I’m in Christmas spirit overdrive. Baby’s first Christmas. Hosting the family. Decorating the house. Creating OUR own family traditions…and of course baking. This year’s baking fest was a full day event with my sister, my sister-in-love, and the two new little ladies in the family. We were slightly ambitious and did not quite account for the amount of baby wrangling that would be involved, but the tag team baking yielded some very tasty treats.
This year while Christmas shopping, the inevitable “one for you, one for me” happened while in I was Chapters. I bought a plastic cookbook stand for myself and it had a recipe on the front of the box. The cashier became wildly excited when she saw “Chocolate Crinkles” on the box while ringing it in. I cut it out and made it. She was right. Delicious, tiny, soft, chewy chocolate cookies that have been dusted with a bit of festive snow. So pretty and so almost gone.
Chocolate Crinkles
1/4 cup butter, soft
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup icing sugar
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Heat chocolate in a small heavy saucepan on lowest heat, stirring often until almost melted. Do not overheat. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Add to butter and sugar mixture and beat well.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add to chocolate mixture in 2 additions, mixing well after each addition until no dry flour remains. Roll into 1 inch balls.
Roll each ball in icing sugar until coated. Arrange two inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cookies will be soft. Let stand on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool. Makes about 8 dozen cookies.
Next, thanks to my sister’s selective reading, we ended up creating a happy accident in the way of Salted Lemon Sage Shortbread. It was supposed to be thyme, not sage…but sage is SO much better! Next we decided to forgo the recipe she had and use the Lemon Shortbread Recipe that I have been baking for the last two years with good results. Add fresh sage and a sprinkling of Fleur de Sel and viola! Tender, savory, salty, buttery perfection! Next year’s batch will be bigger and maybe I’ll even share…
Salted Lemon Sage Shortbread (adapted from Lemon Shortbread from Bon Appetit, August 2001)
1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tbsp fleur de sel
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Blend first six ingredients into food processor. Add butter, cut in using on/off turns until moist clumps form. Gather dough into a ball. Divide in half and press dough halves into the bottoms of two 8 inch diameter cake pans. Pierce dough all over with a fork. Sprinkle tops with Fleur de Sel.
Bake until cooked through and pale golden, about 40 minutes. Cool shortbread in pans on rack for 5 minutes. Cut each warm shortbread pan into 12 wedges. Cool completely. Use spatula to carefully transfer to a platter. (Can be made up to 4 days ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.)
Happy Christmas and happy eating. May all your holiday treats be prepared with a dash of love and be enjoyed with your favorite people.
