Danish Butter Cookies

I am sure you are familiar with the Danish butter cookies that come in the blue tin. At one time, I was happy with these little cookies. The tin does contain a variety, but I favored the plain ones.

My love of shortbread or butter cookies is not based on grocery store or the cookies that are mass produced and stuffed inside a cookie tin. It is based on my first homemade shortbread cookies. After taking one bite of the crunchy sweet and buttery morsels, I was hooked. I will no longer even consider the blue tin cookies. It is homemade butter cookies or none and I have no regrets.

While the recipe comes together easily, it is the piping that takes the longest and most effort. Since the dough is thicker than buttercream icing, it does take some muscle to pipe the logs out and then shape into a circle. If you do not want to go through that, an easier method is to use a star nozzle on a meat grinder or cookie press to form them.

In order to achieve the same results, do not substitute or skimp on quality ingredients. I used Kerrygold butter, Madagascar vanilla bean and Bob Mills almond meal.

The recipe below contains weight measurements as well as cup measurements. I used a scale to measure my ingredients to be more exact, however, both measurements were on the original recipe. The measurements below make about 3-3 1/2 dozen cookies.

Danish Butter Cookies
adapted from Nordic Food Living 

Ingredients
7 oz or 3/4 cup plus 1 tbs butter
1 egg
1 vanilla bean
6 oz or 3/4 cup sugar
9 oz or 1 3/4 cup flour
3 oz or 1/2 cup almond meal or 1/2 cup almonds ground into meal

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper.

Add the sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Take out the vanilla bean and slice open the length of the bean. Open the bean flat and take a paring knife and scrape down the inside of the bean and place the scrapings or seeds into the bowl with the sugar. Continue to scrape until all seeds have been removed and add all to the sugar. Using clean hands, separate the clumps of seeds in the sugar by grinding the sugar together with the seeds.

Once the seeds are evenly distributed into the sugar, add the butter. Cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, scraping down the sides at intervals. Then add the egg and beat for about 30 seconds.

Remove bowl from stand mixer. Using a wooden spoon, fold the almond flour into the batter. Then add 1/2 cup of the regular flour and fold in. Continue with the process, ending with 1/4 cup flour.

Prepare the piping equipment and fill with cookie dough. Press the dough out of the piping mechanism into a 1 1/2- 2 inch circle or 1 1/2-2 inch long log onto the parchment paper. If making logs, shape each into a circle on the cookie sheet. Per the recipe, the dough circles on the sheet should be 1 1/2 inches apart. However, the cookies do not spread or expand much, so 1 inch should suffice.

Place baking sheets in the oven and bake the cookies for 4 minutes and then rotate pan. Bake for another 2-4 minutes or until the cookies have golden edges. Place baking sheet on rack and let cookies rest for about 1 minute, then transfer to rack and let cool completely.

Tips and notes:

1. How toasty you want these cookies to be is up to you, so please adjust your baking time accordingly.
2. Should these cookies be "too" plain, try dipping half in chocolate or sandwiching together with chocolate.
3. For a stronger vanilla taste, infuse the sugar with the seeds a few days prior to baking.
                                           **LAST YEAR: Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies**

Dark Chocolate Fingers

I do like to dunk cookies and donuts into coffee. However, one is not to take the whole "dunking" thing too lightly when it comes to cookies.There is special consideration to be taken before you undergo this task. The first choice you have to make is the beverage...an ice cold glass of milk or tea versus hot tea or coffee. Then choose a cookie that will withstand the dunk. It will need to have some snap and crunchiness to it. No one enjoys soggy cookies crumbs floating in their drink.

With these crispy cookies, you will have the best of both ends.They have is a plain end for dunking and the another end for enjoying double the chocolate. The chocolate coated end is a not only delicious but the texture clash of creamy vs crunchy is hard to resist.

This recipe makes about 26 cookies. Now let's move on to the recipe so you will have that chocolate fix....

Dark Chocolate Fingers
adapted from The Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book

Ingredients
4 tbs corn syrup
1/4 cup butter/cubed
5 oz dark chocolate (bar or chips)
chocolate sprinkles
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
pinch of baking powder
2 tbs dutch cocoa powder

Whisk together the cocoa powder, baking powder, flour and sugar in a medium size bowl. Pour in the corn syrup and add the butter cubes. Combine using a pastry cutter or wooden spoon. Mixture should form a chocolate dough. If it is too dry, add 1 tsp of corn syrup and blend until dough consistency is achieved.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Then cover the bottom interior of 2 baking sheets using parchment paper. Also, roll out 20 inches in length of parchment paper and cut. Fold over and place on a flat surface.

Place the dough between the folded parchment paper. Roll dough until it forms an even 7 x 9 inch rectangle. Unfold parchment and trim edges of dough so it is a perfect rectangle. Take the scraps and place on top of rectangle and roll lightly to smooth out top. This will keep you from wasting dough.

