White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

In the wide wonderful world of cookies, melt in your mouth shortbread cookies rank up there as my favorites. What is not to love about a buttery, borderline luxurious cookie that gets even better with age? Whether made simply with a dusting of sugar or dipped in white chocolate, left plain or studded with nuts, dried fruit or spices, shortbread cookies have an irresistible quality to them. They may one of the only cookies I find home made or store bought to be equally irresistible. Particularly if Walker's Shortbread is the store bought version. 

There are more versions of shortbread cookies on this blog than another kind of cookie. If hard pressed to pick a favorite, I couldn't. I love them all. Amy's Shortbread Cookies were one the very first cookie recipes posted to the blog. Made with chopped pistachios and white chocolate, they not only make an appearance around the holidays, but they have been known to make appearances year round.

Up until now I hadn't even considered tinkering with the original recipe. 

But then I had the idea of adding of dried cranberries to them. At first I thought about eliminating the pistachios, but then remembered just how much I love the flavor combination of dried cranberries and pistachios in the White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti. 

Other than adding in a half cup of chopped dried cranberries to the batter, I reduced the amount of finely chopped pistachios from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup. (See note in recipe.)

Some of my cranberries were finely chopped and some were a little more coarsely chopped. If using a crimped edge cookie cutter, finely chopping them will make the cutting process much easier.

Of the many things I love about this shortbread recipe is how easy the dough is to roll out as well as how forgiving it is. Scraps of dough can be balled up and rerolled out. Because they don't spread very much during the baking process, you can get alot of cookies on the baking pan.

In a preheated 350 degree (F) oven, the cookies bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden on the bottom and edges. However, baking time will change depending on the size and thickness of the cookie. Thinner, smaller cookies will have a shorter baking time than a thicker, larger cookie. 

With or without the addition of melted white chocolate, these Cranberry Shortbread Cookies reminded me why it's a good thing I don't have shortbread cookie favorites.

You definitely need to make these White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Shortbread Cookies for all of the cookie monsters in your life. Especially the shortbread loving kind. 

Recipe
White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Shortbread Cookies (a variation to Amy's Shortbread Cookies)
Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies depending on the size of cookie cutter used.

Ingredients
1 cup (230 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (62 g) confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon high quality vanilla
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (64 g) dried cranberries, finely chopped (could also use dried cherries)
1/3 cup (45 g) chopped pistachios, plus additional for sprinkling on top of cookies (Note: Could use up to a 1/2 cup of chopped pistachios)
9 ounces (255 g) white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Sift together the flour and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or alternately in a medium sized bowl if using a hand mixer), beat butter and confectionary sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (approximately 3-4 minutes).
4. Add vanilla and mix in.
5. With mixer on low speed, add sifted dry ingredients until incorporated.
6. Add in chopped pistachios and chopped cranberries. Mix until blended.
7. Divide dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one half of the dough to desired thickness (my preference is 1/4"). Using a cookie cutter of your choice, cut dough and place cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. 
9. Bake cookies until lightly browned on the bottom (approximately 12-15 minutes, depending on the cookie's size and thickness). Allow cookies to cool for 3-5 minutes on pan before removing and transferring to a cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool completely before dipping in melted chocolate (approximately 30-45 minutes). 
10. Place a bowl filled with the chopped white chocolate over a pan of simmering water. Dip half or the top of the cookies into the melted chocolate. Place on a sheet of parchment paper. Note: While chocolate hasn't set, sprinkle with chopped pistachios if using.
11. Allow chocolate to set completely before serving and/or storing cookies in a tightly sealed container in a cool location.

Note: (1) I kept some of the cookies plan (no chocolate); dipped some of them in the white chocolate without topping with any chopped pistachios; and dipped some in the chocolate and finished with a sprinkling of finely chopped pistachios. (2) Cookies can be placed one inch apart on the baking sheet as they spread very little during baking.

