You Can Keep Your Oreos

Well, hello there, strangers.  Long time no see!

While I was off in my start-of-the-year teaching crunch, which left me no evenings or weekends free to blog, I understand we had the 100th anniversary of America’s favorite sandwich cookie.  I can appreciate the basic charms of the Oreo as much as anybody, and when I was a teenager in Mexico I was obsessed with them, because this everyday All-American snack couldn’t be had by anyone not affiliated with the US Embassy and thus, they were the perfect symbol for my expatriate adolescent angst. I would insist on my father bringing as many packages as he could from his business trips back to the home office, just so I could feel “normal” for the few days they lasted.

But that phase is mercifully in my past now, and as a grown-up I can also look critically at the little hockey pucks and acknowledge the fact that they’re not really all they’re cracked up to be, which is why I’m going to make up for my latest intermittent silence with a recipe for what I think is the best sandwich cookie in the world.

Alfajores are to Argentina what the chocolate chip cookie is to the U.S.  They’re ubiquitous and can be found in iterations from the mass-produced, individually-wrapped Hostess-equivalent kinds purchasable at the convenience store to the high-end boutique variety in beribboned boxes. When I was growing up and into my adulthood, every relative who visited was expected to bring us at least one box of my personal favorite brand. (Are we sensing a theme about international cookie commissioning by me as a kid?  I was way ahead of the curve on free trade.)

So what are alfajores?  Well, besides being sadly unknown in this hemisphere, confusing to pronounce (all-fah-hor-es) and what I think should replace the macaron as the next fad, they’re shortbready disks faintly hinting at lemon pressed around a layer of dulce de leche, although you can also find fruit-filled ones.  The commercial kind are generally enrobed in either a crackly, powdery sugar glaze or a smooth semisweet chocolate one, which is wonderful but way too much bother for home baking.  Home bakers instead make an easier but no less delicious version in which the cookies, made with cornstarch (the maizena of the name below) for a perfectly delicate crumb, are filled and rolled in coconut to keep the dulce de leche from sticking to your fingers.

Like the Oreo, this is one of those things that sounds too basic to be all that great, but is actually dangerously addictive instead.  The cookies are buttery and tender and neither too oily nor too soft, the dulce de leche adds just the right amount of sweetness to the not-very-sweet cookies, the hint of citrus makes everything sparkle just the tiniest bit, and it all just really, really works.

If you absolutely insist on chocolate in your sandwich cookies, I still have you covered, because not having enough regular dulce de leche on hand, I made part of the batch with chocolate dulce de leche I picked up on sale at the local Whole Paycheck.  Personally, I remain unconvinced by the chocolate kind, which tastes generically fudgy to me and lacks the lovely milky, caramely flavor I think dulce de leche really ought to put front and center in order to live up to the name.  Man, did my coworkers disagree with me, though, because the chocolate ones were by far the favorites and were gone in a blink.

I also filled some with the hurricane plum jam I previously posted about, which worked so splendidly that I hoarded them at home and took none to work. If you use jam, be sure to use a very firm one so that the cookies don’t ooze apart.  You may need to cook it down a bit if what you have is too runny.

However you fill them, seriously, you have to try these.  The minute you do, I know you too will recognize their undeniable awesomeness.

Alfajores de Maizena
Makes about five dozen small cookies, or 2-3 dozen larger ones

For cookies:
1 ½ cups (200 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups (300 grams) cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt
14 tablespoons (200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one medium lemon

For assembly:
One 16-ounce jar dulce de leche or very thick jam
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350 F and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt through a fine sieve twice, the second time onto a large sheet of parchment or wax paper for easy transfer, and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the yolks one at a time, scraping down between additions. Beat in the brandy, vanilla and lemon zest.

Add the dry ingredients in three batches at low speed, mixing until just combined.  Turn onto a Silpat or the reserved parchment sheet that held the dry ingredients, and gently roll to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch or half a centimeter for thinner cookies, and double that for slightly puffier ones.  (Dust the rolling pin with cornstarch if sticking starts to occur.)

Cut the dough with 1½ to 2-inch diameter round cutters, being as careful as you can to minimize the waste.  Use a bench scraper or spatula to transfer the cookies to the baking sheets, spacing about an inch apart.  Gently pull the scraps together and re-roll to use up all the dough.

