SERIOUS SUNDAY COOKIES!! From "Dorie's Cookies" 🌞

FORTUNE COOKIES

After all the things I’ve baked over the years, I’m still
gleeful when I make something that I’ve always thought of
as not “homemakable.” And so, just as you’d imagine, I
was pretty tickled when I turned out these fortune
cookies. Not that there’s anything difficult about them, but
they are fussy and like children: Turn your back on them
and they’ll do whatever they want.

The batter is a mix-it-together-in-a-flash blend of egg
whites, sugar, flour and very soft butter. It’s a breeze.
Spreading it on a baking sheet using a homemade stencil
—also easy. But there’s a learning curve for shaping the
cookies, and it involves a few broken ones. However, once
you get the hang of it, you’ll be very pleased with yourself.
Have fun making these. And have fun making up the
fortunes. It’s your chance to rule the world. Be kind,
gentle, funny and inspiring, and don’t forget to do what I
do: Stuff a cookie or three with orders to hug the baker.
You can always say it’ll bring good fortune . . . and more
cookies.

A word on temperature: In order to make an easily
spreadable batter—and spreadability is all-important with
these—make sure your butter is soft (not oily, but easily
smearable) and your egg whites are at room temperature.

A word on baking: I’ve made these on buttered baking
sheets and on baking sheets lined with silicone baking
mats—the buttered sheets are better.

Makes about 18 cookies

3½ tablespoons (1¼ ounces; 49 grams) unsalted butter,
very soft
¼ cup (50 grams) sugar
Pinch of fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
2 large egg whites, beaten with a fork, at room temperature
⅓ cup (45 grams) all-purpose flour

Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. Butter
two smooth baking sheets (see headnote). Have a teaspoon, two
small offset icing spatulas (one for spreading—you can use the
back of a spoon, but a spatula is easier—and one for removing
the cookies from the baking sheet), a cooling rack, a glass
measuring cup (you’ll use it to bend the cookies) and a minimuffin tin at hand.

For the arts-and-crafts part of the project, cut 18 to 20 strips of
paper, 4 to 5 inches long and about ⅓ inch wide, and write your
fortunes. Then use the top of a yogurt container or even a piece
of the side of a waxed cardboard milk container to make a stencil:

Cut out an inner circle that’s 3 inches in diameter and leave
yourself enough material around the opening to easily lift the
stencil off the baking sheet.Working with a mixer (stand or hand)
or in a bowl with a sturdy flexible spatula, beat the butter until
very creamy. Add the sugar and salt and mix until incorporated.
Blend in the extracts. Little by little, work the whites into the mixture.
Don’t be discouraged when your batter looks like egg drop soup—
it will all be fine. When you’ve done the best that you can with the
whites, stir in the flour.

Because it takes some practice to fold and shape these, I
suggest you make just one or two for the first batch. Lay the
stencil flat against the baking sheet, spoon a rounded
teaspoonful of batter into the center of it (more batter will make
the cookies too thick; less will make them way too fragile) and use
a small offset spatula (or the back of a spoon) to spread the
batter evenly across the circle. The layer will be thin, and that’s
what will make your cookies wonderful. (Try not to make them
much thicker in the center than around the edges.) Don’t worry
about getting batter on the stencil—it’s actually a good thing (it
means you’ve gone to the borders). Gently peel away or lift the
stencil.

Bake for 6 to 7 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie(s) are
just lightly browned. Now, working quickly and with the
confidence that you’ll really only have once you’ve got some
experience, transfer the baking sheet to a rack on the counter
and slide the offset spatula under one of the cookies. Flip the
cookie over onto the counter, place a fortune just a little above
the middle of it (the ends will extend beyond the cookie) and fold
the cookie up over the fortune (the top edges should just about
meet), then bend the straight side of the cookie over the edge of
the measuring cup, curl the cookie and tuck it into the minimuffin
pan to shape it; hold it for a few seconds so that it cools in
its shape.

