cakewalk

This year's payload, clockwise from high noon: checkerboard cookies, lemon cream sandwich, tahini cookies, chocolate sandwich cookies with gianduia, ginger sandwich with dark chocolate filling, linzer cookies. Oatmeal cookie in the center. No spritz cookies, alas. To the post office I go.

I think this might end up being a country mouse/city mouse argument. I lived in Jerusalem for a long time, and hummus places definitely did not close before 5 pm. They were open and they were full. You're right of course about the main meal usually being in the afternoon, and the evening meal is usually dairy-based. But the workplace in the cities has been changing for a long time, and most of them no longer close for a mid-day "hafsaka" (siesta). Eating patterns change to accommodate the work requirements. But even besides that, in any medium to large sized city a restaurant couldn't stay alive if they closed by 5 pm. I realized that your "before noon" comment was tongue-in-cheek, but I found the rest of it to be quite curious. (Do you live on a kibbutz or moshav?)

Checkerboard cookies. I made these once before, but using a different recipe. Both were good, but not great. It often seems that the better a cookie looks, the worse it tastes, as if only one thing can be concentrated on at a time. Why is that? Anyway, these are good and will go well in any gift box, but I do wish the chocolate was more pronounced. (I have four more sticks of these in the freezer!)

http://xkcd.com/

I lost the part that screws onto the bottom of the press, the part where you would put the metal plates that create the shape of the cookie. I don't have a garbage disposal. It hasn't turned up yet. It looks so pathetic! It's completely useless. I'm going to write to Oxo and ask if they sell spare parts. I'm not buying a new one. Thanks for the clarification about the cookies holding their shape. Oh well, in the meantime I'm making other cookies.

Yes, very much so. What would you do with it now to salvage it? There must be a way. (Besides spooning it onto ice cream. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Last night I added a couple of tablespoons of flour to the almond paste recipe. They held their shape better, but still spread somewhat. Also, the extra flour was noticeable in the taste. Not terrible, but if I add any more flour it will be. I baked up the rest of the dough and planned to continue today with some more recipes. I started with the King Arthur Flour recipe, which includes Fiori di Sicilia flavoring. The rest of the recipe is pretty similar to the Betty Crocker recipe. Anyway, the plan for today was to try the KAF recipe, then the Betty Crocker recipe, then those cornmeal cookies, because I think they'd be great. (I'm a sucker for any baked cornmeal product.) Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men ... I cannot find the bottom part of my press!! The part that you put the die into, that screws back onto the body of the press. It is gone. It has disappeared. I cannot begin to tell you how annoyed and upset I am. I have no idea where it is, where it could be. I have a tiny NYC kitchen, there isn't enough room for anything to get lost in there. I cleaned up last night, and all the other pieces of the press were in the drainboard. But not that piece. I didn't throw out the trash last night and yes, you better believe it, I checked the trash, but that piece was not there either. So I binged all afternoon on Netflix (Twin Peaks, I've never seen it and now seemed like the perfect time, boy it's a hoot), and now will attempt to step back into the kitchen and search once again. Although God knows where. The KAF recipe is pretty good. It was too stiff to pipe, so I rolled teaspoon-size balls and flattened them out a bit. I'll fill with some sort of lemon flavored filling. But if I can't press them, I won't be trying any more spritz recipes. Damn! Where can that thing be?

Took a break from those spritz cookies to bake some rye bread. Conventional yeast method, James Beard recipe. Won't cut them open until tomorrow.

Very cool, thanks for the link! Just "bought" it, will look through it later.

Today's take: the almond paste recipe is delicious, I really like the flavor. However, it spreads so much! The first photo is the daisy cookie shape (with a chocolate chip in the middle). They pressed cleanly out of the cookie press, but spread so much in the baking that most of the contours were lost. Baked at 350 F for 8 minutes. The second photo is the heart shape! I pressed them out and put the cookie sheet in the fridge to chill for a half hour, but as you can see they baked practically into circles (also at 350 F for 8 minutes, but these could have used 9 minutes). Not sure what to do. I still have some dough left, tomorrow I might press out some cookies and freeze them before baking. The recipe makes a lot of cookie dough, so I made only a third of the recipe for testing (which will still end up making about 3 dozen cookies, if not more, but they are quite little). The recipe divides pretty neatly into thirds except for the eggs: instead of dividing 2 eggs and 1 white into thirds, I just used one whole egg. Does it need that little bit more egg white? Lisa, do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions? Many thanks. To be continued ...