Cape Elizabeth Light, aka Two Lights, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Amy's Shortbread Cookies aka Pistachio Shortbread

The days leading up to the holidays were so hectic this year that I was not able to make gifts of cookies for all of my neighbors before I traveled back to the midwest to visit family and friends.  Things happen for a reason and there is a silver lining in every cloud or so some say.  Fortunately for my neighbors I have decided that the time has come for me to start a new tradition, that of delivering cookies to celebrate the new year.  This new tradition will serve to minimize the guilt of not being organized for the holidays.

Everyone, well almost everyone, gets cookies for Christmas. But how many people do you know getting cookies for the new year? Inspired by all of the snow on the ground here on the east coast I thought the perfect 'new year' cookie to make would be the white chocolate dipped pistachio shortbread cookies sprinkled with even more pistachios, otherwise known as Amy's Shortbread Cookies.

The recipe calls for room temperature unsalted butter.  I like to take my butter out of the refrigerator the night before I am going to bake as then I know it will be room temperature perfect.  One of the many things learned from watching Ina Garten on television.

Yes, I know the cost of pistachios are a little high these days, but Trader Joe's always seems to make these nuts affordable.  The recipe calls for a cup of pistachios.  For the cookie dough you will want to finely chop or grind 1/2 cup of the pistachios in a food processor to make it easier to roll out the dough, saving the other 1/2 cup for decorating the tops of the cookies.

This recipe requires sifting the flour and salt.  Because I use Kosher salt in this recipe I just sift the flour.     Don't skip the sifting.  If my sifter isn't readily available, I often use a fine strainer to sift my flour.

The dough comes together really nicely.  Of the many things that I love about making this cookie is that it doesn't require the added step of chilling the dough!  I generally roll my cookies out to a 1/4 inch as I like a thicker cookie and one that will stand up well to dipping in chocolate.

 
Over the years I have collected a variety of new and antique cookie cutters, tending to use the antique ones more often.  For this recipe I used one of my antique cookie cutters with a crimped edge and shaped somewhat like a leaf. There is something about a crimped edge cookie that gives it a bakery perfect look.  I discovered over the holidays that SurLaTable makes a graduated set of crimped edge cookie cutters that almost replicate my antique ones.  Thought I would share this, just in case this recipe caused you to go on the hunt for a crimped edge cookie cutter.  For those of you not as obsessive as I am when making someone's recipe for the first time, I envy you.

I like to use the Ghiradelli White Chocolate Candy Making and and Dipping Bar (2.5 lbs). It is sold at Sam's Club during the holidays, but you can always find it on Amazon.  There is enough chocolate in this bar for at least four or five batches of Amy's Shortbread Cookies.  And trust me, once you make the first batch of these cookies you will become addicted to them using up the chocolate in no time at all.  But feel free to use any white chocolate you have had success using.  I would just encourage you to not use the Almond Bark that they sell in the grocery stores for this recipe.

If you let the cookies cool completely before dipping them you will minimize any breakage when dipping. They cool quickly, but during cooler weather I will often put the tray of cookies out on the back porch to speed the cooling up a little.

Each time I make these cookies I dip them a little differently.  Sometimes I dip only half of the cookie and other times I dip the entire cookie in the melted chocolate. I actually like tasting the chocolate with every bite of the cookie so they are usually covered in white chocolate.  The combination of the shortbread, the saltiness of the pistachios, and the decadence of the white chocolate make these cookies simply divine.

The chocolate dries pretty quickly on the cookie so I usually dip about 4 or 5 cookies at a time and then immediately sprinkle on the chopped pistachios to ensure they adhere to the chocolate.  You can sprinkle pistachios over the entire cookie or over just part of the cookie, the possibilities for finishing these cookies are endless!

Sometimes I arrange my cookies on a platter, sometimes I put them in a cellophane bag tied with a beautiful ribbon, and then sometimes I layer them in boxes.  The Martha Stewart cookie boxes sold at Michaels are great and relatively inexpensive presentation containers.  For the size cookie I make, this box holds a perfect dozen cookies.  However you choose to present these cookies to your family and friends will really not matter.  Because once they see and taste them, well let's just say you will forever be remembered.

