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Mother's Day Ice Cream & Cookies Tour

Original photo can be found here.













What: Ice Cream & Cookies Tour

When: May 9th, 11AM

Where: Insomnia Cookies NYU
50 West 8th Street, (bet. 5 & 6 Aves.)

Cost: $5 per person

The tour will visit Insomia Cookies, L'Arte del Gelato, Milk & Cookies Bakery, and Ronnybrook Farms.

BabyCakes Do-it-Yourself Cookie Kit

Original photo can be found here.















This is very cool.

Babycakes has an awesome addition to their menu: the DIY chocolate chip cookie kit. Some folks may not be aware, but this is special because vegan and gluten free baked goods are hella expensive to make, especially if you don't already have the necessary materials on hand (and most of us who are not vegans or allergic to gluten usually don't).

Each batch makes about 40 cookies and costs only $26. The kits will be available May 7th and can also be shipped.

Recipe Review: Almond Crescents

Recipe: Almond Crescents
Source: Good Housekeeping Best-Loved Desserts
Rating out of 5:




Makes about 72 cookies
1 cup blanched whole almonds, lightly toasted (this was my first time blanching almonds, I put the almonds in a shallow dish like the one pictured, and covered them in boiling water for 2 minutes. Then I rubbed the skin off with my fingers. Tedious, but it works)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks softened butter (NOT margarine)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 confectioners sugar

In a food processor with a knife blade attached, pulse the almonds, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and salt till almonds are very finely ground (if you don't have a food processor, putting all the ingredients in a zip-lock bag and smashing them with a hammer seems to work just fine).
With your mixer on low speed, beat butter and remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar till blended, occasionally scraping the bowl with a spatula. Increase speed to high, beating till light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour, ground almond mixture, almond extract, and vanilla and beat till blended. Divide dough in half, wrap each piece and refrigerate till dough is firm enough handle, about 1 hour, or freeze about 30 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Working with one piece of dough at a time, with lightly floured hands, shape rounded teaspoons of dough into 2-inch by 1/2-inch crescents. Place crescents, 1-inch apart, on two un-greased cookie sheets (I googled which "side", so to speak, the crescents should be baked on, and the consensus seemed to be that they get placed pointed side down)
Bake till edges are lightly browned, about 20 minutes, rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower over racks halfway through. With a spatula transfer the cookies to wire racks set over wax paper (I skipped this and put them straight into the confectioners sugar). Immediately dust cookies with confectioners sugar until well coated; cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. (I roll my cookies in a shallow bowl filled with confectioners sugar, so I get a sweeter, less elegant looking cookie, which I'm fine with).


I know some of you are thinking, "Those don't look like crescents!", and your right, they're not. This was my first time making crescent shaped anythings, and it was during my Christmas baking rush, so time was not something I had to spare. I did the best I could, this is how they came out, if you can do better I would love to be told how ;)

Being misshapen doesn't make them any less delicious though, these are some seriously good cookies. Definitely a new favorite, and something that will be added as a standard to my Christmas baking routine.
The double-almond flavor is intense but no where near over-powering. Some people find that anything covered in confectioners sugar tastes somewhat dry, I think this is why in Good Housekeeping's book they are pictured next to a cup of tea. Its a good idea to have a beverage of some kind on hand when serving them.

One great thing about this recipe is that it can be easily adapted to include other nuts, the book gives three suggestions:
Walnut or pecan crescents:
Substitute 1 cup walnuts or pecans (not toasted) for almonds and omit almond extract.
Hazelnut crescents:
Substitute 1 cup toasted, skinned hazelnuts (filberts) for almonds and omit almond extract.

