Shaken Shortbreads

Leave it to me to become the family's drama queen today. In all honesty, I wasn't trying to become any source of attention, since really, who needs the trouble? - but life has a way of throwing you some curveballs along the way. For instance, this morning as I was driving to my doctor's office (and the irony here will become clear in a moment) I was quite sharply rear-ended by a hit and run driver while stopped at a streetlight. Luckily I didn't hit my head, nor was the car all that damaged, but I was (well, am) shaken up and left with a wicked headache and sore upper back from the jerk (both of them... :-) ). I was even able to report it to the police, thankfully, since I had the plate number! But, needless to say that little escapade put a serious kink into my day! Adding the fact that I have two major exams tomorrow (again, thanking Heaven I wasn't en route to one today!), and it's been a wee bit hectic 'round here!

So, consistency - as you no doubt have noticed from my erratic posts recently - is not exactly my strong suit. But if I can be sure of anything these days (and let's face it, with the world in the upheaval it's in that's a rarity) it is that regardless of what happens from the months of January to November during the year, come December first our kitchen turns into a zone Julia Child would worship. I'm talking butter. Eggs. Gratuitous indulgences in sugar, flour and chocolate. Regardless of the hours clocked at the gym (gym? What is this foreign word you mention?) or the fact that our cupboard does in fact have more whole wheat than white pasta in it, it's all a placid facade hiding the gluttony behind the scenes. But, it's only once a year, and at least it's something we can all look forward to without fail!

It used to be simply my mom's ultra-decadent, über famous shortbreads that graced the bill at Christmastime. Butter, flour, sugar and an egg yolk, and my sister and I were happy as clams (where the heck does that saying come from?) from 12:01AM December 1 through 11:59PM December 31. We would eagerly anticipate the season as the golden one-pound bricks of butter began stockpiling in our freezer through November, and at the end of the year we mourned the buttery, crumbly death of the last sprinkled star or Santa Claus. With recent years, and most markedly my "home rest" period off of school when I started blogging, the cookie repetoire has expanded. Or ballooned, really. Actually, it's probably grown at a rate roughly equal to the waistlines of those eating a week of turkey dinners with extra stuffing. But you get it. Lots of cookies. In fact, even the list that I made only 10 days ago has morphed slightly - but sadly (for me) the bulk of the baking is over this year, with most of the goodies packed, shipped, taken home or otherwise delivered. Now the work begins - telling you all about it!

I would be remiss if I didn't once again re-post the aforementioned shortbread cookie recipe for Food Blogga's Eat Christmas Cookies event... they still are one of the three undying staple recipes of the holiday season here (with the other two being the Braided Challah and Filled Holiday Brioche). This year I was lucky enough to share the cookie-making experience with some new (but dear!) Twitter friends, including one who is a master sprinkle placement official! The tray above includes some of her master handiwork - who wouldn't want that giant purple Mickey Mouse??

Like I've said in previous years, don't halve this sucker. Really. It won't work. Just eat the evidence... unless cookies are baked they can't be that bad, right?

Mom’s Shortbread Cookies

Makes 30 (ish)
1 cup salted butter, softened (NO SUBSTITUTES!!)

1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups flour

1. Cream butter, egg yolk, and vanilla (mum uses a fork for this!).
2. Sift icing sugar and flour into the creamed mixture.
3. Mix to combine into a workable dough.
4. Roll out and cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
5. Place cookies onto ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Decorate as desired - this year saw the introduction of chocolate-covered espresso beans!
7. Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 20 minutes. Cookies should not have much, if any, browning!
8. Let cool completely on sheets.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 94.1
Total Fat: 6.4 g
Cholesterol: 23.1 mg
Sodium: 44.0 mg
Total Carbs: 8.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.2 g
Protein: 1.0 g

