russian tea cakes - kak dela cookies?

Americans are quite ignorant. We think French Fries come from France, Cheddar cheese is a part of the "Mexican Blend" cheese package, and that Russian Tea Cakes have an origin of Russia. Me, being an American of course, fall somewhat into this category (hey, I know fries come from Belgium!). To commemorate my (new) Russian boyfriend, I decided I'd make some Russian Tea Cakes. I called him, across country, as I was still visiting my grandma on vacation, to tell him of the news.


"Uh...I've never heard of Russian Tea Cakes," he says. I tell him it's a Melting Moments Cookie plus some type of chopped nut. "Nope... it's not Russian. Neither is Russian Dressing." Point proven.

Regardless, I was on a mission. I've conquered the disintegrating Melting Moments, now it's my time to conquer these Russian Tea Cakes.

After a little divulgence, I learned that Russian Tea Cakes were, in fact, of Russian origin.

They also became known as "Mexican Wedding Cakes," although that translation is a little blurry...


Whatever may have been lost in translation, what is indeed known is that this cookie became popular around 18th century in Russia and was used in a tea-sharing ceremony.

So basically, suck on that! You may know the history of your culture regarding politics and wars and language, but I still dominate in worldly culinary facts, my dear!

---RECIPE---

Taken from Smitten Kitchen.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pecans, hazelnuts or other nuts, toasted and finely ground (if using hazelnuts, wrap in a dishtowel while still warm and roll about until most of the brown skins come off)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

directions:
1. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until well blended. Beat in flour, then nuts. Divide dough in half; form each half into ball. Wrap separately in plastic; chill until cold, about 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and cinnamon, if using, in pie dish to blend. Set cinnamon sugar aside.
3. Working with half of chilled dough, roll dough by 2 teaspoonfuls between palms into balls. Arrange balls on heavy large baking sheet, spacing 1/2 inch apart. Bake cookies until golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool cookies 5 minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in cinnamon sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough. (Cookies can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature; reserve remaining cinnamon sugar.)
4. Sift remaining cinnamon sugar over cookies and serve.

amount:

Makes about 4 dozen.

parmesan thyme crackers - my worst fear manifested

I can not reiterate this enough: I am obsessed with the Barefoot Contessa. Everything she makes looks, well, fucking awesome. A while back I saw her making these (hear me out) ...crackers. Not just any old store-bought cardboard tasting square pieces of flour and butter. No, no, no. These were parmesan cheese and thyme crackers, rolled up and cut into dainty cute little medallions. How hard can crackers be to make? I mean, I'm practically a professional baker at this point.


These cheesy and herb-full crackers are gonna kick the socks off those Ritz crackers any day.



Fast forward an hour: I'm having a panic attack. I chilled the dough, as stated, but for some odd reason I could not cut my cute little medallions without them breaking apart! I tried and tried, but all that was left were crumbles of cheesy dough. Instead, I tried an old trick I used for my similarly crumbly macadamia nut shortbread- I literally dumped the whole thing into a baking pan, packed it down, and hoped for the best.


My worst possible fear has manifested- I have created something delicious, but it is not presentable in any way shape or form. I was lucky if I could crumble a piece that was bigger than a quarter.


My dream may have been in shambles (literally), but my spirit was not. I had big hopes for these little guys, and trust me, I'll find a way to reuse these broken pieces of deliciousness.

---RECIPE---
Taken from Ina Garten.

ingredients:
1 stick) unsalted butter
3 ounces grated Parmesan
1+1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

directions:
1. Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until creamy. Add the Parmesan, flour, salt, thyme and pepper and combine.
2. Dump the dough on a lightly floured board and roll into a 13-inch long log. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the log crosswise into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake for 22 minutes.

macadamia nut shortbread - a drinking glass saved the day

The best part about baking for new people (my parents, for example) is that I get the opportunity to try new recipes. I usually only bake for my boyfriend, so my recipe options are pretty limited (basically only to white chocolate chip cookies). I'm glad that my mom loves shortbread, because I've been dying to make it myself. Actually, I have made shortbread before, which was for the base of my homemade Girl Scout Samoas (and actually the shortbread was the best part of the whole cookie). I also found a huge tin of macadamia nuts in the pantry (which I have been snacking on by the handfulls about 10 times a day) and I needed to make them disappear (preferably not by me eating them all).


Shortbread is actually such a simple recipe- it's really only butter, flour, and sugar. The sugar here is a confectioner's suger, which is generally not normally used, although I have actually seen it in other shortbread recipes.


I really need to invest in a food processor when I get back home. My mac nuts were chopped in seconds flat, whereas if I did it the old fashioned way, it'd take me at least 5 minutes and there'd be tiny pieces scattered across the counter and on the ground.


After mixing everything together, I dumped the dough on the counter to roll into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Well guess what... It didn't want to cooperate. It was too dry and crumbly, and no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't form into a single ball.


I ended up dumping the crumbly mixture on to my plastic wrap and just wrapping it up as tight as possible. The following day I took the log-shaped dough out of the fridge and was surprised to see that it had partially stuck together.


I was so excited that I would be able to cut slices and make cute little round shortbread cookies. As you can see here, this was obviously not the case. The dough was still crumbly and fell apart apart immediately.


Time to improvise. I was only able to cut about 10 perfectly intact cookies, and so I had to find something else to do with the crumbled remaining dough. I lined a baking pan with foil and dumped the crumbs in and patted them down with my hands. It wasn't as packed as I would have liked, so I began searching the kitchen for my new weapon of choice. I grabbed a drinking glass from the cupboard and used the flat bottom to firmly press the dough in. Interestingly enough, it packed the dough so tightly that you never would have known that this mixture was once a big pile of crumbs.