Bake the cookies just until firm and barely gold on the bottom.  Do not allow to brown on the top or sides.  Remove to a cooling rack immediately and cool completely.

Once the cookies have cooled, form sandwiches by spreading a teaspoonful of dulce de leche or jam onto the bottom of one cookie, and covering with a second. Squeeze gently, just enough to push the filling out to the edges of the cookies.  Place the coconut in a small, shallow container and roll the edges of the cookies in the coconut to evenly coat the exposed filling.

Store the filled cookies in an airtight container, and consume within the next day or two.

Notes:

Because of the very high proportion of cornstarch to flour, the dough is much more resilient on re-rolling than standard dough, but it’s still a good idea to treat it gently to ensure tender cookies.

This is my mom’s recipe, by the way.  I just did the conversions from metric and put back the coconut, which she hates.  Thanks, Mom!

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I’m Still Here

I know it’s been forever, and I will detail some of the reasons why at the end of this post.  Those reasons having come to a satisfactory conclusion about a month ago, I’d basically been dithering about for a few weeks, looking for the right theme and recipe for finally breaking the silence, and then the East Coast experienced an epically ridiculous confluence of events (an earthquake AND a hurricane in the same week?  Seriously, Universe? Seriously?) that presented me with the perfect solution.

I mean, once all the flashlight batteries have been replaced, the patio furniture has been brought inside, and the hatches have been battened as far down as they’re going to go, there’s really only one thing you can do, right?

Make jam.

Now, stay with me here: Jam is shelf-stable, so it doesn’t matter if the power goes out.  It uses up fruit that would just speed up its sitting-around-getting-squishy process without refrigeration. It goes excellently with all the classic natural disaster foods: ice cream that needs to be consumed immediately, peanut butter sandwiches eaten by candlelight, and, of course, French toast the next morning.  Not to mention, it keeps your mind off the impending doom, and gives you the sense that at least one thing is under your control despite the increasingly hysterical news coverage.

See?  It makes total sense.

Since plums were the fruit preparing to give up the ghost in my crisper, that’s the kind of jam I made.  Plums are an excellent jam candidate, since the skins are often too acidic and leathery while the interior flesh can be squishy in texture and unexciting in flavor.  Cook them down with a few spices, though, and they make really stunning amethyst-colored jam the likes of which you can’t find in a store for less than $8 a jar, so you shouldn’t actually need meteorological insanity to nudge you to try this recipe.

I also made a huge pot of black bean soup to pass the time waiting for the basement to flood, and I will write that up next. As for what’s been occupying me for the past six months and kept me off the blogosphere until Irene gave me the kick in the pants….

Well, just after the holidays I taught my first seminar, which was an amazingly rewarding experience but also one of the most intellectually and physically tiring things I’ve ever done.  NaNoWriMo is a walk in the park compared to that, let me tell you.  I don’t think I enjoyed a full night’s sleep until Easter, and I needed about a month to get my energy back afterward.

I didn’t get it, though, because — and this is of more pressing relevance to you all — at the same time, His Lordship and I were in the process of shopping for a house.  It was a confusing, stressful, nerve-wracking time, but we did finally end our long reign of renting at the beginning of the summer, and now have a proper Chez Disdain.  The new manse needs a fair amount of work, so I may well be grumbling about contractors and repair people for some time to come, but the one thing I can’t really complain about is the kitchen, which is fab.  I’ll provide more details and some pictures along with the black bean soup recipe, but for now, here’s just a wee bit of a tease:

Know what that is, my little chickadees?  Need a close-up (kindly overlooking the obvious need to clean, if you would)?

That’s right, a Viking range.  SCORE!

Oh, and in case it wasn’t self-evident from my reappearance, His Lordship, the Monster and I made it through the eye of the hurricane with minimal trauma; just a bit of basement flooding that was dispatched with a few rounds of wet/dry vacuuming and mopping. Now, on to the jam!

