shakes water all over the entry), standing under an umbrella waiting for her to do what we are out there for - but for the danger, one would be tempted to ignore the leash laws and just let her roam on her own.

The bright spot in a week of rain is baking little cookies to go with the hot tea that this kind of weather demands. I make cookies only very rarely and usually only at Christmas. I make pretty big batches, then freeze them and bring them out fresh for parties or for gifts to neighbors. These little raggedy-cloud cookies are my favorites of all. They are tiny - meant to be eaten in a single bite as they are crumbly and messy with powdered sugar. Just pop one in and lick your fingers. The taste is almost entirely toasted almonds, with only a little flour and butter to stick them together. I'd advise you to make some so you have them on hand for the next rainy day.

Nut Crisp Cookies

2 sticks of butter (8 ounces)

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1-1/2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch salt

2 cups slivered, toasted almonds

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour, vanilla and salt. Combine well. Stir in 2 cups almonds. Drop cookies in bite size onto a buttered cookie sheet (not necessary if using non-stick or parchment paper) about 1/2" apart. Form the rest in like manner. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Let them cool completely on a rack, then sift confectioner's sugar over them. Store in airtight tins or freeze.

Christmas Cookies

Once upon a time, there lived two charming little girls, Em and Zee. They lived with their mother, who was a would-be novelist, and their father, who was so cool that he sometimes took them on hobo picnics.

They had a big, shaggy, enthusiastic dog named Rosie to complete their family, and they were very best friends with the lady next door, whose grandchildren lived far away. When the girls visited her, they knocked on her door first but if she didn't hear them, they clambered through the flap of the dog door and presented themselves, asking if it was yet time for tea. They were especially good at "please" and "thank you." As I said, they were charming girls.

One day, another kindly old lady who lived up the street invited them to come to her house to make Christmas cookies and to stay for a tea party afterwards. This kindly old lady had a plan - to get Em and Zee out of the house so their mother had a few hours free to finish her first novel and their father could fill out some important papers that he had been saving for just such an occasion - and to bake some Christmas cookies for presents.

The charming little girls made the cookies you see in this picture and decorated them, too. The kindly old lady baked them and put them into cookie tins lined with real waxed paper for the girls to take home. Em was happy to see real waxed paper and planned to recycle it in a project she was making for school. Em was in second grade; apparently, they were learning about recycling in second grade.

After the cookies were baked and cooled, they all sat down with a cup of lemon tea and tasted the fruits of their labors before going for a long walk with Rosie to work off some of the sugar the charming little girls ladled into their lemon tea. As they left, the girls said, "Thank you! Thank you!" and blew kisses to the old lady and waved as they bounced and cavorted back down the street, still full of energy.

Then, the kindly old lady went to her bedroom and pulled a patchwork quilt over her legs and had a nice, long nap.

Ann's Sprintz Cookies

These little almond-flavored, bite-sized cookies are delicious year 'round, but they look particularly pretty when decorated for the holidays.

3/4 pound of butter (I used unsalted)

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together thoroughly (I use a food processor with the metal blade in place). Add egg and extracts and pulse to mix. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Using a cookie press, press out decorative shapes close together on a cookie sheet. Decorate with colored sugar or sprinkles. Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.

This dough can also be rolled into a teardrop shape and baked, then when cooled decorated as a mouse with sliced almond ears, icing "fur" and chocolate icing piped through a fine point for eyes, nose and tail.

Christmas Cookies

Every year since My Beloved and I got married, we have received these little, light cookies from North Carolina, Mrs. Hanes' Moravian cookies. My Beloved's high school and lifelong buddy, Ed and his wife Wanda, always send these at Christmas from their home around Chapel Hill.  There is always a big red can full of crisply wrapped stacks of about a dozen cookies at a time. I await their arrival with glee.