These were my (somewhat) perfect shortbread rounds.


And these are them after baking. They look pretty good I must say, although slightly more browned than I would have liked.


I have to say... I'm pretty proud of myself. Too bad there were only a handfull of the round cookies.


Once the pan with the glass-pounded crumbs was baked and cooled, I cut them into small rectangles.


In my opinion the rectangle cookies tasted better than the round ones, probably because they were thicker and weren't as crisp.


My mom on the other hand prefered the round ones because they were crispier. Go figure.


Either way, both cookies came out a success in my book. The macadamia nuts were also the best accompaniment for the shortbread and gave the perfect crunch for the cookie. All I can say is, thank goodness for that drinking glass.

---RECIPE---
Taken from Kauai Menu. (How fitting I found a recipe from a Hawaiian website. Not to mention I even used Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts, lol).

ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

directions:
1. In large bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla together. Slowly stir in flour until well blended. Add coarsely chopped macadamia nuts. On waxed paper shape cookie dough into a roll approximately two inches in diameter (harder than it seems). Roll waxed paper around dough then wrap the roll in aluminum foil. Place in refrigerator, chilling at least 2 hours or more.
2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove chilled cookie dough and cut roll into slices between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until they turn golden brown around the edges (the circles were done at around 18 minutes, while the rectangles took at least 25 minutes or more).

girl scout samoas- denture-wearers be warned

By the way, this was during the same day as the sugar cookies incident. So that Friday I not only attempted to make two batches of cookies, but have my first cookie-rolling experience... Am I dumb? Like, I've never used a rolling pin before and now I'm attempting to make two batches (one of which- the Samoas, required hours and hours of time according to the website I got it from).

Anyways, so that day I made the sugar cookie dough and stuck it in the fridge to harden while I made the Samoas.


I got the dough in a ball and I stared at it. What to do with this? After watching enough Food Network, I decided to place wax paper on both sides and then roll, avoiding sticking to anything.


It took me like 20 minutes to finally learn how to roll it out evenly and without cracking. Now on to my next issue- cookie cutters. Unfortunately, Samoas aren't in the shape of cute butterflies and hearts, which is all that I have. I didn't have any 1 1/2 inch circular cookie cutter- but why would I? It's wouldn't make a cute cookie. So the next best thing, my 1/4 cup measuring cup. And yes, it was a huge pain in my ass.


Eventually getting the hang of it (but not really).


Okay, something is wrong here. Samoas have a hole in the center. The website I got this from suggested big straws to cut out the centers. Um, sorry- I don't own big straws, nor do I have the money to buy big straws. So I got my knife and individually cut mini circles in each of them. Yayy (not).


I'm spending way too much time on these cookies and I haven't even gotten to the main part of it yet.


Cooling on my cooling rack.


I don't have any pictures of me making the coconut, the caramel, or the chocolate part. Let me just say that doing those parts were horrible and extremely time consuming. The website was right- only do this recipe if you have a lot of time on your hands. I guess that's why most of the other websites suggest you make Samoas bars as opposed to cookies.


So then you put the shredded coconut on a baking rack in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. So basically I was chained to the oven for 20 minutes. Then, you get a bunch of caramels, unwrap them, and microwave them, stirring every so often. The thing is, as soon as you take them out of the microwave, they harden immediately. I don't know how I'm supposed to do this if it turns back to caramel candies the second I want to mix in the coconut.


After a while playing around, I finally combined the coconut and caramel, and began placing this gunk on the shortbread cookies. Very sticky! Yet- it wouldn't stick to the cookies. I had to force little balls of the gunk and form a little wreath looking thing around the shape of the shortbread. Eventually it made a circle of hard caramels and coconut- but unfortunately it didn't stick to the shortbread, it just laid on top. That's where I hoped the chocolate would come in play.


I put a ton of chocolate morsels in a bowl and nuked them. With that, I first dipped the bottom of the cookies, hoping that the chocolate would stick the caramel to the shortbread- which it eventually did. And then the stupid drizzle of chocolate on the top, which I could not do neatly. My hands were completely brown from chocolate, my table was a mess, and the stupid Samoas were taunting me. I had no idea how they tasted, or if they'd even turn out good. To the fridge they went so they could harden.


So that night I took the Samoas out of the fridge and headed to my boyfriend’s house. We each tried one (straight from the fridge), and nearly broke our teeth. It was like a hard chewy caramel thing. Needless to say, I was very disappointed, especially since this was the same day and same time as my horrible sugar cookies experience.


So I put the Samoas back in the tupperwear and left them on the counter. In the morning, I tried another one- and surprisingly it was so soft and nice. I assumed it was the refrigerator which kept it so hard (which it was partially). After all of us trying more and more of them, we realized that some were harder than others. So, I mean- I guess it wasn't a total bust as I originally wrote it off as.

---SAMOAS RECIPE---
Taken from Baking Bites

cookies:
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
up to 2 tablespoon milk (I used more than 2 tbsp)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (it’s possible you might not need to add milk at all). The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.
3. Roll the dough (working in two or three batches) out between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and use a knife, or the end of a wide straw, to cut a smaller center hole. Repeat with remaining dough.
4. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set.
5. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened) (sweetened, duh)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels (or cheap Target brand)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon milk
8 oz dark or semisweet chocolate (or semisweet morsels)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.
2. Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula. (I had the hardest time with this)
3. Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 teaspoons per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it gets too firm to work with.
4. While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.
5. Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

amount:
Makes about 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.