Next, cut the dough in half by running a sharp knife across the center, parallel to the longest side. The cut each half into 13 slices. Each slice will be a little under 3/4" wide and 3 1/2 inches long. Place 13 slices on each baking sheet, spacing evenly apart.

Place each sheet in oven to bake until crisp, which is about 15 minutes. Rotate pans halfway through baking. At the end of the baking time, transfer cookies from sheet to cooling rack.

Set up a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Once the water starts to simmer, fill the top pot with the chocolate. Also lay a sheet of wax paper on a flat surface. After the chocolate is melted and the cookies have cooled, dip one end of the cookies into the chocolate. Then lay on the flat surface to dry and put some chocolate sprinkles on top, you are ready to dunk and enjoy some chocolate!
                                              **LAST YEAR: Eggnog Chiffon Pie**

Evergreen Shortbread Cookies

Like me, I am sure you are wondering about the word "evergreen" in the title of this post.  The name comes from a special ingredient.  That ingredient would be Douglas Fir Tea.

Like the Earl Grey cookies made before, the measurement of the tea leaves is questionable.  The recipe states one packet.  Based on that, I used the amount found in 1 tea bag.  The end result was just a plain butter shortbread cookie - no tea flavor. This recipe is for 2 dz and the Earl Grey recipe for 3 dz indicated to use anywhere from 1-2 tbs of tea leaves.  Needless to say, this recipe will require more tweaking to get a more prominent flavor of the tea in the cookies.

However, everybody does favor plain shortbread cookies, so it was not a big issue.  Also, I have plenty of tea left for tweaking.  The recipe is versatile, so you can add any type of tea leaves that you want, according to your preference.

I still have to try the tea as a drink, so being able to actually taste the flavor is not going to be too difficult.  It is described as slightly bitter with notes of citrus.

Evergreen Shortbread Cookies
adapted from Organic and Chic
Ingredients
Douglas Fir Tea (measure to your preference)
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg white
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
green sanding sugar

Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper.

Add butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer.  Cream together on medium speed for 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl at 1 minute intervals.

In another bowl, sift together flour and sugar. Using a wooden spoon, fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.  Then mix in the tea leaves.

Shape dough into a log and roll up in plastic wrap and fit inside a cardboard paper towel holder.  To create my shape, I buttered the inside of an ice cream mold and lined the long sides with parchment, leaving some overhang. Place in fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Remove dough from fridge. Take dough out of holder and remove plastic wrap.  Take the egg white and beat with a fork for a few minutes.  Then coat the dough log with the egg white and roll in sanding sugar.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Cut the dough log into 1/4 inch circles, yielding about 2 dozen cookies.  Place each circle on prepared cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.  After cookies are all formed and on baking sheets, put in the freezer for 5 minutes.  Remove and bake about 18-20 minutes.  Take pans out of oven and let cookies cool on pans for 2 minutes then transfer to rack to finish cooling.
                                     **LAST YEAR: Tiger Tea Cakes**

Earl Grey Cookies

When I first saw this recipe, I was a little bit skeptical.  I like tea, but not really a strong brew.  As far as "exotics" about as far out as I will venture is cinnamon tea.  No green, no chamomille and no chai.  However, I decided to be open minded and try these cookies with Earl Grey tea added into the cookie dough prior to baking. The amount of tea leaves I noticed is not real specific.  You can use anywhere from 1 to 2 tablespoons.  Since I am not the tea connoisseur, I opted for 1 tablespoon. The original recipe listed Lady Grey as the tea to use, which I could not find.  The only difference between the two is that Lady Grey also has a little citrus in it.

These resulted in a shortbread cookie with nice overtones of tea.  You can taste the tea in the cookies but not like you ate a bushel of tea leaves.  I will be making these again, but until then, this particular batch will be enjoyed with the tea beverage. What kind of tea? Why a hot cup of Earl Grey- since I have some tea bags left. This recipe makes about 3 dz cookies.

If you do make these, you do not have to stick with the "grey" teas, feel free to try your favorite! The book also suggests using flower or fruit teas.

Earl Grey Cookies
adapted from  Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
1-2 tbs of Lady Grey or Earl Grey tea leaves
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter plus 2 tbs (cubed and softened)
sugar for sprinking

Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  With a wooden spoon, stir in the tea leaves and the beaten egg.  Once distributed, fold in the flour until it turns into a solid cookie dough.

With your hands, shape the dough into a log about 9 inches long and about 2 1/2 inches wide.  Press down on the top of the log so it is slightly flattened.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or longer.  The dough will need to be firm enough to be easily sliced.

45 minutes into the chilling time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Once the chilling time is complete, take out the dough log and cut into 1/4 inch slices on the width.  Place the slices on a baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Then sprinkle with sugar.

Bake cookies for about 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden.  Remove and let cool on pan for 1 minute and then transfer to rack to finish cooling.
                                          **LAST YEAR: Butterscotch Cashew Cookies**