Have a Cookie

Mondays are hard, I know. You had so much fun over the weekend. You relaxed. You watched whatever you wanted on television and hung out with your kids.

Now it's Monday and through no fault of its own, this day is totally unloved by you.

Does that seem fair? It's the start of the workweek to be sure, and therefore it is not as pleasant as Sunday. However, I think that Wednesdays are far worse than Mondays. When you wake up on Wednesday, you haven't made much progress through the week. You're dead center, is where you are.

Friday, we can all agree, is terrific, but that's only by virtue of its proximity to Saturday. In fact, some of the most irritating work issues arise on Fridays afternoons. My husband once played golf with an executive who announced that he never returned calls after noon on Friday because nothing good ever comes up on Fridays.

Regardless of what you think about that man's work ethic, you have to agreed that he has a point. Fridays carry their own special burden of being so very close to a day off that when something happens to remind you that Friday is still a work day, you feel particularly put out. At least I do.

Yet Monday is the one that gets no respect. Poor Monday.

Have a cookie to help you get through your case of the Mondays, won't you?

Pine Nut Butter Cookies
Adapted from Geoffrey Zakarian's recipe at Food and Wine

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon anise seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons pine nuts

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar, anise seeds and salt at medium speed until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the flour and beat just until the dough begins to come together. The dough will be quite crumbly. Scrape the cookie dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form it into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough until chilled, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the cookie dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Press 3 or 4 pine nuts into the center of each cookie. Bake the cookies for 13 to 14 minutes, or until they are golden brown around the edges. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes: 1 dozen

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

The Wonder of Dinner Plates and Cream Pitchers

I was raised in the kind of house where you would never ever dream of showing up to a party empty-handed.

Even when I go to a close friend's house, I must know what to bring. I really do want to know; you can't just say "nothing." I'm still not comfortable with the fact that my in-laws always say "nothing." If you say "nothing," you're getting a bottle of wine, whether you need it or not.

This may be a tad annoying to my South Florida friends; I understand this. But I was raised in a place where everyone pitched in. Someone brought a salad, someone else brought a side. My mom brought dessert.

The dishes would be lined up on long tables next to stacks of delicate Blue Danube plates and over the clink of silverware and ice cubes, you'd hear gentle exclamations like, "this is wahhhndurhful."

This kind of entertaining feels normal to me. It's not that I feel the need to "earn" my seat at the table; I just like to feel that I'm a part of things, I suppose; both the things that are happening here at this party, and the things that are part of our larger social relationships.

So, when you invite me over, assign me a task. It'll make me happy and keep me out of your hair.

This weekend, I made my chocolate chip cookies for Nick and Wendi's July 4th party. We nibbled them in little bites, huddled under the eaves as fireworks cracked and sizzled overhead. As the smoke drifted across the Intercoastal waterway, a yacht blared its horn in appreciation of the finale and a fine drizzle cooled our skin in the muggy darkness.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
A Fritter Original

1 stick of softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon brewed, then cooled coffee
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease two cookie sheets.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time and continue to beat until well-blended. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract, and coffee, and blend.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ground cloves. With the electric mixer running, add the flour mixture to the batter in 1/2 cup amounts, mixing just until blended through.

Fold in the rolled oats and chocolate chips.

Using two spoons, drop the batter in small balls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a rack. These cookies freeze well, as does the uncooked batter.

Makes: 2 dozen


The title of this post comes from the late, great Laurie Colwin's The Lone Pilgrim.

A Cookie for All Seasons

Everyone has their share of family legends. Mine is no exception. A curious number of our family stories involve food.

Take the one about my dad and the Girl Scout cookies.

In the early 1980's, when my sister and I were very young, our parents purchased my father's childhood home in Texas. In my heart, it is my childhood home, too, although my family moved to the brighter lights of Dallas before I was nine. My sister and I would unearth little plastic Army Men figures in the backyard, forgotten there by our father and his siblings in the early 1950's. We played hide and seek under huge oaks in the acre of land surrounding the house, and jumped in big leaf piles in the fall.