To unwrap one of the packages is to define anticipation.  The paper protests with rustlings but yields to gentle fingers, releasing the fresh smell of vanilla.  They are as simple as it is possible to be, and yet very special in their simplicity.  No icing, no nuts, no extras, just simple vanilla sugar cookies, as thin as a whisper, crisp as a wafer and as light as a cloud.


The pristinely white crinkly paper is folded under to cushion the delicate cookies but they are so thin and crisp that almost inevitably some are broken.  With a cup of tea or coffee or even a glass of milk, these are cookie heaven.  My heart would be broken if Ed and Wanda ever stopped sending them.

A Taste of Home

My friend Maria is from Chile and we often talk about the foods she enjoyed there as a child. She hasn't lived there for many years, having immigrated to this country in her teens, but her memory of those wonderful flavors is sharp and she rejoices when she finds an authentic taste of Chile here in California.

Her most recent find is Alfajores, a sweet and simple shortbread and dulce de leche sandwich cookie made right over in Walnut Creek by Sabor del Sur. Being the lovely lady that she is, she bought two for My Beloved and me to taste.

They had me from the first bite of these powdery, buttery, caramel-y cookies. The dulce de leche is the filling between two pretty, fluted shortbread cookies powdered with confectioner's sugar. They melt in your mouth, instantly invade your veins and flood the pleasure centers in your brain with "WOW" messages. I can't imagine a richer accompaniment to a cup of tea or, better yet, hot, strong coffee.

If this is what life in Chile was like for her, I wonder why she ever left!

Yes, Pecan!

If Ben and Jerry hadn't already used this name to honor President Obama with their butter pecan ice cream, I'd have taken it to name the best cookie I've made in a month of Sundays.

I found this recipe while trying to duplicate a cookie I had at, of all unlikely places, Starbucks - it was big and flat and buttery and full of pecans and little toffee chips - heaven in cookie format! I downloaded a recipe that sounded about right - it wasn't, but in some ways it's even better.

These delectable morsels have all the best ingredients - serious animal fat in the form of unsalted butter, refined sugar (two kinds!), toffee candy, white flour, whole eggs - in short, these are very, very bad for your heart, your waistline and your pocketbook.

They are very, very good, however, on the taste buds. If you like toffee and pecans, these are a must. They are sweetly nutty but not sickly sweet, they have some texture from the chunked toffee bars and nuts, and they are ever so slightly chewy, especially if you take them out before they are truly browned. Even though I don't usually like baking cookies, I will be volunteering to make these for any and all subsequent meetings, weddings, coffee hours, birthday parties, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, commitment ceremonies, wakes, whatever! Try 'em and see what you think.

The basic recipe comes from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle, 2002. The only adaptation I made, other than some tweaks to the technique, is to substitute cracked Heath bar pieces for the pre-made English toffee bits in the recipe; I had read in the comments that the pre-made toffee bits don't give enough of a toffee flavor so I searched until I found Heath bars and gently cracked them with a hammer before unwrapping them. It wasn't a lot of work (except finding them! Locally, you can buy them at Andronico's markets but don't bother trying Long's or Target) and the rich toffee flavor is very evident when you use the cracked candy. The texture produced by the uneven chunks of candy is more interesting as well.

Toffee Pecan Cookies (makes about 6 dozen)

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (this works out to a stick and a half of butter, or 12 Tablespoons)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups English toffee pieces such as Skor or Heath (I recommend using Heath Bars. about 7 bars makes two cups of pieces)
1-3/4 cups pecans, toasted and chopped (I didn't toast mine - I'm famous for burning nuts while toasting)

Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F. Line baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. (I used parchment paper and no spray - worked like a champ!)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer (I don't have one so just used my hand-held mixer) using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars at medium-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract. At this point the dough will look curdled or grainy. At low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until blended. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the toffee and pecans.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls (I used my smallest sorbet scoop) onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 14 - 16 minutes, until the cookies are starting to turn golden brown around the edges (I did two at once - so sue me, I'm impatient!). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. Ms. Boyle says the recipe makes 48 cookies - mine must have been smaller as I got 6 dozen.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

I found these to be much tastier cool than they were immediately out of the oven. Yes, yes, yes Pecan! (and Toffee!)

