Watermelon Margarita Cookies

This is probably about the most unusual cookie recipe I have seen.  In addition, the cookies are quite striking, even though they do not have much of a "natural look".  I was thinking that they would come out more pinkish than orange, but I did learn that trying to color a batter that already has a color is futile.Next go around I will not be bothering with the food coloring as suggested in the recipe.  The cookies will be a paler orange color, but never the pinkish red hue of the watermelon.  Probably the other ingredients in the recipe had an impact on the color.

The cookie itself does have all the taste of a margarita.  In one bite you can taste the lime and a subtle flavor of watermelon, then you get the nice rich taste of the dark chocolate.  I never knew how good chocolate can be when paired with the fruity tart flavors of a margarita!  The texture of the cookie is soft and cake-like.

This is definitely one that gets people's curiosity.  After my husband advised his friends at work what I had made, they all wanted some! I am still waiting for feedback on the ones he took today.  I  think these are a great cookie for entertaining as well as enjoying at happy hour-with none other than a margarita.  However, for those of you are seeking something without alcohol, there is instruction below to make a non alcoholic version.

Also, I wanted to thank a few fellow bloggers for awards.

For the Kreative Award:
Becky at Baking and Cooking has been so gracious to pass more than one award to me.  I have already introduced this amazing lady before and I am still enjoying her blog as well as her sweet personality.  I am glad to have Becky as a blogger friend.

For the Versatile Blogger Award
Heidi at Young Grasshopper -do not let the mother and lawyer fool you, this lady wears many hats and is skillful at it.  With tabs like "the bartender in me" and "the chef in me" I am sure anyone can find something to their liking.  I particularly liked her posts of Chicken Meatball Yakitori and the Mochatini.

Pop in and say hi if you are not already familiar with these two! Now on to the cookie recipe:

Watermelon Margarita Cookies
adapted from Sophisticated Cookie (makes about 3 dz cookies)

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 tsp of baking powder
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
2 tbs of grated lime zest
2 tbs of triple sec
1/4 cup of tequila
4 tbs fresh lime juice
1/4 cup of light corn syrup
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
3 cups of fresh, packed, coarsely chopped, seedless watermelon
red food coloring (optional)
3/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Fill a sauce pan with the watermelon, corn syrup, tequila and 2 tbs of lime juice.  Place over medium high heat and cook for about 35 minutes, stirring every now and then.  Then cook for 10 minutes more, stirring constantly.  Mixture should reduce to a very thick sauce, about 1/2 cup.  Remove from heat and let cool.

As this is cooling, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Once the watermelon mixture has cooled, the consistency will need to be evaluated.  If it has cooked down to a sauce, then it is fine.  If not, then puree the mixture in a food processor.  This variance probably is due to how ripe your watermelon is.

Add the watermelon mixture, triple sec, 2 tbs of the lime juice,lime zest and egg to the butter/sugar blend. Beat until all is blended and smooth.  Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.  Fold the sifted ingredients into the batter until no more dry streaks remain.  If using food coloring, add it to the batter and blend until desired color is reached. Then fold in the chocolate chips.  

Then lay a piece of plastic wrap horizontally on a flat surface.  Wrap should be about 1 foot in length.  Spoon half of the batter on one end of the plastic wrap.  The dough should be placed as a vertical log leaving a 1- 1/2 inch border of plastic beyond the top and bottom of the log as well as a 2 inch border on one side.  Curl the 2 inch border over the dough and continue to roll, letting the rest of the plastic wrap around the log until there is no more length.  Shape it into an even log and then fold the ends over the dough.  Prepare the second half of the batter in the same manner.
Place both logs on a cookie sheet and freeze for 2 hours or until firm.

While the dough is chilling, prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper.  In the last 15 minutes of the freezing time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After proper chilling time, remove one of the logs from the freezer and uncover from the plastic wrap.  Slice log vertically into 18 pieces, each should be approximately 1/2 an inch thick.  Then using damp hands, place each piece 2 inches apart on baking sheet (I ended up with 6 cookies to a sheet) and flatten dough to 1/4 inch thick.  Put the other dough slices in the fridge until you are ready to bake. Place pan in oven and bake about 12-15 minutes or until bottom and edges of cookies start to brown.   Mine took about 13 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on pan before removing.

Continue this process with the rest of the dough slices as well as the second frozen log. Note that the second frozen log slices may need to warm up a few minutes before you flatten them or they may crack. Since the dough has remained in the freezer for longer than two hours, it may be too stiff to flatten right away.

Non Alcoholic version: just omit the triple sec and add 1/4 cup of water instead of tequila.  
                    LAST YEAR:Ice Cream-Chocolate or Chocolate Malt?

Sicilian Wine Cookies

In late 2010, I was looking at all the cookie contests on the net.  One of the largest postings was the one for the LA Times.  I believe they actually posted not just the winners but quite a number of the entrants, because they wanted the people to vote.  I was busy saving a lot of them.  Some of the recipes were good and others not so much.  This is actually one I had not tried yet, but the list of ingredients was interesting, so I went ahead and made them.

The cookies are a mix of wine, lemon zest, orange zest and chocolate which is rolled in white sugar and shaped into crescents before baking.  The two things I changed about the recipe was to substitute vanilla extract for anise and I used mini chocolate chips instead of chopping up a block of chocolate.  The recipe below is the original.