One spring day, a pair of Girl Scouts walked up our long gravel driveway under the tall oaks and knocked on our front door. The customer of their dreams answered. An individual who knows a good cookie when he sees one, and has an unrestrained sweet tooth.

My dad.

He filled out an order form and the Girl Scouts walked down our gravel driveway, smiling. A few weeks passed and the Girl Scouts returned, pulling a red Radio Flyer wagon that was stacked with boxes of Thin Mints, Jubilees, and Shortbreads. They knocked on our front door.

My mother answered.

I'm not sure what words were exchanged between my parents later on, but I do know that we were flush with Girl Scout cookies through August.

The next year, the Girl Scouts returned. They walked up our long gravel driveway with their order form and knocked on our front door.

My mother answered.

These Girl Scouts were no dummies. Seeing my mom, they slid each other a long, entrepreneurial look before speaking.

"Mrs. Ross, is Mr. Ross home?"


Chocolate Mint Cookies
Adapted from this recipe from Bon Appetit

When Girl Scout cookies are in season, naturally, I purchase a fair number of boxes (I am very much my father's daughter in this regard). Since cookie season comes but once a year, however, I had to try out this recipe for those other eleven "off" months. It's not a Thin Mint, but it's got that peppermint-y, chocolate-y lusciousness that I love.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Beat the butter in large bowl until smooth, then beat in the peppermint extract and the vanilla extract. Beat in the sugar in 3 additions. Add the egg and beat until blended. Add the dry ingredients and beat just until blended (the dough will be sticky).

Divide the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Form each piece of dough into a 2-inch-diameter log. Wrap the dough log with plastic and place in the freezer for 30 minutes until well chilled.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap the cookie dough logs; roll briefly on work surface to form smooth round logs. Cut the logs crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place the rounds on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.

Bake the cookies until tops and edges are dry to touch, about 15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool.

Meanwhile, add the chopped chocolate to a double boiler. Stir the chocolate until it is melted and smooth. Remove the chocolate from the heat and cool until slightly thickened but still pourable, about 2 minutes. Dip a spatula into the melted chocolate, then drizzle over the cookies.

Refrigerate cookies on baking sheets until chocolate is set, about 10 minutes.

Makes: about 3 dozen small cookies

Sage-Scented Cookies

Perfumed lotions aren't really my thing. Usually, they are too sweetly artificial, too "apple," too "freesia."

My aversion stems from my first year of college, when my roommate wore a suffocating amount of Victoria Secret pear lotion. We did not get along, the two of us, and I will always associate the stress of living with her with the smell of pear lotion and cigarettes. And stale Papa Gino's pizza, left on the floor. By her. The previous week.

I lived with friends for the rest of college.

Herbal scents, on the other hand, are my thing. Rosemary is beautiful to me; Williams Sonoma used to make a lovely hand soap using this herb. Without the cloying sweetness of floral or fruit perfumes, herbal scents make me, well, think of the kitchen.

Sage is one of my favorite scents. It reminds me of summer camp in the Rockies, where sage grows along hiking trails. Walking along, I would get occasional whiffs of the faintly peppery leaves.

It's not news that scent and memory are closely linked in the mind.

This sage-y, buttery cookie recipe caught my attention the other day. I like the fact that this cookie contains only a few ingredients, giving the cookie a straightforwardness that other cookies do not have. Each of the flavors has its own prominence, and its own lovely aroma. Your house will smell great.

Sage-Scented Shortbread
Adapted from Bon Appétit, November 2007

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch-thick pieces, room temperature

Blend first 4 ingredients in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, process until dough comes together. Divide in half. Shape each dough piece into log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill until firm enough to slice, about 30 minutes.

Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Cut each dough log into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick rounds; place on sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Reverse sheets so bottom sheet is on top rack of oven and top sheet is on bottom rack. Bake until cookies are golden, about 15 minutes longer. Cool on racks.