The other shortbread recipe I decided on this year, as apparently I tend to do two each season now(!), is a very slight adaptation to an equally simple dough from Elizabeth Baird's "Four Seasons of Canadian Food" blog on Canadian Living. I didn't do much to this cookie except reduce and divide the sources of fat (adding a bit of shortening [hides] for sturdiness), adding a touch of Demerara sugar to the already delicious caramelly brown in the recipe and mixing up the flours to add an iota of brown rice's nutrition where there would normally just be cornstarch. The dough is stuffed with oats and lots of tiny bittersweet chocolate bits - I used a bar of 70% cocoa solids chocolate that I froze before taking a hammer to it in order to get the tiny shards, but really if I was pressed for time (and be forewarned, these cookies do have to chill in the freezer for a minimum of 3 hours - I recommend 6-8) I'd just toss in the same measurement of mini chocolate chips. The darker chocolate is a better flavour contrast though, especially when the casing is basically a butter/sugar envelope!

Oats and Chocolate Shortbread Coins
Makes about 36
½ cup salted butter, softened
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp packed Demerara sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
¼ cup brown rice flour (or cornstarch)
¾ cup quick rolled oats (not instant, the 5-to-10 minute kind)
¾ cup flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
5 oz bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips, chopped

1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, shortening and sugars until light.
2. Add salt and vanilla, beating well.
3. Stir in the rice flour by hand, followed by rolled oats and flours.
4. Fold in the chocolate pieces.
5. Divide the dough in half, shape each portion into a log and freeze 3 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 275°F and line 2 sheets with parchment or silicone.
7. Using a serrated knife, cut 1/2" slices and place about 1/2" apart.
8. Bake one sheet at a time for about 40 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned.
9. Chill remaining dough slices in the fridge in between bakings.
10. Let baked cookies cool on the sheets for 5-10 minutes, then move to a rack and cool completely.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 96.7
Total Fat: 5.9 g
Cholesterol: 7.8 mg
Sodium: 36.0 mg
Total Carbs: 10.1 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g
Protein: 1.1 g

Princess of Persia

Well, my freedom is finally here! Officially, my last class let out this afternoon, but this whole week was one I like to call "busy work" - the profs can't technically give us any assignments to do because exams are next week, but we still have to be in class! Oh well, it all balanced out in the long run, since Wednesday's weather meant there was no way any of us were schlepping onto campus for a single class.

Of course, that could only mean one thing for me - and I'm sure you can all guess what that was! Yes, this Wednesday was officially my "cookie day". Wait. scratch that. Wednesday was my baking day! We had done 4 batches of my mom's shortbreads on Sunday, but (if you can believe it) between my sister, stepbrother, and a couple gift boxes we had one single cookie left by the time Wednesday morning rolled around. One. Uno. So something had to be done, but (of course) we had no soft butter hanging around after sucking up two pounds of Julia Child's lifeblood that past weekend. However, I took one of the blocks out and sliced a small(ish) cube off to soften for some Thin Mints at the same time as grabbing the cream cheese for a couple other goodies you'll get to see soon enough (now that I have time to write about them!). While I dug through the fridge, I also found a lonely stick of Earth Balance that remained from my babka-baking days and figured "what the heck... I'm sure I've got a recipe to use this up!".  And did I!!

These cookies are incredibly unique in that they are spiked not with the usual "holiday" accoutrements of ginger, cinnamon or citrus, but with saffron. As a result, they are the most vibrant yellow, and the dought is peppered throughout with pearls of currants and dried cranberries! Initially, the recipe almost - and I almost cringe to write it - looks like a modified shortbread-style of cookie, the difference being that the fat is melted into the dough rather than creamed. In retrospect, if I was to make it again, I would stick to creaming this batter - melting the butter (or Earth Balance in my case) made these too oily for my liking (you can even see the sheen in the photos). The original recipe came courtesy of Iraj Shirazi via the Toronto Star's Food column, and it apparently was supposed to make 96 teaspoon-sized cookies. No offense to the recipe author, but I don't know what teaspoon you're using, because my cookies were only the size of silver dollars when done and I only got 48!