Recipe Review: Pecan Sandies

Recipe: Pecan Sandies

Source: Christmas Cookies: 50 Recipes to Treasure for the Holiday Season

Overall rating out of 5:







3/4 cup pecans toasted and cooled
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups flour

Process the toasted pecans in a food processor until finely chopped, but not finely ground, or chop them using a chef's knife.
With an electric mixer beat the butter till creamy. Add the sugar and beat till blended. Beat in the egg yolk, then the vanilla and salt. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the pecans, then the flour until just fully combined and the dough starts to come together. Using your hands or a spatula gather the dough into a ball, then divide the ball in half.
Work with one half of dough at a time. On a lightly floured surface shape it into a log, rolling it back and forth to form a cylinder about 8 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Roll up the log in plastic wrap and a layer of foil. Repeat with the remaining dough. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or till very firm. The logs can be left in the fridge up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
With one log at a time cut the dough into 1/3 inch thick slices, placing them about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake for 15-17 minutes or till golden brown around the edges. Then place the cookies on a rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container for up to 10 days. Makes about 45 cookies.


This, unlike the Apple Pecan Quick Bread, does not taste better than it looks. No surprises here, this cookie, at least for me, came out crappy. Despite the pecans the cookie is basically tasteless. They also don't resemble the photo of the cookies in the books example. Their shape and consistency are like the Pillsbury cut and bake tubes of cookie dough you find in the supermarket (though with less give).
The directions say to cut each cookie to be 1/3 of an inch, however the cookies in the photo looked much thinner, so some of the cookies were cut to be 1/4 of an inch, but even the thinner cookies didn't come out right. One possibility is that they were left in my fridge longer than four hours, though the recipe says the logs can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, which was how long I left mine in. However, if your going to try the recipe I'd advise you to use the dough in four hours, since I'm not sure what else could have effected the finished product so much.

More Coverage of the Cookie Takedown

Fork in the Road had a two page article about the event, and Metromix has a 62 photo slide show, check it out.

Related Posts: Cookie Takedown at The Bell House

Cookie Takedown at The Bell House

The Bell House
149 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 643-6510







This was my first time attending a Takedown event, and I'm really glad I made the trip out in this lovely snow storm to try thirty different types of cookies!

The first thing I did was get my hands on some free eggnog before the first hour was up. Then I dove in. The cookies were all lined up in an arc in front of the stage, the line was in the middle and so it broke up the tables into two sides.
















This is the plate from side one. Top row: Chocolate whoopie pies with salted caramel & bourbon buttercream (this sounded so good, but I wasn't a huge fan, and it wasn't even a cookie!); Oreo cookie from Bean & Apple (one of my favorites); Leni's Java Stick (very yummy).
Middle row: Espresso cream-cheese sandwich (more cake than cookie); Aunt Helen's Gingersnaps (delicious).
Bottom row: Brownie Batter Cookie Dumplings with Espresso Dipping Sauce; Choco-ho-licks Cookies from Nicholetta's Eats & Treats; chocolate chip cookies from Lisa's Cookie Jar; & Triple Chocolate Cookies.















My second plate. Top row: Chocolate with ginger & other things (not bad); Stoners Paradise (cookie dough with M&M's); Niel Darkstrong's Lunar Cookies; Birdies Eye (jelly with sugar & rum- very good);
Middle Row: Death by Chocolate (included dark, bittersweet, semisweet & milk chocolate); Sweet Sues Cookie Crunch (like a candy bar); Chocolate Chip Bacon Peanut cookies; Dark & Stormy (a delicious and thin cookie that tasted like ginger- very good);
Bottom row: Oatmeal apple cranberry crumb cookies; Nacho MaMa's Cookies (cookies with orange buttercream, I wasn't a fan even though I thought they were really cute); Grandma Billie's Peppernuts by Meg(With Cookies); Rockaways by Jen Wanous (chocolate chips, butterscotch/peanut butter chips, pretzels & marshmallows); Not Ya Mama's Chocolate Chip Cookie.















Side two of the deliciously long cookie table.

















Not shown on my plate (they were gone before I got a chance to snap a picture!)are my favorites of the night, the Queens Crescents. I voted for them but they didn't win ;P They had ginger, walnuts, and powdered sugar.































Jen Wanous, baker of the Rockaway Cookies. You can see her recipe here.































Gingerbread House by the baker who also did Sweet Sues Cookie Crunch.






The crowd.

























