STILL NEW YORK-HUNGRY

42. St. Nick's Cookies

+ +

Last Year, in "NEW YORK – HUNGRY" , I started "baking off" my NY-themed bakery advent calendar by baking all recipes with odd numbers – and already 12 batches of cookies/cakes, although I sent off / gave many to friends and family, caused that I had Christmas cookies wide into January!

This year, I continue with the even numbers, and "eased" some of above mentioned "problem" by halving recipes when possible.

As the title indicates, I baked those as gifts to my local friends to give to them on December 6, when (in Germany) the Nikolaus (= St. Nick) comes and fills boots put in front of the door the previous night with Yums (of course only if the kids were good; concerning that he's like his American brother, Santa Claus.)

Oh, and who's interested: although Santa Claus was made up by a German (in America), in actual Germany the Christ Child himself brings the gifts (or not.).

The following are all easy to make and, of course, yummy little buggers. I was especially pleasantly surprised by the blondies, as they contain white chocolate which is... But in these, it tasted

And checkerboard cookies aren't such a pain in the butt as they always appeared to be to me, previously. Although the dark parts rather turned rather "zebra-ic"–

Dude, I'll stop babbling already and continue with the Yums already.



Serves:

35+ Danish recipe: 30
50+ checkerboard cookies recipe: 50
20 Christmas Blondies recipe: 25


Prep Time:

1 hr + resting OVERNIGHT Danish
4 hrs including 2 hrs resting time Checkerboard cookies
1 hr Christmas Blondies


Degree of Difficulty: Easy




WE NEED


DANISH BUTTER COOKIES

250 gr / 8.8 oz. butter
100 gr / 3.5 oz. maraschino cherries
280 gr / 9.75 oz. sugar
3 tbsp cream
380 gr / 13.4 oz. flour
Salt
2 pinches ground cardamom



CHECKERBOARD COOKIES

30 gr / 1 oz. white chocolate
30 gr / 1 oz. dark chocolate 70% cocoa
250 gr / 8.8 oz. flour
100 gr / 3.5 oz. sugar
1 pck / 0.25 oz. vanilla sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
Salt
150 gr / 5.3 oz. cold butter
2 (3) egg yolks L(M)-sized
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1(2) egg white(s) L(M)-sized



CHRISTMAS BLONDIES

70 gr / 2.5 oz. roasted, salted macadamias
150 gr / 5.3 oz. white chocolate
150 gr / 5.3 oz. butter
2 (3) eggs L(M)-sized
200 gr / 7 oz. flour
100 gr / 3.5 oz. chocolate drops Recipe => colorful ones; ME: 70% cocoa

pulp of a vanilla pod decadent, expensive, a nightmare to extract pulp from pod, but DAMN! That TASTE! For the first time in my life – in 41 years – I actually loved vanilla.




WE DO


DANISH BUTTER COOKIES


1. On low heat, melt the butter in a little pot, until it SLIGHTLY browns. Remove immediately, (otherwise it burns!), pour it into a mixing bowl, and let it cool. Meanwhile, roughly chop the maraschino cherries.

2. Let 200 gr / 7 oz. sugar trickle into the bowl while beating the butter until it's thickly frothy. Stir in the cream, then add flour, cardamom, maraschino cherries and a pinch of salt and swiftly knead them into a smooth dough.

3. Divide the dough into 2 portions and, on a lightly floured working surface, roll them into two rolls with a diameter of 4 cm / ~ 2 in. Clear the flour from the work surface, substitute it with the remaining sugar and roll the rolls in it. Then wrap the rolls into cling film and refrigerate them for 12 hrs / overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F fan/convection, and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

5. Cut the rolls into 5 mm / 0.2 in thick slices and place them on the baking trays with some space between them.

6. Bake them for 10-12 minutes OR until they're light brown. Since every oven is different it can take longer/shorter

7. Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.




CHECKERBOARD COOKIES


1. SEPARATED, grate dark + white chocolate VERY finely. I blitzed them.


2. In a bowl, mix flour, vanilla-/sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Cut the butter into flakes and chop it into the the flour mix with a knife until everything's crumbly. Since it takes me longer to scale ingredients, I flaked the butter before that and put it back in the fridge because it needs to be REALLY cold. Also do the "knife-thingy" I tried it with the hand mixer, and it didn't work. Add the egg yolks, chop them into the mass, too; then, with your fingertips/hands, rub until the mass is finely crumbed, and swiftly knead it together. Don't overknead! Because...




3. Halve the dough and knead in white respectively dark chocolate + cocoa. On a lightly floured work surface, successively roll out / shape the dough into 1 cm / 1/2 in thick rectangles.




4. Cut the dough lengthwise into 1 cm / 1/2 in strips. Lay a dark and a light strip together and brush the surface where they touch with egg white. Brush the strips' tops with egg white, too, and then put the next two strips on top in reverse. Then wrap the dough sticks into clingfilm singly, and refrigerate them for 2 hours. You can also do it overnight as I found out when I forgot them.




5. Preheat the oven to 140°C / 280°F fan/convection and line two baking trays with baking paper. Cut the dough sticks crosswise about 5 mm / 1/5 in thick, and place the pieces on the baking trays with some space between them.


6. Bake them for 10-12 minutes OR until they're the lightest bit brown. Since every oven is different... You know the deal.


7. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack.





CHRISTMAS BLONDIES


1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F fan/convection and line the brownie tin with baking paper.


2. Roughly chop the macadamias. I blitzed them. In a pot, melt butter + chocolate at lowest heat, stirring regularly. REALLY! Otherwise, they BURN!


3. Meanwhile, beat the eggs until creamy, letting the sugar trickle in while at it, and adding the vanilla pulp at last. Halve the vanilla pod with a VERY sharp knife with a THIN tip – so it's easier to extract the pulp. The pod itself you can blitz/finely grate and, mixing it with sugar, can make your own vanilla sugar!



Stir the chocolate-butter-melt into the egg mass. Add flour, macadamias and half of the chocolate drops, and swiftly mix everything with a (pastry) spatula.


4. Fill the dough into the tin, sprinkle the remaining chocolate drops evenly on top, and bake for about 20 minutes OR until the rim's solid and the middle yet soft. Since every oven is different...


5. Remove the blondies from the oven, let them cool in the tin, then cut them into about 2 in squares/pieces.



Guten Hunger + Happy St. Nick's!