Continue to bake and shape the cookies, always making sure
the baking sheet is cool and buttered, and never baking more
than 3 cookies at a time, because they’ll harden too quickly for
you to fold them nicely. The cookies set almost instantly, so you
can serve them as soon as you like.

STORING

The least bit of humidity is enough to make these go soft, so store
them in a covered container and hope that the weather stays dry;
they’ll be good for 1 week.

From "Dorie's Cookies"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28560925-dorie-s-cookies


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MAPLE–STAR ANISE COOKIES,
SANDWICHED OR OPEN-FACED

Star anise rarely gets to take center stage. If you know it,
you can pick it out even when it’s used sparingly, as it
almost always is. It’s got a distinctive, leaning-toward
licorice taste prized in Asian cuisines, and it adds a touch
of mystery to spice blends that include ginger and
cinnamon, its mates in these cookies. Add maple syrup
and brown sugar, and the flavors in these chubby cookies,
with their light sugar crust and soft innards, conspire to
create warmth and happiness.

These can easily be piled into the cookie jar as soon as
they’re cool, and they’ll go fast. But make a gently spiced
cream cheese frosting and use it to frost either the tops or
bottoms of the cookies or, better yet, to fill and sandwich
them, and they’ll go even faster.

Makes about 48 cookies or 24 sandwiches

FOR THE COOKIES

1½ cups (204 grams) all-purpose flour
½ cup (68 grams) whole wheat flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ teaspoons ground star anise½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks (8 ounces; 226 grams) unsalted butter, cut into
chunks, at room temperature
½ cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar
¼ cup (50 grams) sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Raw or granulated sugar, for coating

FOR THE FILLING OR FROSTING (OPTIONAL)

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
⅛ teaspoon ground star anise
⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to
350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or
silicone baking mats.

TO MAKE THE COOKIES:

Whisk both flours, the baking soda, star anise, ginger and
cinnamon together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment,
or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, both sugars,
the orange zest and salt on medium speed for 3 minutes,scraping
down the bowl as needed. Add the egg, followed by the maple
syrup and vanilla, and beat for another 2 minutes. Turn off
the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once and pulse until the
risk of flying flour has passed. With the mixer on low, scraping the
bowl when necessary, beat until the dry ingredients are fully
incorporated.

Put some raw or granulated sugar in a small bowl. Using a
small cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of dough or use a
teaspoon to get rounded spoonfuls. Roll each cookie between
your palms to make a ball, dredge in the sugar and place on the
baking sheets, leaving a generous 2 inches of space between the
balls—these are spreaders.

Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom
and front to back after 5 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies
have crusted—they’ll still feel a little soft—and the edges are set.
Transfer the sheets to racks and let the cookies rest for 5
minutes, then carefully lift them onto the racks and cool
completely.

Repeat with the remaining dough, making certain that the
baking sheets are cool.

TO MAKE THE FILLING OR FROSTING AND FINISH THE COOKIES (OPTIONAL):

Put the cream cheese frosting in a bowl and, using a flexible spatula
(or a mixer), beat in the remaining ingredients, beating until the
mixture is smooth.

To frost the cookies, use a small offset icing spatula or a table
knife to cover the tops or bottoms of the cookies. Frosted cookies
can be refrigerated for 30 minutes to set the frosting or left at
room temperature. If you’d like to make sandwich cookies,
generously cover the bottoms of half the cookies with filling,
sandwich the cookies and refrigerate; cover after about 30
minutes. Remove the cookies from the refrigerator about 15
minutes before serving.

STORING

The dough can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days
(bake cold dough for 1 to 2 minutes longer) or wrapped airtight
and frozen for up to 2 months. Unfilled or unfrosted, the cookies
will keep in a covered container for about 4 days at room
temperature or for up to 2 months, wrapped airtight, in the
freezer. Sandwich cookies should be kept covered in the
refrigerator (they’ll keep for up to 4 days); frosted cookies can be
kept for the same amount of time.


From "Dorie's Cookies"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28560925-dorie-s-cookies


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CARAMEL-SUGAR PUFFLETS

You know those puff pastry cookies that look like hearts
or butterflies and are called elephant ears or palmiers?
The ones that are all golden brown because the sugar that
they were rolled in caramelized in the oven? Well, these
are close.