Recipe 

Amy's Shortbread Cookies aka Pistachio Shortbread

Makes 1 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on the size and shape of the cookie cutter.

Updated November 2021 

(Note: I made larger than usual cookies when updating this post. I generally use a 2 to 2 1/2" cookie cutter. Stars and hearts are some of my favorite cookie shapes, although I love using my collection of antique cookie cutters when making these).

Ingredients

2 cups (260 g) all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature (recommend using a European style butter)

1/2 cup (60g) confectionary sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup (63 g) of finely chopped and/or ground pistachios (for the cookie dough)

1/2 cup (63g) of coarsely chopped pistachios (for the top of the cookie)

6 to 8 ounces (171g-228g) white chocolate, chopped and melted 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. Finely chop or grind 1/2 cup of pistachios and set aside.

3. Sift the flour and salt into a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

4. Place butter and confectionary sugar in a mixer.  Using a paddle attachment, mix until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

5.  Mix in the vanilla.

6.  Add flour/salt mixture and finely chopped/ground pistachios to the butter mixture. Mix until dough sticks together.

7. Divide the dough in half.  On a floured surface roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter of choice, cut out shapes in the dough and carefully place cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

8. Bake for 12-16 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.  If making large or smaller sized cookies, adjust the time accordingly.

9.  Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cookies cool completely before dipping in chocolate.

10.  Place the chopped white chocolate in top of a double boiler. Alternately melt the white chocolate in the microwave.

11. Coarsely chop 1/2 cup of pistachios. Put in a bowl and set aside.

12.  Dip the cooled cookies into chocolate or spoon melted chocolate over the cookies. Place chocolate covered/dipped cookies on a sheet of parchment paper.  Sprinkle with chopped pistachios before chocolate hardens.

13.  Allow the chocolate to completely set before removing from parchment paper to serve or package. 

14. Store cookies in a tightly sealed container. If well packaged or stored, shortbread cookies will be good for at least two weeks.

Note: I used either the Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melting Disks or the white chocolate disks available from Graham's Chocolate in Geneva, IL.

Well it's time for me to walk across the snow and through the opening in the stone fence to deliver the new year's gift of cookies to my neighbors.  I must admit something. There really doesn't need to be a holiday or special occasion to make these cookies as they will make any occasion special.  

Every time I make these cookies I am thankful that Amy, a relative of my best friend Donna, shared this recipe with us years ago. In all of cookie recipes that I have read or found over the years I have never found a version even close to this one.  This is a cookie recipe I treasure.  I hope you will too.

Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread

Long before there was Coldplay, David Gray, the Dave Matthews Band, the Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, Dan and Shay, and Ed Sheeran, there were the Beatles. I was nine years old when they first landed in the states and ten years old when they flew into Chicago. In what was a rather out of the ordinary detour home after an afternoon at the home of some relatives, my father pulled into Midway Airport and parked the car. We all got out and joined the throngs of people standing at the fence waiting for a plane to arrive (those were the days before TSA and any sort of security) . How my father knew the Beatles were landing that afternoon I have no idea. Quite possibly he heard it on the radio. Why he actually dragged us all out of the car to get a glimpse of them getting off the plane is an even bigger mystery. Yet, this slightly surreal day has been permanently etched into my memory. For my tenth birthday, my cousin Billy, took me to see the Beatles movie "Help". In retrospect, I can't help but wonder if he was the only boy in the theatre as all I remember were the hundreds of other girls standing and screaming throughout the entire movie. This is not an exaggeration. To this day, all I can recall about the movie is the screaming. Whatever possessed young girls like me to scream at a movie screen is yet another one of life's mysteries. Apparently all of the screaming got out of my system by the time I went to my first real concert at age fifteen. No, it wasn't the Beatles, it was a Carole King and James Taylor concert. And that was yet another surreal experience, but I will save that story for another time.

