Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Help Me Plan My Holiday Bash, Part Two; Or, The Massive Cookie List

PhotobucketI promised last week that I would share the Massive Cookie List, and here it is:

Apple Butter Thumbprint Cookies (with my own home made apple butter! Boo yeah!)
Apricot-Chocolate Triangles
Brown Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Covered Coffee Bean, Toffee and Almond Cookies
Chocolate Covered Port Cake Balls
Chocolate Espresso Balls
Chocolate Mints
Chocolate Orange-Cream Bars
Cinnamon Buns
Coconut Dreams
Date Squares
Empire Cookies
Double Chocolate Espresso Brownies
Ganache-Covered Mini Cakes
Graham Cracker Sandwiches
Gingerbread
Green Tea Shortbread
Holiday Candy Fudge Bars
Iced Sugar Cookies
Lemon Squares
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Orange Date Nut Cookies
Orange Dream Cookies
Pecan Butter Cookies
Peppermint Candy Shortbread
Rice Krispy Squares
Rum Balls
Shortbread
Smoky Bacon Ginger Cookies
Tartufi
Tipsy Date Squares
Whoopie Pies

Many of these recipes come from the book I've photographed above. This is, rather unfortunately, now out of print. I've found it to be the best collection of cookies recipes I've come across; they're really reliable, simple, easy to follow recipes with readily available ingredients.
I've bolded the recipes on the Massive Cookie List that come out of this book.

The italicized recipes are from one of my many Martha Stewart mags. Now, I love Martha, her stuff is always beautiful and wonderfully put together. But I've found the majority of her recipes I've tried to be overly complicated, with hard-to-find ingredients.

Case in point: Smoky Bacon Ginger Cookies.
These include smoked sea salt (who knew? I might be living under a rock, but I'd never encountered this before), as well as sorghum syrup. I've done my googling, and discovered that this is a popular ingredient in the southern parts of the States, but (again, possibly due to my habitation under aforementioned rock) I've never heard of this syrup before.
Substitutions suggested have been unsulphered molasses, but with the caveat that "it's just not the same".

Has anyone ever tried sorghum syrup before? I suppose it must have a distinctive flavour.

Anyway, after that tirade, you might wonder why I've still included so many of her recipes on the Massive List. Well, I like to try new recipes, and they all do look so very delicious! You can likely find some of them by googling the recipe name and Martha Stewart.

As a parting note, I thought I'd share an image from my so-far-very-successful goodie baking extravaganza.
This is (me version of) an Empire Cookie.
I make the (basic sugar cookie) dough with icing sugar, not granulated (makes it yummier!), I don't put that icky maraschino cherry on top (because it's icky!) and the icing has fresh lemon juice in it, instead of almond extract. These are possibly the yummiest cookies ever.

Photobucket

6 comments:

kingshearte said...

I was looking for sorghum flour once, and the only place I could find it was a health food type store that sold stuff in bulk. If you have one of those near you, maybe they might have syrup too? Beyond that, I have no idea. Happy baking!

thimbley said...

You suck, those cherries make Empires awesome :P They are my favourites to make! I find that they taste best if I make them the day before and then leave them overnight to let the jam and icing sink in and make them soft.

Hilary said...

Holy smokes, you weren't kidding when you said you had a massive cookie list! I am impressed. They all sound so yummy...I think I just heard my stomach grumble, too. As for sorghum syrup, I don't think I could find it here either, and I've never had it. Why, Martha, must you call for such odd ingredients?!

Sachertort said...

I was looking at the recipe also. I will substitute Lyles golden syrup, should be fine. Also I'm going with just plain sea salt. Really, who is going taste that difference?

Sachertort said...

I also have a cookie list, maybe 10 or 12, but I see I am a piker compared to you. some of my recipes are austrian from my MIL , like vanilla kipfels, lebkuchen, zimtsterne, date/almond meringues. others I've picked up over the years. Each year I like to try at least one new recipe and last year I made Martha's Rosemary Shortbread from her 2010 cookie mag-- actually this one has the bacon ginger cookies in it. The above Shortbread was delicious!

Ravenred (rav name) said...

I've never met anyone who had a cookie list as long as mine. I feel a little less crazy now. Every year the list gets a little longer because I keep buying new cookie mags. Of course, I never make them all. I'm especially fond of refrigerator cookies so I can make the dough in October or November and freeze it until December.