Cookiease

I'm not an enthusiastic cookie baker. I always groan inwardly when asked to make cookies for any function - I find them to be a lot of work for little reward. Like all bakers, I do have my favorite cookie recipes, including what I consider to be the gold standard for chocolate chip cookies, but I rarely make them. So much waiting around for cookies to come out of the oven, so much angst when they get too dark or not dark enough, so much washing of awkwardly-sized cookie sheets, so much temptation to eat more of them than is wise, or even humanly possible...

However, recently I was asked to bring after-dinner nibbles to a Neighborhood Watch meeting so after a heavy sigh I decided to try out a new recipe to at least liven up the chore. I tried out a new technique, too, and one that I can heartily recommend.

I used parchment paper to line my cookie sheets instead of the usual cooking spray. I had read this tip in "Best Kitchen Quick Tips," a gift from my friend Wenirs. It is written by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine; some of their tips were new to me and very useful.

Using parchment paper is not only easier to clean up (you just crumple it up and throw it away after one use) but it also allows you to prep as many trays of cookies as your kitchen counters will hold. You just slip a new paper full of cookie dough dollops onto the cookie sheets as soon as you have slid the hot ones off onto the counter. Cool the cookies for a few minutes and they lift right off onto the baking racks for final cooling. Using parchment paper shortens the whole baking process enormously and saves you from having to wash the cookie sheets between each batch.

I made another serendipitous discovery this time, as well. I have always hated my tiled kitchen counters - they are ugly and the grout traps every crumb and spill. However, when I laid the parchment paper on it, it made a useful spacing grid for the cookie dough that I could see through the paper. At last, a reason to like my "cool, vintage" counter top!

Cookie baking will never be my favorite kitchen activity but I have to admit it was far less onerous this time. I'll share the lovely new cookie recipe tomorrow; it's worth stopping back!

Bindi Bites

These little confections were discovered in a local eatery, Little Louie's, where I usually pick up coffee on my morning walks.

Spying these pint-sized cookies in the case, I decided to give them a try. Not house-made, the cashier thought they came from Bindi, an Italian dessert house with factories all over the known world. Hmmm...

The pink ones are strawberry, nicely lively with strawberry flavor, and who can resist the pink color. The white one (vanilla? maybe?) wasn't my favorite, but the brown (chocolate) and the khaki (definitely coffee and the best of the bunch) were even better than the pink.

As you can tell from the picture, they are crumbly - sort of meringue sandwich cookies with a layer of strawberry/chocolate/coffee/mystery in between the two halves. Nice. Tasty. Light. Ladylike (except for the crumbs). I think I'll include them in my next afternoon tea service.

Neighborliness

We are blessed with good neighbors. While every house on our tiny street contains quirky members, including ours, everyone gets along pretty well and all the children are a joy most of the time. The kids on the street have learned business skills by taking care of our cats while we were on vacation. Two neighbors keep a key to our house, as I seem to lock myself out with baffling regularity. We lend each other space in our recycling bins and watch each other's houses when we/they are away on vacation.

So, when I hear my next neighbor's "hellloooo" and she asks to borrow a couple of eggs, it's just a chance to repay some of the helpfulness they have shown us over the years.

And, later, when I find freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on my doorstep, the good-neighbor karma has come around again in a big way.

Good Cookies

You're gonna love these chocolate chip cookies! I adapted the recipe from Sunset Magazine many moons ago. They are big and rich with butter, bumpy with nuts and oatmeal, lightly enhanced with cinnamon and oh, so good!

I only made them every now and then as the recipe, even halved, makes a huge number that we two couldn't finish by ourselves. Sometimes, I took the rest into work but now that I'm retired I no longer have hungry colleagues.