This past weekend we went to see the movie "Yesterday". For those of you who haven't yet seen it or even read about it, all I will say about it is the music of the Beatles is a major theme (no spoilers here). But if you love the music of the Beatles, love a feel good movie, and/or are a hopeless romantic, you absolutely have to see this movie. It's been more than forty-eight hours since I left the theatre and I still can't stop smiling every time I think about it. 

There were few other things bringing a smile to my face this past weekend. One of those being this insanely delicious Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread. Admittedly I am partial to the flavor and texture of most shortbreads. However, when I came across this recipe I hesitated in making them. Thank goodness that hesitation didn't turn into a permanent hold. Because when I tasted them, I screamed. Seems that youthful screaming at the movie theatre has been replaced with screaming when tasting something amazing. This melt in your mouth Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread is buttery, salty, and herby. While these are technically a shortbread (due in part to the absence of eggs), I would put them into the 'cracker' category as they would send any cheese board over the top! (See notes below for other pairing suggestions.) 

The sweet, salty Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread is made with only six ingredients. Confectionary sugar, kosher salt, flaky sea salt, all-purpose (unbleached) flour, finely minced fresh rosemary, and unsalted butter. Using a European butter made a huge difference in the shortbread's flavor and texture. In other words, these shortbread will only be scream worthy if you use an unsalted European butter. 

The dough comes together easily when using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. The texture of this dough had very similar qualities to the dough for Amy's Shortbread Cookies. It was a soft, supple, very easy to roll out dough. The original recipe called for chilling the dough for 40 minutes in the refrigerator, however, I found I could roll out the dough immediately after it all come together in the mixer. If for any reason your dough seems to soft or sticky to roll out, then wrap it in plastic wrap to give it a quick chill. 

With the Fourth of July holiday right around the corner, I decided to cut the rolled out dough into stars rather than squares. Because stars have a rather timeless quality to them, all future batches may end up staying star shaped. Use any 2" to 2 1/2" cookie cutter shape you have when rolling out the cookies to 1/4" thickness. A fluted edge cookie cutter would make for a nice finishing touch, an almost store bought look. As important as the shape of the shortbread might be, their flaky sea salt finish is even more so. One bite of this incredibly flavorful shortbread and you might find it hard not to say 'Wow'!

The shortbread bakes up in 16-18 minutes in a preheated 350 degree (F) oven. Rotating your baking sheet halfway through the baking process helps to ensure the shortbread bakes evenly. When done, the edges of the shortbread will be a beautiful light golden brown.

Seriously, this Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread is unlike any shortbread or cracker you could buy from a bakery or grocery store. If you love the flavor of rosemary, you absolutely have to make them. Your world without this shortbread would like a world without the Beatles.

Once baked, the shortbread will be good for up to a week if stored in a tightly sealed container. Although I doubt they will last that long.

Ever since making the English Oat Crackers, I have become a big fan of homemade 'crackers' on a cheese platter. Not even the high end expensive packages of crackers come close to ones homemade. The Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread are destined to become a cheese board necessity around here. And even though I have been told not to bring anything up to the lake this week (but who listens), I am bringing up a tin of them, along with some homemade Cherry Tomato Jam, and the fixings for the Jarlsberg Cheese Spread. Our Fourth of July pre-fireworks wine and cheese course is going to be memorably EPIC! Now I just have to decide which wine to bring to my sister the wine connoisseur. Oh, the pressure makes me just want to shout! 

