Three Holiday Cookies

A few new recipes for you

The Christmas Eve menu drops soon

For locals - I’ll have a small menu of cakes available for pick up on Christmas Eve - you’ll be able to place an order on Wednesday, December 13th at 10am by clicking here (the link won’t work until that time). Newsletter subscribers get a two hour head start!

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Three new cookie recipes for you

I just started brainstorming holiday cookie recipes a few weeks ago, which means I’ve been wading through batch after batch of mediocre cookies nearly every day since. Once I get a notion in my head, I’ll worry at it sleeping and waking until I get it right, and while I’ve had to jettison a few ideas - the sunflower butter shortbread were uninspired, and the pineapple and saltine divinity veered too bizarre - I’m proud of the following recipes and I hope you like them too. 

I wanted three very different styles- a slightly finicky but very rewarding roll-and-cut cookie dipped in chocolate, a jammy bar with streusel that melts in your mouth, and a drop cookie that can be baked from frozen for ease.

Some more cookie inspiration for you from my holiday celebration north star: Tim Mazurek’s essay What We Talk About When We Talk About Christmas Cookies (yes, I know I was hyping his gift guide only last week!). I’m reminded that, while I’m not Christian, I can still take joy in celebrating the secular trappings of the holiday - including Tim’s perfectly salty takes on what makes a Christmas cookie and how to properly store them. The truth is, I fucking love Christmas now (I didn’t always) and the traditions my queer little family have started together have totally re-shaped the holiday for me. This year, we’re making fondue together on Christmas Day, and once again we’ll convince my father-in-law to take a holiday selfie with us while wearing panda-shaped sheet masks (it’s what we do).

However you celebrate, if you make these cookies I’d love to hear what you think! I can’t lie - the digestives are my favorite, but the jammy cranberry bars are lovely and tart, and the panettone cookies are the sleeper hit (especially if you love citrus).

Click through for printer-friendly versions of the recipes sans images:

Coffee Digestives

Pistachio, Cranberry, and Olive Oil Jam Bars

Panettone Cookies

Or scroll down to see process pics with the recipes.

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Coffee Digestives

Makes about 22.

Crisp on the edges, malty and soft in the center, these biscuits (in the British sense) are lovely all on their own or dipped in tempered chocolate and decorated with fruit, nuts, or sprinkles. I especially like them topped with slivers of dried apricot or candy-coated fennel seed.

I tested this with Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat flour because it’s commonly available (at least here in the States), but I think these would be great with your fave small batch stone ground grain - you just might find the dough is a little thirstier and could use a few more drops of milk to come together. 

I actually used Heilala Vanilla coffee-vanilla extract in my last batch because I had some laying around and it was great! 

1 ½ cups / 180 grams all purpose flour

½ cup / 60 grams whole wheat flour 

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup / 100 grams granulated sugar 

1 tablespoon malted milk powder (optional but very tasty)

1 teaspoon espresso powder 

12 tablespoons / 168 grams butter, cold, and cut in ½ cubes. 

¼ cup / 60 ml milk, cold

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the chilled butter and pulse until it’s incorporated into the dry ingredients in very small pieces - your mixture should look sandy and relatively uniform. Turn out into a medium bowl and drizzle the milk and vanilla over the flour and butter mixture. Using your hands, gently knead the mix together until a shaggy dough forms.

This dough will be quite sticky to work with if you roll it out in the traditional way -plus I’m loathe to add additional flour when rolling. Do as I do, and roll out your dough between a silpat and a sheet of plastic wrap, or between two sheets of parchment paper. You’re looking for your dough to be just under a quarter inch thick.  Slip your rolled-out dough onto a sheet tray and place it in the freezer for an hour or so, or until it's cold enough that you can easily punch out your rounds. I used a 2.5 inch round cookie cutter and got about twenty-two cookies. When you don’t add additional flour when rolling, you can also re-roll your scraps more easily to eke out a few more cookies. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-17 minutes, or until the cookies are quite crisp on the edge with just a whisper of softness in the middle. I’ll arrange no more than 12 cookies on a tray (three by four), as they’ll spread a bit as they bake. These cookies maintain their shape best baked from frozen.

Allow to cool completely, and dip in tempered chocolate (I’m honestly kind of terrible at tempering chocolate so follow the link for instructions - I used about 340 grams of bittersweet chocolate to coat mine). Decorate as you please with dried fruit, nuts, sprinkles, cocoa nibs, flaky salt, or not at all. I actually find I enjoy the texture of these cookies equally on the day they are made and up to two days after - they are crispiest on the first day and begin to soften into a graham-cracker style texture as they rest. For long-term storage, I’d cut them out and freeze them unbaked. 

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Pistachio, Cranberry, and Olive Oil Jam Bars

Makes about 24.

Dairy and egg free (but not on purpose), these bars are tart and rich and have a pleasantly Christmas-y color palette. Pistachio and olive oil shortbread is pressed into a 9 ½” by 13” pan, parbaked, and topped with cranberry jam and pistachio and olive oil streusel. 

I tested this recipe with both commercially ground, very fine pistachio flour, as well as pistachios ground in both a spice grinder and a magic bullet. All these methods worked fine - you should aim for as fine of a grind as you can hack with the tools you have. Pistachio flour (bought already milled) will likely have the most vibrant green color. 

I’ve also doubled the shortbread recipe and pressed it into the pan without the cranberry and streusel for a more straightforward pistachio and olive oil shortbread. I’d sprinkle it with a little coarse sugar and slice it into bars when it’s fully baked (about 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees). 

