Cookie of the Week: Toffee Cookies

Once the Thanksgiving leftovers disappear, it means one thing at Chez T. Time to start baking the holiday cookies. Better loosen your belts, folks, because it's time to do the Cookie-Boogie!



Growing up, I loved baking Christmas cookies with Mama. My sister never showed much interest, but I loved rolling dough and sprinkling sugar and piping icing along the rims.

We always made the same 4 or 5 kinds of cookies every year. Once in a blue moon, we'd try something different, but ultimately, we always came back to these old favorites.

And I'm happy to share our Greatest Hits with you this season.

So as to not overwhelm you and induce Cookie Coma, I'll share one cookie recipe a week with you this month. I hope you enjoy the process as much as I will, and perhaps it will encourage you to tie on that apron and bake up some memories with your kids.



Miss M. was beyond excited to help, and Miss D. learned what separating an egg means.

These cookies are my personal Waterloo. I can resist an alarming number of sweets; I'm a salt girl. But not these delectable guys. And because I'm a freak, I prefer to eat them straight from the freezer.

Toffee Cookies

Base:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
2 cups flour
1/2 cup ground pecans (my note:I used the food processor)
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt

Topping:
Large (59-cent)* Hershey's chocolate bar, chunked
Nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients for base using a mixer, beating until well blended. Press into the bottom of a 9x13-inch or a 10x15-inch cookie pan.



Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden.

Turn off the oven. Working quickly, cover the top of the base layer evenly with chocolate; return to oven for 2-3 minutes or until chocolate is spreadable.

Watch out for chocolate thieves!



Spread chocolate evenly over crust and top with nuts, if desired. Wait until thoroughly cooled to cut.

* Shows how old this recipe is! It's a 7-ounce bar. :)

** A little side note. Mama got this recipe from a neighbor whose son, Darren, was my age. Darren followed me around like a devoted hound and could snort pickle juice up his nose. I was, naturally, wicked impressed by this gift.

Miss You Cookies

Hubs took the girls to Houston this weekend; his family lives there and the girls had a lovely visit. And I got a little break from the day-to-day grind of being Mommy, which was, admittedly, welcome.

I can't remember the last time I was home alone in my house for more than a couple of hours. I mean, there was Harryboy underfoot--an utter nuisance--and Awesome Stepkid R. was here Saturday and Sunday, but it was pretty darn quiet within these walls.

I tried to be busy; I took a friend out for a birthday lunch, went shopping (someplace other than Target!) with my mom, had MADE plans to do dinner/movie in Denver...but then the snow hit. Trapped, yet again, in my home, due to Mother Nature. However, this time I was not snowed in with small children. It was crazy quiet. I did not cook a meal. I drank wine in peace and did not have to be the Pusher of the Potty.

Still, once Sunday afternoon wore on and it started getting dusky, I missed my clan. I missed their runny noses and their demands for the perfect snack and the shrieks of hilarity.

So I rolled up my sleeves and went into the kitchen--even though I'd declared the kitchen "Off-Limits" for the weekend--and baked up something to let my little Freakshow Circus that I'd missed them.

Modified Lemon Bars (adapted from Gramma Rhetta's Lemon Bars)

1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt

Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. Line a greased 8x8 inch square pan with heavy duty foil or parchment, leaving excess hanging over edges. Grease foil or parchment (generously!).

Combine butter, flour and powdered sugar to create coarse crumbs. Press firmly into the bottom of pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden.

Combine sugar, eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until well combined.

Pour filling over crust, return to oven and bake 25-30 minutes or until set. Cool for 15-20 minutes, then use foil/parchment overhang to lift bars out of pan. Remove foil/parchment. Freeze uncut slab of bars for 10-15 minutes, then slice into individual bars. Dust with powdered sugar.



I am happy to say that my house is noisy once again. And I have two little minxes with powdered sugar mustaches. Life is good.

White Trash Motherlode: Too Sweet

As I slowly work my way through some of the recipes in the White Trash Motherlode Book, I'm coming to some realizations:

~ It's mainly a book of casseroles and sweets. Really.
~ And the few salads that are in there? A lot of them are sweet.
~ Can you really call a dish made with jello, ginger ale and marshmallows a salad?

Apparently you can call ginger ale and marshmallows a salad, because there are a frightening number of "salad" recipes in The Book that contain the ingredients listed above.

Apparently, the necessary and essential pantry items in a North Dakota kitchen in 1970 were as follows: jello, Miracle Whip salad dressing, condensed cream of ________ soup, maraschino cherries, chow mein noodles and canned green beans.

Oh, and sugar. How could I forget sugar? Sugar appears in damn near everything in The Book, even savory dishes.

I'm surprised any one who lived in North Dakota in the late 60's/early 70's had teeth.

I was leafing through the book the other day and came upon a recipe so incredibly audacious that I had to share it.

Need a little something to add zip to that bar cookie recipe? I suppose you could add nuts. Or maybe some chocolate chips. Or maybe a handful or two of dried fruit. Some coconut, if you're feeling downright racy.

Nah, screw that. Let's get this bar cookie AMPLIFIED! Let's add...sticky, neon-hued nuggets of pure sugar deliciousness, shall we? Awesome!

Gumdrop Diamonds

1 cup tiny gumdrops, sliced
2 cups sifted enriched flour
4 eggs
1 tablespoon cold water
2 cups light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cups chopped pecans
Sifted confectioner's sugar

Toss the gumdrops into 1/4 cup of the flour. Beat eggs with water; add brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Sift together remaining flour, salt, and sugar; stir into egg mixture. Add nuts and gumdrops. Spread in a greased 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1 in. jelly roll pan. Bake at 325 for 35 minutes. When cool, cut into diamonds or squares. Roll in confectioner's sugar, if desired.

Oh yeah, I think we totally need to roll these suckers in sugar after baking, don't you?

Holy Smokes. Pass the dental floss, wouldja?

Than again, we do have all of those leftover Dots from Halloween...