Cookies Archives | Fake Food Free

Peppernuts

December 10, 2018

We arrived in Copenhagen at dusk. As we stepped out of the train station, it began spitting rain that threatened to transition to ice at any moment. Unphased by the cold temperatures and slick lanes, bikers sped past us in an organized fashion as we hauled our luggage a couple of blocks to our hotel.

When we entered the warm, dry lobby, we were hit with a dose of hygge. Of course, we didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. The popularity of capturing the concept (an impossible task outside of Denmark, in my opinion) hadn’t yet caught on around the globe.

The lights glowed softly, there was a free welcome beer ready to be poured from the tap at the bar, and the tiniest ginger cookies I had ever seen sat in a bowl next to the check-in counter.

It turns out these were a complimentary welcome gift as well, a spoon set inside the bowl to allow guests to scoop out a handful.

It was our first introduction to Peppernuts.

Whole Grain White Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 21, 2018

These miso chocolate chip cookies have a delicious sweet and salty flavor. They are made with white whole wheat flour and loaded with dark and milk chocolate chips.

Every now and then, I buy miso to make a broth for soup or a noodle dish. Then it ends up sitting in the fridge forever and goes bad on me.

So when I bought some again a couple weeks ago, I vowed that I would use it up.

Zeroed in on savory meals and side dishes, I was flipping through a recent issue of Rachael Ray Everyday and saw a suggestion to add it to chocolate chip cookie dough for a sweet/salty twist.

Lemon Pistachio Tea Cakes

December 22, 2017

This is it.

The final post of my epic holiday baking season. I made almost everything I wanted to. Almost.

There always seems to be one or two things I don’t get to. This year it was Kentucky bourbon fruit cake. I made stollen instead.

But I did get in quite a few cookies. Like these. I never know quite what to call them. Growing up they were Mexican Wedding Cakes. Then I learned they are also called Russian Tea Cakes. Also, Snowballs.

Ginger Rum Orange Jam Cookies

December 7, 2017

I’m a believer that booze make desserts better. Whether it’s beer, wine, or spirits, there is just something about the richness and flavor they add to things like cookies and cakes.

Around the holidays, my go-tos are bourbon and rum. For these cookies, I went with rum. Gold rum. Jamaican gold rum, to be exact.

I had orange jam leftover and I thought the best way to put it to use would be pairing it up with some cookies.

Holiday Cut Out Cookies with Spiced Ale

November 28, 2017

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes from my cookbook, Food on Tap: Cooking with Craft Beer! I’ve lost count of how many batches of these I have made. Flavored with holiday ale, they have spiced, citrus notes that I can’t get enough of. They make the perfect cut out cookies any time of year!

Over a month has passed since my cookbook published. It’s been a whirlwind of questions, answers, outreach, event organizing, and even a podcast interview (link coming soon)! It has all been amazing.

At the same time, it left me with two overwhelming feelings.

Gratitude and mental exhaustion.

I was not prepared to feel either of these to the extent that I have over these past few weeks.

Let me explain.

Orange Candied Ginger Chocolate Shortbread

December 14, 2016

This year’s holiday baking list is long with a capital L.

The past few Decembers I’ve penciled in things I want to make only to have that task followed by the days disappearing and me running out of steam. So I put them off until the next year.

Well, this is the year that I’m making it ALL.

Now, most of these things are traditional recipes and the recipes of others. I checked off rugelach (a lovely apricot pistachio version from Martha Stewart Living) this past weekend. I still have stollen, lebkuchen, Danish butter cookies and panettone to get to.

Since I share mostly original recipes here, that leaves me little to post, besides a few photos. So I still feel like I should come up with at least one new holiday baking recipe to share with you.

This is that recipe. My 2016 holiday cookie.

Cassava Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

September 28, 2016

Any time I get a new ingredient for the kitchen, I always seem to make cookies. Most often chocolate chip cookies.

I think it’s because I want to see how something unfamiliar behaves in something I know well.

Although, saying that cassava flour is unfamiliar isn’t exactly accurate. I became familiar with it when we lived in Brazil. Cassava = mandioca = tapioca.

There we ate farofa, pão de queijo and tapioca com goiabada. All are made with some version of the flour – fine ground, coarse ground, sweet, fermented or sour.

Fig and Lavender Cookies

August 19, 2016

These fig and lavender cookies have a sweet slice of tiger fig tucked inside!

On our road trip in May we stopped by a lavender farm and I brought back a few things to use in the kitchen. Those things included lavender sugar and some culinary lavender.

It only took me a day or so to realize I could have just made my own lavender sugar with the culinary lavender, but that’s okay. I can be a little slow on seeing the obvious.

So a little while back when I had all those figs that the CA Fig Board sent to me, I decided to test out some cookies. Just before I started to make the recipe, I remembered the lavender sugar.

Smoky Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

May 13, 2016

These salted chocolate chip cookies came about for three very different reasons.

The first is that I’m finally back in a kitchen I can call my own. With a nice stove, I might add. For the first time in my adult life, I’m cooking and baking with gas. So I’ve felt a strong need to create in the kitchen, especially to bake, which is something I haven’t been focused on in the recent past.

Next, do you remember that bourbon smoked sea salt I mentioned in my Four Favorites post from April? Well, I had yet to use the salt in a dessert. That is the perfect kind of excuse for baking a batch of cookies in my book.

The third reason is palm shortening. When I started reducing processed foods way back in 2008, I pretty much swore off vegetable shortening. But there were a couple things I missed, and one was the chocolate chip cookies a friend’s mom used to make every Christmas. The secret ingredient was butter flavored vegetable shortening. Now, I didn’t miss those enough to go back to shortening, even during the holidays. I was hardcore on my decision, but I missed them nonetheless.

Bourbon Nut Cookies

December 7, 2015

It’s taken me a while to determine why I enjoy holiday baked goods so much more than those made any other time of year. I can whip out a batch of cookies in March, but they don’t seem as special to me as those I make in December.