Lately I read a kitchen tip in this book that suggested that one can freeze the extra cookie dough in little cookie-sized blobs on a flat pan lined with parchment and then transfer the frozen future cookies to an airtight container to keep until it's time to bake them up. Then, you just thaw as many as you want on a baking sheet and slide them in the oven! Is that a brilliant idea, or what? Fresh cookies in a flash! I know frozen dough has been available in stores for many years but I didn't particularly like the recipe they were made from. This one, however, is my gold standard. Hope you enjoy them, too!

Chocolate Chip Cookies at their Best, from Sunset Magazine

1-1/2 cups butter (the original recipe calls for one cup solid shortening and 1/2 cup butter)
1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons soda
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup rolled oats
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large packages (12 oz. each) semi sweet chocolate baking pieces
2 cups chopped walnuts

In a large mixer bowl, beat together on high speed the butter, granulated and brown sugars until thoroughly combined, about 5 minutes. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and lemon juice.

In a bowl, stir together the soda, salt, cinnamon, oats and flour. Beat dry ingredients into the creamed mixture until well combined; mix in chocolate pieces and nuts.

For each cookie, drop a scant 1/4 cup of dough (I use a small ice cream scoop) on lightly greased baking sheets; make cookies about 3" apart. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

French Tea, English Idea

When Cousin J-Yah and I were window shopping a few months ago, we noticed a pretty but pricey tiered plate and remarked about how nice it would be to use it for a tea party like we did when we were children.

Then, not long after, I happened upon Tal-Y-Tara, a delightful little San Francisco shop that offers an unusual combination - horse tack and afternoon teas. Their tea included several different kinds of sandwiches on brown bread, quite delicious and served in a charming hodgepodge of jodhpurs, saddles, comfy chintz sofas and flowered teapots. I liked their selection of a variety of little bites so when J-Yah scored this colorful tiered plate at a yard sale for a tiny fraction of the cost of the one in the window, I stole their idea for our first tea party.

Using a combination of my homemade white and whole wheat breads and B&M Boston Brown Bread, all very thinly sliced, I stuffed them with fillings such as cucumbers and dill, cream cheese, chicken, cheddar and chutney, and ham and cheese with Dijon mustard. With a few ripe strawberries and some cookies to round out the meal, we brewed some of the The' de Paques and sat down to a tea party, happy as little girls.

Vacation Memories

We discovered Mariage Freres tea in Paris because our rented apartment was just down the street from their flagship store and tearoom in the Marais. We were enchanted and one day had a lovely respite there from the rigors of sightseeing. The surroundings are very "old world" and our young waiter was dead serious about our selection from their 800+ kinds of teas - no kidding, the menu was a bound book! When My Beloved ordered orange tea, the waiter replied with a long face, "Ah, bon, monsieur but we 'ave a problem with ze orange tea. A very grave problem." We traded looks of dismay. "We have three kinds of orange tea - and you must choose." From his voice of doom, you'd have thought it was Sophie's choice. That weighty decision duly made, we enjoyed our tea very much and purchased this little canister of Easter tea (The' de Paques) as we left.

When I opened the canister, I realized just how serious they are about their teas' freshness - inside the lid, which fits very tightly indeed, there is another lid even more precisely sized with a little button handle to help you ease it out.

On our way home, we flew through Heathrow airport in London where My Beloved picked up this tin of cookies as a sort of consolation prize for having to leave Europe. Recently, it all came together to enliven my afternoon after a morning of re-caulking the shower stall. I lead a very glam life at home, as you can tell. I filled my mother's silver tea ball from the fragrant contents of the canister, nuked some water to a fierce boil in the microwave (what else are microwaves good for?) and brewed myself a lovely accompaniment to some of the Harrod's cookies.

They weren't the very best cookies I've ever eaten but the tea was excellent and they were a reminder of a lovely vacation and how lucky I am, caulking gun and all.