Recipe
Sea Salted Rosemary Shortbread (an ever so slight alteration to the Salted Rosemary Shortbread recipe from Lisa Ludwinski's "Sister Pie" cookbook)

Ingredients
2 cups (260 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted European style butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectionary sugar
2 scant Tablespoons finely minced fresh rosemary
Flaky Sea Salt, for finishing (I use Maldon Sea Salt)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, confectionary sugar, and rosemary (approximately 2-3 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure the mixture is fully blended.
4. Add in the flour mixture. Mix until combined and dough begins to come together.
5. Divide the dough in half. Place one half of the dough in the refrigerator while you roll out the other half.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/4" thickness. Cut into 2" shapes using a cookie cutter of choice. Sprinkle with a flaky sea salt.
7. Transfer cookie cutouts to a baking sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes rotating the pan midway through the baking process. Shortbread is done when the edges are slightly golden. Note: Begin checking for doneness as early as 15 minutes.
8. Remove baking pan from oven. Let cookies rest on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
9. Roll out and bake remaining dough. Cut into shapes, sprinkles with flaky sea salt and bake.
10. Store shortbread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

Notes: (1) For the best flavor and texture use an unsalted European butter. I used Kerrygold. (2) Serve shortbread on a cheese board; with some Cherry Tomato Jam and Jarlsberg Cheese Spread, or just enjoy them all by themselves. (3) The original recipe recommended wrapping the dough in plastic wrap and chilling for 40 minutes before rolling out. My dough was ready to roll out immediately. I refrigerated half of the dough while I worked with the other half.

Pecan Toffee Shortbread

In keeping with my glutton for punishment personality, I created and baked yet another brand new shortbread cookie recipe after spending three consecutive twelve hour days knee deep in what I will call this year's Cookie Palooza. Otherwise known as my annual holiday candy making and cookie baking overly ambitious madness. The good news is it all got done. And twelve carefully packaged up holiday cookie boxes were entrusted to the post office to be delivered to both friends and in return for unexpected generous kindnesses received in the past year. The bad news is I only ruined and lost one pound of white chocolate in the process. However, I am not at all bemoaning this little disaster as I at least learned, or rather relearned a lesson in the process (i.e., never melt white chocolate in the microwave). In spite of having to clean up the huge mess made in my long galley kitchen, there is always a moment of euphoria experienced, along with a sigh of relief, after the boxes are dropped off to be shipped. I say moment, because now I have to hold my breath (figuratively speaking) for the three or yikes, four days it will take for these packages to arrive at their intended destinations. Because I once sent a box of holiday cookies to a wrong address (we won't talk about the angst this caused me), I still keep my fingers crossed I didn't inadvertently transpose numbers, use the wrong zip code, or use an old address. Funny how you can look at something at least three times and still not see the mistake. My eyes sometimes see what's in my head, not what I see on paper. Proofing is yet another one of my flaws. But enough of this self-depricating disclosure of my flaws, I would rather spend time talking about this incredibly scrumptious Pecan Toffee Shortbread.

In spite of the fact that you need to soften the butter in advance, roll out dough, use a cookie cutter, and use a piping bag, I would say this isn't at all a fussy cookie to make. From start to finish you can make three dozen of these tasty little beauties in just a couple of hours. And in the big picture of things, two hours is a blip on the time scale. You can even multi-task and be half-listening to a Hallmark Holiday movie because we all know they are the same fairy tale ending stories (which most of us all long to have at least once in our lives). And unless you live with cookie monsters who polish off a stack of these cookies in just a few bites, the other best thing about them is they are equally delicious on day one as they might be on day seven. Shortbread often improves slightly with age, so it also makes them one of the cookies you can send off to friends and be confident it won't become a cookie needing to be dunked in milk in order to make it edible. 

If you love a buttery shortbread cookie, especially one having a little bit of a crunch and sweetened with some chocolate, these Pecan Toffee Shortbreads will definitely spark joy in your life!

I used the butter, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, and finely chopped nut ratios found in Amy's Shortbread Cookies to create this Pecan Toffee Shortbread. Just one cup of toffee bits and milk chocolate instead of white chocolate transformed that recipe base and created these mouthwatering, melt in mouth cookies.

