Cranberry Jam Cookies

We have a lot of desserts here at Fritter, don't we? It's no secret that I would eat dessert first if I could. Even when I have a lovely eggplant salad or savory rainbow trout on my plate, I've got one eye trained on the platter back there in the kitchen, hiding under a tent of aluminum foil. I know what's under there; it's dessert.

And it's waiting to be tasted.

If I really had to choose (don't make me), cookies would be high on my "can't live without" list of desserts. Except for the saturated fat and the calories, cookies are--in many ways--a perfect food item.

Think about it. When someone hosts a potluck party and they ask you to bring a dessert, what should you bring? Not cake, wonderful as it is, because cake is so high-maintenance. It requires additional plates, additional silverware, and some kind of serving piece. The same goes for pie and pudding. Plus, you worry about smudged icing and collapsing interiors as you nervously drive over to your friend's house.

Cookies, on the other hand, require no such concierging. Cookies are a one-bite wonder. You can stack them in a container and go. You can pass a plate of them around without the need for anything other than a napkin.

I made these cookies twice in the last week, once for a get-together at my friend Lauren's and again for last night's Rosh Hashanah dinner at my in-laws. They were a hit both times, so I decided to share them with you.

My friend Sara enjoyed them so much she decided to experiment with the filling. She reports that you can fill the cookies with chocolate if you melt it first, then add it to the indentations.

Cranberry Jam Cookies
Adapted from this recipe at Epicurious

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of cranberry jam (I used FiordiFrutta, which has a smooth texture free of large fruit)

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. In a separate mixer, beat the butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes, then beat in egg and vanilla. At low speed, mix in the flour mixture in 3 batches just until a crumbly dough forms. Divide the dough in half and form two well-packed logs, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.

When the dough is thoroughly chilled, preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Slice a 1/2-inch piece of dough from the end of one of the logs and roll the dough into a ball in the palm of your hand. Then, flatten the ball slightly into a disk (to 1 inch wide and less than 1/2 inch thick). Make a deep indentation in center of the round with wooden spoon handle. Make more cookies, arranging them 1 inch apart on baking sheets.

Fill the indentations in each cookie with about 3/4 teaspoon of the cranberry jam, then place both cookie sheets in the oven.

Bake until the cookies are baked through and golden-brown on edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Makes: 18 cookies

To Autumn

My goodness, have I enjoyed the last few days. A cool front rolled into Fort Lauderdale on Friday morning, inviting us to turn off the A/C and open our windows. I read a lot, then picked and chose among our household chores. That's a privilege of autumn cleaning, I think.

I purchased a new disposal for our kitchen, but I did not clean out the closet in our home office. I washed and ironed the curtains in our bedroom, but I did not end up weeding our front flower beds.

I did not end up painting my guest room after all, but I did do a lot of cooking.

In fact, I was inspired to try something I've never done before.

I made a pumpkin tart--from actual pumpkins.

If you live up north, sugar pumpkins may be everywhere around this time of year. Piled in huge decorative mounds, on top of straw underneath a reddening maple, waiting to be picked up by a pink-nosed shopper in long-sleeves. . . perhaps you detect a note of longing?

Autumn is my favorite season. When I lived in Massachusetts, I loved the golds and reds in the trees, the way I could see my breath in the mornings, and the totally different wardrobe that I could haul out of storage. I'd jog along the Charles River in a fleece, watching collegiate eights row toward the Basin in the quickly-darkening evening. I miss all of this in the autumn.

Ah well, here in South Florida, we can get a tan in January.

Sadly, though, we come up short in pie-worthy pumpkin department. We end up using those ochre-colored cans of pumpkin puree instead.

On Friday, however, I lucked out and found these chubby little beauties.

My recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of solid-pack pumpkin. After some reading, I decided to roast the pumpkins in the simplest manner possible: cut in half, seeded, and sitting cut-side down on a baking sheet at 375 degree for about 50 minutes.

I love the smell of roasting pumpkins. The aroma was the base note of my afternoon, while I prepared the tart pastry shell and listened to Michele Norris on All Things Considered.

If you are a pastry novice, here are a few suggestions: First, always use cold butter cut into 1 tablespoon amounts, and do not use a food processor--you'll end up with dense, chewy dough. Second, make sure that you have a few tablespoons of ice-cold water on hand for adding to the flour. The water must be ice-cold, not room temperature, and not just a little cool. Finally, use a fork to incorporate the water into the flour. You won't be stirring so much as "fluffing" the flour with the tines of the fork. The dough will be very crumbly when it is done. You'll know that your dough has enough water when you can pinch a bit of the dough together and it holds. It's work, but it's worth it.

Later on in the evening, my husband and I watched the presidential debate and scooped golden pieces of pumpkin tart into our mouths. I decided that when Keats wrote about that "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," he might have been talking about a pumpkin tart with cranberry jam.


Pumpkin Tart with Cranberry Jam
Adapted from this recipe and this recipe at Gourmet

In terms of special equipment, you will want to have the following:
A 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom
A rolling pin with a pastry sleeve
Pastry scraper
Pie weights or dried beans heavy enough to weigh down the crust during its first baking

For the tart shell
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 tablespoon pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

For the tart filling
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (not pie filling)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cranberry jam (I used FiordiFrutta)

To make the tart shell
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Toss the flour and the salt together in a medium bowl until combined. Cut in the butter in 1 tablespoon amounts until finely crumbled. You can do this either using two knives or a pastry blender, but do not use a food processor (see the note in my narrative above).

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice-cold water over the mixture and fluff it with a fork to incorporate. Continue doing this until the dough holds together when you pinch a piece with your thumb and index finger. The dough will remain very crumby at this point. If the dough does not hold together, add an additional tablespoon of water and try again.

Flour a clean work surface generously and turn the dough out onto it. Shape the dough gently with your hands into a disk and use a rolling pin to begin to flatten the dough out. Continue rolling out in all directions until you have a disk large enough to cover your tart ring. with 1 - 2 inches of extra dough on all sides.

Gently pick the dough up (using the pastry scraper if needed) and lay it over the tart ring. Press the dough against the edges of the tart ring and trim any excess. Chill for 30 minutes, until the dough is firm.

Prick the dough on the bottom of the tart pan lightly with a fork, then line with foil and add the pie weights or beans to keep the foil pressed down against the dough. Bake for 25 minutes, until the crust is golden. Allow the crust to cool in the tart ring for 30 minutes.

To make the filling
Whisk together the cream, the pureed pumpkin, the brown sugar, the eggs, the cinnamon, the ginger, and the salt until smooth.

To put it all together
Place the tart pan on a baking sheet. Spread the cranberry jam evenly over the bottom of the tart pastry shell, then pour pumpkin mixture over preserves until it almost fills the shell to the top.

Bake the pumpkin tart until the filling is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool the tart in the pan on a rack, about 1 hour. Remove the tart from the tart ring before serving.

Serves: 8

* With thanks to John Keats for the title of this post