That said, though - those 48 cookies are rich, chewy and soft without being as over the top sweet as most of the Christmas cookies on the plates these days. My only complaint is they get very sticky in storage, so don't stack them on top of each other unless you want double-thick cookies (not a bad thing, mind you!). The dough also freezes wonderfully which was great for me, because these days there is no time to do gazillions of cookies all from scratch all in one day. Even Wednesday's spree was cut short, I had to pretty much focus on dough preparation alone because with 11 kinds in the works, plus 2 mincemeat pies and a loaf of sourdough bread, I couldn't afford to slow down! Thank God for chest freezers!

So without further ado I will submit these cookies to FoodBlogga's Eat Christmas Cookies event, with many more (hopefully!) to come - and at the very least some good times will be had in the kitchen this weekend as I host a foodie-esque cookie meet with Joel from Get the Foodie 411 and a couple non-bloggers but food lovers I Tweet with!

Jeweled Persian Saffron Cookies
Makes about 48
1/2 cup Earth Balance or butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup Kamut flour
5 oz silken low-fat tofu, pureed
1 cup currants
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 tsp saffron threads, crumbled
1 tbsp warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In large mixing bowl, combine butter, granulated sugar and icing sugar with wooden spoon.
2. Slowly stir in flour.
3. Stir in eggs, then raisins.
4. In small bowl, whisk saffron and water.
5. Stir in yellow food colouring, if using, and vanilla. Stir well into batter.
6. For each cookie, scoop a teaspoon of dough and roll into ball.
7. Place 2 inches apart on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets.
8. Bake in batches in preheated 350F oven until golden, about 10 minutes.
9. Cool completely on wire racks. Transfer to airtight container.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 83.4
Total Fat: 2.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 24.9 mg
Total Carbs: 16.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 0.9

Ancient Grain, Modern Twist

Being in the Nutrition program at college means that I'm occasionally privy to some pretty neat foodie information. For instance, I have a copy of a diabetic diet management guide usually reserved exclusively for dietitians to use in their practice, I've had experience using a clinical dietary analysis tool for my own meals (who knew I eat on average 324% of my RDI of fibre and 210% of my vitamin C every day??). But what's actually more interesting to me, my classmates and even my profs on occasion, is the random information we bring from outside the clinical world. Usually a class (especially my Nutrition and Marketing ones) will find me rambling on about this and that that I've stumbled on through other bloggers, Twitter conversations (or eavesdrops!), or my own curiosity - I've been able to pass along more than one fellow blogger's URL to my colleagues, and even to two or three of my doctors as well!

Sadly (or gratefully, depending on how you look at it), most of what I come to share is in response to many of the food and nutrition related myths that are still being related as fact - even in "educated" circles! Things like how "it's so hard for vegetarians to get enough protein and iron", or how you have to food combine at each meal for real benefits. I've proven to my doctor that even I, with my system as messed up as it is, can get more than enough protein and iron (yay legumes, tofu, quinoa and buckwheat!), and shared the more unique "superfoods" like quinoa and amaranth to my classmates.

One of the other great recent things I've been able to share was my love of making home made breads. It's nothing new on this blog for sure, but to most people the art of making bread at home regularly is an archaic, and sadly lost, tradition. As Christmas season started coming around again this year and I started clearing out my pantry in order to make room for cookie supplies (!), I found a couple bags of those aforementioned "superfoods" in some of the boxes. While I knew some of them would find their home nicely in some Christmas cookies that afternoon, I had some bread to make for Mom too! What better way to share the decadence of these tiny, new-yet-old grains?

I'm going to pass this bread along to YeastSpotting this week, for Susan's roundup!

Ancient Grains Bread
Serves 14
1 pkg instant yeast
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup rye flakes
3 tbsp ground flaxseed
3 tbsp amaranth grain
1/3 cup quinoa
1/4 cup soy flour
1 1/2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup skim milk powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/4 cup honey

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, whisk together yeast, flours, rye flakes, flaxseed, amaranth, quinoa, soy flour, wheat gluten, skim milk powder and salt.
2. Stir in warm water and honey, mixing thoroughly to form a cohesive, fairly firm (but workable) dough.
3. Turn out onto a floured board or knead with the dough hook for 12 minutes, until very elastic and smooth.
4. Place into a bowl, cover and allow to rest 30 minutes.
5. Roll rested dough into a log shape and tuck into a greased loaf pan.
6. Cover with a clean towel and allow to rise 50-60 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350F.
8. Slash the top of the loaf 2-3 times with a sharp knife or lame.
9. Bake 40 minutes. Turn out of pan immediately and cool on a rack before slicing