The most difficult decision was deciding whether to make these cookies round, square, or holiday inspired shaped. As you can see, round won. Using a two inch round cookie yielded three dozen cookies rolled to 1/4 inch thickness. When rolling out shortbread err on the side of thicker rather than thinner. While the yield will be less and baking time slightly increased, rolling them out to 1/3" thickness would make for an even more decadent cookie.

Because I almost always finish my chocolate enhanced cookies by either dipping them or drizzling them with a fork, I decided these would have random stripes piped on using a pastry bag and small round pastry tip. These cookies are versatile enough you can finish them using any of these techniques. Choose simple or fussy, whichever one makes you happy. Note: If you decide to dip them, you will need to increase the amount of milk chocolate.

Topping each cookie with a toasted pecan half seemed like the perfect finishing touch.

If you are still looking for another cookie to add to your holiday baking madness, definitely opt for this Pecan Toffee Shortbread. But if you are holiday baking overload, SAVE this recipe! 

We don't always remember every gift we have received, but we often remember either those handmade, homemade gifts from the heart or those simple, yet incredibly thoughtful ones. Even though much time has passed, I can still remember how I felt receiving the gifts of a pen, a book, and a box of my favorite candy from a friend. The holidays can be a time to show and/or return kindness. Deciding who is on your list should be but isn't always easy, so make certain you are gifting someone because you want to and not because you feel you have to (an ongoing lesson for me). A gift given in guilt almost never gives you even a nano-second of gift giving euphoria. And you too deserve to experience some of that holiday joy and child-like glee! 

Recipe
Pecan Toffee Shortbread
Makes 36  two inch sized round cookies

Ingredients

2 cups (260 g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting out the rolling surface

3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (Recommend using a European style butter)

1/2 cup (62 g) confectionary sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 cup (162 g) toffee chips (I used Heath English Toffee Bits)

1/2 cup (62 g) pecans, toasted and finely chopped

36 pecan halves, toasted

8 ounces of milk chopped and melted 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

2. Sift the flour.  Place the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. Place butter and confectionary sugar in a mixer.  Using a paddle attachment, mix until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

4.  Add vanilla and mix in.

5.  Add flour/salt mixture. Mix just until until dough begins sticks together.

6. Add in the toffee chips and finely chopped pecans. Mix until all ingredients are blended in and the dough starts to come together in a ball.

7. Divide dough in half.  On a floured surface roll out dough to at least 1/4 inch of thickness. Using a two inch round cookie cutter cut out and place cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

8. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom. Rotate tray midway through the baking process. Let cookies cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

9.  All the cookies to cool to room temperature.

10.  Chop and melt milk chocolate on top of a double boiler and/or in the microwave.

11. Using a pastry bag fitted with a small round nozzle dip drizzle chocolate over the cookies. Alternately use a fork to drizzle the chocolate on top of the cooled cookies or dip half of the cookie in the chocolate.

12. Place a small dollop of melted milk chocolate in the center of the cookie and press on a pecan half down.

13.  Allow chocolate to completely set. 

14. Store cookies in a tightly sealed container.

Notes: (1) Use a good quality melting chocolate. Do not use chocolate chips. (2) To toast pecans, bake in a preheated 350 degree (F) oven for 9-11 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. (3) Instead of rolling out the cookies to 1/4" thickness, roll out to a 1/3" thickness. Baking time will needed to be adjusted upward by several minutes.

Wilder Park Conservatory, December 2019

Holiday Cookies and Confections

"The greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Its like you're giving someone the portion of your life that you can never bring back."

Happy December! Let the madness of the holiday baking season begin. If Thanksgiving is 'all about that bird', then the holidays are 'all about those sweets'. Over the course of the next few weeks as we embark on making cookies and confections for family, friends and all of the Santas in your life as part of the holiday tradition (seriously, what would a holiday be without a platter of cookies?), it is a wonder we don't cause butter, egg and chocolate shortages across the country.