Hurricane Preparedness Plum Jam
Makes 3 cups

1 1/2 pounds plums, halved and pitted
Zest and juice of 2 clementines or 1 orange
2/3 cup water
1 vanilla bean, split
2 large slices candied ginger
1/2 small cinnamon stick
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Place the plums in a heavy medium pan with the clementine zest and juice, water, vanilla, ginger and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Cover, lower the heat to a simmer, and cook until the plums are very soft and starting to break up, about 20 minutes.  Cool to room temperature.

While the plums are cooling, clean and sterilize about half a dozen 4-ounce jam jars with their rings and lids, along with any other equipment you feel you need for the preserving process (e.g. a ladle, a wide-mouthed funnel and long-handled tongs).

Remove the cinnamon stick, vanilla bean and ginger slices from the fruit.  Run the plums through a food mill or push it through a sieve into a large measuring cup.

Return the pureed plums to the pot, along with the sugar and lemon juice. Stir over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves, then increase the heat to medium to bring the jam to a boil.  Continue cooking at a low boil, stirring frequently, until it’s thickened and holds its shape when spooned onto a chilled plate, 20-25 minutes.

Transfer the jam into the prepared jars, then seal using the boiling water method.  Refrigerate any jars that don’t seal properly.

Notes:

I used about half a dozen varieties of plums from the farmers market in this batch: yellow-fleshed ones with mottled skins, giant plain red ones, purple ovoid Italian ones, and little unassuming ones with hearts the color of blood. Mixing your plums will give you a more complex and interesting jam, but any variety should be delicious.

This jam is tart and rich enough for savory applications too.  It made a lovely post-hurricane lunch with Manchego on whole wheat for me, and slow-cooked pork loin for His Lordship. I strongly suspect it’d also be smashing with turkey instead of or mixed into cranberry sauce in a couple of months, if you want to get a jump on your holiday prep.

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My Preciousss

We loves Meyerses. Yes, we do. We loves them so much that we sacrifice valuable checked-luggage space just so we can smuggle several pounds of them back from California, probably violating numerous state and federal agricultural regulations in the process. We piles the preciouses up on our kitchen island and stares at them for days, until they start showing signs of wrinkling, and then we panics and makes everything we can think of to save them from being wasted.

Ahem. OK, enough first-person Gollum plural. I believe I’ve made my point, which is that one of the best parts of spending the holidays in California is bringing as many lemons as possible back.

This year, thanks to the combined generosity of my brother, his fiance, and His Lordship’s parents, who made sure I was supplied with lemons despite having no opportunity to shop for them myself, I had enough to require last-minute rearranging of our luggage to avoid paying overweight baggage fees. And unlike my attitude toward persimmons, it physically pains me to let Meyer lemons go to waste, so pretty soon after our return to the East Coast, I had to make efforts to preserve them.

About a half-dozen of them were salted and are currently in the back of my fridge, turning into Moroccan-style preserved lemons. The remainder were used in two variations on jam: one a proper marmalade, and the other a fast and loose almost-instant jam. Both recipes make full use out of the whole fruit, wasting absolutely no part of my sunny beauties.

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On not judging books by their covers

If you saw these lumpy, fuzzy, brown-splotched things in the bargain bin of your local market for $1.50 a bag, you’d think their next stop was the compost heap and you’d walk right past, wouldn’t you?

Oh, but you’d be wrong.  Sadly, sadly wrong, since these less-than-beauteous things are quinces, and pretty is utterly irrelevant when it comes to quinces.

What you would have walked past, my friend, is the bargain of the year, because fresh quinces are usually upwards of a buck apiece, assuming you can even find them.  When I saw these, I squealed like a schoolgirl presented with a new pony, took advantage of the produce staff’s ignorance, and snapped up five pounds for the laughable total of three dollars.  I haven’t been able to find them this cheap in years, which is why I haven’t, until now, been able to make preserves to ease my often-unrequited longing for this headily-perfumed rosy fruit.

Why would you want to go to the trouble of making preserves in the dead of winter, when you’re all burned out from the holiday baking push?  For one thing, quinces are so high in natural pectin that you can get a wonderfully thick, versatile jam for barely more work than making applesauce.  Besides being a lovely spread redolent of sultry nights at the Alhambra, it can be added by the spoonful to lend its hint of mystery to your apple, pear or berry desserts for the rest of the year.