The base is the almost magical yeasted Sour Cream Puff
Dough, which gets the same treatment you’d give to puff
pastry, meaning you roll the dough out until it’s twice as
long as it is wide, fold it like a letter, turn it so it looks like
a book and do it again and then again. Each time you roll
the dough out on sugar, sugar becomes embedded in the
dough, and then every part of the dough that touches the
baking sheet becomes caramelized when baked. Because
the sour cream dough is yeasted, it’s lighter than
traditional puff pastry. That you might want to eat these
cookies the way you do popcorn is only to be expected.

A word on amounts: I’m giving you a recipe that uses half
of the **Sour Cream Puff Dough. If you’d like, you can
double the amount of sugar here and roll and bake the
full batch. Or make savory Sour Cream–Everything Seed
Knots with the other half of the dough. (The dough you
don’t use now can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.)

Makes about 30 cookies

½ cup (100 grams) sugar, plus extra
for the last rollout
½ recipe **Sour Cream Puff Dough (make the full recipe and
reserve the other half—see headnote), chilled and ready to roll.
All-purpose flour, for dusting, if needed

Clear a large work surface and have a ruler at hand. Sprinkle the
surface with some sugar, place the dough on the sugar and
sprinkle some sugar over the dough. (You’re going to roll and fold
the dough 3 times; by the end of the third roll, you’ll have used
the full ½ cup sugar.)

Roll the dough, lifting it from time to time to make sure it’s not
sticking and sprinkling the work surface with sugar as needed,
until it’s about 16 inches long and 8 inches wide. It’s hard to be
exact, but the closer you can come to these measurements and
to having the dough be twice as long as it is wide, the more evenly
it will puff in the oven.

Fold the dough in thirds as you would a business letter (i.e., lift
the bottom third of the dough, the end closest to you, over the
center of the dough and then bring the top third of the dough over
until the edge of that piece reaches the bottom fold). Give the dough
a quarter turn, so that the long side that looks like the pages of a
book is on your right. This is the basic technique for this dough and
it’s the one you’ll repeat, always turning the dough in the same direction.

If your room is very hot and/or the dough is very soft and you
think you’ll have trouble continuing to roll it, slide it onto a
parchment-lined baking sheet and pop it into the refrigerator or
freezer for 15 minutes. And, if your dough gets soft and seems to
tear, patch it as best you can, sprinkling the tear with flour, and
give it a chill before carrying on. If you think you need to dust the
work surface and the doughwith flour, do so, but be stingy. Roll,
fold and turn the dough two more times, always rolling it on sugar
and sprinkling sugar on top of the dough (using only as much flour
as you need to keep things moving if necessary).

When you have completed 3 full turns, chill the dough until you’re
ready to bake it, up to 2 hours.

GETTING READY TO BAKE:

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 375 degrees F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Sprinkle additional sugar on the work surface and over the
dough and roll the dough out once more into a 16-x-8-inch
rectangle.

Using a bench scraper, a pizza wheel or a knife (being
careful not to mar your counter), cut the dough in half from top
to bottom and then crosswise into 1-inch-wide bands. If you’d
prefer smaller cookies, cut the bands crosswise in half to make
nuggets. Place the cookies on the baking sheets, leaving an inch
or so between them.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom
and front to back after 8 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed
and golden brown. Transfer the baking sheets to racks and allow
the cookies to rest for 3 minutes or so, then carefully lift them
onto the racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

STORING

While the dough can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to 4 days,
once you start rolling the dough in sugar, you must go right
through and bake the cookies, stopping just to refrigerate or
freeze the dough briefly between rolls and turns. The cookies are
best eaten the day they are baked.

PLAYING AROUND

Caramel-Sugar Twists. Cut the dough into bands that are ½ inch wide,
twist them before placing them on the baking sheet and gently press
the ends onto the sheet.Even though you press the ends, the dough
might still rise so exuberantly in the oven that the twists will turn into
bent bands—no matter, they’ll still be good.


