Better late than never...
Tonight I finished baking my cookies to ship out. I made a batch of Lemon Wafers, and Viennese Brandy Twists. There are about 3 dozen of each.
The Lemon Wafers are from Holly Garrison's book "Comfort Food" (1988, Dell Publishing), and you can find the recipe on my website.
Recipe: Viennese Brandy Twists
"Makes 120 to 125 cookies." [Hah! Maybe a third or a quarter that, see my notes below.]
"I tend to prefer plain, simple cookies and these fit the bill very well. They don't look simple, because of their braided shape, but the taste is simple and good. They are a crisp, brown sugar cookie with a subtle hint of spices and a touch of brandy, and are perfect with a hot cup of tea."
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons brandy
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped hazelnuts
[Don't get me wrong -- the cookies are tasty little morsels, and there are enough for the LJ monkeys. It's tricky for a big guy like me to get the hang of making very tiny cookies, so the yield is never as numerous as the book specs call for, but this one was even more so than usual...]
The Lemon Wafers are from Holly Garrison's book "Comfort Food" (1988, Dell Publishing), and you can find the recipe on my website.
Recipe: Viennese Brandy Twists
"Makes 120 to 125 cookies." [Hah! Maybe a third or a quarter that, see my notes below.]
"I tend to prefer plain, simple cookies and these fit the bill very well. They don't look simple, because of their braided shape, but the taste is simple and good. They are a crisp, brown sugar cookie with a subtle hint of spices and a touch of brandy, and are perfect with a hot cup of tea."
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons brandy
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped hazelnuts
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
[Here's where I made my first mistake -- I had the oven at 350 degrees. No wonder they didn't brown up in the time allotted.] - In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the brandy and vanilla and mix well.
[Yeah, they say 11 TB unsalted butter -- that's a stick and almost half of another one -- but I just use our regular butter. My lovely wife library_lynn actually has a low blood pressure problem, so the doc says use all the salt we want.] - Sift the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt into another bowl. Add to the butter mixture and mix until a dough forms.
[Cardamom's expensive - $13 for a 2 oz. jar. I decided I could be creative here, and substituted 1/2 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg instead of cardamom. I'm going to ask colleency if she's got any cardamom before I invest in a big jar of something I'm just going to use a quarter teaspoon of... And, "until a dough forms?" Perhaps that meant I should have added more flour? Not sure. See next step's notes...] - On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into 5/8-inch-thick logs, about 8 to 10 inches in length. Take two logs at a time and gently twist them together like a braid; it may be a bit tricky at first, but stay with it -- it gets easier. Cut each braid into 1-inch lengths and place 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
[This is where I think they expected the dough to be stiffer. My logs were more like limp ropes. And 5/8" thick, two of them braided together, cut into 1" pieces? How does she expect to get over a hundred pieces out of this? Maybe it was supposed to have more flour, and be more like 3/8" thick? I'm not sure what I'm going to try with this next time. Frankly, I'm wondering if I mismeasured my flour this time.] - Mix the sugar and hazelnuts and sprinkle over the cookies. Bake one pan at a time on the middle rack of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. (While one pan is baking, prepare the next cookie sheet.) Place the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.
[I made another mistake in my shopping. I bought "chopped hazelnuts" but clearly I should have bought the "hazelnut meal" instead. The chopped nuts weren't chopped finely enough; they needed to be more like a powder to mix with the sugar. Sprinkling chopped hazelnuts mixed with sugar over the cookies didn't really work -- the nuts bounced off. I tried pushing them back on and making them stay, with mixed success. And as I said earlier, I just realized I had the wrong temperature. (The Lemon Wafers were at 350 F, and I read this recipe too quickly to notice the different temp used here.) And "golden brown"? The cookies are beigish tan to begin with! But they did start browning around the edges when I left the second pan in longer... Finally, I was on auto-pilot, and didn't notice the instruction to cool the whole sheet on a rack -- I scooped them off the sheet onto a rack to cool, and it doesn't seem to have done them any harm. Considering how much I'd already re-interpreted the recipe already!]
[Don't get me wrong -- the cookies are tasty little morsels, and there are enough for the LJ monkeys. It's tricky for a big guy like me to get the hang of making very tiny cookies, so the yield is never as numerous as the book specs call for, but this one was even more so than usual...]