Cookies - Biscotti

These are wicked good. You know how all recipes regarding sugar cookies with jam in ‘em tell you to roll the dough thin? Forget that. These are half an inch thick or more. What happens is you get a dense cookie, with crisp edges and a slightly chewy center. These are simply out of this world. It is not quite a pastry, not quite a cookie but something boldly inbetween. I use apricot or raspberry jam , or sometimes caramel spread or melted chocolate. What's nicest about these cookies is they are all butter. In a bakery these days, it would be shortening based - with that bland taste and weird fat-on-the-roof-of-your-mouth thing going on.
 

This recipe is now retired to The New Best of BetterBaking.com, Marcy Goldman, Whitecap Books, 2009, available online (Amazon, Chapters). 

I like the Black and White Cookie concept but I am not fond of soft cookies – which classic black and white cookies usually are. Instead, my version is a crisper, butter cookie – not quite as sandy as shortbread but crisp, crunchy and dense. In honor of Sex in the City, they are half black and half….pink. But make them black and white of course – for the real deal if you like or a variety of half this and half that. Orange tinted, orange flavoured fondant alongside chocolate would be terrific.

These are dense biscotti that feature big dark cherries (but sour cherries are nice too) and a bit of a mysterious spice called mahlep, available in Middle Eastern spice stores.  The wine and cherry juice sugar coating is an extra touch; these are wonderful with or without the sweet coating.

Deep chocolate and a ribbon of cherry preserves, spiked with Cherry Herring or Kirsch, all coated in melt chocolate. A little autumal elegance

Dried blueberries (or semi-frozen, small fresh blueberries) make these an incredible new tradition in holiday cookies. Cream and a touch of white chocolate take this forest berry to new heights.

Gooey, rich and summery squares. Big hunks to munch on at the outdoor terrace or city square or courtyard  (those cement and grass squares between buildings) on a lunch break at work or strolling in the park. This classic bar soars to new heights with contemporary touches of berries and white chocolate.

Lightly butterscotch in character, fine shortbread by any other name. Make a tin of mixed white sugar and brown sugar shortbread. Pulverized sugar is the trick along with a smidgen of rice flour and slow baking.

Homey and also traditional, this orange-scented dough made with oil is extra quick and easy - a bowl, wooden spoon and two hands are tools enough, and the one you'll probably most associate with your grandmother's famous recipe. Produces a slightly crisper hamantaschen than the one above, this recipe should tug at your tastebuds' memory.  If you want a softer hamantashen, increase the baking powder to 2 or 2 1/2 teaspoons, roll the dough thicker and instead of storing these in wax paper, store them in plastic wrap or a tin (which will soften them even more -i.e. more cakey, vs. pastry-like)