I bought an Oxo Good Grips cookie press a while ago. I don't remember what I paid but I'm sure it was cheaper than the KAF press, because I wouldn't have paid that much money for it! I don't have anything to compare it to, I've never owned or used a different one. In the meantime, I'm having more trouble finding a recipe I like than using the press. The ones I've tried so far did not come off the cookie press as easily and cleanly as they do in the video, but that's probably a recipe and/or temperature issue. Yesterday I made the almond paste recipe, but it was too soft to press (it would have been good to pipe), so I refrigerated it. It's now sitting on the counter to soften a bit, and I hope to press them later today. I saw the Serious Eats post, I'm a bit suspicious of all that mixing.

It's an old joke in the summertime in NY, that it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. (But I never saw anyone do it!)

Thanks for the recipe, I will give that a go. I think I would add salt anyway, with our without the baking powder. I know the cream cheese contains some salt, but I think an extra pinch or two will be good. What is the consistency I'm looking for as I add the flour? I never thought Spritz cookies would involve so much trial and error! But when they're good, they are so good. (And I've seen comments from people mentioning the jello thing. Besides the pretty colors, it must have done something for the texture of the cookie. I mean, gelatin.) Thanks again.

I was wondering about the baking powder, I noticed its on-again/off-again appearance. I agree, the lightness it might add to the cookie's texture is kind of self-defeating in terms of its shape and contours. I was also wondering about different flours used. I don't like King Arthur AP Flour for cakes (protein level is too high), but I do often like it for cookies. I used it for the Spritz cookies I made yesterday, and I'm wondering if that's why the cookies tasted too floury. (Actually I think it was just a bad recipe.) I noticed the combination of cake/bread flour above. What does that contribute? Thanks so much for your input.

I freeze egg whites all the time. I just plop them in a zip lock bag and throw them in the freezer. When I have about 13 or 14, I make an angel food cake. They whip up beautifully.

Thanks for the working link to the Betty Crocker recipe, I think that will be my next attempt. I'm also curious about the adaptation of the Carol Field recipe mentioned above. And almond paste - I haven't seen that in any of the recipes I've looked through so far. I think it's a great idea flavor-wise, but it might make piping and/or pressing difficult. I'd like to try a small batch of that recipe. Thanks to everyone for the input. (Keep it coming!!)

I'm asking! I'm asking! Spritz cookies are new to me, I didn't even realize so many variations existed. Thank you!

A while ago I bought an Oxo cookie press, thinking I'd be able to make a simple, tasty Spritz cookie, no problem. Well, I just made my first batch from half the recipe that came with the press. The cookies were awful. Way too sweet, floury, truly awful. I was very disappointed. So I'm trying to find a "tried and true" recipe. Finding this old thread has been very helpful, not to mention eye-opening in terms of how complex such a simple cookie can be. Has anyone made Spritz cookies? Any helpful tips? Comments about the tips above? (And maybe a recipe?)

NIce stuff above. And wow, peach cobbler in December. That creates a special kind of warmth.

Congratulations!

No steam this time, but I did brush with water before I put it in the oven. I was a bit anxious to get it done since it had already been hanging out for almost 48 hours, I had to leave the house shortly, and I didn't want the dough to sit in the fridge another night. The oven was already on from baking something else, so I just upped the temp, brushed some water on top so the sesame seeds would stick, and baked. So it's no surprise that the crust wasn't as crisp as I would have liked. The bread is very flavorful and I like the texture, so I guess all's well that ends well.

Sourdough, with bread flour, semolina, rye, and buckwheat flours. Very nice loaf, but the crust needs work.

Biscotti Regina, Butterscotch Crunch cookies, and Lazy Emma (who loves cookies).

I made that chocolate cake I mentioned above. My goodness, you want dry? You got it! It's very light, like a feather, but dry as a bone. It will be great in a trifle.

Sounds like a chocolate sponge cake might fit the bill. I found this: http://aseasyasapplepie.com/chocolate-italian-sponge-cake/ which actually looks good. I might try it myself.