From left to right: The awesome Takedown organizer who kept the event together (and made it look so easy!), Matt Timms.
The judges, Gabriella Gershenson from TONY and Renato Poliafito from Baked, who also sponsored the prizes (which included a bottle of rum or bourbon for all the entrants- one more reason I need to bake my sugar cookies for them next year).

The winners were broken up into two categories:
Judges Choice
1st Place: Choco-ho-licks Cookies by Nicoletta's Eats & Treats (nicholetta.canaras@hotmail.com)
2nd Place: Death by Chocolate ("Almost better than sex") by Tiana Lawrence (who dug herself out of Suffolk County just to be there!)
3rd Place: Oatmeal Apple Cranberry Crumb Cookies by Melissa Danchak

Peoples Choice
1st Place (A TIE): Not Ya MaMa's Chocolate Cookie by Emily Hanhan
1st Place: Nacho MaMa's Cookies by Lee Frank & Dan Piccoli
2nd Place: Oreo Cookie Cookie by Amy and Bean & Apple.

Make sure to get on The Takedown mailing list for future events. They'll be doing an aphrodisiac takedown for Valentines Day!

Jen's Rockaway Cookie Recipe

Rockaways: Where Sweet Meets the Pavement! (makes about 70 cookies)
by Jen Wanous for the 2009 Cookie Takedown
jjwanous@yahoo.com

1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cane sugar
2 sticks of butter
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cups non fat dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup butterscotch or peanut butter chips
1/2 cup chopped stick pretzels
1/2 cup tiny marshmallows

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the butter & sugars. Add eggs & vanilla. Mix in the flour, salt, milk, baking powder and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, butterscotch/peanut butter chips, marshmallows and pretzels. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Mailing Cookies

This was the first Christmas that I've sent cookies out to people across the country. Its the first time I've sent any baked goods out through the mail.

I used the guidelines I found on Cookies in Motion.

I only sent out sugar cookies, since the icing hardens and doesn't smudge. The cookies are probably more brittle than is ideal for shipping, but I'm hoping they make the trip okay anyway.



Make sure your cookies have cooled completely before you ice them, and then make sure the frosting has set before packing them. I bought my tins from CVS for about $2.99 each and was able to fit about 15-20 cookies inside each one (including those mini gingerbread men in the picture).


I shipped them in a medium sized flat rate box and covered each box in a layer of bubble wrap. They could have used more bubble wrap around them, there was still room in the boxes for the tins to be jostled. For three tins, shipping to three different states at the same rate, it cost me about $33.

Happy Holidays!

2nd Annual Cookie Contest & Sing-A-Long

What: 2nd Annual Cookie Contest & Sing-A-Long

When: Sunday December 20th at 8pm

Where: Union Pool
484 Union Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 609-0484

Cost: FREE

The contest rules are pretty lax, all you need to do is show up with your home baked cookies!

Two Cookie Bake-offs in December

What: The Lower Eastside Girls Club Sweet Angel Holiday Cookie Swap

When: Saturday, December 19th. 1:00pm-3:00pm

Where: Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery at 1st Street

Cost: $15 ticket includes a cookie tin and a drink, fill up your tin with cookies selling for 50cents to $2 a piece. Proceeds go to Girls Club.


Because too much of a good thing doesn't apply to baked goods: head over to Brooklyn the next day for more cookies!

What: Cookie Takedown

When: Sunday, December 20th. 6:30pm

Where: The Bell House
149 7th street, Brooklyn, 11219
(718) 643-6510

Cost: $10

Cookies at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks

Via Eating in Translation.

Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks
163 West Tenth Street
New York, New York 10014-3116
212-989-8962
(hours vary, call ahead)

Original photo can be found here.

I love old cookbooks. I'm always keeping an eye out for them as garage sales and thrift stores, so it makes me pretty happy to find one woman who specializes in them.

To celebrate New York City's first Independent Bookstore Week (November 15th- 21st), Bonnie's will be giving out what I believe are free cookies to customers! The cookies will be baked by Katherine Yang of Prune, a new cookie will be offered each day. Make sure to call ahead for store hours and cookie availability.

Halloween Cookies

Some Halloween sugar cookies I made, the frosting is confectioners sugar and milk.