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 190.3
Total Fat: 1.4 g
Cholesterol: 0.5 mg
Sodium: 15.3 mg
Total Carbs: 36.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.6 g
Protein: 8.3 g

... And Then You Drink it All Up

While these weren't made as part of the holiday list I mentioned, they are definitely worth a mention this season! Think about it, if you have someone on your gift list that is vegan (or allergic to dairy or eggs), allergic to chocolate, avoiding refined sugar or who has celiac disease, there's no tastier, easier offering than these tender, shortbread-esque cookies. Spiked with a big hit of tangy lime, the drops are low in added sugar because the secret ingredient - coconut flour - is naturally sweet and (of course) nutty! I used a raw cane sugar (similar to this one) to make these because I adored the "exotic" flavour it lent to the dough.

When I made these cookies (as a gift for one of my awesome friends, and a kickass hairstylist, Christina), I decided to send it into a company called Tropical Traditions that sells a huge array of coconut products, organic food and a host of other health-related goodies. Of course, being me, I promptly forgot about that fact until last night - when I opened up my e-mail inbox to find a note from a rep (Janelle) saying I had won some free product from them! Well, ho-lee-cow! Christmas came early! From what I heard through the grapevine, they are some pretty good cookies... and a nice hint of the Caribbean in the dead of Winter!

So without further ado (but many many thanks to Tropical Traditions), I am re-posting my winning recipe for everyone to see! The non-vegan version is available on the company website, and I'm also sending this post to FoodBlogga's Eat Christmas Cookies event!

Lime In The Coconut [Flour] Cookies
Makes 30
1 cup coconut flour
¾ cup rice flour (I really don't recommend AP for this... if you must though, use 1/2 cup of cornstarch and 1/4 cup of AP)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt
2/3 cup raw sugar
2/3 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
Egg replacer for 2 eggs, prepared
½ tbsp. grated lemon peel
1 tbsp. grated lime peel
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tbsp water

1. Pre-heat oven at 375F.
2. Mix coconut flour, rice flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl beat the sugar, margarine, egg replacers, lemon and lime peels, lemon and lime juices and water.
4. Mix in flour mixture until well blended.
5. Shape dough into small balls with your hands and place on an un-greased cookie sheet. They don't spread too much.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set.
7. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 85.9
Total Fat: 4.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 54.7 mg
Total Carbs: 10.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 0.8 g

A Taste of Things to Come

I'm in recovery mode this week - school has, quite frankly, been kicking my ass these days, and by the time the weekend rolls around it's all I can do to make a few quick meals for myself before I'm ready to curl up in bed. So, posting may still be a touch sporadic until I can get my butt back in baking gear (and find some windows to commandeer the kitchen - problem with Christmastime baking is that everyone wants to do it at the same time!!).

Image via AnastasiaC on Flickr

That being said, of course I can't ignore the delights of holiday fare, particularly cookies! Along with our yearly traditional shortbreads (which I'm lucky enough to make with some dear friends this year!), I've compiled a list of other gifties to make and package this season. In lieu of recipes today, I'll instead give you the list! Bonus is that it keeps me accountable, right?

Jeweled Saffron Cookies (inspired from here)
Smoky Oat Toffee Cookies
Thin Mints
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Shortbreads

Ginger Oatmeal Cookies
Happy Herbivore's Black Bean Brownies
Mom's Shortbreads
Mincemeat Pies
SuperGrain Cookies with Fruit & Nuts
Chocolate, White Chocolate and Butterscotch Chip
Chocolate Chip & Espresso Bean

I'm not counting the pan of super-fudgey, triple-chocolate brownies, chocolate chippers or Double Chip Coconut Drops I've already made - or the giant, mincemeat filled fruitcake that's hanging out in my freezer!