Happy Chocolate Monday my friends! Today is another episode of the Secret Recipe Club. I know, I’ve been doing a lot of these lately, but sometimes we have people who have been left stranded and I can’t stand that so I volunteer to help. But today is my regularly scheduled reveal and I have a lovely cookie for you!
My SRC Buddy this month is Astrid of Paulchen’s Food Blog, a lovely woman who lives in Vienna, Austria and writes about food with a distinctive European flair that I like. We have so much in common, I know if we were ever living in the same city I would have an instant friend!
Astrid collects cookbooks and I bet would give me a run for my money if we ever compared bookshelves. Just like me, she believes in “experimental cooking” which is the habit we both share of never making a recipe exactly as it is written. That can make replicating a meal rather challenging.
She learned about cooking from her grandfather, I learned from my grandmother. I can imagine her skipping along with her grandpa, stopping to discover a new plant or herb, and his deep voice quietly explaining what each one was. I’m sure there was sunlight filtering through the branches and leaves dancing in the wind. Can’t you just see her!
One thing I envy is her participation in the Bread Baking Babes group, a dozen women from all over the world who share a passion for baking bread. Once a month they decide on a specific bread to make and then post about it, comparing their results, challenges, and successes. It is like a virtual coffee klatch!
When she was assigned my blog one month for the SRC, she made a chocolate brownie recipe I had posted and I am returning the favor and making one of her recipes that features white chocolate. Great minds think alike! Today’s recipe is perfect any time of the year, but will be especially appropriate during the upcoming holiday season. They are a simple shortbread-style sugar cookie studded with white chocolate chips and dried cherries. Oh my goodness, they are good!
I am always looking for new options for holiday cookie exchanges and interesting options when I am assembling a platter for parties. These can be altered in many ways to complement the other offerings. You could add chopped nuts, leave out the white chocolate, substitute butterscotch or toffee chips, use lemon instead of orange zest, etc. You could roll the dough balls in colored sugar, kids love helping with that task, LOL. These would be great with a thin chocolate ganache drizzle – use a fork or whisk and move it quickly back and forth over the cookies to create an interesting random pattern with the dark chocolate glaze. I’m getting excited just thinking about all the choices we have!
Astrid used dried sweetened cranberries in her cookies, which I love, but I didn’t have any on hand so I used dried sour cherries instead. I buy mine at either Whole Foods or Trader Joes, but make sure you get the sour cherries. The sweet ones are too sweet for most baked goods.
I have always loved shortbread cookies, and these are no exception. Extremely delicate, they would not be appropriate for shipping, but with a little TLC are outstanding at home. If you are baking with gluten-free flours they will be even more delicate so make sure you let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before attempting to move them to a wire rack for cooling.
The other thing that makes these cookies special is how easy they are to adapt to food allergies. I have included the changes I made to make the gluten-free and they are naturally nut-free and casein-free. That knocks out most of the food allergies right there! So if you are hosting people, especially children, who have to watch what they eat, these are an excellent choice for dessert.
If you have always wanted to host a Cookie Exchange, I will tell you the way to have fresh cookies all season long. Instead of having everyone bring platters of baked cookies that go stale before you can eat them and long before the holidays arrive, try this trick. Have everyone make a recipe, multiplying it to provide everyone with half of the dough. Then roll the dough into logs, wrap them in plastic wrap, cover with parchment paper on which you’ve written the cookie name, baking temperature and time. Then wrap the parchment covered log with another layer of plastic wrap. You can see the directions at a glance and make as many as you want at any given time.
Bookmark this page, pin it to Pinterest, or print out a copy of the article. This is one recipe you are definitely going to want to have on hand all year long. And make sure you head over to Paulchen’s Food Blog and check out the rest of Astrid’s wonderful recipes. You will have fun, I promise!
Happy Chocolate Monday everyone, enjoy these cookies soon!!
Jane’s Tips and Hints:
If you forgot to take your butter out of the refrigerator to warm up, you can easily soften it in a microwave oven. Set the cube(s) on a ceramic plate, heat for 5 seconds. Open the door, turn the cube over so the bottom is now on the top and heat for another 3 to 5 seconds. Remove it from the microwave and it will be just soft enough for beating. If it is frozen, you can grate it or cut in large chunks and use the microwave.
Gluten-Free Tips:
If you do not have a kitchen scale (which I highly recommend you buy), use this website converter to help figure out how much of each alternate flour you will need: http://convert-to.com/flour-types-volume-weight-amounts-conversion. Also, GF baked goods often suffer from dryness or crumbliness. You can counter this by adding a couple tbsp of extra butter or an egg yolk. If you mix your dough and it seems really dry, add a little more butter or a yolk and mix in. You will be much happier with your results.