***********

**SOUR CREAM PUFF DOUGH

I don’t know how I ended up with 1001 Dairy Dishes from
the Sealtest Kitchens, published in 1961, long before I
started cooking. It’s a small paperback (from a brand that
hasn’t existed in decades), and while it looks thumbed
through, I don’t think I was the one who did the thumbing.
Wherever it came from—did someone mail in box tops to
get it?—and however it survived on my shelves, getting
this recipe makes me glad I’m constitutionally incapable of
decluttering.

In addition to being buttery and rich, tangy, beautiful
and light-textured, the dough is interesting. Although it’s
made with yeast, it’s treated like puff pastry. Once chilled,
it’s rolled, folded and turned several times, just as puff
pastry and other laminated doughs are. It’s not difficult,
but it does take time.

You’ll love what you can do with it. Because there’s no
sugar in it, it can be used to make either sweet or savory
cookies. I use it for Caramel-Sugar Pufflets and Sour
Cream–Everything Seed Knots, but there’s lots more to be
done with it. Play around!

A word on quantity: You’ll get a generous packet of dough
from this recipe. Because you have to work with half of
the dough at a time and because the dough can be kept in
the refrigerator for a few days, you can use one piece to
make sweet cookies and the other to make savories.

Makes enough for about 60 cookies

1 package (2¼ teaspoons, 7 grams) dry active yeast (rapid or regular)
¼ cup (60 ml) warm water (see yeast packet for exact temperature)
3¼ cups (442 grams) all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
2 sticks (8 ounces; 226 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into
small pieces
1 large egg
¾ cup (180 grams) full-fat sour cream

Stir the yeast into the warm water and let the mixture stand at
room temperature for about 5 minutes, until creamy. The yeast
might not bubble, and that’s fine.

Put the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse to blend.
Scatter over the pieces of cold butter and pulse in long (about 10-
second) spurts until the flour looks grainy.

Whisk the egg and sour cream together in a small bowl until
smooth. Add the yeast and blend.

Add the liquid ingredients to the processor a bit at a time,
pulsing after each addition. Then pulse until everything comes
together and you’ve got a moist dough.

Scrape the dough out and knead briefly and lightly to form a
ball. Put the ball in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate
for at least 2 hours.Once the dough is thoroughly chilled, it’s ready
to be used. See whatever recipe(s) you’ve chosen for directions on
rolling and baking.

STORING

You can keep the dough, covered, for up to 4 days in the
refrigerator.


From "Dorie's Cookies"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28560925-dorie-s-cookies

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FRIENDSHIP COOKIES

In truth, these are Rugelach, but while I’ve been making
them for decades, I still don’t know if I’m pronouncing
their name correctly. I go with a short u, as in rug, but
perhaps the u is long, as in rue. Recently I decided to stop
worrying about this detail and just call these roll-up
sweets Friendship Cookies, because no matter whom I
serve these to, the recipients want to follow me home and
be my best friend.

I learned to make rugelach from my mother-in-law, who
made the cream cheese dough in a bowl with a wooden
spoon (which is how I made it until I got a food processor).
She filled her almost crescent-shaped cookies with
cinnamon-sugar, currants and nuts, and I did too, for a
while. Soon after those first forays, though, I succumbed
to the lure of a layer of jam and the appeal of some
chocolate pieces. And that’s pretty much been my
standard.

A word on the filling: I’m giving you what I consider my
classic, but I mix it up lots and you should too. Try using
dried cherries or bits of dried apricots in place of the raisins.
And, if you’d like, soak the fruit in tea or something
stronger (cherries are great in kirsch or port; apricots in
rum, Grand Marnier or amaretto). Of course you can
change the nuts as well as the cinnamon and jam. You
could even forget the jam . . . as long as you’re not making
rugelach for my husband.