These are a crisp cookie that tastes of orange and chocolate.  The wine may be a key factor in creating the texture of the cookie, but the flavor did not come through.  However, for those that like the mix of orange and chocolate, this is the cookie for you. I was happy with the results, but I would probably include chopped nuts in place of the chocolate chips next time and dip half the cookie in chocolate after baking.  That would add another flavor and also improve the look of these.  This recipe makes about 3 dozen crescent cookies.

Sicilian Wine Cookies
adapted from LA Times 2010 Cookie Contest

Ingredients
1/4 cup Chianti or Marsala Wine
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp Anise extract
1 egg
2/3 cup chopped dark or semi-sweet chocolate
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
2 tsp fresh orange zest
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar, plus more for rolling
2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small size bowl, beat egg for a minute at medium speed.  Then add the sugar and beat for another minute.  Set aside.

In another bowl, sift together the cinnamon, baking powder and flour.

Place both zests into the sugar/egg batter and beat for one minute.  Add the extract and oil, beating mixture until all is smooth and well blended.  With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the wine.  Once all wine is added beat at medium speed for 30 seconds.

Pour half of the sifted ingredients into the batter and mix using a wooden spoon.  Make sure no dry streaks remain.  Then stir in the chocolate.  Add half of the remaining flour and mix until smooth.  Add the rest of the flour, stirring until all is evenly distributed.

Shape dough into balls about 1 1/4 inch in diameter and roll in sugar.  Then shape into a thin, 3 inch long crescent and place on cookie sheet.  Cookies do not spread during baking so you should be able to place them about 1/2 inch apart.  I got a dozen cookies on one baking sheet.

Bake until edges turn golden brown, about 18-20 minutes.  Rotate pans at the halfway point to cook evenly. Let cookies rest on pan for at least a minute or so before transferring to rack to cool.

B52 Cookies

In case you are unfamiliar with the bar drink called a B52, I will explain.  It is a drink that is made up of layers of liqueur.  The sequence of the layering is based on the weight of the liquid as is layered in this order:  Baileys Irish Cream on the bottom, Kahlua or coffee liqueur in the middle and Grand Marnier or orange liqueur on top.  There is some bartender skill involved to make sure that the liquid does not mix and the layering stays intact as pictured below.

Anyhow, this recipe duplicates the layered flavors in a cookie form.  It has one basic dough that is separated into thirds and flavored.  Then the dough is stacked in layers and cut to form the cookies.

My cookies did not turn out with perfect edges, but I feel that maybe a sharper knife and freezing the dough longer would have helped.  However, these are homemade and not manufactured, so maybe the non-perfect edges are a good thing.

As far as taste, you can taste the liqueur flavors in each of these layers and the chocolate chips compliment each flavor layer.  The texture and ingredients in the cookie base very much resemble sable cookies. Now on to the recipe, it makes about 2 dozen cookies:

B52 Cookies
courtesy of Sophisticated Cookie Cookbook

Ingredients
2 tbs Baileys Irish Cream
2 tbs Kahlua
1 tsp instant espresso powder
2 tbs Grand Marnier
1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 cup flour

Sift together flour and baking powder in a medium size bowl.  Set aside.  In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar.  This should take about 2 minutes on medium high speed.  Then beat in egg until blended.

With a wooden spoon, fold flour mixture into butter/sugar batter until no dry streaks remain.  Then stir in the chocolate chips so they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.  Divide the dough into 3 pieces and place each in a separate bowl.

Take a small bowl and add the Kahlua and espresso and still until the espresso dissolves.  Set aside.

Line up your bowls of dough.   Going from left to right you will flavor the dough.  In the first bowl, mix the Baileys Irish Cream into the dough.  In the second bowl of dough, stir in the Kahlua/espresso mixture.  In the last bowl, stir in the Grand Marnier.

Each piece of dough will need to be checked for consistency before rolling out between pieces of waxed paper.  I found that my Kahlua dough was a not as stiff as the other dough, so I placed it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Once the pieces are of rolling consistency, each will need to be placed between sheets of wax paper. You will need to keep track of the flavors, so it is best to roll them out and line them up in the same order as noted above. Roll each piece into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick, 3 inches wide and about 10 inches long.  Place each piece of dough on a separate baking sheet and place in freezer for 10 minutes.

Remove baking sheets and peel off the wax paper of the Baileys dough.  Place back on baking sheet.  Then peel the wax paper off of the Kahlua dough and stack on top of the Baileys dough, making sure that the edges are even as possible.  Lastly, remove the wax paper from the last layer (Grand Marnier) of the dough and stack it on top of the Kahlua dough.  Wrap the whole block in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour.

During this time, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease baking sheets.

Remove block from freezer once chilling time is complete.  With a sharp knife, square off all sides so that the rectangle has sharp straight edges.  Then cut the block in 2 separate pieces, measuring 1 1/2 inches wide by 10 inches long.  Place one piece of dough so the 10 inch length is running left to right on a flat surface. Then slice the dough vertically into 1/2 inch wide pieces.  Repeat the process with the other piece of dough.

Place each square of dough 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until done.  When done, cookies will be firm and lightly browned on the bottom.  As you can see by the above picture, these cookies do not brown on the top or the edges.  Remove cookies from baking sheet and transfer to a rack to cool. Cheers!
                     **LAST YEAR: Espresso Chocolate Shortbread**