Even better, turning the jam into the toothsome paste traditionally served with Manchego is simply a matter of letting it dry out in a flat vessel, and it keeps for ages in the fridge. Make your own, and the next time you want to put together a schmancy cheese plate, you can tell Whole Paycheck to shove the insane prices they charge for imported dulce de membrillo.

Let us, then, take a delicious lesson from the humble quince, and remember that is not the surface that matters, but the true beauty that is found within.

Quince Preserves

Makes 4 cups jam and one quarter-sheet pan of dulce de membrillo

10 quinces (around 5 pounds)
4 cups granulated sugar (approximately; see instructions below)
Half of a large vanilla bean, split
1 lemon

Wash, peel and core the quinces, chopping roughly. Remove the zest of the lemon in long strips with a peeler, and place with the quinces and vanilla bean in a large pot. Pour over enough water to just cover the fruit, and bring to a boil.  Cover the pot, lower the heat to a simmer, and cook until the fruit is tender, around 45 minutes.  Remove the vanilla bean, but don’t worry about the lemon strips.

Drain the quinces and puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender until smooth, or run them through a food mill if you have one. Measure into a large pan, adding 1 cup sugar for every 1 1/4 cups puree.

Heat on low, stirring, until sugar dissolves, then add the juice of the lemon.  Increase the heat just enough to barely sustain a simmer (more of a blorp, really) and cook for 60-90 minutes, stirring frequently, until very thick and salmon-colored.  If you find that you’re getting a lot of splatter, you can lay two chopsticks or wooden spoons across the top of the pot and setting a lid loosely over it, which should help minimize the mess while leaving room for evaporation.

Spoon the finished jam into clean, sterilized jars.  At this point, you can heat-seal the jars for shelf stability, or simply refrigerate them.

To set as dulce de membrillo, pour into a small, shallow, parchment-lined pan and leave in an oven at the lowest setting for 1-2 hours, or as long as it takes to solidify all the way through. Cut into squares, dust with granulated sugar and store in an covered container in the refrigerator.

Notes:

Should you not be so fortunate as to find quite this many cheap quinces, the recipe can be scaled according to however many you do have.

If you’re not in a rush and want to cut back on the stirring, you can cook down the puree in your slow cooker over several hours, or even overnight.  If His Lordship hadn’t already been using the slow cooker for a pork roast, I would have done so, in order to free up the big stock pot for dinner prep.

Don’t throw away the vanilla bean after you’ve fished it out; dry it and bury it in a container of sugar to scent the sugar, or if you’re feeling really ambitious, make your own vanilla extract by covering it in vodka — or better yet, bourbon — in a small glass bottle.

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Linzer Torte for the Lazy

It’s been about a billion degrees Fahrenheit with equivalent levels of humidity here, so it’s not the ideal time to be baking. Still, expectations have been created at the office for Monday morning treats, and a friend was throwing a wine tasting dinner and had asked us to bring dessert, so the oven was going to have to come on. To add a further degree of challenge, one of the guests at the dinner doesn’t eat eggs. Oh, and I also had a work commitment on Sunday.

In considering what dessert items might be relatively quick and easy, not too oven-intensive, and egg-free, I thought of a favorite and versatile base recipe for Mexican wedding cookies from the San Francisco Chronicle, clipped out and pasted into the three-ring binder that is my own personal relic of those quaint old pre-web-archive dinosaurs-roaming-the-earth days. (God, I don’t miss those days. I was not cut out for scrapbooking, as the disastrous state of that binder explosively testifies. Just try picking it up without two dozen unanchored bits of yellowing newsprint flopping out in all directions.)

The great thing about this recipe, despite the fabulous melting texture and not-too-sugary simplicity, is that you can vary the nuts according to your whim and shape it into any number of forms. Since I’ve had a random craving for Linzer Torte lately, I decided to modify the recipe in that general direction by using almonds, adding the traditional spices and lemon zest, and pushing a thumbprint hollow into each cookie that could be filled with raspberry jam after baking and before the final sprinkling of powdered sugar.

I ended up making two separate batches, because there weren’t enough leftovers after the dinner to take in on Monday. For the second batch, I experimented further to see if a combination of almonds and hazelnuts would be an improvement over almonds alone. Having run out of raspberry jam, I also substituted boysenberry.