For the shortbread:

2 ¼ cup / 270 grams all purpose flour

¾ cup / 90 grams pistachio flour or very finely ground pistachios

½ cup / 100 grams granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ cup / 168 grams olive oil 

For the jam:

1 bag / 340 grams cranberries, fresh or frozen

1 cup / 200 grams granulated sugar

¼ cup water

For the streusel:

½ cup / 50 grams confectioners sugar

½ cup / 60 grams all purpose flour

½ cup / 50 grams pistachio flour or very finely ground pistachios

1 teaspoon cornstarch

½ teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons / 40 grams olive oil 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Assemble the shortbread:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a 9 ½ by 13” inch pan (aka a quarter sheet tray) with a parchment paper sling, so that the paper extends up over the edge of the pan on the long side. Grease lightly.

Assemble all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Drizzle in the olive oil and stir until the dough comes together. Press the dough into the bottom of the tray in an even layer. Parbake for 15 minutes, or until the dough puffs up and is very lightly golden at the edges. While the shortbread is parbaking, make the jam and streusel. 

Make the jam:

Put the cranberries, sugar, and water in a medium non reactive pot. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring vigorously, until the cranberries release their juices and all but a few break down completely. Let cool a bit (it’s easiest to spread when it’s still a bit warm, but you don’t want it to be screaming hot). 

Assemble the streusel:

Assemble all the dry ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Drizzle in the olive oil and vanilla extract. Stir the mixture with a fork until it forms a crumbly texture - if it still appears like there are dry patches of flour, add a little more olive oil a drizzle at a time until it comes together. 

Assemble the shortbread bar:

Spread the slightly warm cranberry jam over the parbaked shortbread (it will be just enough to cover the whole surface in a thin layer- I use a small offset spatula to spread it into the corners). Sprinkle the streusel in an even layer on top. Bake for an additional 30-35 minutes or until the streusel takes on a pale golden cast and the shortbread bar has puffed up a bit in the center.

Allow to cool completely before using your parchment paper sling to lift the bar out of the pan. Cut into 2 inch squares (or smaller if you like).

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Panettone Cookies

Makes about 30

Crisp on the edge, with a cakey center chock full of mix-ins, these cookies mimic the flavor profile of the burnished top crust of a panettone. You can use whatever you like for the dried fruit - I used sundried apricots and cherries for several batches and threw in some sultanas in another batch and enjoyed all. In my opinion you shouldn’t skip the candied citrus peel as the citrusy flavor is central to my experience of panettone, though you could mimic it with lots of grated orange or grapefruit zest if you like. I used a combination of candied satsuma and meyer lemon peel. I’ve noted that the chocolate is optional - I like it, but you don’t want to overwhelm the flavor of the dried fruit and citrus, so it’s there in a smaller ratio than your average chocolate chip cookie. I use store-bought roasted and salted pistachios (I am lazy) in my version but almonds might be nice too! 

Fiori di Sicilia, often found in panettone, is wonderful in these cookies, though you could also add a few drops of orange blossom water or almond extract. The pearl sugar is likely going to be tricky to find in local stores - I ordered mine online. The cookies are still great without it but I do think it adds a rad crunch to the finished cookie. 

As with any cookie, the bake on these is quite important. You’ll want to err on the side of slightly underbaked to get the properly cakey, soft interior texture. I usually bake a single cookie as a test when running a new recipe so you can figure out the proper timing without messing with a whole batch. These cookies can be baked either straight away, or from frozen (though make sure you mind the note about flattening the ball of dough). 

1 cup / about 140 grams dried fruit, such as cherries, apricots, currants, or sultanas

¼ cup / about 40 grams candied citrus peel, chopped 

1 cup / about 120 grams pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped. 

½ cup/ about 60 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped (optional)

12 tablespoons / 168 grams butter, soft

¾ cup / 156 grams brown sugar

6 tablespoons / 75 grams white sugar 

½ teaspoon salt 

Two egg yolks (hang on to the whites)

¼ teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia (or orange blossom water or almond extract)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 ¼ cup / 270 grams all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Egg whites and pearl sugar, to garnish

Assemble your mix-ins - chop your nuts, dried fruit, candied citrus, and chocolate, and set aside. Whisk the baking soda into the flour and set aside. 

Cream your butter, both sugars, and salt (either in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer) until light + fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Add your egg yolks, vanilla, and fiori di Sicilia (if using), and beat just to combine. Add the flour and baking soda mixture and stir just to combine - the dough may be a bit drier than you’re used to. Fold in your mix-ins (nuts, fruit, peel, and chocolate) until they are evenly dispersed. 

Scoop your cookie dough into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter (or between 32-36 grams in weight) - I prefer a cookie for a holiday cookie platter to be on the smaller side. Flatten the balls with the palm of your hand (these cookies don’t spread very much so this step is important). You can either freeze your cookies unbaked at this stage, or proceed with baking. If you don’t chill your dough the cookies will spread a bit more and crisp a bit faster - I think baking from frozen is slightly preferable for these cookies. 

When ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the cookies in rows of four cookies by five cookies. Brush with egg white and press pearl sugar into the top of the cookie - I like that the egg white gives the finished cookies a little bit of gloss, like the surface of a panettone. Place in the oven - if baking from frozen, the cookies will take between 11 and 13 minutes. You’re looking for the edges to begin to take on a golden brown color while the center is paler and puffy.

That’s all! Thanks for reading.