Springerle

With our oven repaired, I've started on making traditional German Christmas cookies, which is basically the only German food we make. Springerle have a distinctive taste that can take some getting used to (I like them much more now than I did as a kid, and they aren't for anyone who hates black licorice). I love the taste, but they are a family favourite because they are beautiful, impressed with hand-carved molds featuring German folk art. The molds are very hard to find outside of Germany (although I'm sure they can be found online) and every year my dad and uncle take turns with them, and my dad mails some of the finished product to his sister and my brother, both living far away. It wouldn't be Christmas without them, and that's why I've taken the pains to make them starting December 27th (it is quite the process). This is my grandmother's recipe.

Springerle (makes about 30 cookies, depending on size of molds)
Notes: These anise flavoured cookies, Springerle, have been described by some misinformed cook-book writers as beautiful but "hard and tasteless". Follow this recipe, store carefully, and you will see how wrong they are. For very fine sugar, grind granulated sugar in a blender at high speed to convert to fine sugar-1 cup at a time about 1 minute works well, and costs less than buying it in the store, if they carry it at all. Springerle molds come in the form of carved rolling pins and as flat rectangles. Keep these out of water. Clean with a stiff brush, pick out dried dough with the sharp tip of a bamboo skewer. It seems to help sometimes if the molds are cold (put in freezer between uses). Anise oil can be obtained from health food stores and from some pharmacies. It gives a much clearer and nicer flavour than anise extract. Anise seeds can be sprinkled on the baking sheet before putting the cookies on for added texture and a bit of taste.

• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 3 cups/680g very fine sugar (aka fruit sugar, VeriFine™, NOT confectioners sugar)
• 3/8 tsp salt
• 3/8 tsp anise oil (3/4 tsp if using anise extract)
• 1 large lemon, grated rind of
• 6 cups/675g sifted flour, all purpose white (you can just whisk it for a while in a large bowl if you don't own a sifter or are not inclined to use one)
  
• 3 tsp baking powder

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together at medium speed for 1/2 hour (1 hour+ beating by hand with a whisk-I hope you have an electric mixer, it really does need to mix this long.) Mix in the salt, anise oil, and lemon rind slowly, just till blended.


Remeasure the sifted flour and and sift together with baking powder (or if you are whisking, not sifting, just whisk together). Fold/mix it into the egg/sugar mix with a wooden spoon (never electric mixer). This will make a very tender dough. Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.


Roll out about half the recipe, 3/8" (10 mm) thick on a floured counter. Press or roll the traditional German carved wooden Springerle molds into the dough deeply enough to make a clear impression. The molds should be lightly dusted with flour. Cut around the impression with a sharp floured knife, and transfer the cookies to a buttered baking sheet. Leave an inch between cookies.



Set aside in a warm place for 8-12 hours (overnight) for the patterns to air-dry thoroughly, so the baking won't destroy them.



Bake at 300˚ (150˚ C) for 15-20 minutes (until very light yellow, NOT browned at all). Larger cookies may need slightly more time. Remove immediately from the cookie sheets to racks for cooling.

To keep them from drying out and becoming hard, store the cookies in an air-tight container or zip-lock plastic bag which should be kept closed except when taking cookies out to eat. An apple slice wrapped loosely in foil can be included to help maintain humidity. Store for at least one week.

DIY Thin Mints

I was once a girl guide. Then my friend and I turned 12, got too cool and peaced. I was never a cookie selling champion but I could sure put them away. Thin mints are my favourite and I was psyched to see various successful attempts at recreation. I am using the recipe from Baking Bites, also featured on The Crepes of Wrath.

Thin Mints
from Baking Bites (my notes in italics)

Homemade Thin Mints
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup milk (any kind)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp peppermint extract (could be upped to 1 tsp)

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. With the mixer on low speed, add in the milk and the extracts. Mixture will look curdled. Gradually, add in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.
Shape dough into two logs, about 1 1/2 inches (or about 4 cm) in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1-2 hours, until dough is very firm.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Slice dough into rounds not more than 1/4 inch thick - if they are too thick, they will not be as crisp (seriously, focus on your cutting, you also want them to be flat and all approximately the same thickness)- and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cookies will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together.

Bake for 13-15 minutes (err on the less crispy side if you want them to taste authentic/max delicious), until cookies are firm at the edges. Cool cookies completely on a wire rack before dipping in chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Coating (2 logs, 2 rounds of baking-first round I went with nice quality dark chocolate, but found them a bit too intense. Round two I started with straight up milk chocolate with 30%cacao, but though the taste was awesome, the melting quality was not so great and they coated the cookies a little gloopily. So I went for a 2/3 milk chocolate, 1/3 dark chocolate, no butter mixture which worked out great)
10-oz dark or semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and butter. Melt on high power in the microwave, stirring every 45-60 seconds, until chocolate is smooth. Chocolate should have a consistency somewhere between chocolate syrup and fudge for a thin coating.
Dip each cookie in melted chocolate, turn with a fork to coat, then transfer to a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to set up for at least 30 minutes, or until chocolate is cool and firm.
Reheat chocolate as needed to keep it smooth and easy to dip into. (This part gets messy/awesome)

Makes 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies. Store them in the fridge or freezer if you like them extra crispy.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan lately, and everytime I am craving something sweet and might normally think about maybe grabbing some Reese's Pieces or gummies of any kind (fyi I have a bit of a candy problem, if you are enabler, stick with these kinds to be safe), I read the label and look for corn/derivatives from corn/generally get freaked out by all these mono/dextrose/acid sounding things in my "food", and justify baking another batch of cookies.

These are a classic, tasty and quick. It makes for excellent dough snacking as well.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe (originally from Cook's Illustrated)

Note on chocolate chips: Using fancy chocolate chips makes a huge difference in my opinion. My preferred brand is Ghiradelli's Semisweet Chocolate Chips, both for taste and the way they melt. I was almost out so this batch was half and half (the other half being plain old President's Choice), and I, for one, could taste the difference. Not my best work, but for quick and somewhat wholesome (extremely wholesome when I think about HFCS, antibiotics-loaded cows, and scary chemicals) cookies, these did the trick.

Oatmeal-Walnut-Craisin-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This is what resulted from looking for a more acceptable way to eat Craisins than by the handful, adapted from Cook's Illustrated.

Makes 16 large cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 rolled oats
• 1 cup walnuts, toasted & chopped
• 1 cup Craisins (dried sweetened cranberries), chopped
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350 (you can also toast the nuts at this temp)
2. Mix flour, baking powder & soda and salt in medium bowl. In a second bowl, mix oats, nuts, Craisins and chocolate.
3. By hand or using electric mixer, cream butter & sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
4. Stir in flour mixture.
5. Stir in oat mixture.
6. Divide dough to form 16 balls roughly 2 inches in diameter. Divide between two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, flatten to 1 inch thickness.
7. Bake 20 mins, rotating the sheets halfway through. Don't overbake, they will look slightly underdone at this point, edges should be browning but the centres should be soft. You want them to be chewy.
8. Cool on wire rack and enjoy.