Makes 32 cookies

FOR THE DOUGH

4 ounces (113 grams) cold full-fat cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick (8 tablespoons; 4 ounces; 113 grams) cold unsalted
butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup (136 grams) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

FOR THE FILLING

¼ cup (40 grams) plump, moist raisins
⅔ cup (212 grams) seedless raspberry jam, apricot jam or
marmalade
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup (30 grams) chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds
4 ounces (113 grams) finely chopped semisweet or
bittersweet chocolate or ⅔ cup (113 grams) mini chocolate
chips

FOR THE GLAZE

1 large egg1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons sugar, preferably sanding sugar

TO MAKE THE DOUGH:

Let the pieces of cream cheese and butter rest
on the counter for 5 minutes—you want them to be slightly
softened but still cool.

Put the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse to blend.

Scatter the chunks of cream cheese and butter over the dry
ingredients and pulse the machine 6 to 10 times. Once you’ve got
everything broken up, process in long pulses, scraping down the
sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds—
don’t work it so long that it forms a ball on the blade.

Turn the dough out and gather it together. Divide it in half and
shape each half into a disk; work with one disk at a time. Lightly
flour a piece of parchment paper, set the dough on the paper,
flour the top of the dough, cover with another piece of parchment
and start rolling. You’re aiming for a circle that’s 11 to 12 inches
in diameter.

Don’t worry about getting it perfectly round—ragged edges are just
fine. Slide the dough, still sandwiched between the paper, onto a
baking sheet—you can stack the slabs—and freeze for at least 1
hour, or refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

GETTING READY TO BAKE:

Position the racks to divide the oven into
thirds and preheat it to 325 degrees F. Have two baking sheets
and a pizza wheel (or knife) at hand. If you’ve got silicone baking
mats, line the baking sheets with them—they make removing the
roll-ups much easier. If not, use parchment paper.

TO MAKE THE FILLING AND SHAPE THE RUGELACH:

Toss the raisins into a small bowl and cover with very hot tap water.
Allow them to soakwhile you’re working on the rest of the filling.
Drain and pat them dry before using.

Stir the jam. If you think it will be hard to spread a layer on the
dough, add a splash of water and warm it in the microwave just
to thin it a bit. Let it cool—you don’t want to melt the dough.

Stir the sugar and cinnamon together.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, peel away both
pieces of parchment and put the dough back on one piece. With
a pastry brush or an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of jam
over the dough. Sprinkle over half of the cinnamon-sugar, half of
the nuts, half of the raisins and half of the chopped chocolate.

Cover the filling with a piece of parchment and press very gently
to “glue” the filling to the dough; remove the paper. Using the
pizza wheel or a knife, cut the circle into quarters and cut each
quarter into 4 wedges. Test the dough: If you think you can roll it
up, get to work; if the dough cracks, let it rest on the counter for a
few minutes. Starting at the base of each wedge, roll the dough
up. The jam will ooze out and be messy—that’s just how it goes.
Place the rugelach on the lined baking sheet, making sure the
points are underneath, and refrigerate while you fill and shape
the second batch of rugelach.

TO GLAZE AND BAKE THE RUGELACH:

Beat the egg lightly with the cold water and brush a thin coat of
the glaze over the tops of the rugelach. Sprinkle with the sugar.

Bake the roll-ups for 37 to 40 minutes, rotating the sheets front
to back and top to bottom after 20 minutes, or until they are
beautifully golden. The jam will have bubbled and burned around
the edges, but the bottoms will be fine. You want to lift the
rugelach off the baking sheet as soon as they come from the
oven, especially if you’ve baked them on parchment—if you wait,
the jam will glue the cookies to the paper.

Transfer them to racks and cool to just warm or to room temperature before serving.

STORING

Wrapped airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months. The
cookies are truly at their best soon after they’re made. If you must
keep them overnight, pack them in a container and then reheat
them briefly in a 350-degree-F oven before serving. The baked
cookies can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months,
but the best way to freeze these is unbaked; bake them directly
from the freezer, adding a few extra minutes of oven time.


From "Dorie's Cookies"
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28560925-dorie-s-cookies


Wow! Thanks Dorie, (some heavy-lifting there)!