Both batches had all the charm of the Austrian classic and were eagerly received by their intended consumers, but I think the first batch was just that bit better. I preferred the more traditional tartness of the raspberry jam, as well as the additional rustic texture from the seeds. The hazelnuts neither helped nor hurt the taste, but I did get a more refined cookie by using sliced almonds in the first than from the whole nuts in the second. The smaller, more uniform slices offered more surface area for toasting, and also gave me a head start on a very fine and even grind. The nut meal made from whole nuts was a rougher mixture of powder and slightly gritty sand. The difference is not great enough to merit a special trip to the store if you have whole almonds in the house, but do try it with sliced almonds if you’re starting from scratch or want the best possible result.

A couple of notes on methodology:

Despite the name, I find that the bowl of a 1/4 teaspoon measure is a much better tool for shaping the crater than your thumb. The hollow will be perfectly round and even, and you won’t be left digging dough from under your nails.

Also, if you don’t bake immediately after mixing, try not to use the dough when it’s too cold, since that will promote cracking along the edges. This not only makes for a less attractive cookie, but also causes fissures in the hollow that can allow jam to flow out the caldera like lava streams oozing down Kilauea’s slopes. The dough should be at room temperature, not straight from the fridge but not soft and oily either.

Linzer Thumbprints
Makes 50 cookies

4 ounces sliced almonds (1 1/4 cups), or two ounces each whole almonds and hazelnuts (just under 1 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus extra for dusting
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon each ground cloves and mace
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
Grated zest of one lemon, approximately 1 teaspoon

1 cup jam of choice, preferably raspberry
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Toast the nuts on a cookie sheet until fragrant, approximately 10-15 minutes. If using sliced almonds, stir periodically to ensure even browning, and remove from oven as soon as they are pale golden brown. If using a mixture of almonds and hazelnuts, remove from oven when the skins on the hazelnuts have darkened and cracked, and the meat peeking through is starting to turn gold. Set aside to cool briefly and, if desired, rub off some of the bitter hazelnut skins.

Sift the flour, salt and spices together in a small bowl.

In a food processor, blend the toasted nuts with 1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar until finely ground. Do not overprocess or the nuts will become oily and start to produce a nut butter.

In a mixer, cream the butter and remaining confectioner’s and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the lemon zest. Reduce speed to low and mix in the nut mixture, then the flour mixture, until combined.

Using a small scoop or a tablespoon measure, form balls 1 to 1 1/2 inch around and place 1/2 inch apart on parchment-lined sheets. Using the back of a 1/4 teaspoon measure or, if you really prefer, your thumb, gently make an indentation in each cookie, pushing halfway down to the surface of the sheet.

Bake 13-15 minutes, until just starting to brown. Remove to racks to cool completely.

To serve, mix lemon juice into the jam to brighten the flavor slightly, and fill each crater with the jam. Dust the filled cookies with a light coating of additional powdered sugar before serving.

Unfilled but dusted with powdered sugar, these will keep very well in an airtight container for days, and their flavor will even improve a little. If you’re planning on traveling with them, I suggest you take the cookies and the jam in separate containers and fill them on site before serving. Keeping the filled cookies from sliding around, flipping over or sticking to each other and smearing jam everywhere is more of an engineering challenge than you probably want to tackle.

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Holiday Cookie Blogging: Pistachios and Chocolate Two Ways, plus Jam Almond Diamonds

My official policy is that the holidays are not over until I say they are, and I generally don’t say they are until after my birthday at the end of January, so there’s still time for holiday cookie baking as far as I’m concerned.

Depending on how organized I am in any given year, I launch the holiday cookie baking season the weekend of Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December. As I have quite a number of people on my cookie recipient list and some of them are significant distances away, my seasonal selection has been biscotti-heavy of late, because biscotti are easy to make in large quantities, are infinitely variable, keep for weeks, and ship well. Gingerbread, amaretti, shortbread, and other dry and crispy cookies are also must-haves, although I also like to make a few more delicate offerings for strictly local and immediate consumption.

I made six different cookies this year, two of which I have already been blogged about: Meyer lemon-rosemary shortbread, and Anzac Biscuits. Three new whim-driven experiments also joined the gift boxes: two variations on a pistachio-chocolate theme, and a jam and almond diamond that was too fragile and perishable to mail out but which was a huge hit when handed out at the office.