Every year I seek out new cookie and candy recipes to try (this year's must make list is rather long) so I can add to my list of favorites. In sharing my current top ten favorites, I hope I will inspire you to add to yours. The Coconut Balls aka Better than a Mounds Bar was a recipe given to me by a very good friend. If you love coconut and chocolate, these are a must make. With or without the addition of an almond on top, these are insanely creamy and delicious. I am willing to bet you will never eat another mounds bar or almond joy again after you taste them.

The Fruit and Nut Chocolate Bark with Sea Salt was inspired by a confection shared by none other than the amazing Ina Garten. This bark couldn't be easier to make. Roasted, salted cashews and pistachios are the nuts I use most often when making this bark, but roasted macadamias or walnuts work well too (just remember to roast your walnuts before chopping and sprinkling on top of the bark). For the dried fruit, my go-to's are dried cherries, dried cranberries, and dried apricots. Sometimes I use just one of them, sometimes a combination and then sometimes I use all of them. But again, use whatever and as many dried fruits that are your favorites. I like using either a dark or milk chocolate when making this bark, but you can also make it with white chocolate. The addition of the sea salt lightly sprinkled on top turns an already great bark into an extraordinary one. A cellophane bag or box filled with this bark makes for a great, memorable gift.

I have to have a little spice on my holiday cookie platter and this White Chocolate Dipped Ginger Molasses Cookie more than satisfies that need. This is one of the cookies I have been making for years. If the holidays are all about decadence, then dipping half of them in white chocolate creates the perfect spicy chocolatey cookie. However, if white chocolate is not your thing, the cookie itself is scrumptious all on its own.

Again I could not leave well enough alone with the Linzer Cookie recipe. As much as I love them sprinkled with confectionary sugar, I love them eve more dipped in white chocolate. Once you taste a White Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Cookie you will understand why.

This might be the only time intensive cookie on the list, but as they say 'nothing worth having comes easy'. The recipe for the Viennese Finger Biscuits came to me from a very talented baker, one whose cookie platters are enough to cause one to drool just looking at them. Make these for the people in your life you really like, the people that you love.

Newspapers are always running holiday cookie contests. Sometimes the 'winning' cookies are chosen because of their taste, but sometimes they are chosen for their 'back story'. These Meltaways fall into the 'chosen for their taste' category. The use of cake flour rather than all-purpose flour creates for a melt in your mouth, tender crumb cookie. On a cookie platter they look like the peaks of snow-capped mountains.

The White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio and Dried Cherry Cookies were also one of those holiday award winning cookies, although the original recipe called for having the rolled in confectionary sugar. The ingenious idea of dipping them in white chocolate came from my childhood best friend. She had brought out a bag of these cookies on one of her visits to my east coast home. It was one of the best hostess gifts ever.

The recipe for the Irish Shortbread came from the same woman who shared her Viennese Finger Biscuits. Made with both butter and margarine these shortbread cookies are addictive. And honestly, it is the best shortbread cookie I have ever had (and I have had many). Weighing out the ingredients seems to matter when making these cookies. 

The Chocolate Dipped Sea Salted Caramels are one of my favorite holiday confection gifts. Dipping these caramels into chocolate takes them to a different level of wickedness.

Last but certainly not least is one of the first cookies I shared on the blog. Amy's Shortbread Cookies are probably the cookie I make the most, even more than chocolate chip cookies. It is one of the easiest 'rolled' cookies you will ever make as the dough needs no refrigeration and is the most forgiving dough you will ever work with (the finished cookies don't lose their tenderness when the scraps of dough are rerolled). Whether you dip either the entire top or one half of the cookie in white chocolate is all up to you, but remember 'more can often be better'. 

In the weeks ahead I will share with you the newest and best 'cookie and confection' recipes I find or am fortunate enough to be given. As I look at the ones shared here with you again I realized half of them came from friends, making them even more treasured. Have a wonderful beginning to the holiday season. May it be filled with much love as well as lots of unsalted butter and chocolate.