Great Biscuit (Crisp Cookie) Recipes

[KaffirLime]

We've recently set our daughter up in a small vintage clothes and jewellery shop in town and she's doing quite well. I decided to start baking a few things to give away in the shop and they are going down a storm - apparently they are being tweeted massively (whatever that means). So far I have tried Italian olive oil biscuits (very much like British shortbread) in Rosemary and Orange variations, an orange Torta de Santiago cake (extremely expensive to make for something thats given away free) and I'm going to try some classic almond biscotti this weekend. Does anybody have any suggestions/recipes for anything else? You might have gathered from the sort of things I've been cooking the area the shop is in is a bit arty so I couldn't get away with a hob-nob but I'm keen to explore more Italian/Spanish offerings.

Oh, also any recommendations on good cookbooks that cover the same?

Edited July 12, 2012 by KaffirLime (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I'm a big fan of the "International Cookie Cookbook" by Nancy Baggett. Lots of different cookies from various countries.

These Blue Cheese and Fig Savouries are fabulous. I have made them with apricot jam, bourbon bacon jam and even strawberry in place of the fig.

[HungryC]

I repeatedly return to "Biscotti", a cookie book published by the American Academy in Rome. It contains a variety of biscotti, nut cookies, and other very Italian cookies (in other words, not too sweet and on the small side). The cantucci di Prato recipe is perfect, and the hazelnut tozetti are my favorite.

http://www.amazon.com/Biscotti-Recipes-Kitchen-American-Sustainable/dp/1892145898

[judiu]

If you are'nt commited to sweets, how about cheese straws? Rather pedestrian, I know, but oh so good!

[Lisa Shock]

On the savory side, http://forums.egullet.org/index.php/topic/127072-blue-cheese-and-pecan-crackers/page__hl__%2Bblue+%2Bcheese+%2Bpecan -these crackers have always been a big hit for me. I add a pecan half to the top of each cracker before baking.

[Carlovski]

Careful - you will wind up with a bakery that sell the odd necklace on the side! Said in jest - but i've seen a similar situation where an art store which sold the odd coffee and cake on the side discovered that it was much more profitable. It's now a very popular cafe/tea shop which sells the occasional painting.

[KaffirLime]

Well I certainly wouldn't mind it developing that way although my daughter might disagree!!

Edited July 13, 2012 by KaffirLime (log)

[Darienne]

Tahini and Almond Cookies http://www.davidlebo...cookies-recipe/ Just posted about these yesterday. Excellent biscuit. I added cardamom to them. Short and delicious.

[KaffirLime]

Thanks for the rec. The direct link to the recipe didn't seem to work but it got me to his site and there are some lovely recipes on it. The Pain d'amande looks interesting. Cheap to make a large quantity which is important at the moment when they are being given away free!

[Darienne]

Try googling David Lebovitz Tahini and Almond Cookies. That will give you the correct URL. I took the URL from the top of the proper page, but I couldn't get it to work either. Sorry.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Darienne (log)

[KaffirLime]

I've made some of the lemon bars on David Lebovitz's site and I have to say they are absolutely fantastic. I'm sure this is going to be a bit of a noobish question because I'm new to this whole baking lark (been baking bread for years but pastries are new to me) - the one thing I don't like about the lemon bars is the fact that the lemon curd topping has a fairly matt unattractive appearance. How do I achieve the super glossy look that you see on so many continental pastries - almost as if they have a layer of gelatine on top?

Edited July 20, 2012 by KaffirLime (log)

[Mjx]

Miroir! There may be other options, but none are springing to mind.

[SylviaLovegren]

I've made some of the lemon bars on David Lebovitz's site and I have to say they are absolutely fantastic. I'm sure this is going to be a bit of a noobish question because I'm new to this whole baking lark (been baking bread for years but pastries are new to me) - the one thing I don't like about the lemon bars is the fact that the lemon curd topping has a fairly matt unattractive appearance. How do I achieve the super glossy look that you see on so many continental pastries - almost as if they have a layer of gelatine on top?

That's why powdered sugar was invented.

[tigerwoman]

We've recently set our daughter up in a small vintage clothes and jewellery shop in town and she's doing quite well. I decided to start baking a few things to give away in the shop and they are going down a storm - apparently they are being tweeted massively (whatever that means). So far I have tried Italian olive oil biscuits (very much like British shortbread) in Rosemary and Orange variations, an orange Torta de Santiago cake (extremely expensive to make for something thats given away free) and I'm going to try some classic almond biscotti this weekend. Does anybody have any suggestions/recipes for anything else? You might have gathered from the sort of things I've been cooking the area the shop is in is a bit arty so I couldn't get away with a hob-nob but I'm keen to explore more Italian/Spanish offerings.

Oh, also any recommendations on good cookbooks that cover the same?

I too was looking for some great cookies lately - nothing "vin ordinaire" for a cookie table station I am creating for my son's wedding next week, and while not all the ingredients are inexpensive they certainly are adaptable to some extent. I found quite a number of great recipes from a site called the Luna Cafe and in fact you can find the links and descriptions to what I used on my recent blog post http://cuisinetc-weddings.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-cookie-table-new-trend-or-adaptable.html

We really loved Susan Bradley (Luna Cafe) cookies that had added fine cornmeal to the flour - the results being a crisp crunchy cookie that as she mentions "ages" well - we made ours 2-3 weeks ago and sampling some last night (it's a tough job you know) found them to be almost caramel in flavor like a good shortbread. Her playful inventiveness - such as the garam marsala cookie recipe will give you a great platform to jump off of and IMO take your cookie repetoire to the next level.

I found great recipes by following links to Dorie Greenspan's site - an article in NY Mag about her new bakery lead me to search for both the World Peace Cookie recipe (thank you google and the internet~!!) and the struesel jammers, both of which I adapted and tweeked to suit my own purposes.

We baked over 2,000 pieces of cookies and bars, starting with the ones that "aged well" and that could sit out stored airtight, and then many batches that needed to be frozen and will be pulled out a few days in advance of the wedding.

We are even serving warm cookies and cold milk shots as an added surprise after the cake is cut.

Check out the blog - I will also post more photos on my blog after the wedding next week showing the final products set out beautifully - the cookie table tradition is amazing and I am so excited to finally be producing one!!!

[antdad]

Sounds like you should try selling your vintage baked goods alongside your daughters.