The pistachio-chocolate biscotti came from my constant fiddling with biscotti additions, and started out as a pistachio-dried apricot version I thought would look festive for the holidays last year. Unfortunately, the apricots turned into little pieces of shrapnel after that much oven drying, so I swapped them out with dark chocolate, remembering how well my earlier walnut-chocolate chunk version had turned out. Besides tasting wonderfully exotic and adult, the bright green nuts and dark brown chocolate make for a smashingly dramatic look.

The amaretti are the result of a market failure. Last winter I discovered cacao nibs, the roasted beans chocolate is made from. Much like coffee beans, cacao nibs are crunchy and loaded with flavor, tasting like a cross between pure dark chocolate and toasted nuts. I fell fast and hard, and instantly went about looking for ways to use them. In the middle of making my own amaretti when I couldn’t find them in my neighborhood haunts and couldn’t be bothered to make a trip to the specialty store, it occurred to me that cacao nibs were nut-like enough to be swapped out for part of the ground almonds in my recipe. I tried it, and loved the sophisticated results. I later substituted hazelnuts for the almonds, since the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate is so perfectly Italian, and their stronger flavor also stood up better to the nibs. The downside is that hazelnut skins are bitter and absolutely must be removed before using them. Given that I’m feeling both lazy and extravagant this time of year, I usually end up springing for blanched hazelnuts instead of toasting until the skins split and laboriously rubbing them off with a dish towel.

Although I was willing, nay, happy to pay the usurious prices charged by Whole Foods, they were just not to be had this time, so when I got home, I considered my pantry options. Spotting the pistachios, I gave them a try and was happily surprised when I bit into the first finished cookie and discovered that, while different, it was just as good. I’m sure I’ll continue to shell out for the hazelnuts, since they are my favorite nut, but the pistachio option is one to keep. Equally delicious but half the price and none of the bother. What’s not to love?

The final cookie is a twist on the America’s Test Kitchen take on the “one dough many cookies” idea in The New Best Recipe. I’m really not a fan of the plain sugar cookie, both because I find them boring and because I have no patience for cookie cutters these days, but I had faith in the ATK people and liked the idea of the chocolate-hazelnut bar cookie alternative they suggested. Since I had just done two chocolate-nut cookies, though, I wanted to do something a bit different. I thought of spreading the warm cookie base with seedless blackberry jam and sprinkled it with roughly chopped toasted almonds instead. The buttery crust, bright fruit and caramelized nuts ended up tasting like a deconstructed Linzertorte, and their fancy, stained-glass sheen are perfect for this time of year. As I discovered when I took them to work the next morning, they are too sticky and tender to travel well, but they are so easy to throw together, please consider inviting people over for these and a cup of tea.

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Biscotti
(Makes 4-5 dozen, depending on how thinly you slice them)

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 1/2 cups shelled pistachios
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Blend the butter and sugars together in a mixer until fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and espresso powder and add to the wet mixture, beating again gently until just combined. Stir in the pistachios and chocolate.

Divide the dough in half and shape into two 12-inch loaves on the baking sheet. Bake until light brown and beginning to crack, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

Lower the oven to 300F. Slice the loaves on the diagonal with a serrated knife into 1/4 inch slices. Place the slices in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake again until toasted and golden, about 15 minutes. Turn over and bake again until crisp, an additional 10-15 minutes. If the cookies are not sufficiently dry at that point, turn the oven off and leave several hours or overnight to cool.

Notes: Thinner is absolutely better in this case, as you want crisp but not tooth-breaking cookies, so fight the urge to slice them any thicker than 1/4 inch. You could use either raw or roasted pistachios, but using raw will help preserve the beautiful green color a bit better by preventing over-toasting.

Pistachio-Cacao Nib Amaretti
(Makes approximately four dozen)

1 cup roasted, unsalted shelled pistachios
1/2 cup roasted cacao nibs
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 egg whites
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the pistachios, nibs, cornstarch and powdered sugar in a food processor and pulse until the nuts and nibs are very finely chopped.

Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the granulated sugar in a slow stream while continuing to beat until a stiff and glossy meringue forms. Beat in the vanilla.