Kitchen Skill: Creaming Butter and Sugar
The process called creaming in recipes means to combine the butter and sugar(s) in a mixing bowl and beat them until the sugar granules have mostly dissolved into the fat, creating a homogenous mixture. The longer you beat it, the fluffier and lighter in color it will get. There is no flour involved so you don’t have to worry about developing gluten. It would be hard to over-mix at this point so do not rush this step. If you are baking with gluten-free flours, this step will lighten and aerate the butter, helping to create lighter, less dense baked goods.
- 200 gr (7 oz or about 1-1/2 stick)butter, at room temperature
- 50 gr (1-3/4 oz; 3 tbsp)granulated sugar
- 50 gr (1-3/4 oz; 1/4 cup unpacked)light brown sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 230 gr (5 oz, 1-1/2 cups) white spelt flour or all-purpose flour
- (Gluten-Free: I used 115 gr {3/4 cup} white rice flour and 115 gr {1-1/4 cup} almond flour, at room temperature, 1 egg yolk or 2 tbsp extra butter, and 1/4 tsp xanthan gum)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tspbaking soda
- 150 gr (5-1/4 oz; 3/4 cup)white chocolate, chopped
- 2 tspgrated orange zest
- 1/4 cup dried sour cherries or sweetened cranberries, coarsely chopped
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Cream butter, sugar(s) and salt in your standing mixer until creamy and lightened in color (3 to 8 minutes depending on the strength of your mixer).
- Combine the flour(s), baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, whisk to completely blend and add to the creamed butter. Start the mixer on low so you don’t get a cloud of flour all over you! Mix just until incorporated. Add the chopped white chocolate, orange zest and cranberries to the dough, stirring until evenly distributed.
- Use a small (1 tbsp) spring-loaded ice cream scoop to portion the dough for 2-inch cookies. Use a teaspoon for bite-sized tea cookies. Place about 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Do not flatten, they will naturally spread in the oven.
- Bake in preheated oven for 7 minutes then spin the tray(s). Continue cooking for another 6 to 7 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- Let cool 1 minute on the sheet before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Yield: about 2 dozen 2-inch cookies
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Thank You!
Margaret
I think it may be time to make cookies. SOON!! Thanks for this one.
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
I agree Margaret – it is ALWAYS time to make cookies, LOL!! Thanks for stopping by!
Trisha
Jane these cookies look wonderful. U’r right perfect for the upcoming holidays!!!
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
Hi Trisha,
Yep, they will definitely be on my holiday dessert buffet this year!
Aly ~ Cooking In Stilettos
Tbese look delicious Jane!!!
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
Thanks so much Aly!
Lisa @ Sweet as Sugar Cookies
White chocolate and cherries are the perfect combo. Great SRC pick!
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
Thank you Lisa! I saw your Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars and will definitely be bookmarking those!
Lisa~~
I am saving the GF version to make for my little girl, she’ll love these.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my SRC entry Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings.
Lisa~~
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
That makes me really happy Lisa. I know how frustrating it can be to not be able to enjoy everything that all the other people are eating. I hope she loves these cookies! Put colored sugar on hers to make them even more “special” 🙂 I was talking with a GF baking expert and she suggested I add an egg yolk or 2 tbsp extra butter to help these be less crumbly. I live in a very dry part of the country so we need a bit more moisture in our GF baked goods. Let me know if this works for you!
April @ Angel's Homestead
Wow do these look good. Pinning them to make for my holiday platters. It will be a nice change of pace from all the dark chocolate that seems to dominate that time of year. Love your parchment paper trick too, I use that one all the time. Makes transferring the cookies to cooling racks so easy, and clean up is a snap.
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
Thanks April. I probably figured out the trick with the parchment about the same time I found out I could buy the cut sheets that we used at the pro kitchen for use at home! How did I survive before parchment and Silpats? LOL!
Nicole @ Daily Dish Recipes
Jane these look fantastic. Yum! I want and want now. 🙂 Perfect pick this month!
Have a great week!
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
Please come over Nicole, I’m afraid I will eat the whole batch, LOL!!
melissa@IWasBornToCook
These look amazing. Love cherries in cookies!
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
I love cherries too Melissa. I chopped these a little too small; next time I will leave them in bigger chunks!
Katrina
Ooh, those look really good! Time to bust out the white chocolate and cherries! Happy Monday!
Jane Bonacci, The Heritage Cook
I agree Katrina – about time for me to bust out the rest of the cookies, LOL!