Gently fold the nut mixture into the meringue with a rubber spatula. Scoop the batter onto the baking sheets with a tablespoon-sized ice cream scoop, approximately twenty cookies per sheet. (Since they will not spread very much, they can be spaced closer than usual.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cookies begin to crack slightly. Lower the oven to 200 F, leaving the door ajar to release excess heat, and bake until completely dry and crisp in the center, 30-45 minutes. The oven can also be turned off and the cookies left overnight to dry.

The cooled cookies can be kept in an airtight container almost indefinitely, and ship beautifully.

Jam Almond Diamonds
(Makes approximately 4 dozen, not including the waste along the edges)

1 1/2 cups whole almonds
2 1/2 cups (12.5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup (5.5 oz) superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature but still cool
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups seedless jam of choice

Adjust rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

While preparing the cookie dough, bake the almonds in the heated oven until toasted and golden. Remove and allow to cool, then chop coarsely.

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a mixer until combined. With mixer on low, add butter one piece at a time, then continue to mix until mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix until dough just begins to come together.

Press the dough into an even layer in the baking sheet and bake until golden brown, approximately 20 minutes. Immediately after removing from oven, spread with the jam and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Cool to room temperature, then cut into 1 1/2-inch diamond shapes.

Notes: You will have a fair amount of waste, since there’s no way to get perfect diamonds without creating triangles, trapezoids and the like along the edges, but I consider the waste the baker’s tax and will happily reserve it all for my personal consumption. If you want to avoid the waste and don’t care as much about a pretty shape, you can just cut the cookies into squares or rectangles instead.

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Sunday Night Cookie Blogging: Strawberry-Rhubarb Bars

As I mentioned previously, one of my finds at the farmer’s market this weekend was rhubarb, another later-in-life love. I don’t think I ever had it until well into adulthood, but as with cranberries, I fell hard and completely, and when it’s in season, I snatch up all I can and freeze some for the rest of the year. For the inaugural rhubarb recipe of 2006, I decided a bar cookie might be nice, with a sweet-tart layer of rhubarb sandwiched between two buttery layers of cookie dough.

In order to develop this recipe, I combined and modified components from two separate recipes. On the one hand, I had a recipe for a strawberry-rhubarb bar in The All-American Cookie Book, but the oat-and-nut-fortified dough from a raspberry bar recipe in my latest cookbook acquisition, The New Best Recipe by the America’s Test Kitchen chefs, sounded much better than the plain short pastry dough in the original cookie. I decided to combine the two and hope that the combination of the superior elements would result in a superior bar cookie.

The end product of this tinkering was not perfect, because the filling was a bit too loose and the cookies don’t have quite enough structural integrity to cut as cleanly as I’d like. The flavor is great, though, and I like the firm but tender texture and the toasty nuttiness of the dough. Next time, I may fiddle with the amount of thickener, or possibly try a different kind of, or slightly less, jam. With a bit more work, this could go from a very nice but homey cookie to a refined and suitable addition to a springtime tea tray.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Bars
Makes 24 1×2-inch cookies

Filling
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 lb rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 10-oz jar (1 1/4 cups) strawberry jam
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Grated zest of one orange

Crust and Streusel Topping
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, slightly softened, cut into 12 pieces

In a heavy, nonreactive saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon until evenly distributed. Stir in the rhubarb, jam and orange zest and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring frequently, until the rhubarb begins to soften, approx. 6-8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Place the oven rack in the lower two-thirds position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with two strips of parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil, letting the strips overhang the edges of the pan to serve as a sling for removing the cookies later.

In a mixer, mix the flour, oats, granulated and brown sugar, baking soda, salt and walnuts at low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter, continuing to mix on low speed until the mixture is well
blended and resembles wet sand.

Press two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of the pan and bake until it starts to brown, about 20-25 minutes. Spread the strawberry-rhubarb filling over the crust and sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture evenly over the filling. Bake until the filling bubbles around the edges and the top is golden brown, approximately 35 minutes, rotating once during baking.

Cool on a wire rack until room temperature, approximately 1 1/2 hours. Remove the cookies from the pan by lifting the edges of the foil or parchment, and cut into squares.

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